This Perspectives article develops a rationale for the integration of a development education (DE) approach into initial teacher education (ITE) within a cross-curricular framework. The perspective is grounded in the practical considerations of the local and global circumstances of living in today’s world. A discussion is presented of significant current ecological, technological and socio-cultural changes and the resulting challenges they pose if schools and communities are to respond responsibly and imaginatively. In particular, we focus on ways in which ITE providers can strengthen the moral and social justice dimensions of the pupils’ learning experience through DE. While schools have various traditions of building aspects of global citizenship into their programmes, recent curricular developments at Junior Cycle in post-primary schools in Ireland offer fresh opportunities to engage with inter-disciplinary topics such as sustainable development, climate change, social justice and participative democracy. For meaningful change to take place, student-teachers and teachers need a thorough grounding in the many issues linked with concepts associated with global citizenship and the methodologies that are effective in facilitating such learning.