There is No Alternative! Or is there? We need to talk about economics in GCE.
14 October 2026
A central commitment of Global Citizenship Education (GCE) is to explore the root causes of global injustice and inequality. Probably the biggest 'root cause' is our neoliberal model of economics.
Yet, despite intensifying global inequality, climate and ecological breakdown, and economic and political crises, the economic systems and assumptions underpinning many of these challenges can remain relatively unexplored within our GCE practice.
Research commissioned by the Centre for Global Education and Financial Justice Ireland, Challenging the Dominant Economic Paradigm? (2022) and Exploring the Elephant in the Room (2025), identified both a strong appetite among GCE / Development Education practitioners to engage more deeply with the economic root causes of poverty and inequality, and a need for further professional development to support practitioners in bringing explicit economic analysis into their work. This training responds directly to those findings.
It aims to:
create a participatory space for GCE practitioners to critically examine the dominant economic growth model of development, related policies, and their impacts;
explore how neoliberal ideas have come to be treated as economic “common sense”;
introduce practical approaches to root-cause and systems analysis, applying them to local, national, and global issues of poverty and inequality;
explore alternative economic models and approaches already being put into practice locally and globally; and
build collective confidence to bring a stronger economic analysis into our GCE practice.
Date: Wednesday, 14 October, 10.30am - 4.30pm
Location: Brandsma Room in the Carmelite Centre
Fee:
€3.00 - Students/unwaged
€10.00 - Members
€20.00 - Non-members
