ADDRESSING THE CHALLENGES OF CLIMATE CHANGE: THE POTENTIAL ROLE OF DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION IN THE TERTIARY SECTOR

This paper explores the potential of placing development education (DE) principles at the core of all curricula, as a model to build local and global sustainable societies, as advocated by the National Strategy on Education for Sustainability in Ireland 2014-2020 (NSESI) (DES, 2014). A vision for change in education culture is required as the world enters the 'third industrial revolution' (Rifkin, 2011) with a view to sustaining life into the future within identified planetary boundaries (Rockstrom, 2015). Development education (DE) focuses on learning about and leading change. It also makes multiple, diverse and sometimes contradictory (Waldron, 2014) connections across disciplines. It adopts active and participative learning methodologies to achieve fairness in the distribution of wealth and power. As such, DE enhances critical analysis and reflection. It facilitates the development of participative and transformative skills for action and dialogue at cultural, social, political, ethical, economic and technological levels. It thus makes a strong contribution to understanding local and global development issues which are central to addressing climate change and educating for resilience.