Minister of State, Mr Peter Power, speaking at the DICE conference

The fourth annual DICE (Development and InterCultural Education) conference took place this year at Mary Immaculate College (MIC), Limerick on Thursday the 17^th and Friday the 18^th of June. The central objective of the DICE Project, which is funded by Irish Aid, is to support the inclusion of development education and intercultural education perspectives as essential elements of initial teacher education. Each year the conference aims to bring together academics, practitioners, student teachers, NGOs and all others in the education sector, to engage in dialogue and reflect on practice relevant to Development and Intercultural Education.

Through a series of workshops, research and poster presentations, and keynote addresses and panel discussions, this ‘Development Education Matters’ conference allowed participants to engage in dialogue and reflect on practice relevant to Development and Intercultural Education. The Centre for Global Development for Education (CGDE) played an integral part of this conference, with Dr Rosarii Griffin, Centre Director, presenting a paper entitled ‘From the Global to the Local: Education in Sub-Saharan Africa with particular reference to Rwanda, Lesotho and Uganda’, and the Centre hosted its own stand during the poster session.

The conference commenced on Thursday with registration and coffee from half six. At seven, Rowan Oberman from St. Patrick’s College introduced Dr Peadar Cremin, the President of MIC. Professor Cremin gave the welcome and the opening address, and launched the Alternative Education Experience (AEE) Africa Report. It was noted in the programme that Professor Cremin has supported the establishment at MIC of CGDE. This was followed by the first keynote address of the conference, given by Loes Witteveen, lecturer and co-ordinator at the Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences, who was introduced by John Fingleton of the DICE Project. Ms Witteveen’s address was entitled ‘The Voice of the Visual: Visual learning Strategies in Development Education’. Subsequently, a wine reception was enjoyed by all with entertainment in the form of music from Wassa Wassa, a drum and dance ensemble performing traditional and contemporary rhythms of West Africa. This concluded the first day of the conference.

Dr Rosarii Griffin delivering her presentation

The conference recommenced on Friday morning at nine with a short registration before Rosalind Duke from the Church of Ireland College of Education introduced David Hicks, Visiting Professor at Bath Spa University who gave the second keynote address entitled ‘Contesting the future: What do students need to know?’. This address was followed by a coffee break which gave attendees the opportunity to browse through a resource fair and poster presentations at a relaxed pace while enjoying their coffee. Two posters were presented; the first by Fionnuala Ward from Educate Together looking at ‘Collaboration between Educate Together and Plan Ireland to produce lesson plans for third and fourth class on Climate Change, Gender, Identity and Poverty’; and the second by Deirdre Hogan from the Ubuntu Network which looked at the ‘Ubuntu Network: Teacher Education for Sustainable Development’.

After the break, the six parallel workshops began. The six different options were: ‘African drum and dance – experiential exploration of West African culture through drumming and dance and ideas for bringing African arts into the classroom’, facilitated by Aoife Reilly, musician and teacher; ‘Using ceramics to explore development education issues’, facilitated by Karen Webster, arts facilitator and ceramic artist; ‘Storytelling and story making: using drama to explore development and intercultural education’, facilitated by Triona Stokes, lecturer in drama at Froebel College of Education; ‘Creatively exploring development education issues in the classroom through animation’, facilitated by Lisa Fingleton, artist and film maker; ‘Khulungira: learning about the power and promise of science for smallholder farmers in an African village’, facilitated by Barbara Wilson from Irish Aid; and ‘Exploring shapes and patterns of traditional African habits using the technique of batik’, facilitated by Sinead Dinneen, lecturer in Visual Art Education, MIC.

Minister for State, Mr Peter Power and Dr Peadar Cremin, President of MIC, with children from participating schools

The workshops were followed by lunch, after which the afternoon session commenced with the launch of a DVD entitled ‘Development and Intercultural Education Matters! – A practical guide from the primary classroom’ which was co-produced by the DICE Project and INTO Learning. This DVD was launched by children from two of the five participating schools: Zion Parish National School (N.S.), Rathgar, Dublin; Griffeen Valley Educate Together, Lucan, Dublin; Scoil Iosagain, CBS, Limerick; Limerick Educate Together N.S.; and Lios na nOg N.S., Ranelagh, Dublin. The DVD looks at development and intercultural education in the primary classroom and explores themes of identity, gender messages and perceptions, the right to education and the right to be protected. It also looked at where this fits into the curriculum, approaches that can be used, and challenges and opportunities that this area brings to the classroom.

Dr Peadar Cremin, Mr Peter Power and Prof Claire Lyons with organisers of the event

Dr Anne Ryan from the Marino Institute of Education subsequently introduced Minister for State, Mr Peter Power, with special responsibility for Overseas Development who gave a Keynote address. This was followed by parallel research paper sessions. The first was chaired by Dr Anne Dolan from MIC and the two papers presented were ‘Young Children’s Engagement with Issues of Global Justice’, presented by Ms. Sheila Dillon from Trócaire and Dr Brian Ruane from St Patrick’s College; and ‘Expanding the International Development Focus of an Early Childhood Studies Degree’, presented by Dr Jacqui O’Riordan and Dr Deirdre Hogan, both from the School of Applied Social Studies, UCC.

The second session was Chaired by Dr Brian Tubbert from Froebel College of Education and the two papers were ‘From the Global to the Local: Education in Sub-Saharan Africa with particular reference to Rwanda, Lesotho and Uganda’, presented by Dr Rosarii Griffin, Director of CGDE; and ‘Development Education Project at the Northside Learning Hub’, presented by Mark O’Connor. This session was very well attended and numerous questions to directed at both presentations followed in the Q&A period.

The third session was Chaired by Barbara O’Toole from the Marino Institute of Education and the paper, ‘Design and Delivery of Development Education Modules in the Virtual World of Second Life’ was presented by Dr Hilary McLoughlin, Lloyd Institute Trinity College. The conference plenary then took place, with closing remarks by Dr Geraldine O’Connor, the Chair of the Management Committee of the DICE project. The Dice Project was funded by Irish Aid and the workshops were sponsored by INTO Learning. Overall, it was an informative, interesting and well attended two-day conference. Congratulations and well done to all the DICE organisers.