Transformative Education

(Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship Education)

Education has the power to transform lives. It is essential to reshape our relation with the human kind and the planet.

Transformative Education contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), and makes part of the SDG Target 4.7 on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Global Citizenship Education (GCED).

Transformative Education (ESD and GCED together), is an element of quality education and a crucial enabler for sustainable development. It empowers learners of all ages with the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes to address the interconnected global challenges we are facing, including climate change, environmental degradation, loss of biodiversity, poverty and inequality. It builds a sense of belonging to a common humanity and help them become responsible and active global citizens in building inclusive, peaceful and sustainable societies.

Transformative Education is a life-long process and need to be mainstreamed at all ages. Everybody can promote its values, through education, family, friends, the media and much more. This is done by developing learners’ knowledge about local and global facts, realities and issues, by developing soft skills such as empathy and appreciation of diversity, but also by providing learners with skills to be able to take concrete actions to act towards building more inclusive, peaceful and sustainable societies.

These soft skills also allow young people to be better suited to integrate the labour market, where skills such as being able to efficiently working with others, understanding complex issues and situations, working in a multicultural environment, being empathetic and result-oriented are increasingly required.

Arab world - diversity

What we are doing in the Arab region

Reinforcing capacities of teachers

Teachers are at the forefront of education and are the most powerful element to convey Transformative Education for a generation that can transform our relation with the human kind and the planet.

UNESCO has developed online training courses for teachers and educators in the Arab region, available on the Kodrat learning portal (https://kodrat-unescoregional.com/)

 

Fostering Higher Education Institutions’ contribution to Transformative Education

According to a UNESCO research, 100% of Arab universities are committed to GCED values; however, more needs to be done for those to be effectively transmitted to students. Universities are prominent actors in mainstreaming ESD and GCED values and skills. They often are the institutions in charge of training future teachers, curricula and textbook developers, and education policy-makers, who need to have the knowledge and skills to promote GCED throughout their careers. In addition, universities also have the ability to reach out to large numbers of young people who are at a critical age and are developing their sense of who they are, what role they want to play in their communities, and how they can take concrete action to change things and build better societies. 

Through the publications below, discover how Arab universities and teacher training institutions can do more to promote Transformative Education.

Promoting global citizenship education in Arab universities: A regional outlook
Promoting global citizenship education in Arab universities: Proposals for action

Promoting Transformative Education through the arts

 

For Transformative Education to be effective and lead learners to be effective actors for positive change, theory is not enough. Experiential learning, or learning by doing, are key elements to make learners become aware of situations and their complexities, as well as the needs for change; and develop soft skills for meaningful engagement, such as working in teams, think critically, communicate through different means and much more. All these skills help them become active citizens and be better suited to live and work in complex societies and environments.

The arts and culture are an excellent way to put GCED theory into practice. Arts and culture allow to talk about complex topics, while using a variety of forms of expression.

Terdad Youth
ESDnet-webinar-series-visual
Higher education

Global citizenship education

Education for Sustainable Development

Education for sustainable development