Tag: UNESCO

UNESCO invited CID to host focus groups as part of the Futures of Education Initiative. Three focus groups held discussions in January. The report has now been completed, and submitted to UNESCO.

We are delighted that UNESCO invited our participation, and hopeful that they will incorporate our recommendations into their final conclusions. A copy of the report may be had by clicking on the image below.

Thanks to Linda de Wit, former CID intern and skilled graphic designer, for taking on the project of turning the written report into a polished final document. Thanks to Nazan Haydari, Advisory Board member, for moderating one of the focus groups, and managing the technology for all of them. Thanks to all of the participants, who are named in the report, for their ideas, their time, and their energy for this project.

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz
Director, Center for Intercultural Dialogue
intercult.dialogue AT gmail.com

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The Center for Intercultural Dialogue held 3 focus groups as part of the UNESCO Futures of Education Initiative, January 28, 29, and 30, 2021.

Thanks first to Nazan Haydari, member of the CID Advisory Board, who who served as moderator of one of the groups, and organized the technology through Istanbul Bilgi University.

Thanks next to all of the participants for all of their ideas. They included: Evangelos Afendras (Greece), Chukwuemeka Amajo (Nigeria), Diana Bebenova-Nikolova (Bulgaria), Giovanna Carloni (Italy), Ivett Rita Guntersdorfer (Germany), Mohammed Guamguami (Morocco), Maria Hussain (UK), Teresa Joseph (India), Emilija Jovanovska (USA/Macedonia), Lasana Kazembe (USA), Sergei Kladko (Russia), Maura Di Mauro (Italy), Katrien Mertens (Belgium), Isabel Mohedano Sohm (Spain), M. L. Papusa Molina (Mexico), Maja Nenadovic (Netherlands), Sushil Oswal (USA), Chris Peltier (France), Anne-Nelly Perret-Clermont (Switzerland), Yehuda Silverman (Canada/USA), and Arianna Vettorazzi (Netherlands/Italy).

The report synthesizing our discussions will be completed, submitted to UNESCO, and posted to this site shortly. [update: now posted here]

For everyone else with an interest in the topic but who was unable to respond quickly enough to participate, in addition to the relevant publications posted previously, UNESCO has now offered several additional possibilities:

Passive participation: you may follow the developments on their website, as they post updates.

Active engagement: there are several possibilities:

• Take the 1-minute survey on the top 3 challenges and purposes of education
• Write your thoughts on what they see as the one major issue for the futures of education (max 1000 words).
• Submit an original artwork of what education might look like in 2050.

Update, UNESCO Futures of Education focus groups organized by the Center for Intercultural Dialogue.

 

First, thanks to all those who immediately responded to last week’s invitation by saying they want to participate in a focus group on this topic, and contribute ideas to the UNESCO Commission. Participation is now closed, and we’re actively organizing to hold multiple focus groups, as a way to include as many people as possible. (UNESCO requested one focus group; we’ll be giving them three.)

Second, thanks to Nazan Haydari, member of the CID Advisory Board, who has agreed to serve as one of the focus group leaders. The other two will be led by Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, CID Director. [update: final report now posted here]

For everyone else with an interest in the topic but who was unable to respond quickly enough to participate, the following are relevant materials to read.

Publications on education produced by prior UNESCO Commissions, which serve as the background for this one:

Faure, E., et al. (1972). Learning to be: The world of education today and tomorrow. Paris: UNESCO.

Delors, J. (1996). Learning: The treasure within; report to UNESCO of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century. Paris: UNESCO.

Elfert, M. (2015). Learning to live together: Revisiting the humanism of the Delors report. Education Research and Foresight Working Papers, 12.

UNESCO. (2015). Rethinking education: Towards a global common good? Paris: UNESCO.

Materials already produced by the current Commission:

UNESCO. (2020). Visioning and framing the Futures of Education. Paris: UNESCO.

UNESCO. (2020). Education in a post-COVID world: Nine ideas for public action. Paris: UNESCO.

If you are interested in participating in a cooperative CID-UNESCO focus group on the role of intercultural dialogue in the futures of education, then please read the following and send an email immediately as this event will be scheduled for late January at a mutually convenient day/time. We cannot guarantee participation, as this will be a small group, but you will also be able to organize your own event if so desired. There will only be one meeting, and then a report of the discussion sent in to UNESCO. 

UPDATE: Several focus groups are now full, thanks to the many responses – more details to be posted shortly as there are results to report. [Second update: the final report is now posted here]

UNESCO’s Futures of Education initiative is an ambitious attempt to rethink education and help shape the future. The initiative is catalyzing a global debate on how education, learning and knowledge need to be re-imagined in a world of increasing complexity, uncertainty, and precarity.

As part of this initiative, UNESCO has appointed a high-level International Commission of thought leaders with diverse expertise and perspectives from the worlds of politics, academia, the arts, science and business. The International Commission will prepare a report, to be released in November 2021, that will provide an agenda for action and discussion by policymakers and practitioners.

The report of the International Commission will emerge out of a range of work modalities that emphasize co-creation, a broad participatory and partnership structure, the inclusion of diverse perspectives, and the absence of pre-specified conclusions. Towards this end, UNESCO is encouraging individuals, organizations and networks to organize focus group discussions with their constituencies, inputs from which will feed into to the Commission’s work.

The objective of these consultations is to generate a set of diverse perspectives on the challenges and opportunities for education and learning that can be both anticipated/predicted and imagined/envisioned when looking towards the year 2050. Rethinking as well as fully reimagining the way we live together are key dimensions explored by UNESCO; this is why the Center for Intercultural Dialogue has been approached to mobilize its members in the organization of a focus group discussion. Please send an email asap if you wish to participate!