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UNESCO workshop helps Asia-Pacific schools integrate Global Citizenship Education
From 28 October to 1 November 2024, UNESCO’s Regional Office in Bangkok hosted the Asia-Pacific Regional Capacity Development Workshop on Global Citizenship Education (GCED). The workshop brought together 50 teachers and school leaders from Bhutan, the Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam, alongside 11 international experts from Australia, China, France, Indonesia, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Thailand. The event aimed to equip educators with the tools and strategies necessary to integrate global citizenship principles into school practices.
The workshop focused on five core themes UNESCO considers critical to embedding GCED across educational systems in the region: school leadership, curriculum and pedagogy, student initiatives, community engagement, and professional learning for educators.
Integrating GCED into curricula requires innovative solutions in design, pedagogy, and assessment by employing interdisciplinary themes such as digital literacy, cultural understanding and environmental awareness, as was underscored by efforts in the Philippines towards aligning school missions, training teachers, and contextualizing learning materials in the K-12 curriculum. Incorporating cultural heritage in the curriculum for the purpose of enhancing global citizenship awareness and development was introduced by project-based approaches presented by Thailand.
Exchange during the workshop emphasized experiential and project-based learning to build skills such as empathy, collaboration, and cultural responsiveness. Discussions on assessment focused on tools addressing academic, socio-emotional, and intercultural competencies. Moreover, empowering students to take the lead in initiatives was cited as key to nurturing active global citizenship, such as in Thai schools’ incorporating democratic dialogue into extracurricular activities to prompt students to address issues pertaining to environmental sustainability and cultural diversity. Bhutan fosters leadership through student-led environmental activities that match community needs, thus helping students to take charge and contribute to concrete impacts in society.
Community engagement is a cornerstone for promoting sustainable GCED principles and practices, as was foregrounded by examples of partnerships between schools, families, local organizations, and stakeholders in a river restoration programme in the Philippines, and in an example of how schools in Bhutan are strengthening family involvement by hosting workshops for parents towards a greater understanding of global citizenship.
Continuous professional development is vital for equipping teachers and school leaders with the skills needed to implement GCED effectively. Dedicated collaborative networks, including Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), were cited as one of the prominent modalities through which peer learning, collegial mentorship, and the sharing of best teaching practices are developed and implemented. The Incheon Global Citizenship School Model in the Republic of Korea was cited as an exemplary approach to such support for educators, as it offers multilingual professional development and access to new resources as well as assessment and evaluation mechanisms that sustain professionalism and e-learning.
Draft action plans developed during the sessions were aimed at further embedding the principles of global citizenship into regional school systems, not only as isolated, pilot approaches, but towards systemic transformation.
The Regional Capacity Development Workshop was made possible through the financial support of the Government of the Republic of Korea, a longtime UNESCO partner in promoting quality education and sustainable development in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – especially SDG 4 – and the 2030 Agenda. This support made possible UNESCO’s delivery of sessions that highlighted the Incheon Global Citizenship School Model as an exemplary practice for integrating GCED principles into regional education systems.
For more information
UNESCO’s work in global citizenship education
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