Index25web(1)

Cover image from RISC resource ‘How Do We Know it’s Working? A Toolkit for Measuring Attitudinal Change in Global Citizenship’ www.risc.org.uk/education

index INDEX

Issue 25 / January 2010

Irish Newsletter for Development Education Exchange

how do we know

it’s working?

INDEX

Editorial The impact of Development Education can be difficult to measure since its effect on learners can vary greatly. This issue of Index looks at how we capture and measure the Dev Ed activity we are carrying out. It includes perspectives on some of the key issues in evaluation and highlights some of the tools that educators can use to evaluate their work.

Doug Bourn argues the need to capture what people are learning and gives examples of DERC’s work in this area. Chris Chapman discusses practical ways to make evaluation a central part of our work and advises on how to avoid some dangers common to planning and evaluation.

Nancy Serrano describes the RCE’s process of developing an evaluation tool for Education for Sustainable Development, while Louise Robinson explains how RISC’s toolkit can be used to measure the elusive output of Dev Ed that is attitudinal change. Susan Gallwey provides practical tips for creative and inclusive evaluations.

Also in this issue, IDEA make the case for Dev Ed and Conor Harrison reviews NYCI’s youth work resource for exploring global justice issues.

The IDEA and EU Corner, and the News page, aim to keep you up to date with what’s happening in the sector, provide useful links and ideas, and highlight resources and news. If you have any information you’d like included in our April issue or if you are interested in placing an advert on the back page of this publication please contact index@comhlamh.org.

We also welcome comments on this issue.

“ A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at ” – Oscar Wilde

2

Contents Moving from evaluation to research 3

by Douglas Bourn

Does evaluation deserve a bad 4 reputation? by Chris Chapman

Evaluating Education for Sustainable 6 Development by Nancy Serrano Making the case for development education by IDEA

INDEX Links: Dev Ed courses and events

EU News & International Dates

7 8 10

IDEA Corner

11

Dev Ed news, funding, 12 and resources How do we know it’s working?

by Louise Robinson

13

Choosing & using evaluation tools

by Susan Gallwey

14

Resource Review: Just Us or Justice

by Conor Harrison

15

Index

www.comhlamh.org

INDEX is a free Comhlámh publication for people interested in educating on global development issues, funded by Comhlámh, Trócaire, and Irish Aid. The views expressed in individual articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organisations to which they are affiliated, the editorial committee, or Comhlámh.

Development Education is about questioning our knowledge and perceptions about how the world works and about what role we play in it. It looks at the meanings of concepts such as ‘development’ or ‘education’ in order to increase our understanding of the interconnectedness of our world (Galway One World Centre).

Editorial committee: Ali Leahy (Comhlámh), Jenna Coriddi (CGE), Aoife Rush (Trócaire), Senan Gardiner (NYCI), Mbemba Jabbi (Africa Centre), Eimear McNally (IDEA).

Please contact index@comhlamh.org to comment or to contribute to future issues

Moving From Evaluation to Research in Development Education

W

hilst Dev Ed has been a feature of educational practice in many donor aid countries for over twenty years, it is still an area of learning that struggles to get broader recognition and constantly has to justify its existence. One reason often given is the lack of evidence that it is having an impact. In my view this is because Dev Ed’s strong political and ideological agenda often creates the problem that evaluation, and sometimes even research is being looked at through the lens of development and not in terms of learning outcomes and educational criteria.

This means that Dev Ed evaluation is framed within models of measuring progress in terms of changes in behaviour, action taken, numbers of people attending events, or sales of materials. Whilst these are important surely a more appropriate approach would be to build into any programme ways to capture and assess what the participants have learnt, and how to continuously reflect upon this learning.

For example the evaluation of Dev Ed practice based around promoting positive images of Africa to counter negative media portrayal often gets reduced to the extent to which the learner now has a positive as opposed to a negative image. Surely it would be more appropriate to capture participants’ ability to explore and assess a variety of perceptions following the project. This approach would ensure that the project addresses the issue of who decides what is positive and what is negative.

Unless we record this kind of information it is all too easy to for Dev

INDEX

VSO volunteers placed around Ghana.

Photo: VSO/Aoife MacManus 2007

“... evaluation …is being looked at through the lens of development and not in terms of learning outcomes and educational criteria.”

Ed practice to be seen in terms of promoting right and wrong answers.

Another example is education about fair trade. In the UK the FairTrade Foundation now operates a Fair Trade Award scheme for schools.

Whilst this appears to be very laudable how do you ensure that there is learning within the school on fair trade and all the issues surrounding it?

At the Development Education Research Centre (DERC) in the UK we have been grappling with this issue and so we are developing a different approach to our work with NGOs. One example is research with Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) to identify what their returned volunteers are doing with the enthusiasm and learning they gained from the volunteer experience.

We are interviewing 25 returned volunteers three times over a twelve month period, following their completion of an initial questionnaire, which gave us baseline data.

Our approach is based not on trying to identify how many volunteers are engaged in campaigns, fundraising or running awareness raising sessions, but is instead open-ended.

We ask the volunteers things like “so what have you been doing since we last spoke” and then follow this up by “to what extent has this been influenced by your VSO experience.”

The evidence we have gathered demonstrates the depth of the impact of their experience on their views about the wider world, their

increased commitment to social justice and equity, and their application of the skills gained.

Because it is a longitudinal study we are able to track their learning over a period of time, gathering information that a traditional one-off questionnaire could not provide.

This example is one of many DERC has been engaged in since 2006.

DERC has created a culture of promoting research and gathering evidence that demonstrates the impact of learning about global issues on the broader educational agenda. Key to our success to date has been the encouragement of partnerships between NGOs and academic researchers and ensuring the outcomes of any impact studies are shared and disseminated through academic and practitioner related journals. Central to our work has been to encourage NGOs and other practitioners to gather evidence of the impact of their work in terms of processes of learning and changes in perceptions and understanding of global and development issues.

Douglas Bourn is the Director of the Development Education Research Centre (DERC) at the Institute of Education, University of London www.ioe.ac.uk/ research/150.html. He is also editor of the International Journal for Development Education and Global Learning. His most recent publication is Development Education: Debates and Dialogues, published by Bedford Way Papers.

3

INDEX

Does Evaluation Deserve a Bad Reputation?

S

ome of us have probably been victims of evaluations done by people who didn’t necessarily know what they were talking about, attempting to measure things that weren’t really the things that mattered, and then disappearing into black holes, leaving behind reports that had no obvious connection to any future decisions made in relation to the project.

No wonder evaluation has a bad name. Whilst no-one can really argue with the notion of accountability, we need to have faith in the structures that we are meant to be accountable to. Otherwise it is all too easy to get lost in a mindset of defensiveness, with the primary focus being on trying to protect what we have. Starting from a wrong place, the whole experience of evaluation is destined to be one of being ‘done to’; being mined and exploited as a resource of information and having no control over what happens to the raw material we provide.

So, if we don’t want to start from there, where would be a better place to start from? Surprise, surprise, the answer is the very beginning...

We immediately face problems if evaluation is an afterthought or if we don’t get around to focussing on it until a programme is already well underway.

The project development process should include engagement with stakeholders to specify the project plan and processes to be used, including how the project will be monitored and evaluated.

Planned evaluation involves gathering monitoring data during the project that has been designed to help you take real-time decisions about the project.

Reports can then be provided both on the data and on how the data has been used.

The most fundamental questions of project planning are: 1. What are we trying to achieve?

2. H ow we will we know if we are on the way to achieving it or not?

3. H ow will we learn together and adjust course, as necessary, along the way?

(And indeed, who is best placed to know the answers to questions 1, 2 and 3!)

4

Working group at the 2008 DEEEP Summer School in the Netherlands

“Starting from a wrong place, the whole experience of evaluation is destined to be one of being ‘done to’ ” In our planning what we are trying to achieve is not just a set of outcomes, but also a process and a set of relationships that maximise the chances of outcomes being achieved. Processes and relationships based on constantly looking over your shoulder are unlikely to be effective. Evaluation is something people should do to themselves, and want to do to themselves, in order to continuously improve a project and ensure that it adapts to its constantly changing environment.

In practice, ‘right’ relationships start at the beginning and are based on stakeholders working together, appreciating the validity of their different perspectives, and agreeing processes by which they will try to move forward together. The best ‘right’ relationships begin at the beginning and are paid attention throughout the project process. They are built on a culture of openness and maintained by keeping an appropriate balance between action and reflection.

In theory at least, external evaluators don’t need to come into the process at all, provided that the necessary capacities exist within the project. The important thing here is to be realistic regarding your capacities and limitations.

Forms of external help, such as mentoring or facilitation, may be needed to support the planning process, to aid relationship building with other stakeholders, to help define suitable performance indicators, or to help prepare reports in forms that will maximise learning.

Ideally any of this help will be designed to increase the ability of those working on the project to carry out these activities, not to create dependency on the use of external agents. External help is needed when it is needed, not after the event to tell you what you should have done. The relationship is unambiguously one of support and not one of trying to catch you out.

If a funder does feel the need for additional safeguards to ensure accountability, then the external role should become more like that of an auditor, answering the question ‘have you really done what you say you have done?’, rather than trying to capture a story that should

INDEX

The table that follows summarises some of the things that most commonly go wrong in practice:

Problems

Advice

The detail of the work (including evaluation methods) is over-specified by the funders

Use language in your plan, such as ‘performance reporting’ and ‘organisational learning’, that recognises that there will need to be some degree of adaptation as you learn from real experience.

Funding applications are rushed or without the resources needed for proper consultation

Any consultation is better than none, every phone call and conversation helps a bit. Also build in ‘consultation’ as a specific early project phase and prepare to seek to re-negotiate with funders, as necessary.

Evaluation is conducted as an afterthought

Build in evaluation plans from the beginning, wherever possible.

The Project Manager is unrealistic about their own Use a project development or project evaluation template as a capacities checklist, and be willing to seek support.

already have been captured.

Ideally the way in which evaluations are carried out and the data they produce will enhance rather than undermine the purpose of the project as a whole.

There are no such things as ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ tools and methods; it all comes back to having an absolute clarity about what it is (outcomes, processes and relationships) we are trying to achieve.

It is natural enough when collecting data that we tend to focus on what we can count and particularly on what is easy to count. We are all attracted by simplicity. I once worked for a volunteer recruitment project. Initially, we were judged by the number of volunteers we recruited.

After a while retention and productivity were factored in (i.e. we were judged by the number of volunteer hours delivered). Only after several years did the focus shift “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”

- Albert Einstein to what the volunteers actually achieved (the quantity and quality of the work done). And the work that staff actually focussed on evolved in line with the level of sophistication of the performance indicators used.

The methods that we use to evaluate should be an integral part of the process and should support the creation of ‘right’ relationships. People may be tempted to tell you what they think you want to hear (or alternatively they won’t want to be disloyal to you in

front of strangers), so you do need to think about who is best placed to ask the questions.

Interviews (“I’m really interested to hear what it was like for you”), small group discussions (“it would be really interesting to form a group view of what has and hasn’t worked here”) and café based formats involving diverse stakeholders (“if we all understood each other more, then we could come up with better ideas of what we need to do next ...”) all have an essential human warmness that can be lacking in colder survey methods ‘done to’ people.

Quality assurance mechanisms, such as those above, can project a genuinely caring and interested approach, particularly if coupled with evidence that feedback given will be linked to actions. Techniques that summarise learning can at the same time deepen learning, without feeling like a test.

In general, the more stakeholders genuinely appreciate that evaluation and continuous learning matters, the more they will take responsibility for ensuring the integrity of the process themselves. The bottom line is that the evaluation has to be a necessary and useful part of the process. If this is the case then it is in stakeholders’ interest to get it right, rather than being something done to them by cruel, heartless outsiders.

Chris Chapman has been both a project manager and a cruel, heartless outsider (both as an external evaluator and a funding manager). He now provides large group facilitation services and consultancy and coaching on change processes through his company ‘The Change Exploratory’ (www.changeexploratory.com)

5

INDEX

Evaluating Education for Sustainable Development The development of an evaluation tool for ESD in Ireland

I

n Ireland, there are numerous ESD initiatives run by a variety of organisations with their own aims, objectives and learning outcomes. However, there is no one standard assessment to measure the impact of the work being carried out in the formal or non-formal educational sectors. Establishing standard evaluation tools to assess the effectiveness of these initiatives is crucial to the ESD sector so that all programmes can be better evaluated and compared. Evaluation can help to better define ESD’s aims, strategies and policies. Evaluation can also help to pinpoint its strengths and weaknesses, and thus advance our learning about ESD theory and practice.

In April 2009, RCE-Ireland secured funding from Irish Aid for a research project entitled “Developing an instrument for assessing education for Development Education and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) interventions”.

This exciting and innovative project will run until March 2010.

The Regional Centre of Expertise Ireland (RCE - Ireland) is an action and research network of higher education institutes, public sector bodies and NGOs based in the University of Limerick. RCE-Ireland aims to promote and support activities and research that result in effective integration of education for sustainable development (ESD) principles and practices into formal, informal and non-formal education in Ireland.

6

Participants at RCE-Ireland and IDEA Consultation Day, September 2009 Photo: IDEA

RCE-Ireland’s research project plans to develop an innovative quantitative impact assessment tool for ESD programmes. This tool intends in the long-run to be transferable from context to context, reliable, and valid. It hopes to gather useable data and to be possible to implement in a reasonable timeframe. This evaluation tool will be accompanied by a user’s guide on how best to implement the tool in conjunction with qualitative evaluation methods so that maximum gain can be obtained from its use.

This assessment tool will measure the impact of an ESD initiative/ programme by measuring increases in levels of critical thinking and values and attitudes of participants measuring increases in levels of critical thinking and values and attitudes of participants before and after an educational programme.

This ties into the development of ESD policy and practice in Ireland, in that although the question of how to best evaluate ESD interventions has regularly been asked over the last decade, still no reliable and valid tool currently exists in Ireland.

In September 2009, RCE-Ireland hosted the “Development Education and Education for Sustainable Development Evaluation Consultation Day” at the University of Limerick, in conjunction with IDEA (the Irish Development Education Association, www.ideaonline.ie). This consultation was well attended by many practitioners in the field of ESD, both from academic backgrounds and from

many NGOs. This consultation day fed into the design of the evaluation tool.

The evaluation tool has been developed for use with 14 to 18 year olds. It has now been finalised and is currently being piloted among postprimary students and some youth groups. The tool takes the form of a questionnaire which uses a scenariobased format to analyse the values and attitudes of the participants. This is done by asking participants to make a decision based on a scenario that relates to their everyday lives.

Then they are asked some questions to help identify their reasons for their choice. This identifies possible factors that influence their choices, such as peer pressure, community or selfinterest values, or the opportunities available to them. The second section looks at their critical thinking skills, and how participants analyse, evaluate, and draw conclusions from information given to them.

This is the first phase of development of this evaluation tool. It is envisaged that with further funding this tool can be advanced and adapted to a suit different age groups and different educational settings.

Nancy L. Serrano, Research Assistant, RCE-Ireland.

For more information please contact Nancy L. Serrano at the Department of Education and Professional Studies, University of Limerick, Limerick. Tel. 353-61-233289, Email: nancy.l.serrano@ul.ie, www. rce-ireland.ie.

INDEX

Making the case for development education

224 lit candles representing the millions of euros that have been cut, disproportionally, from the Irish budget for overseas development assistance. Photo: IDEA

A position piece by the Irish Development Education Association

D

evelopment Education is...

... a necessity in the age of globalisation and the knowledge society. Today’s society asks a lot of us. The world has become smaller and yet more complex, we have access to more information than ever before and yet we are left with the feeling that we are drowning in information gasping for knowledge.

In other words, the skills required to move around comfortably in today’s globalised world have changed dramatically.

We need to be able to translate information into knowledge, and to deal with complexity and uncertainties; we need to work effectively with others in very challenging environments at work and in our private lives; we need to be good communicators in and between different cultural settings both at home and abroad.

Development Education is an educational response to these challenges that focuses on active global citizenship. It is... ... an entitlement of the Irish public.

In its White Paper on Irish Aid the Irish government has made the commitment to ensure that every person in Ireland will have access to the educational opportunities needed to be aware of and understand their

rights and responsibilities as global citizens, and their potential to effect change for a more just and equal world.

this by using participatory methods to explore the world in a learner centred way. It promotes a set of values to enable people to …

The Irish government has also signed a number of UN conventions (e.g.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights) that stipulate a requirement to ensure that all citizens are educated about their human rights and those of others. This includes the right to development through ensuring equality of opportunity for all in their access to basic resources, education, health services, food, housing, employment and the fair distribution of income. It is therefore our right to hold the government accountable for that.

... work to eradicate the root causes of poverty.

Development Education challenges global inequalities from many perspectives:

By promoting this entitlement development education is also… ... a way to address present global crises.

The current global crises need world citizens that have the knowledge and skills to bring about change. This requires a critical and creative mind that is able to read between and behind the official lines put forward by politicians, the media and other information providers, and that has the capacity to form its own opinion from a multiplicity of perspectives.

Our survival on this planet relies on people who live their lives in a responsible and sustainable way.

Development Education promotes

• I t critically examines how our globalised world is still affected by colonial exploitations past and present.

• I t is based on the understanding that the root cause of poverty lie in the inequality of unfair power relations between the global South and the global North and that those need to be challenged in the global North through Education.

• I t promotes a set of values that allows us to engage in a dialogue with strangers from all over the world on equal footing and with a mind-set that values diversity and multiple perspectives over homogeneity and dominion.

Development Education does not promote the one right answer but a way of engaging with different perspectives on the world we share.

Comments and responses on this position paper are welcome: email info@ideaonline.ie or log onto our website at www.ideaonline.ie

7

Index Links

INDEX

Courses NYCI Dev Ed Programme What is Development Education: 2 February, Galway Creative Facilitation: 4 February, Dublin Buying Power: 23 February, Waterford Global Justice in Youth Work (FETAC level 5): 11-13 Feb & 4-6 March, Dublin Funding Dev Ed in Youth: 16 March, Dublin Documenting your Youth Arts Projects: 22 March Picture This: 5 April, Tralee Irish & Latin American Justice Issues: 15 April, Dublin Games from around the world: 11 May, Cork Contact: Alan Hayes, 01 4255932, alan.hayes@nyci.ie or visit www. youthdeved.ie/dev_ed_training.

Charla Latina Development Issues through Latin American Spanish conversation. Fee: €120/€110.

Date: 28 January – 1 April, 6-7.30 pm.

Venue: LASC, T: 01 6760435, E: events@lasc.ie.

Skills in Development Education Ten-week evening course which will equip participants with the skills and methodologies to work effectively with groups on global development issues.

Date: 6.30 – 9pm, Thursdays, 21 January – 25 March Venue: Irish Aid Volunteering and Information Centre, O’Connell Street, Dublin 2.

Contact: Call 01 4783490, email developmenteducation@comhlamh. org What’s Next? How to work for a better world Two days of practical participatory skills-based workshops aimed at people interested in global development and wanting to explore the variety of options available for getting involved in working for a better world in Ireland.

8

Dates: 6 & 13 March Venue: Irish Aid Volunteering and Information Centre, O’Connell Street.

Contact: Call 01 4783490, email developmenteducation@comhlamh. org Exploring Global Issues and Diversity through the Arts Learn to explore global issues and diversity with children using art forms, such as music, drama, storytelling, and visual arts.

Date: 6, 13 and 20 February 2010.

Venue: Froebel College of Education, Sion Hill, Blackrock, Co. Dublin.

Contact: Call 01 4783490, email developmenteducation@comhlamh. org Dtalk – Development Training & Learning @ Kimmage How to be a Successful Trainer: 26-28 Jan Advocacy and Policy Influencing: 16-18 Feb Applying the Dóchas Code of Conduct on the use of Images and Messages: 8-9 March Monitoring and Evaluation: 30 March Creative Facilitation: 20 April Venue: Development Studies Centre, Kimmage.

Contact: Selam Desta, selam. desta@kimmagedsc.ie , 01 4064341 or Niamh Brennan, niamh.brennan@ kimmagedsc.i , 01 4064307 or visit www.dtalk.ie Introduction to Sustainable Development This 10 week evening, FETAC – Level 5 course, organised by ECO-UNESCO, will provide an understanding of the interactions between society, economics and the environment in the context of sustainable development. Over the 10 weeks, participants will gain an understanding of the principles behind sustainable development through case studies.

Dates: 21 January – 1 April.

Contact: ECO-UNESCO, T: 01 662 5491, E: education@ecounesco.ie, visit www.ecounesco.ie. for more information about this and other training

Accessing EU Funding Participation in this training session with Angela James is open to Dóchas and IDEA members only.

Date: 18 February, 9.30 am - 5 pm Venue: Camden Court Hotel, Dublin 2.

Contact: Places are limited – please register (before 11 February) by contacting by contacting Anna, call 01 4053801, email anna@dochas.ie.

Theories Of ‘Race’ And Ethnicity: An Introduction This ten week evening course will introduce participants to theories of ‘race’ and ‘ethnicity. Issues specific to Irish society will include the position of the Traveller community, the links between racialisation and the asylum/migration processes, and between racism and anti-racism.

The course is open to all, but is specifically suited to public sector and NGO employees.

Cost: €175, asylum seekers free Date: Tuesdays 6-8 pm, 26 January – 30 March Venue: Room 3071 Arts Building, TCD Contact: Email byrnem19@tcd.ie Evaluation and Impact Assessment Training Assessing the impact of programmes working to promote social change and development Dates: 17th. & 18th. February Venue: MACRO Centre, Green St. Dublin 7Contact: Email byrnem19@ tcd.ie Dates: 24th. & 25th. February Venue: Carlton Hotel, Galway City Cost: €280 including lunch on both days, excluding accommodation.

Contact: Trish at trishanderson2572@gmail.com or Sean at smcgearty@gmail.com Tel 087 9683736 or 087 2244053

Index Links

INDEX

Events Bewleys Debates Comhlámh’s Bewleys First Wednesday Debates are back with an exciting line up of key topics for debate and discussion on the first Wednesday of the month in spring 2010.

Date: 3 Feb, 3 March & 7 April Venue: Bewleys Café Theatre, Grafton St, Dublin 2 Contact: Call Orla on 01 4783490, email orla@comhlamh.org Africa Centre Events, Seminars, Training and Moonlight talks which explore among others, portrayals of the developing world; images and messages of the South by aid agencies and western media; the impact of the recession on migrant communities, together with the need for a concerted effort for activism on global justice issues.

Date: Spring 2010 (TBC) Venue: TBC, Contact: Call 01 865 6951, email rebecca@africacentre.ie

Venue: Irish Aid Volunteering and Information Centre, O’Connell Street, Dublin Booking: There is no charge for this event, but please register by emailing kate@comhlamh.org or calling 01 478 3490 Coming Home Weekend This weekend provides an enjoyable opportunity to meet other returned development workers. It will ensure that you are aware of all the services available to you and link you in to groups, organizations and activities.

It provides an opportunity to reflect on your overseas experience so that you can integrate it effectively as you look forward to the years ahead.

Date: 19-21 February & 21-23 May Venue: All Hallows, Dublin & Cork Contact: Suzie, email suzie@ comhlamh.org, call 01 4783490, visit www.comhlamh.org/ support for development workers/coming home/ coming home weekends/.

Dice Global Dimensions Seminar Series 2010 Seminars focusing on how to explore issues in the classroom such as, Learning from children-centred research with migrant children and youth; Education, the challenge for Africa; Young children’s engagement with issues of global justice; Hunger; and Child Labour.

Dates: 27 January, 24 February, 10 March, 14 April, 12 May at 6pm.

Contact: Email jfingleton@cice.ie or call 01 497 0033.

Visit www.diceproject.org.

Building links between NGOs and Teacher Education: How to make the relationship work for Development Education Organised by Ubuntu, the aim of this day long event is to bring together NGOs and teacher educators interested and/or involved in DE to establish how collaboration and cooperation can support the integration of DE into post primary ITE. Date: 22 February Venue: St Angela’s College, Sligo Contact: Call Deirdre Hogan on 061 233289 or email Deirdre.hogan@ul.iel

Volunteering Options Information Evening: Volunteering Overseas This informal, short event offers the opportunity to hear more about the issues you need to consider before making a decision about volunteering, to hear first-hand about the experiences of volunteering abroad, and to ask questions about your options.

Date: Thursday 28 January, 6-7:30pm

Learning for Change The Centre for Global Education’s 5th Annual Conference will look at what kind of education is most effective in creating active global citizens, and resulting in the learner changing their lives and action choices to achieve a common goal of a just and sustainable world. It will also look at what kind of education results in active engagement with important local

and global issues, and how this is increasingly important in a world where large-scale, radical changes to our everyday lives are required if we are to live sustainably into the future. Participation is open to educators from all disciplines, and from all sectors including formal sector, youth organisations, aged communities, adult education and religious affiliations.

Date: 11 March Venue: Camden Court Hotel, Camden St, Dublin 2 Contact: Call Jenna on (028 from NI or 048 from RoI) 9024 1879 or email jenna@centreforglobaleducation. com.

Spring Lunch Time Seminar Series During the spring the Centre for Global Education through Development holds seminars on development and education related topics.

Venue: Room 301 Mary Immaculate College, Limerick Dates: 1.10pm, Thursdays January 21st - April 29th Contact: Patricia Mulcahy, email Patricia.Mulcahy@mic.ul.ie.

The Big Swap During Fairtrade Fortnight events will be held around the world and in Ireland to raise awareness of the importance of Fairtrade, which ensures that producers are guaranteed a fair wage and safe working conditions. This years’ theme is ‘The Big Swap’ and it encourages consumers to substitute products that have been certified Fairtrade for their usual brands.

There are a wide range of Fairtrade products available including coffee, tea, chocolate, sugar, wine, rice, honey and biscuits.

Date: 22 February - 7 March Venue: All Hallows, Dublin Visit: www.fairtrade.ie to find out what events are happening in your area.

9

INDEX

EU Corner Partnership Fair

The partnership fair is a learning, networking and projectdesigning event, gathering more than 150 participants mainly from development CSOs from across Europe coming from different sectors. It facilitates partnerships, cooperation, learning and exchange at an international level for joint projects for development. TRIALOG in partnership with DEEEP and CONCORD will host this event.

Date: 15-17 February Venue: Vienna Contact: www.trialog.or.at

The Development Education Exchange in Europe Project (DEEEP)

DEEEP has started a new project “Developing Europeans’ Engagement for Eradication of Global Poverty” or DEEEP 3. Its overall aim is to “empower citizens, politicians, media, businesses, social players to actively assume their responsibility towards global development and the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) agenda”. DEEEP 3 is run by a consortium of 5 European NGOs and its activities run from October 2009 to 30 September 2012.

The project is jointly drafted by all the members of CONCORD Development Education Forum. Visit www. deeep.org.

DEEEP Summer School This event looks at “Schools as key actors in promoting global education” and aims to allow participants to gain a full picture over the existing role and future possibilities of NGOs in the promotion of Global Education in schools in order to foster global responsibility and critical, active citizenship amongst the young generations. It will focus on four specific themes: environmental sustainability, trade and consumption, poverty, and diversity.

Date: 6-13 June 2010.

Venue: Hungary Contact: Visit http://www.deeep.org/summerschool2010. html for more information or to apply.

Integration of Dev Ed into the school curricula The 2009 Report on School Curricula and Development Education is now available. Find out how much Dev Ed is integrated into school curricula at www.deeep.org.

Funding opportunities for Dev Ed DEEEP have updated their Dev Ed funding document.

Download it at www.deeep.org to find out about opportunities at both European and national level.

Human rights based approach to campaigning & Dev Ed in the new member states

This toolkit is the product of a two-year project undertaken

by Minority Rights Group International with the aim of 10

raising public awareness of development problems and increasing public support in EU new Member States for their governments’ international assistance and policy.

8 European NGOs carried out their one-year in-country awareness raising campaigns and their lessons learnt are shared in this book. Download it at www.minorityrights. org/9380/toolkit/development-education-toolkit.html

Global Climate Change Negotiations in Copenhagen

For information on the recent UN Climate Summit December visit www.foe.ie or www.guardian.co.uk/ environment/copenhagen.

International Dates to Remember 20 February

World Day of Social Justice

8 March

International Woman’s Day

This day is a time to recognise the global efforts of those working to eradicate poverty, promote gender equity, access to social well-being and justice for all.

Visit http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/social/intldays/ IntlJustice/ to learn more or visit www.developmenteducation.ie for activity ideas.

Celebrated every year when women from all over the world come together to celebrate their day. The day is an occasion to review how far women have come in their struggle for equality, peace and development.

For more information visit: http://www.un.org/apps/ news/story.asp?NewsID=3189&Cr=racism

22 March

World Water Day

The theme for World Water Day in 2010 will be ‘‘Communicating Water Quality Challenges and Opportunities”. It aims to raise the profile of water quality at the political level so that water quality considerations are made alongside those of water quantity. For more information, visit www. worldwaterday.org

7 April

World Health Day

World Health Day 2010 focuses on urbanization and health. The day has been observed since 1950 and is used to draw attention to particular priorities in global health. Events are held each year at local, national and international levels. For ideas on how to celebrate it in 2010, visit www.who.int/world-health-day/en/

19 - 25 April

One Goal - Education for all

For further information on this Global Action Week visit www.campaignforeducation.ie.

INDEX

IDEA Corner Welcome to the Irish Development Education Association’s corner of Index!

FUTURE EVENTS

IDEA is an association of organisations and individuals involved in the provision, promotion or advancement of Dev Ed throughout the island of Ireland.

Check out our website at www.ideaonline.ie

As a follow up to our successful seminar in Dublin in November (in collaboration with Dóchas), we have planned, with Galway One World Centre, a session to explore in a practical, hands-on way the potential of social media for development educators.

Date: 22nd Jan Venue: Huston School of Film & Digital Media, Galway city Cost: €15 (€5 for IDEA members)

HIGHLIGHTS OCT - DEC 2009 The EU and Development Education Tobias Troll from D.E.E.E.P. (www.deeep.org) was the guest speaker at a very well-attended event on the 15th of December in Dublin. The day explored the Consensus document on Dev Ed, the work of D.E.E.E.P. and funding for Dev Ed in Europe.

Global Educator in Residence Programme In October IDEA launched a new learning programme that aims to begin a dialogue about how Southern perspectives can be best integrated into our Dev Ed work in Ireland. 15 organisations are participating. A visit of 3 educators from the Global South will take place from March 22nd-25th.

ODA cuts - the impact locally and globally IDEA conducted a small survey of its members to better understand the impact of the budget cuts on the Dev Ed sector. The full report can be accessed on our website.

Submission to the NCCA on the new Senior Cycle subject: Politics and Society IDEA made a submission on the proposed new subject for Leaving Cert students, called “Politics and Society”.

Read the full submission on our website.

Web 2.0: Social Media for Development Educators

Evaluating Development Education: Practice and Theory Practical demonstration of the tool “How do we know it’s working?” by Louise Robinson of RISC followed by discussion of the challenges involved in evaluating Dev Ed, facilitated by Susan Gallwey of the Waterford One World centre.

Date: 4th and 5th Feb 2010 Venue: The Greenhouse, Dublin 2, The VSB Building, Belfast city Cost: €15 (€5 for IDEA members)

Global Educator in Residence Programme: Public Seminar An evening of discussion and debate on the theme of Southern perspectives in Development Education. All welcome.

Date: 24th March Venue: Dublin (tbc) To register or find out more contact Eimear in IDEA Email eimear@ideaonline.ie, Call 01 6618831

Web 2.0: Social Media for Development Educators 15th Nov: see below!

Matthias Fiedler introduces Tobias Troll of DEEEP to the participants of the training, “The EU and Development Education” on 15th December 2009.

Participants in the Web 2.0 Training Seminar in November 2009 get to grips with Ning. See the site they created at onlineidea.ning.com. Photo: IDEA

11

INDEX

News

DE News Critical Thinking for Dev Ed In October 2009 DERN held a conference in Galway looking at ‘Critical Thinking for Dev Ed, Moving from Evaluation to Research’. The presentations are available to download at www.nuigalway.ie/dern/conf_ criticaldeved.html.

briefing papers, and activities exploring a range of local and international topics. It costs €15 and is available from 80:20, Call 01 286 0487or email orders@8020.ie. Visit www. developmenteducation.ie or www.5fifty500.com.

Business & Development Trócaire’s 2009 Development Review examines the role of business in promoting international development and reducing poverty. Visit www.trocaire.org/resources/currentissue.

European Dev Ed Resources Project

KADE (Kerry Action for Development Education) and European partners in Cyprus, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Scotland are assembling an online repository of Dev Ed resources for the primary classroom. For information contact Mary McGillicuddy at marykade@eircom.net.

Stand Up for Education Campaign This campaign brings together teachers, parents and civil society groups to support investment in education as essential to the recovery and future development of the country. Please support the campaign by signing up and by emailing your TD or education spokesperson. Visit www.standupforeducation.ie.

This research by AONTAS, the Irish National Association of Adult Education, investigates the openness and opportunities to integrate Dev Ed into adult and community education, using active citizenship as a focus. It is available at www.aontas.com/download/pdf/development_ education_research.pdf.

Teacher Education for Sustainable Development

Funding

This e-book entitled ‘Ubuntu Network Action Research and Other Projects to Integrate Development Education into Initial Teacher Education 2006-2008’ is a collection of the innovation taking place in teacher education in Ireland today.

The work presented ranges from literature to photography, from emotional competencies to participatory teaching.

Download at www.ubuntu.ie/ubuntu_e-book2009.html.

Aid Cuts update

Policy & Practice

Funding for development was cut by a further €25 million in December 2009. This means that since July 2008 the overseas aid budget has been cut by a disproportionate €249m, drastically affecting the lives and livelihoods of many vulnerable people around the world. The government again delayed the target date for spending 0.7% of GNP on development, this time from 2012 to 2015. To read about the reactions to this cut and the implications of this cut on development work visit www.wedocare.ie and www.trocaire. org/resources/aidcuts.

The Centre for Global Education publishes the only journal on global education in the island of Ireland. It is now available as an open-access online publication. Go to www. developmenteducationreview.com to read the current issue, which looks at ‘Development Education in Action’, and to access back issues.

EU funding Visit www.deeep.org, www.ideaonline.ie, and www.trialog.or.at for information on accessing EU funding.

Irish Aid funding

Applications are now invited from voluntary organisations and educational bodies (e.g. school networks/clusters, higher education institutions, further/adult education organisations) for 1 year grants for development education projects, which are designed to increase awareness and understanding of development issues. For more information visit http://www.irishaid.gov.ie/grants_education.asp.

The deadline for applications is January 29th.

Resources 5:50:500 Published by 80:20 Educating and Acting for a Better World this CD based resource contains trigger sheets, 12

Integrating Development into Adult Education

New Directions

This Dev Ed newsletter for Primary Teachers is now available from the Waterford One World Centre. It is designed as an e-newsletter but hard copies are available upon request. This issue looks at gender and development.

The next edition is due out in February 2010. Visit www. waterfordoneworldcentre.com.

Waterford Stories: Seeking Asylum in Modern Ireland

This publication profiles members of the asylum community living in the Waterford area. In support of this publication, the people profiled are available to do workshops for schools and community groups based around the theme of ‘Why People Move’. For more information or to book a workshop, please contact WOWC on 051 873 064.

Access All Areas This new interactive, diversity toolkit invites organisations to examine how they currently work and engage with youth from a variety of backgrounds. Download the resource at www.youth.ie or contact Anne Walsh, on 01-478 4122, e-mail anne@nyci.ie.

INDEX

How Do We Know it’s Working?

A Toolkit for Measuring Attitudinal Change in Global Citizenship

T

his resource was created in collaboration with teachers, to support schools in delivering Global Citizenship effectively and measuring their level of success at embedding Global Citizenship throughout the curriculum and ethos of their school.

It provides a means of measuring changes in pupils’ knowledge, values and attitudes as Global Citizens.

It grew out of RISC’s Global Schools Project, a partnership with four primary and two secondary schools.

The activities were devised first as a baseline audit to record pupils’ knowledge and attitudes at the start of the project. With support from RISC’s education team, teachers then worked to develop and embed Global Citizenship within and across a range of curriculum areas.

Two years later the activities were repeated, and the results compared with those of the baseline audit.

This enabled teachers to gauge the effectiveness of their Global Citizenship work, determine the extent to which the key learning objectives were being met, and then plan and further develop the global dimension in each curriculum area.

Two years after this a final audit concluded the project and provided evidence for the effectiveness of a whole school approach in delivering Global Citizenship.

While it doesn’t set out to produce a formal research methodology, the activities have been developed into a practical toolkit for action research in the classroom. Each activity provides a way of capturing pupils’ knowledge and attitudes as a ‘snapshot’ at a given time. Comparing this with a later ‘snapshot’ enables the teacher to look for and measure changes.

“A very inspiring vision of the skills, knowledge and attitudes we need to equip children with.

Exactly what we need to measure the impact of global citizenship in our cross-curricular lessons.”

– Primary Teacher The resource consists of: •A n explanation of Global Citizenship and a list of related learning objectives; •1 7 different activities to establish elements of pupils’ knowledge, attitudes and values in relation to the full range of Oxfam’s key elements for Global Citizenship (Education for Global Citizenship: A Guide for Schools, Oxfam 2006); •A list of the concepts and learning objectives each activity addresses, details of materials needed, an explanation of how to carry it out, and guidance on how to analyse and interpret results; •A CD with images and templates of the recording sheets.

The activities are adaptable and can be used: •A s a carousel for a whole year group, for a class, or for a smaller group; •A s individual activities, or in combination, to measure change within different contexts; •O ver a school year or within an individual topic; •T o gather pupils’ concerns and opinions, to inform decisionmaking, and as evidence in self-evaluation forms; •W ith the whole school community, pupils, teaching and non-teaching staff, parents, governors.

Each activity is followed by a case study to illustrate how it has been used by teachers, from those working with very young children through to those working with older

Primary pupils doing a warm up activity

pupils in schools and colleges.

Examples include: • A multi-ethnic urban primary school used three activities to gauge the impact their partnership with a school in Ghana was having on pupils’ knowledge and attitudes about people in African countries; • A further education college used a combination of activities with childcare students to explore the extent to which children have preconceived ideas about characteristics based on race/ ethnicity and gender.

Feedback on the toolkit: “This toolkit makes a real contribution to current debates about monitoring and evaluation - it responds to the challenge of measuring what is valuable, rather than valuing what is measurable” - Senior Schools’ Adviser “It’s great having the potential to develop the methodology further as teachers apply it in their practice” – Lecturer, London South Bank University “A systematic means of assessing change in young people’s learning” – Educational Consultant Louise Robinson is the Secondary Schools Co-ordinator at Reading International Solidarity Centre (RISC), a Development Education Centre working with schools and community groups to raise the profile of global issues and promote action for social justice, human rights and sustainable development. For more information visit www.risc.org.uk/education.

Louise will facilitate training on this resource on Feb 4 and 5 in Dublin and Belfast. (See page 11).’

13

INDEX

Choosing & Using Evaluation Tools for Dev Ed

A

ll too often, a project that is otherwise wellplanned and well-run is let down by an uninspired evaluation that is of little use to any of its stakeholders. However, if we reflect on our evaluation needs, and carefully choose our tools, evaluation can become an engaging and valuable aspect of our practice.

A first step is to recognise that the how of any evaluation depends very much upon the what, who, when and why: What you are actually evaluating?

Is it a single event or a multistranded initiative?

Who is the target group for your evaluation?

Do you have a captive audience such as students in a classroom? Or are you trying to gather evaluation data from the more elusive general public?

Visual images stimulate right-brain thinking and therefore can produce creative, ‘outside-the-box’ evaluation responses. Participants who tend to give bland, polite comments on post-session questionnaires are far more likely to be candid when using a visual image as a metaphor.

To do: Spread out a collection of postcards/photos not directly related to the theme of the session. Ask participants to choose an image that connects in some way to their experience of the session and to share their responses. Record key words on post-its, which can be clustered on flipchart paper to display an overall impression of the session. This could be used to feed into a longer-term evaluation.

Whose perspective is informing the evaluation?

Are you looking to see how well you met your own objectives, or are you trying to assess learning outcomes from the participants’ points of view?

When are you evaluating?

Are you seeking formative feedback halfway through a project? Or are you looking for a ‘post-mortem’, summative view at the end of a project?

Why are you evaluating?

Is it to celebrate achievements, to identify areas that need more work, or mainly to satisfy funding requirements?

Considering these questions will give you a clear picture of your evaluation needs, making finding the right tool relatively easy! Here are two examples of tools that often work well in Dev Ed contexts: Example 1: Using visual images to capture quick, informal feedback after a session

14

Example 2: Using a timeline to chart a long-term project Because a timeline allows many different ‘stories’ to be told in parallel, it avoids privileging a particular point of view. It also can reveal a wide range of learning outcomes, some of which may be unexpected.

To do: The best time to start working on a timeline is about halfway through the project’s lifespan.

Before the session, draw a basic timeline of the project onto joined-up pieces of flipchart paper, leaving plenty of blank spaces. Invite all project participants to add in comments, drawings, photos, etc. Colour-coded sticky dots can be used to identify highs, lows and other significant moments of the project. Participants should be

encouraged to extend the timeline by drawing in a ‘desired future’ for the project.

The timeline can be re-visited a number of times as the project progresses. The ‘desired future’ can be compared to what really took place. Working collaboratively on a timeline helps participants to develop evaluation skills, as they will become more adept at identifying indicators of success and reflecting upon why some things did not work as planned. The completed timeline can be used as a framework for a formal, written evaluation.

Whatever methods you use, make sure that Development Education values underpin your evaluation. If an evaluation process encourages participation, acknowledges diverse ways of understanding, and empowers learners to take action for positive change, then the evaluation itself will help to fulfil the Development Education goals of your project.

Resources: Evaluating Development Education (DEA, 2002) – a good starting point for learning more about evaluation methodologies.

How Do We Know It’s Working?

(RISC, 2008) - tackles the complex issue of measuring attitudinal change (see page 13).

Susan Gallwey is the development education project officer for Waterford One World Centre, www. waterfordoneworldcentre.com.

Photos: A. Leahy, E. McNally

INDEX

Reviews & Resources

Just Us or Justice A youth work resource reviewed by Conor Harrison, National Co-ordinator – Cultural & Environmental Education (Ancient Greek, Art, CSPE, Classical Studies, ESS, Geography, History, Latin and Music), Second Level Support Service Yet again the National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI) has produced a really useful educational resource to assist those working with young people in exploring development education issues during One World Week and beyond. This year’s theme is Justice, ‘Just Us’ locally here in Ireland and ‘Justice’ globally.

This resource challenges our assumptions around climate change and the current economic recession.

Through a range of 20 active and participative learning activities – games, group activities, art, stories, and role plays – young people are able to explore what justice means: justice systems in their own context, and also justice with regard to global trade and climate.

One of the activities that I particularly like is ‘The Disappeared’ (Activity 14), which explores justice issues in relation to people who have ‘disappeared’ in Argentina, Australia, and Northern Ireland. It uses a really interesting approach known as the World Café.

As a promoter of active citizenship I am very interested in the final section because it is dedicated to ways to apply people’s learning to taking action. Activity 17 ‘Working

together for a Just World’ helps make real sense of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) and the many obstacles that obstruct their realisation. This activity has to be seen to believe how effective it is!

Understanding of the MDG’s is developed further through Activity 19 ‘A Piece of Justice’, an imaginative large jigsaw activity, which celebrates in a very visual way the action ideas thought up by the young people. All of the action ideas are very doable for this age group and draw upon their interest in songs and raps, YouTube, and mobile phones.

Congratulations to the writing team and all those who took part in the piloting of this very creative learning resource. Just Us or Justice will prove extremely useful for teachers and youth leaders alike around the country who are interested in exploring justice from a local and global perspective.

Just Us or Justice, a youth work resource exploring justice in the world, was produced by NYCI. Call 01 4784122 or email deved@nyci.ie to order a hardcopy.

Download it for free from www.youthdeved.ie.

Have you ever used cartoons as a resource for Dev Ed? Cartoons can be used to get discussion going and to explore and debate complex issues with a variety of different groups.

Cartoon by Brick, www.brickbats.co.uk.

Courtesy of www.developmenteducation.ie.

15

INDEX

INDEX is a free newsletter for people interested in educating on global development issues.

To subscribe to INDEX visit our INDEX page at www.comhlamh.org/media-publications To join Comhlámh go to www.comhlamh.org/get-involved-join-us.html

Design: www.alicefitzgerald.com Printed on recycled paper

INDEX is a Comhlámh publication for the Development Education sector, funded by Comhlámh, Trócaire, and Irish Aid Honorary Patron, Mary Robinson. © Comhlámh, 2009 Comhlámh, 2nd Floor, Ballast House, Aston Quay, Dublin 2.

The views expressed herein can Comhlámh is a signatory to the Dóchas in no way be taken to reflect the Code of Conduct on Images and official opinion of Irish Aid. Messages (http://www.dochas.ie).