Centre for Global Education

BACKGROUND

The Centre for Global Education (CGE) was established in 1986 by eight development agencies to provide education services that will enhance awareness of international development issues.

Its central remit is to challenge dominant stereotypes and commonly held perceptions of developing countries, which are prevalent in our society. The Centre, which is based in Belfast, believes that education can empower individuals and communities to play an active role in addressing the causes of poverty and injustice around the world.

CURRENT PROJECTS

One of the CGE’s main projects is the Connecting Classrooms through Global Learning programme. This programme operates in Northern Ireland, with funding from the British Council and the UK Department of International Development.

The centre runs continuous professional development programmes for teachers on development education, and designs workshops and other activities for both primary and post-primary school teachers. It also provides grants to schools to establish partnerships with schools in the Global South. The October 2019 round of grants saw Northern Ireland schools partnered with schools in Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa and Bangladesh.

One example is Longstone Special School in East Belfast, which has just taken the next step on its global learning journey by establishing a new international partner school link with two schools in Kenya. The Longstone teachers visited Kenya in September 2019 meeting their counterparts to further plan the joint pupil project activities such as growing food in the school and electronic scrap books showing maps of the school and local area. Kangundo Schools are particularly interested in keeping their local community clean, so both partners organised litter picks and shared photos of this. Going plastic-free is another spin-off from involvement in this International Partnership. Teachers from Kenya are due to visit Longstone in 2020. 

More details on the programme and resources, including videos, can be found at: www.globallearningni.com

CGE also publishes the only journal on development education on the island of Ireland.Policy and Practice, a Development Education Review is funded by Irish Aid.

www.developmenteducationreview.com