Progress on Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship Education
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Progress on Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship Education Findings of the 6th Consultation on the implementation of the 1974 Recommendation concerning Education for International Understanding, Co-operation and Peace and Education relating to Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (2012-2016) UNESCO Education Sector The Global Education 2030 Agenda Education is UNESCO’s top priority because UNESCO, as the United Nations’ specialized it is a basic human right and the foundation agency for education, is entrusted to lead and on which to build peace and drive sustainable coordinate the Education 2030 Agenda, which is development. UNESCO is the United Nations’ part of a global movement to eradicate poverty specialized agency for education and the through 17 Sustainable Development Goals by Education Sector provides global and 2030. Education, essential to achieve all of these regional leadership in education, strengthens goals, has its own dedicated Goal 4, which aims to national education systems and responds “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education to contemporary global challenges through and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.” education with a special focus on gender The Education 2030 Framework for Action provides equality and Africa. guidance for the implementation of this ambitious goal and commitments. Published in 2018 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization 7, place de Fontenoy, 75352 Paris 07 SP, France Section of Education for Sustainable Development Education Sector UNESCO © UNESCO 2018 Some rights reserved. This publication is available in Open Access under the Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO licence (CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo). By using the content of this publication, the users accept to be bound by the terms of use of the UNESCO Open Access Repository (http://www.unesco.org/open-access/terms-use-ccbysa-en). The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The ideas and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors; they are not necessarily those of UNESCO and do not commit the Organization. Cover photo: Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock.com Designed by Anna Mortreux Printed by UNESCO Printed in France CLD 1972.18 ED-2018/ws/71 Overview of the findings Table of contents 1. Implementation of the Guiding Principles I. Introduction 2 of the 1974 Recommendation is improving, with notable regional variations. II. Background 2 2. The Guiding Principles of the 1974 III. Findings 4 Recommendation are reflected in the constitution, domestic legislation or education policy of most countries. IV. Conclusion 12 3. Nearly all countries’ curricula include the Guiding Principles of the 1974 Recommendation, with relatively less attention paid to Cultural Diversity and Tolerance. Acknowledgements 4. Most countries take a cross-curriculum approach to teaching the Guiding Principles The preparation of the present document would not of the 1974 Recommendation, with a focus have been possible without the valuable contributions on Civics/Citizenship, Social Studies, and from the Member States and their Education Ministries. History. UNESCO would like to acknowledge their support and thank them for their time and effort. 5. Most countries regard teaching hours The preparation of this document relied on invaluable for the Guiding Principles of the 1974 work conducted by Bryony Hoskins and Lanora Diana Recommendation as moderately sufficient, Callahan, University of Roehampton, United Kingdom, and seem satisfied with teaching materials. who analysed the data submitted by Member States and created graphs to illustrate the analysis. 6. Learner-centred pedagogical approaches are the most popular. The results of the analysis have been reviewed and shaped into the current document by the Division 7. Insufficient teacher training remains a for Peace and Sustainable Development in UNESCO’s stumbling block. Education Sector. Acknowledgement goes to the Director of the Division, Soo-Hyang Choi, and her staff, 8. More countries include the Guiding including, among others, Alexander Leicht, Dov Lynch, Principles of the 1974 Recommendation in Christopher Castle, Lydia Ruprecht and Hoda Jaberian. student assessment, with still insufficient Technical support was also provided by Manos Antoninis, Director, UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report, attention to assessment of values and who reviewed the document and provided comments. attitudes as well as behaviours. 9. The Guiding Principles of the 1974 Recommendation are included in programmes outside formal education, but there is room for progress. 10. New initiatives and political priorities are the most common enabling factors; lack of resources is the greatest obstacle. 1 Progress on Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship Education I. Introduction “The Recommendation concerning The findings of the 6th Consultation BOX 1 Target 4.7 Education for International provide important insight into how Understanding, Co-operation and Peace Member States are implementing By 2030, ensure all learners and Education relating to Human Rights the 1974 Recommendation as well acquire knowledge and skills and Fundamental Freedoms” was adopted as how they are progressing towards needed to promote sustainable by UNESCO’s General Conference at its Target 4.7 of Sustainable Development development, including among 18th session in 1974 (hereafter the 1974 Goal 4 on Education. Target 4.7 others through education Recommendation). Every four years, concerns Education for Sustainable for sustainable development Member States report to UNESCO on Development and Global Citizenship measures taken to implement the 1974 Education, which are closely related and sustainable lifestyles, Recommendation in pre-primary, primary, to the 1974 Recommendation human rights, gender equality, secondary and post-secondary/tertiary (Box 1). Supporting Member States promotion of a culture of education. This document summarizes in implementing Target 4.7 is a peace and non-violence, global and analyses the main findings of the 6th UNESCO priority and essential to citizenship, and appreciation of Consultation on the implementation of progress across the 2030 Agenda for cultural diversity and of culture’s the 1974 Recommendation (hereafter the Sustainable Development. contribution to sustainable 1 6th Consultation), covering the period of development. 2012 to 2016. II. Background Revised questionnaire Member States reported on a questionnaire sent by the UNESCO Director-General. The questionnaire conceptualises the content of the 1974 Recommendation into four Guiding Principles and related Topics (Table 1).2 TABLE 1 Guiding Principles and related Topics of the 1974 Recommendation GUIDING PRINCIPLES TOPICS Cultural Diversity and Tolerance International understanding, solidarity, and cooperation Intercultural and interreligious dialogue Global citizenship Peace and Non-violence Friendly relations among nations Preventing violent extremism Preventing other forms of violence, including bullying and gender-based violence Human Rights and Fundamental Equality, inclusion, and non-discrimination Freedoms Justice and fairness Ethics, morals, and values Human Survival and Well-being Climate change Environmental sustainability, caring for the planet Sustainable development, consumption, and livelihood 2 Progress on Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship Education For the 6th Consultation, revisions were made to the BOX 2 questionnaire used in previous consultations in order The global indicator for Target 4.7 is: to address the concerns of Target 4.7 of Sustainable Development Goal 4 on Education, for which global indicator “Extent to which (i) global citizenship education (Box 2) the questionnaire is the official survey tool. The revised and (ii) education for sustainable development, questionnaire was designed to provide a basis to review including gender equality and human rights, how the 1974 Recommendation was reflected in countries’ education policy, curriculum, teacher education and student are mainstreamed in (i) national education assessment, as aspects concerned by the global indicator. policies, (ii) curricula, (iii) teacher education and (iv) student assessment.” In addition, in order to facilitate reporting by Member States, multiple-choice questions were introduced, along with (Approved by UN General Assembly Resolution fewer open-ended questions, to make it possible to quantify A/RES/71/313) reporting data and allow cross-national and cross-regional comparisons. Figure 1 Higher response rate Countries participating in the 4th (2008), 5th (2012) For the 6th Consultation, 83 out of 195 Member States and 6th (2016) Consultation (in %) responded, a response rate of 43%.3 This was an increase of 46% from the 29% response rate of the 5th Consultation that ran in 2012, when 57 countries responded. The increase was 2008 2012 2016 observed in all regions except Africa (Figure 1). 70% 60% 62 50% 45 43 42 40% 40 32 34 32 30% 29 28 27 27 22 21 20% 19 15 10% 11 11 0% Globally Africa Arab States Asia and Europe and Latin America the Pacic North America and the Caribbean Monde ; Afrique ; États arabes ; Asie