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The conference held for the first-year BEd students took place on 7th October 2008 in the College.
The theme of the conference was "Global Imbalance in Today's World" and had representation from five organisations. The conference began with
a Global Breakfast held in the College dining hall and was designed to mirror the 80:20 divide between and within nations across the globe.
After registration, the students queued outside the dining hall and were then randomly selected to sit in a particular area of the hall ready for breakfast.
To fulfil the aim of the exercise, 80% of the student body were presented with a dry piece of toast and coloured water at their tables, whereas the
remaining 20% were provided with cereal, juice, a cooked breakfast, fruit, tea, coffee, milk, sugar, bread, yogurt, cutlery, cups, and plates.
The students were asked to reflect on this experience and to consider the global imbalance in relation to food and hunger and how this relates to their
impending role as teachers. This reflection was then considered further during the opening keynote address and the workshops led by a range of
facilitators from different NGOs.
The keynote address was given by Maria Barry from Trócaire and Nora McQuaid from the Centre for Global Education. Maria's
talk was titled "What's For Breakfast? - A Global View" and Nora's talk was titled "An Introduction To The Global Dimension In Schools
Northern Ireland."
There were 5 workshops held with the students and the facilitators were from:
- Concern;
- British Red Cross;
- Centre For Global Education;
- Trócaire;
- War On Want.
The workshops were a mixture of presentations
and group activities, where the facilitators informed the students
about resources, methods and examples of how to bring the issue
of global imbalances into the classroom.
Maria Barry - Trócaire
Nora McQuaid - Centre for Global Education
BEd 1 students listening to Key Note Addresses
Nora McQuaid - Centre for Global Education
BEd 1 students attending workshop
Orla Devine & Terry Ly - British Red Cross
BEd 1 students participating in workshop
Rosie Murray & Andrea (volunteer) - Trócaire
BEd 1 students taking part in workshop
Eamon Quinn - War On Want
BEd 1 students during a workshop
Mariclare Gallagher - Concern |
