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The artefacts contained on this website form part of Gertrude Cotter’s PhD thesis at the School of Education and Digital Arts and Humanities, University College Cork. The thesis was submitted on 5th April 2019. Gertrude was holder of the Irish Research Council, National Forum Postgraduate Scholarship for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, from 2014 to 2018, which enabled her to carry out this research.
Thesis title:
“What can educators learn about engaging university students in Development Education (DE)? A Critical investigation into the power of community-linked learning and multimedia methodologies in Irish Higher Education”.
The aim of this study is to address the core research question:
- What happens for students, community partners, researchers and educators, when classroom-based learning, online and community-based learning and multimedia methodologies merge to enhance DE pedagogy?
- What impact does storytelling by students and community-partners have on civic engagement and activism relating to DE issues?
- What impact does story-telling and community-based research/pedagogy have on community partners?
- How can we move from “the story” and “community based learning” to political conscientisation in DE?
This research process takes place over four academic years from 2014 to 2018. It involves a series of collaborative projects between groups of students at University College Cork (UCC) and partner community groups in Ireland and online with communities in Lesotho, Calcutta and Northern Iraq. The aim is to understand what community-based learning and the use of web-based, radio and multimedia pedagogical methodologies can bring to DE learning. In particular, it looks at how these approaches can enhance student engagement with DE and at the impact of this work on community partners.