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Rethinking Schooling for the 21st Century

UNESCO MGIEP officially launched 'Rethinking Schooling for the 21st Century: The State of Education, Peace and Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship' in 2017 at the UNESCO General Conference. This study analyses how far the ideals of SDG 4.7 are embodied in policies and curricula across 22 Asian countries and establishes benchmarks against which future progress can be assessed. It also argues forcefully that we must redefine the purposes of schooling, addressing the fundamental challenges to efforts to promote peace, sustainability and global citizenship through education.

UNESCO MGIEP officially launched 'Rethinking Schooling for the 21st Century: The State of Education, Peace and Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship' in 2017 at the UNESCO General Conference. This study analyses how far the ideals of SDG 4.7 are embodied in policies and curricula across 22 Asian countries and establishes benchmarks against which future progress can be assessed. It also argues forcefully that we must redefine the purposes of schooling, addressing the fundamental challenges to efforts to promote peace, sustainability and global citizenship through education.

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Trend 1:<br />

Peace and global citizenship are largely absent from education<br />

policy and curriculum<br />

Many concepts embedded in SDG Target 4.7, especially those associated with<br />

peace and global citizenship, are largely absent from national education policy<br />

and curricular documents in Asia (see Appendices II-5-10). It is likely that some<br />

concepts such as global citizenship are yet to be assimilated to <strong>the</strong> lexicons<br />

of major languages in Asia. O<strong>the</strong>r concepts may be ignored or de-emphasised<br />

because <strong>the</strong>y are viewed as largely irrelevant or incompatible with national goals<br />

and priorities.<br />

a. Under <strong>the</strong> category ‘interconnectedness,’ which has a strong association<br />

with education <strong>for</strong> global citizenship, <strong>the</strong> coding data <strong>for</strong> two sub-categories<br />

‘multiculturalism’ and ‘migration’ provide a particularly telling illustration<br />

of national trends. The concept ‘multiculturalism’ is completely absent in<br />

a number of monolingual countries covered here: Bangladesh, Cambodia,<br />

Mongolia and Viet Nam. (A ‘monolingual country’ is defined here as a country<br />

with only one official language.) Multiculturalism, however, is included in<br />

policy and curricular documents of some monolingual countries such as<br />

Japan and Korea. This can perhaps be attributed to <strong>the</strong> fact that, although<br />

Japan and Korea are linguistically and ethnically relatively homogeneous<br />

Figure 2.2 The prevalence of <strong>the</strong> concept ‘conflict resolution’<br />

Countries ranking lower in <strong>the</strong> Global Peace Index tend to cover ‘conflict resolution’<br />

more widely in education policy and curriculum.<br />

But <strong>the</strong> absence of references to <strong>the</strong> concept was observed in countries ranking low in<br />

<strong>the</strong> GPI as well. Some countries (such as Japan, Korea and Central Asian countries) are<br />

rated peaceful in <strong>the</strong> GPI and also cover <strong>the</strong> concept widely.<br />

Global Peace Index (GPI) (2015)<br />

Conflict resolution (sub-category 6c)<br />

Very High High Moderate Low Very Low<br />

Prevalence<br />

Very High High Moderate Low Absent<br />

Source: Institute <strong>for</strong> Economics and Peace. 2017. Global Peace Index 2017.<br />

http://visionofhumanity.org/app/uploads/2017/06/GPI17-Report.pdf (Accessed 29 September 2017).<br />

46<br />

Chapter 2: Key Findings and Insights

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