IDEA’s annual conference aims to bring some radical common sense into the conversation about what is needed to empower citizens through education to take part in changing society towards fairer, more inclusive and sustainable directions for the future. The day will comprise of a debate where varying perspectives will be shared, contested and connected by selected speakers and a guest chairperson. Attendees will be invited to participate in the debate and also share their experiences and ideas with each other in cafe discussions, leading to the formation of groups for follow-up action. Global Educator in Residence Programme Integrating a Southern perspective in DE has become a common ambition of many projects, programmes and activities that are created and organised in the DE sector in Ireland. There is, however, still a lot of uncertainty how best this integration and engagement should be realised. In its effort to strengthen the professional development of the sector, IDEA, with funding from Irish Aid and Trócaire’s Mobilising for Justice grant scheme, has developed the Global Educator in Residence programme. The overall aim of the programme is to contribute towards creating a fair and equal dialogue between the Global North and Global South and to challenge the assumptions and preconceptions of educators working in Ireland from a Southern Perspective. Considering the historical baggage as well as the geo-political and economic imbalance of this relationship this is not an easy task as it has to take cognisance of the fact that such a dialogue is still dominated by issues of power. As part of the programme IDEA has invited educators from the Global South to stay in Ireland for a week and visit participating organisations in their place of work. Based on the discussions and observations during the stay the educators will draw up a set of recommendations specifically for each organisation. This programme is still on-going with the final report due at the end of June. Apart from planning the full programme IDEA staff have undertaken the following work as part of this programme: • Planned, organised and delivered a pre-visit workshop • Planned and produced a Learning Journal for participants • Liaised with the 12 participating organisations and the two educators on an on-going basis • Planned, organised and accompanied the global educators visits at 12 participating organisations • Planned, organised and delivered a post-visit workshop
B: STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE 2: TO ADVANCE GOOD PRACTICE This strategic aim is a cross-cutting issue for IDEA and the work that has been undertaken often falls under more than one objective. IDEA’s work on evaluation and impact (reported on under A) is seen as a major contribution to advancing good practice in the Irish DE sector. The annual IDEA conference is also part of this work. As stated in the last report IDEA has prioritised strategic aim 1, 3 and 4 in the last year. However, work has been undertaken in two specific areas under objective 2: the continuation of the collaboration with the Worldwise linking scheme and the advancement of an IDEA research platform/community. Worldwise Linking scheme: In collaboration with Worldwise an IDEA working group was formed to develop a suite of workshops to be delivered in schools that participate in the Worldwise linking scheme. The rationale of this was to ensure that the workshops delivered in schools are of high quality, that all facilitator delivered a similar workshop, and that participating schools will have some exposure to development education while developing their link. IDEA in conjunction with Worldwise organised a workshop for interested facilitators and DE practitioners to ensure that all participants in this programme are part of the development of these workshops. Subsequently, a suite of three workshops was developed by this group and a list of facilitators who agreed to deliver these workshops in schools was drawn up. The final evaluation of this intervention is pending but from the review meeting held in April 2010 it
IDEA 2010 ANNUAL REPORT