McCarthy’s social justice program garners international recognition

A social justice program at McCarthy Catholic College, Emu Plains which embraced hip hop to engage students with important social justice issues was highlighted at the Sorbonne University in Paris last month.

McCarthy Catholic College’s on-line learning and mentoring co-ordinator, Keith Heggart recently returned to Australia after sharing his school’s social justice initiatives at an international conference for educators in July.

Invited by the Cultural Studies Association, Keith presented McCarthy’s 'Hip Hop for Global Justice' program to an audience of more than 1400 educators from around the world at the Crossroads in Cultural Studies conference held at the Sorbonne University.

The Hip Hop for Global Justice program ran at McCarthy in 2011 and encouraged young people to engage with issues of social justice through hip hop culture. Students worked with artists such as L-Fresh to write songs about important issues including bullying and crime and their songs were then recorded at Catholic Education’s Learning Exchange (LEX) in Mount Druitt and shared with the school and local community.

'It was a real honour to meet so many incredibly talented teachers and share the work that we are doing at McCarthy and within the Parramatta diocese,’ said Keith.

Keith said he appreciated the opportunity to collaborate and share ideas with other educators.

'‘It was wonderful to collaborate with educators from around the world who are also committed to empowering students to be passionate about social justice,’ he said.

In addition to his presentation at Sorbonne University, Keith was also invited to the Apple Distinguished Educators' Global Institute in Cork. This institute drew together 215 educators and technological innovators from around the world, where they discussed authoring new content for iTunes U and using iBooks Author.

« Return to news list