As part of the EU Erasmus+ Project: Sustainable Mobility, Sustainable Community, An Taisce’s Green-Schools Travel Officers Rebecca Flanagan and Allison Phillips, along with six students from St. Tiernan’s Community School, Balally have recently returned from an exchange in Copenhagen after successfully completing the 3rd LTT (learning, teaching and training) in Denmark.
During the weeklong October visit to Copenhagen, St. Tiernan’s students were immersed in Danish cycling culture. Through a combination of workshops focused on the UN Sustainable Development Goals, daily cycling trips throughout the Danish Capital and learning experiences around sustainable communities, students were empowered to lead positive change relating to sustainable mobility in their own communities. At the start of the week, students from each country presented their findings on research around travel behaviour to the Danish partner school, Randersgades Skole. St. Tiernan’s students showcased the new Green-Schools #andshecycles campaign to the group, which led to much discussion on the issue that, in Ireland, fewer than one in 250 girls cycle to school each day.
St. Tiernan’s students were tasked to interview a cross-section of Erasmus+ students from the four participating countries, with the question: do the same number of boys and girls cycle in your home country and why?
Have a look at the video clip to hear what impressions students in Ireland, Lithuania, Spain and Denmark have on gender in cycling from their home countries. The results are really interesting and lead us to ask more questions, like why does cycling culture differ from country to country? And how can we improve cycling culture so that all members of society feel that cycling is for them?
