The submission I made to this public consultation process in June 2021 was quoted in the ESD to 2030- Consultation Report
This can be found on the Government of Ireland National Strategy on Education for Sustainable Development in Ireland Website
Submission Made.
The research project Public STEAM (HEdge Space) is exploring embodied transdisciplinary feminist tools and practices for ‘Education for Sustainability’ in Irish adult and community education contexts.
Research extract:
In response to the crisis of climate change, the destructive socio-ecological paradigm that currently prevails must be addressed in part through cultural and structural transformation. This transformation requires a greater level of community spaces for critical pedagogic engagement to support communities to take local action but to also be empowered to demand systemic social-ecological change through critical democracy.
The Third Report and Recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly found that citizens in Ireland feel powerless to respond to the climate crisis in their everyday lives. ‘How the State Can Make Ireland a Leader in Tackling Climate Change’(Citizens Assembly, 2016) identified six overarching themes generated through the public submission process, one of which argues that greater public engagement and education is an essential strategy on climate change.
Forms of adult education that do not involve compulsory accreditation are well placed to build local, co-operative capacities in response to local conditions, which can empower communities and progress a deep sustainability education agenda (Work quoted in the public consultation report, p. 20).
UNESCOs ‘UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, 2005-2014’ report (2014), and action plan for 2030, identify non-formal adult education as a site in which creative transdisciplinary educational approaches to sustainability can be effective and must be included more broadly (Lange and O’Neil, 2018).
This research argues that Ireland is badly placed to respond to these recommendations. While the Department of Education and Skills (DES, 2014; DES, 2018) and the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment (DCCAE) with responsibility for the National Dialogue on Climate Change (2018), acknowledge the need for greater provision of education and public engagement on climate change, non-formal pedagogic opportunities for the adult population are meek in proportion to the scale of the environmental emergency. The Current DES EDS (DES, 2018) policy document regarding Further Education (FE) priority action area 5, contains a largely green skills jobs focus which excludes the critical practices and justice orientations historically associated with adult and community education (DES, 2000; Murray, Grummell and Ryan, 2014). Practice gaps impacted by such policy are further compounded by a diminished adult and community sector generally, arguably owing to the devastating defunding it experienced as a result of austerity measures introduced from 2010 (Fitzsimons, 2017; Kelleher, 2018). This I propose has resulted in a significant erosion of capacity and the innovation necessary to advance the transdisciplinary approaches cited as essential to a transformative environmental justice adult education practice.
Transdisciplinary practices are collaborative creative and embodied and encompass modes of learning that are visual, haptic, kinesthetic, aesthetic, and affective. Such practices can create greater inclusion for a multitude of intelligences and cultural backgrounds to participate in group debates regarding social-ecological issues. Such modes of learning are afforded through participatory arts as an ecology practice, or STEAM (Lawrence, 2008; Lawrence, 2012; Eisner, 2002; Leavy, 2015; Dewey, 1934; KCAT, 2009; Gardner, 2006; McNiff, 2013). As critical approaches these creative practices can subsequently develop political and ecology literacies and collaborative group work skills to better equip communities to develop voice and be empowered to enact necessary change at all levels of society (Fitzgerald, 2018) (DES, 2000; Clover, 2013). Saolta, a Development Education strategic partnership programme for the Adult and Community Education sector in Ireland, offers much hope and innovation in this regard and provides many practice supports to those working in FE. To build on this work a significant re-emergence of a community sector must be brought about, and policy going forward must ensure that practice space, funding and appropriately skilled practitioners are identified as essential to meeting these critical democratic pedagogic needs. To support community participation in a real critical democracy at local, national and international levels, and advance values of solidarity, care and justice with a multi-spices earth care ethic, we must support a meaningful and robust community sector. Thank you, Giselle Harvey.
Citizens Assembly 2016. How the State can make Ireland a leader in tackling climate change. Ireland: Citizens Assembly.
Clover, D. E. (2013) The nature of transformation: environmental adult education. Rotterdam; Boston;: Sense Publishers.
DES (2000) Learning for Life: White Paper on Adult Education. Dublin, Ireland: Department of Education and Science (0707664500;9780707664507;).
DES, Education (2014) ‘Education for Sustainability’ The National Strategy on Education for Sustainable Development in Ireland, 2014-2020. Ireland: Department of Education and Skills.
DES, Education (2018) ‘Education for Sustainability’ The National Strategy on Education for Sustainable Development in Ireland Report of Interim Review and Action Plan for Q4 2018-Q4 2020. Dublin, Ireland: Department of Education and Skills.
Fitzgerald, C. (2018) Hollywood forest story: Living well with a forest to explain eco-social art practices. Blurb.
Fitzsimons, C. (2017) Community education and neoliberalism: philosophies, practices and policies in Ireland. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave MacMillan.
Kelleher, P. 2018. The Systematic Destruction of the Community Development, Anti-Poverty and Equality Movement (2002-2015). In: O'Neill, C. (ed.). Ireland: Kelleherassociates.
Lange, E. and O’Neil, J. (2018) 'Introduction to Special Issue on Transformative Sustainability Education', Journal of Transformative Education, 16(4), pp. 275-276.
Murray, M., Grummell, B. and Ryan, A. (2014) Further education and training: history, politics, practice. Maynooth, Ireland: MACE Press.
Giselle Harvey holds a Masters in Adult & Community Education and currently engaged in doctoral research at the Limerick School of Art and Design, LIT, funded by the Irish Research Council.
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