ABSTRACT
An increasingly globalised world and the mainstreaming of development education has opened up new possibilities for Irish teachers seeking ‘authentic’ global teaching and learning experiences. Sending programmes, whereby Northern teachers participate in voluntary, short-term teaching projects in the Global South, are often presented uncritically as development education interventions. But despite the supposed continuum of personal and professional skills which may be cultivated as a result of participation in sending programmes, numerous tensions and complexities characterise the disconnect between the theory and practice of such initiatives. This chapter draws upon post-colonial understandings of ‘Othering’, power, and privilege; Freirean notions of praxis and theories of Whiteness to begin problematising the unequal power dynamics embedded in the mechanisms of sending programmes in an Irish context. Teachers are encouraged to interrogate the wider historical, social, and educational contexts in which sending programmes operate and to reflect on the prevailing contradictions involved in participation. A significant amount of personal and professional ‘unlearning’ on the part of Northern teachers is required in the context of reciprocity, parity, and partnership with educators in the Global South.
