Towards a Multi-Dimensional Mapping of Global Education in Higher Education in Ireland

Development Education Silences
Abstract: This article explores issues around mapping global education (GE) in higher education in the context of shifting global citizenship education, education for sustainable development and higher education policy in Ireland. Addressing the dimensions of such a mapping, it considers ‘what we know’ and ‘what we don’t know’ about GE, especially outside of initial teacher education. In so doing, it identifies questions, considerations and suggestions for further research if GE is to be meaningfully advanced in higher education in Ireland, North and South.
Key words: Global Education; Global Citizenship Education; Education for Sustainable Development; Higher Education; Higher Education Institutions.
Introduction
For many years now, embedding critical global education (GE) into higher education (HE) in Ireland has been the stuff of policy aspiration, isolated projects, different emphases and some frustration. Though aspects of what’s happening in GE in HE, including global citizenship education (GCE) and education for sustainable development (ESD), are well documented, aside from a few examples, little systematic research has been undertaken on GE in HE in Ireland, especially outside of initial teacher education (ITE) (Khoo, Healy and Coate, 2007; Cotter, 2021; Dillon and Gaynor, 2024; Grummell, 2024). Even where there have been attempts to map ESD provision in HE, unlike the recent mapping of GE in adult and community education supported by Saolta (Oberdorfer, Kearns and O’Halloran, 2022), these attempts have tended to focus either on sustainability ‘issues’ (Adams, Muslim Jameel and Goggins, 2023), policies (Shawe et al., 2019) or initiatives (Guiry et al., 2022). There has been limited focus, in mapping, on pedagogy, on institutional culture and politics, or on overlaps with GCE, anti-racism education (ARE) or equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI).
Before exploring these issues further, it is important to note that I am using ‘global education’ here as an umbrella term to cover related educations such as DE, ARE, GCE, ESD and social justice education, akin to the intersectional, critical, active and transformative understanding of GE outlined in the Dublin Declaration (GENE, 2022). I often include the term ‘critical’ before GE in order to proactively highlight the critical pedagogical underpinnings of GE and the important influences of decoloniality and other global justice, equality, participatory and creative approaches on GE. As such, my focus here is not on content-based development studies, global learning or sustainability programmes. Nor is it only on programme provision itself, but rather on how critical GE is (or is not) integrated into HE in Ireland across policy, research, programme provision, co-curricular activities, institutional culture, and teaching and learning approaches.
I am writing this article from the premise that, while it is most certainly not the only challenge, a lack of systematic research on GE in HE in Ireland hampers the integration of critical GE in HE institutions. I argue that in order to bring GE more to the fore in HE policy, research and programme provision, a well-recognised necessity if HE is to play its role in education for transformation in the context of complex global challenges, we need to have a deeper and broader understanding of the field. As such, I tentatively outline some of ‘what we know’ and ‘what we don’t know’ when it comes to recent developments and the challenges related to integration of GE in higher education in Ireland, before setting out some issues for consideration in any future mapping of it. This article has been developed from a presentation made to the Irish Development Education Association (IDEA) formal education working group in December 2023. As part of the preparation for that presentation, I informally consulted twelve educators I have worked with who are engaged in GE in HE in Ireland. Some responded to questions shared by email and I spoke to others in online interviews. I am grateful to them for sharing their views, which were very helpful, and some of which are referred to here.
Recent developments in GE in HE in Ireland
The Irish government has identified HE as important in its strategies on development and GCE over many years. In its 2021 GCE strategy, for example, its intention to ‘establish a new strategic partnership at an institutional level with the third level sector’ (Irish Aid, 2021: 22) is outlined. It goes on to say that:
“Irish Aid partners are already active in 23 of the 26 Higher Education Institutes in the State. To date, this support has been focused on the integration of global citizenship issues into student societies working with SUAS and the Union of Students in Ireland (USI). We have supported the integration of GCE into Initial Teacher Education at both primary and post-primary as well as a small number of other projects working with specific faculties” (Ibid.).
Identifying many ‘opportunities to engage leadership and management of HEIs [higher education institutions], as well as academic staff, to strengthen integration of GCE into all aspects of campus life, from curriculum reform to training of lecturers, to policies and research’, it promises that ‘in order to inform our approach, we will map current levels of integration of GCE in HEIs’ (Ibid.).
The short piece quoted above gives a strong indication of the main activity in GCE in HE in recent years. Examples include ITE partnership projects with Irish Aid such as the Development and Intercultural Education (DICE) primary education project and ‘Ubuntu’ (focused on secondary education), through the student engagement project, ‘Stand’. Other projects and initiatives include the ‘Praxis’ project at University College Cork (UCC), UCDVO’s (University College Dublin Volunteers Overseas) work around GCE and volunteering in University College Dublin (UCD), the Centre for Human Rights and Citizenship Education at Dublin City University (DCU), and the Proudly Made in Africa partnership with business schools, based at UCD. A significant milestone in the integration of GCE into ITE came with the inclusion of GCE as an essential component to teacher education in Ireland, as outlined in the Céim standards for ITE (Teaching Council, 2020). This has given strength and impetus to the work being undertaken to include GCE in ITE across many higher education institutions (HEIs). Apart from various GCE courses and activities in ITE, other GCE or ESD courses are offered, mostly at postgraduate level. For example, there is a short postgraduate Certificate in GCE for educators at Maynooth University, an MEd in Education for Sustainability and Global Citizenship at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, and a level 9 ‘Creativity and Change’ course at Munster Technological University’s Crawford School of Art and Design. When it comes to research and publications, in addition to this journal, which celebrated its fifteenth anniversary in 2021, small ‘New Foundations’ grants for research on GCE were introduced in the last five years. These are funded by Irish Aid and administered through the Irish Research Council.
Beyond ITE where advances have been significant, and exceptions such as those noted above, the integration of GCE and ESD into formal curricula, policies or strategies in HE has been patchy, to say the least. Despite this, there is cautious welcome for the additional momentum offered by the latest ESD Strategy (Government of Ireland, 2022), which was jointly developed by the Departments of Education and the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (DFHERIS), with references to higher education peppered throughout, and the intention to map and monitor ESD in HE identified as necessary in its action plan. This has helped to focus attention within HEIs, at least to some extent, on ESD, alongside the now popular emphasis on training, learning and support for equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI). But do HEIs adequately integrate the critical pedagogical and global citizenship action dimensions emphasised in the GCE strategy (Irish Aid, 2021) in their advancement of sustainability, ESD or EDI? To what extent is this growing emphasis on sustainability and ESD in HE a help or a hindrance when it comes to understanding GE in HEIs? I address some of these questions below.
Challenges facing the integration of GE across HE
While there are multiple challenges facing the integration of GE across HE, in this section I explore some of these under three headings: the broader policy landscape; the institutional environment of HE, and different understandings and approaches to GE among those in HE.
Policy landscape
In terms of the influence of the broader policy and institutional environment, we have seen the advances in GCE and ESD policy development in Ireland and internationally (Irish Aid, 2021; Government of Ireland, 2022; GENE, 2022). At the same time, there are significant questions about how critical, transformative and deep the type of GE advanced through these policies actually is (Dillon, 2024), and even more questions about policy discourses more broadly. Even when policies are rhetorically radical and transformative, this is not always translated into practice or backed up by the necessary resources to ensure adequate implementation. The latest ESD strategy (Government of Ireland, 2022), for example, emphasises the intersecting social, economic and environmental aspects of sustainability, and its complementarities and synergies with GCE and other values-based educations. Drawing on the text of SDG 4.7, it also highlights the role of ESD in supporting active global citizenship, and it quotes UNESCO in its definition of ESD as ‘holistic and transformational and [encompassing] earning content and outcomes, pedagogy and the learning environment itself’ (Government of Ireland, 2022: 6). Despite this, the evidence for the systemic integration of intersectional ESD in HE in Ireland, which emphasises the multi-layered and multi-dimensional aspects of sustainability, beyond a disconnected prioritisation of the physical environment or of local and technical approaches to sustainability, remains weak. Most of us involved in HE have seen mixed attempts to promote sustainability, with some amazing projects and initiatives and some fairly superficial ones. In my own experience at Maynooth University, I have witnessed both an incredibly impressive Green Campus initiative and some accounting of ESD practice. While Maynooth University’s most recent strategic plan identifies the purpose of the university as being to ‘imagine and create better futures for all’ (Maynooth University, 2023: X), and EDI features strongly as does ‘research excellence’ around sustainability and climate change, at the same time there is no mention of ESD or GCE.
Even where university strategies do mention ESD or GCE, we don’t know much about the various approaches applied to them in HE in Ireland and/or the extent to which they reflect broader, critical and intersectional GE concerns. Where, for example, are anti-racism, global injustice or inequality concerns reflected in HE sustainability and ESD policies, research or programmes, or are these framed separately under EDI? To what extent does EDI reflect individualised training and governance practices or does it address structural inequalities and embedded racism in HEIs? Do HEIs have laudable strategic plans but are these weakly or contradictorily implemented? These complex questions clearly require far more research.
Challenges related to policy discourses and their implementation are likely to be compounded by the changing HE policy landscape in Ireland, with a new Higher Education Authority Bill in 2022 and a National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030 published in 2019 (DFHERIS, 2022). Among the many critiques of these policies, there is ongoing concern about the emphasis in wider education policy on skills and its impact on constructions of GCE (Bryan, 2024). We can see, for example, the predominance of a technical, individualised, market-oriented construction of skills reflected in the language of the DFHERIS ‘Statement of Strategy: 2023-2025’, which has as its first strategic goal to ‘develop talent’, the ‘skills and knowledge required to succeed in the Irish economy of today and meet the needs of our stakeholders, employers and industry’ (DFHERIS, 2002: 9). With just three mentions of ‘global citizens’ in the document, and even these framed in terms of the global workforce, global engagement is seen to be about ‘position[ing] Ireland as a leading international location for researchers, students and post-graduates’ (Ibid., 2023: 27). The emphasis in the Maynooth University strategy, for example, is on ‘futures-focused skills’ (Ibid., 2023: 17) and it mirrors national policy in its references to enterprise and commercialisation, while advancing internationalisation and societal impact. But there is no mention of global poverty, inequality, racism, injustice or the sustainable development goals (SDGs). This one example, no doubt mirrored across HE in Ireland, raises questions about the space for critical GE across HE and the effects of current framings of ESD and EDI on learners, on status quo economics and on systems of exploitation.
Similarly, there are different challenges in the policy landscape in Ireland, North and South. Gerard McCann and Stephen McCloskey (2024: 138) argue that:
“GE in the North has undergone a turbulent history and been subject to rounds of unpredictable government policy shifts. It has not received the recognition or the resources available in both the South of Ireland and Britain. The policy environment for GE in the North has also deteriorated in recent years”.
There are many efforts being made to support GCE in HE, especially in relation to ITE in the various colleges and through partnerships with the Centre for Global Development and the UNESCO Centre at Ulster University, which is engaged in promoting citizenship education. Gerard McCann highlights that:
“we have been trying to bring a global aspect into CE for decades now but struggle with funders and institutions who feel it should primarily be about peace building in the North. Very important, but we do need the outward looking GCE perspective also. The questions really need a substantial piece of research in the North. It would take a couple of months to audit what is happening with various themes related to GCE, e.g., who is covering human rights, concepts of democracy, migration policy, gender and citizenship, indeed competing concepts of citizenship, etc… a group of hardy souls are working towards a major project mapping GCE in the North” [Email correspondence, 2023].
The higher education system
At the same time as the GE and HE policy landscapes are changing and challenging in Ireland, so too is the institutional landscape in and around higher education. With the creation of new technological universities, there is growing complexity in an already fragmented sector. This has contributed to more competition for students and for government and external funding. We have also seen an increased focus in policy on applied, skills-related learning for enterprise and integration into the global capitalist economy and the growing influence of neoliberal individualism on HE around the world. This is no less the case in Ireland with the commercialisation of universities and of their international agendas, turning universities into businesses with the emphasis increasingly on ‘turning out’ employable workers (Dillon and Gaynor, 2024). As such, the HE system is challenging and often counter to transformative and critical approaches to GE. Giroux (2009: 670) has argued, for example, that:
“instead of being a space of critical dialogue, analysis, and interpretation, [HE] is increasingly defined as a space of consumption where ideas are validated in instrumental terms and valued for their success in attracting corporate and government funding”.
To what extent can this type of HE support critical thinking and analysis of the political, socio-cultural and economic dimensions of global inequality, poverty, injustice and racism? Does it support students to be or become globally active critical citizens who are not just ‘engaged’ or ‘futures-oriented’ individuals but who can act collectively and politically for justice and equality for all (see the Dublin Declaration, GENE 2022)? This ‘competitive-edge’ higher education has become evident in the tendency towards tick-box counting of SDG achievements for university self-promotion and rankings, in a race for research funding, in the growing ‘publish or perish’ focus on promotion over quality teaching involving small classes with meaningful participation (Grummell, 2024), and in an emphasis on solutions-based rather than critical sustainability initiatives in HE (innovation often valued over analysis or politics). At the same time, tick-box compliance sits side by side in universities with some meaningful, radical and transformative teaching and learning initiatives. Despite the opportunities for criticality brought by the SDGs, the space for GE in this changing institutional context, and for the critical pedagogies related to it, remains unclear (and arguably increasingly limited), especially when HEIs are influenced by broader neoliberal, business-driven and skills-oriented HE policies.
Furthermore, the structure and institutionalization of HE in Ireland has long presented a challenge to the integration of GE. With faculties, schools, departments, programmes, modules and lecturers often siloed and unaware of what each other is doing, integration of policy streams across institutions, and the sector as a whole, is notoriously difficult. Attempts to integrate GE have often resulted in a series of individual-led initiatives which last as long as the person involved retains the funding or energy for the work. Historically, these have often tended to be based around international volunteering and fundraising with different types of initiatives often associated with different faculties, e.g., volunteering with ITE or medical schools, environmental education in schools of geography, and human rights in law schools.
Research on more recent experiences of trying to integrate GE into HE has identified many institutional-level challenges. Gertrude Cotter’s research (2021) on the critical and comprehensive Praxis project in UCC, for example, has highlighted how difficult a process it is to try to integrate a critical pedagogy approach to DE into HE across disciplines. ‘At the same time’, she suggests in an interview, ‘there are many champions of DE across the university, who bring critical perspectives, but academics are very busy and they are trying to do so much’. These challenges are also identified in Guiry et al.’s (2022: 1) report on workshops held at UCC ‘to identify and explore common areas of need, concern and ethos for ESD at HEIs in Ireland’. Specifically, they identify four key themes which characterize the challenges facing ESD in HE in Ireland: lack of knowledge and skills among staff, including of the complex and disparate structures and processes within HEIs which act as a barrier to the promotion of ESD; time constraints; the lack of funding and resources – e.g., they argue that ‘the integration of ESD into further and higher level education is not a straightforward endeavour. The absence of sufficient financial, academic, administrative, and technical resources is a significant obstacle to achieving ESD goals’ (Ibid., 2022: 21); and engagement – the challenge of engaging staff and students and of supporting them to make connections between ESD and student concerns and needs, for example, including future employability.
Understandings of, and approaches to, GE
When it comes to supporting the integration of critical GE into HE, a central issue is around the understandings of and approaches to GE applied. Is ESD seen as something other and different to GCE, for example? Is the approach to ESD adopted one that is technical, environmentally-heavy or one which emphasises the intersection of the social, economic and political dimensions of sustainability? Gertrude Cotter, for example, explains some of these related to understandings of development education (DE):
“while some are very dedicated to trying to realise critical and meaningful DE, a lot of other staff in HE have a misunderstanding of what DE is. For some it’s about ‘going on the streets and marching’. For others, it’s what students do in their spare time, but it is not seen to have any relevance for their subjects or the curriculum. Another challenge within the university setting is the ‘white saviour mentality’ where DE is reduced to, or misinterpreted for, aid, volunteering or skills development in the global South. These challenges permeate staff engagement, programme integration and research” [Interview, 2023].
Other educators involved in GCE in HE that I interviewed mentioned the confusion over what GCE is and how it relates to ESD, human rights education (HRE), social justice education etc. ‘There is an abundance of GCE content being delivered but the facilitators/educators maybe aren’t even aware that they are contributing to the GCE field’ [Declan Markey, Maynooth University, Interview, 2023]. Another highlights that:
“the terminology and the fragmentation in what was known as development education is challenging. Some colleagues tell me that they are doing ESD not GCE, or that they are working on global youth work, DE, challenge-based learning about climate change or work on the SDGs. They do not link that with GCE. While I acknowledge the nuances and the differences, increasingly I feel that GCE is being restricted in people’s minds to programmes / projects supported by Irish Aid. I would also suggest that colleagues involved in ESD initiatives or other programmes related to awareness raising / responding to the SDG have little if any understanding of GCE and certainly do not know the overlap and synergies” [Paul Keating, Technological University of the Shannon [TUS], Email Correspondence, 2023].
Confusion over understandings of GE and how one adjectival education relations to another is compounded by deep-rooted assumptions, by shifts in global HE policy trends and emphases, as well as by the institutional tendencies of competition and discipline silos. We have also seen, for example, with GE in other sectors of education that more is not necessarily better. GE often remains rooted in an outmoded ‘us’ versus ‘them’ dichotomy supported by culturally embedded ethnocentrism and coloniality, which fails to acknowledge and challenge the interlinkages, dependencies and violence of global structures (Stein et al., 2022). Is that the same for ESD or for GE more broadly in HE? To what extent do ESD, GCE or EDI take account of the politics of inequality at the heart of resource use and extractivism? Do they inform or challenge? Another challenge with understandings of GE in HE is the tendency to assume that GE is either only relevant for ITE, only manageable through student-engagement activities, or only measurable through the ‘content’ of modules or programmes. What about discourses of GE in broader institutional policies, research priorities and co-curricular student engagement? While some of what’s happening in GE in HE no doubt reflects critical and alternative perspectives, which support active critique of, engagement with, and challenging existing paradigms, as we have seen, such criticality is often thwarted by the policy and institutional constraints of HE itself.
Conclusion: towards a mapping of GE in HE
The discussion of recent developments in GE in Ireland, and of the challenges to integrating it into HE (above), highlight the complexity of the field and of the task of trying to map it in order to advance it further. This is even more so the case when one considers the variety of approaches to mapping already being used in the field. Cotter’s research (2021) on the Praxis project in UCC, for example, highlights the value of participatory action research approaches to research in this area and of the insight that participant experience adds to content analysis of programme or policy content. Adams, Muslim Jameel and Goggins (2023) apply a mixed method approach in comparing staff responses to those of a content scan of 222 SDG ‘crucial keywords’ in module learning outcomes in order to measure the extent to which ESD is currently embedded in the engineering curriculum at the University of Galway. Oberdorfer et al.’s (2022: 43) mapping of GC in adult and community education (ACE) in Ireland appears to be quite straightforward in that it is based on a survey and tries to address three questions: ‘What GCE activity are ACE providers engaged in in terms of location, size, reach and GCE focus?’, ‘Who are these providers working with and how?’ (Ibid.: 44) and what does the mapping signal for the future in terms of resources etc.? At the same time, its discussion of the policy and institutional context offers useful background and its discussion of various projects and activities in the field provides useful insight into current practice.
While there is merit in all of these approaches, the discussion above points to the importance of mapping GE in HE in a way which takes account of the challenges presented by the policy and institutional landscapes within and related to HE and how these impact on understandings and discourses of and approaches to GE in these contexts. This means focusing not only on ‘issues’ or on what programmes are in place (or not) but on how GE (including ESD, GCE, ARE and DE) is (or is not) integrated across HEI policies, structures, research and non-formal engagement. It also requires an exploration of how these educations intersect (or do not), and how (and whether) GE is reflected in pedagogical practice, EDI policies and processes, or in institutional cultures.
At the same time, deciding on what should be included or excluded is essential in any mapping of a field. This is particularly so when one considers that maps are only really useful when they are clear and when they cut through confusion rather than compounding it. In an attempt to do that, while suggesting that any mapping of GE in HE in Ireland should highlight its relationships and intersectionality within and between GCE, ESD, ARE and EDI, for example, the discussion above suggests that a mapping of GE in HE might include the following dimensions (see Figure 1, below):
Figure 1. A Multi-Dimensional Framework for Mapping GE in HE
This figure shows the importance of any mapping of GE in HE including what’s happening in GCE, ESD, ARE, EDI or any GE-related practices in HEIs in research, partnerships, non-formal engagement and programmes and modules at different levels. It also includes university-wide initiatives which address policy, staff-student learning, institutional culture, and links to other initiatives and educations, e.g., ESD, EDI etc. In relation to each of the above, it would be important to understand: the policy context shaping GE in HE at international, national and institutional levels; implementation opportunities and challenges; the different approaches being applied and the effects of them; and the experiences of those involved and any lessons which can be learned from them.
A mapping of this kind would be very complex and time-consuming, but it would help us to get a much better sense of what’s happening in GE in HE in Ireland and any potential synergies with other critical educations or initiatives. In order to bring it to fruition, it would also need resources and support, perhaps as an IDEA-led Irish Aid funded project which brings together GE facilitators in HEIs in Ireland, North and South, who would contribute to the development of this work. Without getting a better sense of what’s happening, or not, in GE in HE in Ireland, it is likely that GE will remain largely confined to ITE and isolated projects rather than as a deeply integrated and critical reality.
References
Adams, T, Muslim Jameel, S and Goggins, J (2023) ‘Education for Sustainable Development: Mapping the SDGs to University Curricula’, Sustainability, Vol. 15, No. 10, pp. 1-32.
Bryan, A (2024) ‘Cerebral Global Citizens: Neuroliberalism and the Future(s) of Global Citizenship Education’ in E Dillon, N Gaynor, G McCann and S McCloskey (eds.) Global Education in Ireland: Critical Histories and Future Directions, London: Bloomsbury Press.
Cotter, G (2021) Creating a Community of Praxis at University College Cork Academic Report Part 1, UCC, available: https://praxisucc.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/praxis-staff-research-fi... (accessed 12 June 2023).
Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (DFHERIS) (2022) Funding the Future Investing in knowledge and skills: Ireland’s competitive advantage – A Funding and Reform Framework for Higher Education, Dublin: Government Publications.
Dillon, E (2024) ‘Towards Relationality in GE: Insights from an Analysis of Irish GE Policy’ in E Dillon, N Gaynor, G McCann and S McCloskey (eds.) Global Education in Ireland: Critical Histories and Future Directions, London: Bloomsbury Press.
Dillon, E and Gaynor, N (2024) ‘Global Education within Higher Education: Challenges and Contradictions in Fuelling Ireland’s “Knowledge Economy”’ in E Dillon, N Gaynor, G McCann and S McCloskey (eds.) Global Education in Ireland: Critical Histories and Future Directions, London: Bloomsbury Press.
GENE (2022) The European Declaration on Global Education to 2050, Final Congress Version, Adopted 4th November 2022, available: https://www.gene.eu/ge2050-congress (accessed 6 June 2023).
Giroux, H (2009) ‘Democracy’s nemesis: The rise of the corporate university’, Cultural Studies: Critical Methodologies, Vol. 9, No. 5, pp. 669–695.
Government of Ireland (2022) ESD to 2030: Second National Strategy on Education for Sustainable Development, Dublin: Government of Ireland.
Grummell, B (2024) ‘Freirean influences on global education in community development and higher education in Ireland’ in E Dillon, N Gaynor, G McCann and S McCloskey (eds.) Global Education in Ireland: Critical Histories and Future Directions, London: Bloomsbury Press.
Guiry, N, Barimo, J, Byrne, E, O’Mahony, C, Reidy, D, Dever, D, Mullally, G, Kirrane, M and O’Mahony, MJ (2022) Synthesis Report – Education for Sustainable Development: Co-creating common areas of need and concern, Cork: National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education / UCC Green Campus.
Irish Aid (2021) Irish Aid Global Citizenship Education Strategy 2021 – 2025, Dublin: Department of Foreign Affairs.
Khoo, S, Healy, C, and Coate, K (2007) ‘Development education and research at third level in Ireland’, Policy and Practice: A Development Education Review, Vol. 5, pp. 5-19.
Maynooth University (2023) Strategic Plan 2023 – 2028: Excellence, Opportunity, Impact, Maynooth: Maynooth University.
McCann, G and McCloskey, S (2024) ‘Global Education Policy and Practice in the North of Ireland’ in E Dillon, N Gaynor, G McCann and S McCloskey (eds.) Global Education in Ireland: Critical Histories and Future Directions, London: Bloomsbury Press.
Oberdorfer, H, Kearns, M and O’Halloran, R (2022) Report on the 2nd Mapping of GCE in the Adult and Community Education Sector, Maynooth: Saolta.
Shawe, R, Horan, W, Moles, R and O’Regan, B (2019) ‘Mapping of sustainability policies and initiatives in higher education institutes’, Environmental Science and Policy, Vol. 99, pp. 80 – 88.
Stein, S, Andreotti, V, Suša, R, Ahenakew, C and Čajková, T (2022) ‘From “education for sustainable development” to “education for the end of the world as we know it”’, Educational Philosophy and Theory, Vol. 54, No. 3, pp. 274-287.
Teaching Council (2020) Céim: Standards for Initial Teacher Education, Maynooth: The Teaching Council.
Eilish Dillon is a lecturer in global development at Maynooth University, Ireland. She has been involved in global education and critical analyses of development discourses, representations and policy in different capacities over many years. She is the author of ‘Shifting the Lens on Ethical Communications in Global Development: A Focus on NGDOs in Ireland’ (2021, available: https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/14972/), and co-editor of a book published by Bloomsbury press (and freely available by open access) in 2024 titled Global Education in Ireland: Critical Histories and Future Directions.