Sub-Regional Workshop on Global Citizenship Education in Southeast Asia: A Way to Secure Peaceful and Sustainable in Southeast Asia

A three-day Global Citizenship Education (GCED) workshop was conducted by the SEAMEO Secretariat in partnership with the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Center for Education for International Understanding (APCEIU). GCED was stressed during the workshop as an integral component of SDG4.7. This programme was built to provide a forum for educators and policy practitioners to interact and learn about the importance of GCED and improve their ability to adapt transformational educational measures.

Southeast Asia's GCED policies and practices were examined, and the educators were trained with SDG4.7 and GCED knowledge and skills. The workshop covered an outline of GCED core concepts and values, discussion of key issues surrounding GCED in the field, the implementation of innovative pedagogies, a demonstration of good practice in GCED, evaluating country-by-country GCED approaches, and identifying places for future collaboration across and beyond Southeast Asia.

A total of seventeen participants from nine Southeast Asian nations (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) actively participated during the sessions delivered by SEAMEO Secretariat, UNESCO APCEIU and UNESCO Bangkok. The workshop included some lectures and discussions on the following issues: a qualitative study of GCED in southeast Asia, visualization of GCED-related teacher training programs, and creating a regional Action Plan on GCED inclusion in teacher education and other education policies. The workshop also included a set of country presentations.

The 3-day Global Citizenship Education (GCED) workshop allowed the participants to learn from the experts, discuss proposed projects or ideas, and plan potential events for the future. The feedback from transformational learning practitioners, an overview of GCED in each nation, and an action plan that was generated at the end of the workshop demonstrated the effectiveness of the workshops. All participants expressed their view that the workshop was meaningful and successful.

Next, what do we want to do?

We learned from the workshops that the condition of global citizenship education (GCED) in Southeast Asia is both exciting and demanding. The countries represented in this workshop have verified the potential and the real action for the implementation of GCED into education. This offers a promising way of promoting a peaceful life for people in the region. Finally, the Workshop has identified challenges faced by the region, such as building strong national networks to support and improve GCED.

In response to this, SEAMEO Secretariat and UNESCO APCEIU will facilitate GCED study and policy growth (GCED) by (1) mapping the GCED practices in Southeast Asia, (2) encourage research and policy development related to GCED, and (3) strengthen coordination and strategic partnership of the GCED in Southeast Asia and beyond.