Mary Immaculate College hosted the fourth annual conference of the SPHE Network recently. Keynote speakers at the event included academic, writer and advocate Sinéad Burke and Professor of Equality at UCD Professor Kathleen Lynch.
The conference brought together academics, teachers, student teachers, postgraduate students, health professionals, policy-makers, NGOs and the wider education community, to engage in dialogue about diversities in today’s society with a particular focus on how it is interpreted and addressed within the SPHE curriculum.
The well-known academic and activist Professor Kathleen Lynch gave the morning keynote and addressed the importance of care issues relating to care practices and how they are perceived. She reviewed the current SPHE curriculum and made important suggestions in relation to its revision including consideration of the social institutions and systems within which children live and the need to name human inter dependency. She also considered the systems and structures underpinning diversity and the inequalities arising from these including inequalities with regard to resources, respect and recognition, representation and relational inequalities.
The conference’s afternoon keynote address came from Sinéad Burke who looked at the transformative potential of the SPHE curriculum. Sinéad who was named as one of the 25 most influential and aspirational figures working in Britain by Vogue Magazine said the element of the SPHE curriculum that she believes is the most important is the personal. She strongly advocated the importance of children’s voices in the redesign of any curriculum and also shared her personal experiences as a teacher in terms of navigating systems, structures and design.
The daylong conference also saw a number of research papers and practical workshops based around the broad themes of wellbeing, gender, multiculturalism and diversity challenges. There were also a number of posters on display which related to the theme of diversity.
MIC lecturer and Chairperson of the SPHE Network Dr Margaret Nohilly thanked all of the contributors to the conference, in particular, the two keynote speakers, for their contributions and for their interest in SPHE. She said: “The two keynote addresses provided an excellent framework for the paper, poster and workshop presentations. Critical consideration was accorded to the themes of diversity challenges, multiculturalism, gender and wellbeing. These themes were placed in the context of the needs of schools and also in the context of the current review of the curriculum by the NCCA.”
Dr Carol O' Sullivan, MIC lecturer and member of the conference organising committee, acknowledged the critical perspective that was taken throughout the conference in relation to the role and relevance of SPHE in supporting schools in the 21st century. She welcomed the focus on citizenship and community that was evident throughout the discussions.
To find out more about the SPHE network please click here.
