We identified the need for professional development for core Adult Education Service staff in the area of climate justice education. The professional development needs included:- Climate Justice Education principles and theory- Climate Justice Education teaching and learning methods.The objectives of this specific project were to:- Provide professional development opportunities for adult education management and practitioners in the area of climate justice education. This was with a view to integrating the learning from European Best Practice into the development of the Adult Education Services' emerging Climate Justice Education Programme which was developed as part of the City of Dublin ETB's Adult Education Service's Climate Justice Education Strategy and linking to the 2nd National Strategy on Education for Sustainable Development which highlights the importance of development education provision through adult and community education.
The Adult Education Service has seen a change in the demographic of our learners over the last decade. As the cumulative impact of recession has been felt by the most marginalised, learners are presenting with more complex learner support needs,including a large increase in the number of homeless learners, learners with significant mental health problems and migrants facing a high level of social exclusion. The role of the Adult Education Service is to ensure access to education for those most marginalised from the education system, in particular those who have low levels of educational attainment. In addition, our role is also to provide educational opportunities and develop critical literacies and competences around the social issues affecting our learners, such as climate change. Often our learners find it difficult to engage with mainstream public dialogues and debates around the social issues facing them, as they are jargon laden and often presume a high level of education. As part of our Climate Justice Strategy we want to capacity build key professionals in our service around climate justice education to meet this challenge.