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The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Regional Office in Bangkok (UNESCO Bangkok) is seeking a contractor to organize activities under the project 'Bringing Living Heritage to Classroom in Asia-Pacific' which will strengthen capacities of teachers, policymakers and other educational/cultural stakeholders in Thailand to support the integration of ICH in schools.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development advocates the ‘promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development’ as an important target to achieve Goal 4 on quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all.

One of culture’s manifestations is living heritage or intangible cultural heritage (ICH). It includes cultural practices and knowledge that are meaningful to communities. They are a part of the latter’s identity that they want to continue to transmit to future generations. Music and dances, festivals and rituals, making handicrafts and agricultural knowledge are several forms of ICH.

ICH can provide context-specific content and pedagogy for education programs and thus act as a leverage to increase the relevance of education and improve learning outcomes. For example, education for sustainable development uses indigenous knowledge and ICH as a key resource for communities in understanding the environment, sustainably using its resources, assessing climate change impacts and adapting to them. In this regard, ICH is an incredibly rich resource. This is why UNESCO promotes learning and teaching through and about ICH in education programs in all relevant disciplines. 

Since 2015, there have been many challenging and experimental projects to integrate ICH in formal education along with new educational approaches and innovations, such as Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), Global Citizenship Education (GCED) and Social-Emotional Learning (SEL). With support and collaboration between UNESCO Regional Office in Bangkok, International Information and Networking Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (ICHCAP) and Asia-Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding (APCEIU), an online course and resource kit were produced to provide guidelines and examples on how to develop lesson plans that use ICH in delivering knowledge and reaching learning goals.

In 2023, a year-long teacher training project was implemented for Thai and Lao teachers with great success. Teachers were able to not only integrate ICH in their school lesson plans, but also collaborate between schools in different countries for cross-cultural educational exchange activities. 

With such success, in 2025, UNESCO Regional Office in Bangkok aims to continue adapting this approach with its existing educational materials and pool of resource persons in other geographical regions of Thailand, e.g. Southern Thailand, where the borders are connected to Malaysia and multiculturalism defines the identity of diverse ethnic groups in this region of the country. 

The training and mentoring aims to (1) encourage the integration of local ICH elements, especially those inscribed to UNESCO’s Lists or on the Thai national inventory, in lessons of schools in the Southern provinces of Thailand; (2) to strengthen capacities of local teachers to connect with other cultural and educational stakeholders and local and ethnic communities in Thailand and possibly its neighboring country(ies); and (3) to disseminate good practices in ICH-related educational practices and lesson plans.

The contractor is requested to carry out the following tasks:

• Recruit and manage a team of expert facilitators on ICH and educational innovation as well as support staff who will facilitate the trainings and follow-up activities;

• Organize at least 2 Teacher’s Trainings on Bringing Living Heritage to the Classroom in province(s) in Southern Thailand, in consultation with UNESCO and the relevant educational agencies:

  • The first training can be up to 5 days in duration and take place tentatively in April-May 2025,

  • The second training can be up to 3 days in duration and take place tentatively in August-September 2025,

  • The trainings shall be conducted in Thai and English with translation services where applicable;

• Identify up to 50 participants, consisting of teachers from schools, community learning centres and educational organizations in Thailand (and, if possible, Malaysia) from primary to upper secondary level;

• Provide mentoring to the pilot schools that will be testing the lesson plans and pedagogical approaches taught during the training; 

• Develop and disseminate teaching and communication materials, including work sheets, proceedings, recordings of activities, social media and news coverage.

• By 15 March 2025, the contractor will submit the final workplan, the list of experts and staff involved in the trainings, and the tentative agenda of the Teacher’s Trainings on Bringing Living Heritage to the Classroom in Southern Thailand;

• By 15 July 2025, the contractor will submit the results from the first training workshop and list of schools that are testing lesson plans developed by the participating teachers;

• By 31 October 2025, the contractor will submit the final report and related teaching and communication materials distributed over the course of the project.

Southern Thailand (any province, except for three Southernmost provinces) as workshop venue

• Over 5 years of professional experience in conducting training for teachers in Thailand and/or Malaysia;

• Have a roster of allied professionals in fields related to global citizenship and urban citizenship education and living heritage in education, who can be called upon to lead the planned activities.

• Long-term experience in lesson plan development for primary and/or secondary education;

• Familiarity with UNESCO’s work related to the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage;

• Familiarity with the concept and principles in achieving sustainable development goals, especially in aspects of education, equality, sustainable cities and communities, decent work and economic growth.

Interested organizations are invited to submit to UNESCO Bangkok the application package including

• Institutional profile,

• A technical proposal illustrating how the tasks will be carried out,

• A detailed financial proposal indicating rate per unit.

Application package is to be sent no later than 4 February 2025, 18:00 Bangkok time (GMT+7). (Deadline extended)

To the attention of:

Chief of Culture Unit
UNESCO Regional Office in Bangkok
Email: culture.bgk(at)unesco.org

Only short-listed companies/organizations will be contacted.

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