Technical Meeting on Transformative Education: A Template for Teaching GCED
Background
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by 193 United Nation Member States in September 2015 have been driving global efforts to address urgent challenges facing the world today. There is no doubt that education is the foundation for development and therefore key to achieving all the SDGs. The standalone education goal – SDG4-Education 2030 and its comprehensive suite of targets to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all – sets an ambitious agenda to transform lives of citizens around the world.
The concept of transformative education is clearly integral to SDG 4.7 where learners are to acquire knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development.
Global citizenship education (GCED) is particularly relevant as a transformative education because it:
- encourages learners to analyse real-life issues critically and to identify possible solutions creatively and innovatively;
- supports learners to critically revisit assumptions, world views and power relations in mainstream discourses and consider people/groups systematically underrepresented/marginalised;
- respects differences and diversity;
- focuses on engagement to bring about desired changes; and
- involves multiple stakeholders, including those outside the learning environment in the community and in the larger circle of the society.
In line with this perspective of GCED, UNESCO Bangkok is implementing a project, Preparing Teachers for Global Citizenship Education, with support from the Korean Funds-in-Trust, to build the capacity of teachers so that they can enable their students to understand, engage and assume active roles in addressing and resolving local and global challenges. The specific objectives of the project are to:
- increase knowledge and understanding of GCED among teacher educators, teachers and school leaders;
- enhance capacity of teacher educators and teachers to deliver quality GCED contents using innovative and appropriate pedagogies and technologies; and
- strengthen the capacity of school leaders in supporting and implementing GCED in their institutions.
One major activity of project is the development of a template (containing GCED principles, contents, pedagogies, resources and so on) to assist teachers to integrate/embed GCED into the curricula and teaching practices. Training workshops will be held to pilot test the template in the 9 countries participating in the project (Bhutan, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka and Thailand).
Recognizing that support at the national level is crucial to ensure the smooth implementation of the training workshops and follow-up actions, nine country teams comprising policy makers, teacher educators/teachers and school leaders were established. Noting the key issues and challenges facing GCED within their national context, the country teams had identified preliminary entry points and action plans to carry out the project’s activities. Further consultation with their respective educational authorities and stakeholders is needed to ensure that these action plans are in line with their national educational strategies and plans.
Objectives of the meeting
As a follow up on the development of the template and national action plans, and to expedite the next phase of the project, UNESCO Bangkok is convening a meeting on 27-29 June 2017 in Bangkok, Thailand to:
- present and share the Preparing Teachers for GCED: A Template;
- provide progress reports on the national action plans for pilot testing the template;
- develop strategies for scaling up the use of the template in teacher training; and
- discuss the role of school leadership in GCED implementation.
To ensure continuity of the discussions and consensus of actions to be taken, all the members of the nine country teams are invited to attend the meeting and contribute to the discussion and planning, e.g., curriculum and subject areas to be selected, the training workshop details including venues, dates, target groups, workshop agenda, facilitators, resources needed and so on.
Expected outcomes
- Increased knowledge of, and capacity to use, the GCED template
- Clearer vision of action plans for pilot testing and scaling up the use of the template
- Enhanced understanding of role of school leaders in implementing GCED into their school curriculum
Participants
About 70 participants comprising the following groups are expected to attend the meeting:
- Experts and resource persons
- 6 representatives per country (2 policy makers, 2 teacher educators, 2 school leaders)
- Partner institutions
- UNESCO staff
For further information, please contact
- Lay Cheng Tan, Programme Officer, UNESCO Bangkok at lc.tan@unesco.org
- Jurairat Pongpinyo-Opas, Programme Assistant, UNESCO Bangkok at j.pongpinyo-opas@unesco.org.
Resources
- Concept Note (pdf, 146kb)
- Programme (pdf, 454kb)
- Information Note (pdf, 146kb)
- GCED Draft (pdf, 3.3mb)
Related links
- Preparing Teachers for Global Citizenship Education, 27-28-29 July 2015, Bangkok, Thailand
- Technical Meeting to Develop a Modality for Teachers to Embed Global Citizenship Education into the Curriculum, 27/28-Feb_1-Mar 2017, Bangkok, Thailand
