Why Culture and Education?
What is UNESCO’s experience in advancing Culture and Education?
Since its founding, UNESCO has taken steps to promote the arts in general education, building on its wide range of expertise, know-how and networks. The links between culture and education have been emphasized in flagship education and culture world reports, such as the 1972 Faure Report, the 1996 Delors Report and key culture initiatives, including two world conferences on cultural policies held in Mexico in 1982, and in Stockholm in 1998. In 1999, Member States endorsed an appeal made by the Director-General to promote arts education and creativity in schools worldwide. The staunch interest of Member States thus spearheaded two UNESCO world conferences on arts education in 2006 and in 2010, supported by the Governments of Portugal and Republic of Korea, respectively. Their outcomes, the Lisbon Road Map for Arts Education and the Seoul Agenda: Goals for the Development of Arts Education continue to guide policy-makers to this day.
Through its standard-setting instruments, UNESCO has articulated the synergies between culture and education in normative action and policy recommendations. In the field of culture, UNESCO has promoted the learning of heritage, both tangible and intangible, as a way of broadening perspectives and deepening knowledge about history and society, for strengthening heritage protection and transmission, as well as enriching intercultural understanding and the appreciation of cultural diversity. It has engaged education as an engine for developing creativity and talent, and the skills to boost job creation and a flourishing creative economy. In education, UNESCO has engaged cultural dimensions to open up pathways for learners of all ages to access and benefit from quality education that is contextually relevant, and to nurture greater understanding and respect for all cultures, values and ways of life. This work was given fresh impetus with the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015 and the essential role of culture and education in accelerating the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 4 on quality education.
Why is there an urgent need now?
In recent years, the need for stronger synergies between culture and education in UNESCO’s work has been brought to the foreground. As global opportunities and challenges have evolved – from rapid digital transformation, to increasing migration, climate change, conflict and democratic backsliding – the needs of societies have also shifted. The skills, values and behaviours promoted by culture and arts education have become more crucial than ever. UNESCO Member States have called for a closer alliance between culture and education to better respond to today’s global landscape and drive forward more holistic and integrated education approaches. The recent International Commission on the Futures of Education encourages a new social contract for education, which is enriched by a greater diversity of cultural experiences and ways of knowing and being. The recent Final Declaration of the UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development – MONDIACULT 2022 shares this vision for enhanced synergies between culture and education while affirming culture as a global public good. Such approaches also resonate with the United Nations’ system-wide response Our Common Agenda that calls for strengthening the governance of our global commons and global public goods in shaping a more sustainable and peaceful future for people and planet for the next 25 years.
UNESCO has thus embarked on a new chapter of intersectoral collaboration that draws on the resources of both culture and education in integrated actions towards sustaining more inclusive, agile and resilient societies. It lays down common ground for cooperation on how education and culture can be mutually beneficial and supportive, with new initiatives at the intersection of these fields.
How is UNESCO working to address the issue?
Building on a joint vision on how culture and education can be mutually beneficial and supportive, an intersectoral initiative between the Culture and Education Sectors began in 2020, which paved the way for the approval by the 40th session of the UNESCO General Conference in November 2021 of an Intersectoral Programme (IP) 1 on Culture and Education: Learning for Diversity: Strengthening Synergies between Culture and Education for Inclusive, Sustainable and Resilient Societies. The Intersectoral Programme aims to deepen the synergies between culture and education in related UNESCO programmes and activities, to foster an exchange of knowledge, expertise and experience, as well as to enhance learning experiences and outcomes.
This work involves re-articulating education within cultural contexts, strengthening cultural dimensions in a range of education settings, establishing new and broadening partnerships between teaching and learning, as well as exploring innovative pedagogies that develop learners’ capacities to engage responsibly both locally and globally, including persons with disabilities and those in vulnerable situations.
Within this intersectoral activity, UNESCO pilots a range of projects around the world, from quality education and climate change, to social inclusion and freedom of expression.