Development Education

http://www.developmenteducationreview.com/issue7-focus1

“Development education is an educational process aimed at increasing awareness and understanding of the rapidly changing, interdependent and unequal world in which we live. It seeks to engage people in analysis, reflection and action for local and global citizenship and participation. It is about supporting people in understanding, and in acting to transform the social, cultural, political and economic structures which affect their lives and others at personal, community, national and international levels” (http://www.ideaonline.ie).

Process, analysis, reflection, action, understanding and transformation – all these key words emphasise the dynamic nature of this educational approach. As such, DE contains a number of elements summarised by Roland Tormey in his introduction to Teaching Social Justice:

“It [DE] is education as personal development, facilitating the development of critical thinking skills, analytical skills, emphatic capacity and the ability to be an effective person who can take action to achieve desired development outcomes. It is education for local, national and global development, encouraging learners in developing a sense that they can play a role in working for (or against) social justice and development issues. It is education about development, focused on social justice, human rights, poverty, and inequality and on development issues locally, nationally, and internationally” (Tormey, 2003:2).