ISSN: 2053-4272
Issue 44 Call for Contributors
Development Education and the Uses and Abuses of Knowledge
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Deadline for abstract submissions is Friday, 04 September 2026
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Deadline for commissioned article submissions is Friday, 11 December 2026
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Publication date is Spring 2027
ABOUT THE JOURNAL
Policy and Practice is a peer reviewed, bi-annual, open access journal published by the Centre for Global Education, a non-governmental development organisation based in Belfast. First published in 2005, Policy and Practice aims to provide a space for development education (DE) practitioners to critically reflect on their practice, discuss the main challenges faced by the sector and debate new policy developments. Development education uses an active learning, participative approach to education that addresses the root causes of poverty and injustice and seeks to enable learners to take action toward positive social change. It draws upon Paulo Freire's concept of praxis that combines reflection and action to support a meaningful intervention in reality. Policy and Practice aims to: share new research in development education; celebrate and promote good practice in DE; enhance collaboration between development education and related adjectival education sectors; further mainstream development education within the statutory education sector in Ireland; and provide opportunities for exchange and debate between educators from the global North and South.
Policy and Practice has a designated website (www.developmenteducationreview.com) which contains an archive of all previous 42 issues which are available for viewing online and for downloading. The journal is listed on Scopus (H-Index 2) and the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). In 2025, the Policy and Practice web site received 293,776 unique visits from countries in the global North and South. Policy and Practice articles have generated 6,636 citations that have appeared in 835 journals, 441 books, 503 dissertations and 134 NGO publication.
ABOUT THE THEME
The Centre for Global Education is inviting contributions to Issue 44 of our bi-annual, peer reviewed, open access journal Policy and Practice: A Development Education Review on the theme: Development Education and the Uses and Abuses of Knowledge. We invite authors to consider the application of knowledge across the full spectrum of learning including: research methods and practice; participatory research outcomes on knowledge and technology; Indigenous knowledge as the basis of development education practice; the uses and abuses of Artificial Intelligence; the capturing of algorithms for social, commercial and political engineering; and social media manipulation by the far-right as an agent of discord and disorder. This issue will also consider the framing of knowledge in the context of human rights as the antibodies of democracy. It will discuss how knowledge can be protected from the willful ignorance of political leaders and the blanket description of the truth as ‘fake news’. In this age of rising authoritarianism, foundational concepts of development education, including critical thinking, critical literacy, critical consciousness, democratic education, citizenship and transformational learning are becoming objects of contempt. As Henry Giroux argues:
“Critical formative cultures are crucial in producing the knowledge, values, social relations and visions that help nurture and sustain the possibility to think critically, engage in political dissent, organize collectively and inhabit public spaces in which alternative and critical theories can be developed”.
Paulo Freire similarly argued that:
“If students are not able to transform their lived experiences into knowledge and to use the already acquired knowledge as a process to unveil new knowledge, they will never be able to participate rigorously in a dialogue as a process of learning and knowing”.
Issue 44 will discuss how development education can retain its transformative potential for radical learning and active citizenship when mediated through digital platforms and mediated processes that are increasingly concentrated in fewer hands. In a forthcoming article for Issue 43 of Policy and Practice, Michael Walimbwa asks: ‘How should a field committed to justice and critical literacy respond to data-driven platforms, algorithmic mediation, and digitally networked learning environments?’ There is a risk, he adds, that development education will be ‘framed primarily in technical terms, focusing on tools, efficiency, or innovation, rather than in relation to DE’s deeper ethical and political commitments’.
Development Education and AI
The pervasiveness of AI will be debated in Issue 44. The United Nations Development Program has suggested that ‘Artificial Intelligence, if designed and deployed responsibly and equitably, can be a powerful driver for sustainable development and accelerator of the SDGs’. And yet, the UN Environment Programme has raised concerns about AI’s consumption of water and the environmental costs of proliferating data centres which consume ‘massive amounts of electricity, spurring the emission of planet-warming greenhouse gases’. Data centres also rely heavily on critical minerals and rare elements and generate huge amounts of electronic waste. As much of the world suffers this year under increasingly normalised extreme temperatures, climate breakdown is clearly accelerating and the contribution of AI to global heating is ‘concerning’ the UNEP. It argues that the environmental impact of AI must be fully assessed before ‘we deploy the technology at scale’. From a pedagogical perspective, AI can ‘support learning when guided by clear teaching principles’, according to the OECD, but when ‘designed or used without pedagogical guidance … simply enhances performance with no real learning gains’. UNESCO has raised concerns that AI will exacerbate existing digital inequalities that were accelerated by COVID-19 with 2.6 billion people in 2024 lacking an Internet connection. UNESCO has also warned of privacy and safety concerns attached to the use of AI, and emerging issues relating to ethics, governance, and equity. For learners with Internet access, there will be an obvious temptation to avoid the hard yards of background reading through the use of generative AI which narrows the flow of knowledge and limits the advancement of research, digital literacy and learning boundaries.
AI remains a relatively under-explored concept in development education and Issue 44 provides an opportunity to share new research on the uses and abuses of AI to the sector. How do we ensure that digital technical tools don't overwhelm development education's participative methodologies, critical inquiry tools, politcal agenda and action outcomes? As Freire wrote: 'knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other'.
Digital literacy
Recent research has revealed the role played by social media in organizing anti-immigration protests, fanning racist and toxic hate speech online and mobilizing far-right racist violence and disorder. For example, in June 2026, anti-immigrant social media posts shared on X, Facebook and Tik Tok in response to a violent incident involving a Sundanese national in Belfast resulted in racially motivated disorder targeted mostly at minority ethnic communities. Contributions to Issue 44 could discuss how development education can support digital literacy that enables confident and critical navigation of digital technologies. Digital literacy can challenge disinformation and misinformation online designed to prey upon ignorance, poverty and exclusion toward racism and hate. In Belfast, trade unions, human rights groups, NGOs and women’s organisations digitally mobilised public participation on 13 June in one of the largest anti-racism rallies seen in the city showing how digital literacy can communicate issues of tolerance, respect, democracy and inclusion. Issue 44 could carry case studies of digitally-inspired participation, action and education aligned with the values and mission of development education.
Authors are invited to consider submitting contributions to Issue 44 of Policy and Practice that address one or more of the following:
- How can development education respond to data-driven platforms, algorithmic mediation, and digitally networked learning environments as mediators of knowledge and truth?
- Examples of development education research methods, studies and practice that have produced and sustained cultures of knowledge, critical literacy and democracy in a post-truth world.
- Case studies of digital literacy driven by development education practice that have challenged the meta crisis and threats posed to democracy.
- An assessment of the uses and abuses of AI including pedagogical possibilities and limitations, the ecological costs of data centres, and the impact of digital inequalities on learners.
- A re-assessment of Freire’s concept of knowledge as ‘restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry’ in an age of rising racism and authoritarianism.
- How can development education respond to the digital incitement of racist hate speech and disorder?
- In an era of the increasing monetization of knowledge in higher education, how can development education ensure the inclusive and democratic flow of knowledge?
- Articles that consider how digital tools can be deployed for the advancement of sustainability, human rights and democratic participation.
- Articles that discuss Indigenous knowledge as the basis of development education practice.
Authors interested in submitting an article to Issue 44 should send a completed abstract submission form to journal editor, Stephen McCloskey, by Friday, 04 September 2026. Please email: stephen@centreforglobaleducation.com. The submission date for commissioned articles is Friday, 11 December 2026.
Article Types
There are four kinds of article published in Policy and Practice.
- Focus articles are peer reviewed, between 5,000 and 6,000 words, and should have a strong critical and theoretical analysis of their topic.
- Perspectives articles which are 3,000 – 5,000 words in length and more descriptive, addressing an aspect of development education practice.
- Viewpoint articles which are 2,000 – 4,000 words in length and opinion pieces on burning issues related to DE policy and practice.
- Review articles are 1,000-2,000 words in length and offer an opinion of a new book, film, teaching resource or online site on development issues.
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Policy and Practice is funded by Irish Aid.
This document has been published as part of a development education project funded by Irish Aid at the Department of Foreign Affairs. Irish Aid is the Government’s overseas development programme which supports partners working in some of the world’s poorest countries. Irish Aid also supports global citizenship and development education in Ireland to encourage learning and public engagement with global issues. The ideas, opinions and comments herein are entirely the responsibility of the Centre for Global Education and do not necessarily represent or reflect DFA policy
For further information contact:
Stephen McCloskey
Editor
Centre for Global Education
9 University Street
Belfast BT7 1FY
Tel: (0044) 2890 241879
E-mail: stephen@centreforglobaleducation.com
Web: www.centreforglobaleducation.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/centreforglobaleducation
X: @GCEDevEdReview
www.developmenteducationreview.com
July 2026