UNESCO Launch of Publication on Global Citizenship Education Paris, - PDF document

UNESCO Launch of Publication on ‘Global Citizenship Education’ Paris, 16 May 2014 11:00- 13:00 Room IV, UNESCO HQ Cordula Wohlmuther, University of Klagenfurt, Centre for Peace Research and Peace Education, Austria Global Citizenship Education (GCE) - Innovative Approaches and Experiences of Austria Dear Chair, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Colleagues, First of all I wish to thank the organizers for this kind invitation to the launch of the publication on GCE and for the opportunity to share some experiences from Austria. But before doing so let me briefly congratulate all the experts that were involved in the making of this outstanding publication. It is a rich paper that shows a multi-faceted presentation of GCE, and considers and highlights experiences of different countries and various currents. It does not hide controversies and contradictory positions within the educational community but describes openly ongoing tensions. And it shows that we are still challenged and that lots of work and efforts are needed in order to further and to advance its concept and its subsequent implementation in our globalised world. Based on this I wish to share with you two practical experiences and one innovative approach from Austria in the hope to contribute to this endeavour. For the first example we need to briefly look into the European context, in particular into Global Education (GE) efforts. GE is not only a specific approach, but also a movement of educators. Several institutions, such as the Global Education Network Europe (GENE), or the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe have produced important documents, such as the Maastricht Declaration in 2002, and brochures and curricula on this topic. In Austria, as a result of this Maastricht Declaration, in which global learning was presented as a new educational concept, a strategic group on Global Learning consisting of representatives of various Ministries, the civil society, teachers, but also the Austrian Development Agency, was established in 2003. As a result of a peer review in 2005 by the North-South Centre on GE in Austria, recommendations for furthering it were elaborated. One of these recommendations included to develop a national strategy. Based on this the

strategic group elaborated such a national strategy in 2009, the so called ‘N ational Strategy for Global Learning for the Formal Education’ . Today Global Learning is a well-accepted and broadly used element in the Austrian school system. It is supported by a range of committed organizations with many initiatives, projects and activities in the formal and non-formal education sector. This particular example highlights (once again) how important an impulse from the outside world, from a regional, supra-regional or international body, can be in order to further stimulate the development and subsequent implementation of new educational concepts. The second example is a three years Masters on GCE that was developed in 2012 by the University of Klagenfurt and its Centre for Peace Research and Peace Education. In the understanding that teachers, who have to act as multipliers for supporting (young) learners and society , need specific competencies and instruments the masters course unites Citizenship education, peace education, intercultural education and global learning to an integrative concept. This course is financed by the Austrian Ministry of Education, the Austrian Development Agency and the University of Klagenfurt. Currently efforts are undertaken to include aspects of this Masters course as an obligatory part in the ongoing teachers- education reform, as well as to become a point of discussion in the existing strategic group of Global Learning. As an integral part of this master course a study trip to a conflict region was organized, where the students before and after their journey were discussing different issues of the conflict, but also about what had happened to themselves during and after the trip and if their perception had changed concerning the conflict and the people living there. And this particular aspect, Ladies and Gentlemen, brings me to an innovative aspect of GCE . We see tourism as a form of GCE, in particular when it is organized in such politically sensitive way that we choose the destination carefully, look responsibly who gains from it and also ensure that it brings about personal impacts and developed empathies towards the ones suffering from the conflicts. In this context I wish to refer to the recently launched International Handbook on Tourism and Peace that was published by the Centre for Peace Research and Peace Edcucation of the University of Klagenfurt in cooperation with the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). Tourism as the largest service industry in the world, responsible for the largest movements of people during peacetime with more than 1,3 billion international arrivals last year, 5% of worlds GDP and every 12 jobs in this field, it affects virtually every region and nation of the world. That is why tourism has the potential to be a powerful social force, capable of instigating positive social, political and environmental change. Of course, academic studies of tourism are very often the domain of management schools where tourism is designed as a ‘leisure industry’ and analysed only according to cost effectiveness. But we believe that there is room, even justification for much more. A pedagogy that also includes peace, human rights and social justice and thus makes it interdisciplinary. Tourism usually involves the pleasure pursuits of the worlds privileged but is seldom discussed in the context of human rights, conflict resolution, justice and peace.

Therefore we wish to stress that developing a greater understanding of how tourism can be harnessed to achieve important humanitarian goals of peace, justice and the attainment of human rights should be the cornerstone of a pedagogy for peace through tourism and thus also be seen as a potential tool in the GCE domain. Having presented these examples I hope that it will help in the further discussions on further advancing the global GCE process that still bears so many challenges. Challenges , Ladies and Gentlemen, that all of us, as global citizens that we claim to be, should reflect upon critically. Challenges, that also look into the need for a thinking of a world-democracy and its possibilities, but also necessary structural changes that enable GCE inclusion in school systems. Also, critically seen from a Western European standpoint, we shall ensure to avoid any risk that the noble aim of GCE be used as a new ‘civilising mission’ or an educational form of ‘neo-colonialism’. We have to bear in mind that Europe (the West) and European education has still to work seriously and systematically on three “burdens”: the colonial past; Auschwitz; and Hiroshima. It is in this spirit that the young Canadian researcher, Vanessa Andreotti proposes a critical global citizenship approach, addressing issues of inequality and injustice, and aiming at empowering “individuals to reflect critically on the legacies and processes of their cultures, to imagine different futures and to take responsibility for decisions and actions.” Thank you!