Dr Gertrude Cotter

Biography

Name:  Dr Gertrude Cotter

Contact: gertrude.cotter@ucc.ie        

Role: Lecturer and Academic Director of the Praxis Project (Development and Global Citizenship Project, UCC)

Academic Unit: Centre for Global Development UCC

Gertrude Cotter is a Lecturer at the Centre for Global Development, UCC.  She lectures in the field of Development and Global Citizenship Education.  She is the academic coordinator of the Praxis Project, UCC’s flagship project aiming to promote and integrate Development and Global Citizenship Education across the university.  This project is based at the Centre for Global Development.  She is also the co-academic coordinator of ‘Id Est’ a project which introduces student teachers to Development Education.  In addition she presents the Global Hub Radio Programme at Community Radio Youghal.

In the past, she has lectured in International Relations and Latin American History at the school of education and also coordinated UCC’s Diploma in Development Studies.  She also lectured in Community Development, Social Care Management and Reflective Practice at the Tralee Institute of Technology. She was previously CEO of Nasc, the Irish Immigrant Support Centre, and played a seminal role in its development.  She also managed community development projects and family resource centres in Ireland.   She has worked in France, Italy and the UK in different capacities. In earlier years she worked as a development worker in Bolivia and Thailand. Alongside Development Education, she has a particular interest in Refugee, Asylum-Seeker and Migrant support and advocacy, education for people with disabilities, Community-Linked Learning and Multimedia Learning.  Her PhD research is about engaging students in development education through community-linked learning and multimedia storytelling, locally and globally.  She has a wide range of third-level qualifications, including three masters, an MSc in Development Management, an MA in (Latin American) History and an MA in Digital Humanities.  She is a qualified secondary school teacher and has four higher diplomas, in Education, Social Science Research, Public Relations and Creative Digital Marketing. ‍

Thematic Expertise

Development Education.  Global Citizenship Education.  Social Justice Education.  Human Rights Education.

Activism. Community-Based Learning. Story Telling/ Social Justice.

Technology Enhanced Learning.  Community Radio and Development Education

 Teaching approaches and methodologies include, where relevant: Critical Pedagogy; Multimedia; Community-Linked Learning; Creative Arts, Drama, Digital Storytelling and Film.

Geographical Expertise

Global citizenship / Local and Global

Have worked with projects in Lesotho, Kenya and India

Previously worked in Bolivia, France, Italy and the UK 

Relevant Projects

'Praxis', UCC's Development and Global Citizenship Education Project (across the university).

Co-academic coordinator of "Id Est" Intercultural and Development Education for Student Teachers project, School of Education, UCC.

Presenter of the Global Hub Radio Programme, Community Radio Youghal.

She has led the following research projects:

·        Development and Intercultural Education (DICE) Project, 2010; Research project across schools and teacher training colleges in Ireland leading to the production of a guide (DVD) for schools on Development and Intercultural Education; 

 

·       Research project across schools and teacher training colleges in Ireland leading to the production of a guide (DVD) for schools on Development and Intercultural Education;

 

·        Integrating Ireland (Now the Integration Centre) 2003-4; Commissioned as a researcher and published book “A Guide to Published Research on Refugees, Asylum-Seekers and Immigrants in Ireland”, Integrating Ireland, Dublin 2004. Reprinted 2005/2006; Commissioned as a researcher and published book “A Guide to Published Research on Refugees, Asylum-Seekers and Immigrants in Ireland”, Integrating Ireland, Dublin 2004. Reprinted 2005/2006;

 

·        Higher Education Equality Unit, UCC 2002-2003; Worked as a researcher and published “Creating an Intercultural Campus”, (with M. Fitzgibbon), Higher Education Equality Unit, Cork, 2002;

 

·       Irish Centre for Migration Studies, UCC 2001 Commissioned to carry out research for West Limerick Partnership. This Needs Analysis of Migrant Workers in West Limerick interviewing 80  people and using SPSS software.     

 

·       As CEO of  Nasc, the Irish Immigrant Support Centre 2001-2009 I led several research   projects, the most significant of which were:

 

·       “In Our Own Words” Nasc training guide based on the experiences of people who are Immigrants, Refugees and Asylum-Seekers living in Ireland. (Ed), Nasc, Cork. First edition 2006. Second Ed 2008 (Project linked UCC Migration Studies Students and Migrants);

 

·       “North Meets South” Development Education Sessions for Older Teenagers (Ed), Nasc, Cork, 2008;

 

·       “Hidden Cork” Perspectives of Asylum Seekers on Direct Provision and the Asylum Legal System, (Ed) Nasc, 2008 (Led this project which involved interviews and semi-structured   interviews with Asylum-Seekers in Cork);

 

·       “Employment, Enterprise and Education: A Guide for Migrants in Cork”, (Ed) Nasc, Cork 2008;

 

·       “Integrating the Future: Nasc’s Strategy on Access to Employment, Education and Enterprise  for Migrants in Cork”, (Ed)  Nasc, Cork, 2008 (Led this project which involved consultation with  migrants, education/ enterprise/employment bodies and academics.);

 

·       “Where are We Now”. Led consultation process with asylum seekers and produced this film for Cork European Year of Culture 2005 with Frameworks Films.

Publications

Cotter, G., 2019. Global-Local Connections: What Educators, who use community-linked and multimedia Methodologies, can learn about critically engaging university students in Development Education. (PhD). University College Cork, Ireland, Cork.

Cotter, G., 2018. Nailing our Development Education Flag to the Mast and Flying it High: Rethinking Critical Approaches to Global and Development Education. Policy & Practice - A Development Education Review 27, 127–141.

Cotter, G., 2017. “Human Rights.  Our Rights!” -  Communicating Human Rights in Community Radio.   Trainer’s Handbook & Resources, 1st ed. CRAOL: The Community Radio Forum of Ireland, Galway.

Cotter, G., 2008a. “Hidden Cork” Perspectives of Asylum Seekers on Direct Provision and the Asylum Legal System. Nasc, the Irish Immigrant Support Centre, Cork.

Cotter, G., 2008b. “North Meets South” Development Education Sessions for Older Teenagers. Nasc, the Irish Immigrant Support Centre, Cork.

Cotter, G., 2008c. Employment, Enterprise and Education: A Guide for Migrants in Cork. Nasc, the Irish Immigrant Support Centre, Cork.

Cotter, G., 2008d. Integrating the Future: Nasc’s Strategy on Access to Employment, Education and Enterprise for Migrants in Cork. Nasc, the Irish Immigrant Support Centre, Cork.

Cotter, G., 2006. “In Our Own Words” Nasc training guide based on the experiences of people who are Immigrants, Refugees and Asylum-Seekers living in Ireland. Nasc, the Irish Immigrant Support Centre, Cork.

Cotter, G., 2004. A Guide to Published Research on Refugees, Asylum-Seekers and Immigrants in Ireland, 2nd ed. Integrating Ireland, Dublin.

Cotter, G., Fitzgibbon, M., 2002. Creating an Intercultural Campus. Higher Education Equality Unit, University College Cork.

Cotter, G., O’Brien, S., 2018. Critical Researchers ‘Of and For Our Times’: Exploring Student Teachers’ Use of Critical Multicultural and Development Education Frameworks in their Professional Research Papers (PRPs). Policy & Practice - A Development Education Review 74–104.

Cotter, G., Olaniyi, K., 2015. Parenting in a Multicultural Society: Migrants and their Experiences of Parenting in Ireland, in: Learning on the Job: Parenting in Modern Ireland. Oak Tree Press.

Cotter, Gertrude, 2014. Global Citizen Contact Point: A Learning Management System and Educational Forum Promoting Local and Global Citizenship (MA). UCC, Cork.

Cotter, Gertrude, 1994. Bolivian Bulletin Monthly Bulletin. CEDOIN, La Paz, Bolivia.

Cotter, N.G., 1989. Britain and Peron’s Argentina: 1946-1955. NUI, at Department of Modern History, UCC.

Centre for Global Development

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