Exploring Possibilities around Living Labs
When 24th March 2025, 12-2pm
Where The Arts Block, Room A23
Following the creation of our biodiversity meadow at the Main/Media building, we are pleased to announce that the college will be creating a second biodiversity meadow at the Arts Block, and will draw on input from teaching, maintenance and admin staff and students.
As part of a series of events to explore how these resources can be used to engage students and staff on a range of ecological and social issues, Dr. Ben Mallon (Assistant Professor in Geography and Citizenship Education at DCU), will be visiting BCFE. Ben will speak about his experiences at DCU on issues around education, climate and biodiversity, as well as on his involvement with the Young People’s Assembly on Biodiversity Loss.
For the event on Monday 24th March, there will be an introduction by Sean Shanagher to discuss experiences with the Main/Media Building biodiversity meadow; following this, Ben will share his experiences, and there will then be a site visit to the new location.
All staff and students are welcome to attend; we’re especially keen for this project to get feedback from Arts Block staff and students.
For Ben’s biography and the location of the new meadow (location marked A).
About Benjamin Mallon
Benjamin Mallon is Assistant Professor in Geography Education in the Institute of Education, Dublin City University. Ben is co-director of the DCU Centre for Human Rights and Citizenship Education and is a member of the DCU Centre for Climate and Society.
Ben has expertise in educational approaches which employ active, participatory methodologies and innovative enquiry-based frameworks to develop learners’ understandings of, attitudes towards, and engagement with, significant sustainability issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss and conflict.
Ben coordinates and teaches undergraduate and postgraduate modules across the Institute of Education, including modules in ‘primary geography education’, ‘geographical, environmental and outdoor education’, ‘children’s rights education’ and ‘global citizenship education’. Ben supervises postgraduate research projects in the areas of geography education, global citizenship education, and education for democracy. Ben teaches in the EdD Area of Preferred Focus on education for sustainability, and supervises PhD students in the field of education.
He has published a number of peer reviewed articles and several book chapters in the fields of Education for Sustainability, Global Citizenship Education and Climate Change Education, with a particular focus on transformative pedagogical approaches addressing complex global issues.
Benjamin edited (with Fionnuala Waldron and Caitríona Ní Cassithe) the book ‘Pushing the Boundaries of Human Rights Education: Concepts, Challenges and Contexts’ published by Routledge in 2024. Ben also co-edited (with Anne Marie Kavanagh and Fionnuala Waldron) the book ‘Teaching for social justice and sustainable development across the primary curriculum’, published by Routledge in 2021.
Some of Ben’s current collaborative research projects include those exploring primary teachers’ understandings and practices of Global Citizenship Education in schools, investigating young people’s experiences of deliberative democracy in relation to biodiversity loss, and researching how climate change education is addressed in the curricula of island states.
He sits on the Scientific and Pedagogical Committee of the Office of Climate Education, and is a member of the organising committee of the Irish Children’s and Young People’s Assembly on Biodiversity Loss.