This series of events is aimed primarily at UCC staff but is open too to interested students, academic staff from other institutions and members of the wider community.  You can attend all or some of the talks and workshops.

‘UNSETTLING EDUCATION’

A Collaborative Research Project on Creative Engagement with Global Citizenship and Development Education in Higher Education Research, Pedagogy, Policy and Practice

This short study comprises a series of talks and creative workshops during October-December 2024.  Participants will be both participants and researchers.  We are grateful to UCC’s CARPE (Centre for Arts Research and Practice) for funding this project.

Global Citizenship and Development Education (GCDE) and the Creative Arts are deeply aligned in their ability to help us see, hear, touch, and experience the world in new ways. Both have the power to encourage us to question, unravel, unlearn, disrupt and reconstruct. While often challenging and uncomfortable, they also offer a radical hope—enabling us to reimagine, transform, and act in response to the urgent challenges of our time. GCDE is an unsettling education, rooted in strong academic, creative, and activist traditions, poised to address the complexities of our unsettled world.

To Register for all or some of the events below go to:

https://ucc.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3rDIOb84lXN7HBs

If you are taking this series of talks and workshops as a digital badge (for third level staff and students), or if you wish to engage with the research project, it is preferable that you come to all events.  If you are taking the digital badge attendance at the first session is compulsory.

Schedule

PART 1: Introduction to GCDE

(Only for those who wish to take this series as a Digital Badge)
Facilitator: Dr. Gertrude Cotter, UCC School of Education
Date: 24th October, 1:15 PM – 2:45 PM
Location: Online
Details: Explore the fundamentals of Global Citizenship and Development Education, case studies on creative arts methodologies in GCDE and why it matters in today’s educational landscape.

PART 2: Keynote Talk: ‘Beyond Apologies’

Facilitator: Dr. Sharon Stein, Department of Educational Studies, Faculty of Education, the University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
Date: 25th October, 10:00 AM – 11.15 AM ONLINE

LINK:

https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19:meeting_YjFiYWQ1ZTMtNzFjMC00MmFiLThiZWItZDE1NTRhMzQ3NTcz@thread.v2/0?context=%7B%22Tid%22:%2246fe5ca5-866f-4e42-92e9-ed8786245545%22,%22Oid%22:%22ae9f2322-954a-456f-8612-b0665bd341b8%22%7D

Details: Leading GCE academic, Sharon Stein will challenge us to move beyond superficial acknowledgments of colonialism, political, social, economic and climate injustice, urging universities to take meaningful action toward restitution and repair.

Full details on this talk and Sharon Stein’s Biography can be found below.

PART 3: Creative Workshop 1

Facilitator: Ms. Helen O’Keeffe, Creativity and Change, MTU, Crawford College of Art & Design
Date: 8th November 11am-2PM
Location: Connolly Building Western Road. Room B
Details: This is where we get our hands very messy and experiment with both create arts and GCDE. It will be fun with a serious intent. Participants are also encouraged to share their own skills be they painting, sewing, crafting, dancing, poetry, music, drama or other forms of creative expression. There will be a short creative project to complete before the second Creative Workshop in December, but it will not be time consuming.

PART 4: National College of Art and Design Workshop: The Change Lab

Facilitator: Dr Fiona King & Dr Tony Murphy, National College of Art and Design (NCAD)
Date: 22nd November, 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Location: ORB 123, UCC
Details: The Change Lab at NCAD is an innovative, project-based learning initiative that integrates GCE and Development Education into art and design education, applicable to all disciplines.

PART 5: Creative Workshop 2

Facilitator: Ms. Helen O’Keeffe, Creativity and Change, MTU, Crawford College of Art & Design
Date: 6th December 11am-2PM
Location: to be decided.
Details: This workshop will focus on developing a collaborative creative artefact across disciplines, exploring how staff can integrate GCDE into their work at UCC.

Research Study & Invitation to Engage:

While you’re welcome to attend the talks by Sharon Stein and the NCAD without participating in the research study, this series is also part of a short research project comprising a set of talks and creative workshops taking place during October/November 2024. Participants are not just attendees but also researchers, helping us explore how creative arts can integrate with Global Citizenship and Development Education (GCDE) in higher education.
Global Citizenship and Development Education (GCDE) and the Creative Arts are deeply aligned in their capacity to help us see, hear, touch, and experience the world in transformative ways. Both encourage us to question, unravel, unlearn, disrupt, and reconstruct. While this process can be challenging and uncomfortable, it also offers radical hope—enabling us to reimagine, transform, and take action in response to the urgent challenges of our time. GCDE is an unsettling education, rooted in strong academic, creative, and activist traditions, poised to address the complexities of our unsettled world.
This series is not just a set of talks and workshops—it’s also a short research study where participants will take on the role of both learner and researcher. Together, we are figuring this out, questioning, and experimenting—rather than arriving with a fixed agenda.
At the conclusion of the series, we will co-create a short educational resource and an academic article. For those interested in earning a Digital Badge, participation in the Introduction to GCDE session by Gertrude Cotter is required, along with a contribution to the final report reflecting on how creative arts and GCDE might be applied in your own work.
If you are not interested in the full series or the digital badge, you are still very welcome to join us for Sharon Stein’s talk or the NCAD presentation on their Change Lab project. Please indicate in the registration form which sessions you plan to attend and whether or not you wish to apply for the Digital Badge.
Special thanks to CARPE, UCC for supporting this series of talks and workshops.

Registration:

https://ucc.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3rDIOb84lXN7HBs
Further Information:
Gertrude Cotter (Gertrude.cotter@ucc.ie)
Praxis Website:
www.praxisucc.ie
Registration:
https://ucc.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3rDIOb84lXN7HBs

Biography: Professor Sharon Stein
Professor Sharon Stein is a at the Department of Educational Studies, Faculty of Education, the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. She describes herself as follows:
I am a white settler scholar whose research asks how education (particularly higher education) can prepare people to navigate ‘wicked’ challenges in socially relevant, relationally rigorous, and intergenerationally responsible ways. My current research is focused on the challenges of confronting difficult truths about colonialism and climate change in different fields of study and practice, and the complexities and paradoxes of enacting regenerative and reparative forms of social and institutional change.
I also work beyond institutionalized educational contexts and conceptualize education broadly as the practice of encountering and being taught by the world in its full depth, complexity, and contradiction. I do this collaboratively with others, including with the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures Collective, the Critically Engaged Climate Education Hub, the Critical Internationalization Studies Network, the Teia de 5 Curas Network of Indigenous communities in Brazil, and as a Visiting Professor with the Chair for Critical Studies in Higher Education Transformation at Nelson Mandela University in South Africa.
Full bio here:

Stein, Sharon – Department of Educational Studies

Biographis Dr Fiona King and Dr Tony Murphy