Community Engaged Learning and Teaching (CELT) Network
Community Engaged Learning and Teaching is considered to be transformative for students and practitioners, underpinned by civic participation in community and society. One of the strategic themes of the UCD Rising to the Future Strategy is “Building a Healthy World” a core objective of which is to “continue to build our engagement locally, nationally and internationally”. Community Engaged Learning (CEL) and Teaching affords the University an opportunity to build and strengthen strong partnerships with social and community organisations in a meaningful and transformative way. It provides faculty, students and community organisations opportunities to engage in a symbiotic manner, learning from each other whilst bridging the gap between academic learning and the lived reality(ies) of society.
The main goals of the CELT Network are to:
- Provide a supportive network for faculty, academics and students to share learning, to enhance understanding and to improve practice in community engaged learning and teaching.
- Enhance the learning for students across the university by (a) improving the quality of their experience on CEL modules and/or (b) supporting faculty and academics to consider using CEL in their approach to teaching and learning in UCD.
- Contribute to the professional development of all those who teach by sharing learning and cross-pollinating ideas across and within disciplines in the university.
The CELT Network holds informal meetings, events and symposiums around community engaged learning and teaching topics. If you would like to find out more information, please register your interest by completing the form (opens in a new window)here.
The first event of the CELT Network took place as part of the UCD In Conversation series, on Thursday 16 July. Dr Deirdre McGillicuddy, Assistant Professor in the University College Dublin’s School of Education was in conversation with Gary Broderick, Director of the (opens in a new window)SAOL Project (Women’s Recovery and Education) and Dr Hilda Loughran, Associate Professor in the UCD School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice, exploring the transformative power of community engaged learning.
All are welcome to watch the conversation here.
"It was great meeting colleagues from across the university in a more informal setting and finding out what work they are doing in the community".
The CELT network received funding from the UCD Learning Enhancement Projects Fund and the UCD CELT Symposium 2023 was funded by the UCD Global Seed Fund.