By year two my PhD supervisor and I had initiated a project called ‘Id Est’ (‘Integrating Development Education into Student Teacher Training), at the School of Education, UCC. Its purpose was to introduce student teachers to DE. PME students were invited to participate in six workshops and work towards a Global Teacher Award (GTA), facilitated by an outside facilitator. The GTA covers topics such as ‘development’ and development education, social justice, trade rights, diversity, human rights, interdependence and sustainable development. Six students volunteered to participate in the GTA and in my research project. I attended, recorded and took field notes of all sessions. From this group I asked one student, Claire, to become one of my ‘key participants’, which she kindly agreed to.
Having completed their GTA course the student participants discussed a possible project they might work in collaboration with a community partner. They decided to invite interested refugees/asylum seekers, living in Cork, to join with them in a digital storytelling (DST) workshop, to learn the skills of DST and to highlight the local / global dimensions of refugee lives. Because of my experience with the pilot project, I sought people from those communities but who were experienced community advocates and/or third level students. The three-day workshop was attended by four PME students and four partners, living in Cork but whose countries of origin included Lebanon, Palestine, Nigeria and South Africa. I was also present as a participant observer. Details of the DST workshop and videos can be found HERE.
Invitation to students to GTA is here:
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