Clearinghouse on Global Citizenship Education

Utak Chung
Asia-Pacific Centre of Education
for International Understanding (APCEIU)
Republic of Korea

 

 

 

Abstract – The amount of data on various aspects of Global Citizenship Education is quite staggering. In order to follow the debate and the various regional development paths, some order is called for. This is the rationale of the “UNESCO Clearinghouse on Global Citizenship Education Hosted by APCEIU”.  


 
UNESCO’s previous experiences with HIV and health related education databases led to the belief that it would be more useful and effective to have one online database hub from the very start of the Global Citizenship Education (GCED) initiative. Coupled with the growing demands of UNESCO Member States for resources on GCED information across the globe, UNESCO Headquarters invited the APCEIU to co-develop an online resource hub. This launched the Clearinghouse on GCED. The result is an easy-to-access online platform which plays a pivotal role in enabling users to locate and use needed materials.

As a leading GCED think-tank, APCEIU has developed policies and curricula, and implemented various research and training programmes on GCED within the Asia-Pacific region and beyond. APCEIU has also developed and disseminated educational materials on GCED in diverse languages to UNESCO partners and its Member States.

Information hub on GCED

The GCED Clearinghouse (www.gcedclearinghouse.org) is an information hub where people can find various GCED materials in an organised and clear manner. There is a wide range of information produced by international organisations, such as UN and UNESCO declarations and recommendations, policy papers and guidelines, conference proceedings and reports, scholarly articles, and teaching and learning materials. Although the Clearinghouse mainly serves as an online database for GCED resources, it also introduces up-todate news and events on GCED around the world and provides a list of organisations and programmes which might be of interest to users. 

 

The Clearinghouse provides various resources on Global Citizenship Education
from all over the world

The Clearinghouse database basically follows an online library style, but provides a list of categories far more detailed and focused than conventional libraries. Since the Clearinghouse is equipped with a highly subdivided and sophisticated search engine, users can easily refine their searches not only by typing in basic information such as title, author, year of publication, and keywords, but also by using advanced categories such as region/country, language, resource type, format, theme, and level of education. For instance, the user can learn about the main thematic areas of GCED by navigating the site with the category “theme”, which on its own can be subcategorised into sustainable development, international understanding, globalisation, inclusiveness, peace, and much more.

Challenges for the clearinghouse

Currently, the Clearinghouse site is offered only in English. However, this does not limit works in other languages from being uploaded. When they are, titles in their original languages are provided along with the translated English titles. APCEIU and UNESCO Headquarters now plan to expand the number of languages of the Clearinghouse website to other languages, starting with a French version in the foreseeable future.

Another important challenge for the Clearinghouse is to establish a more extensive network with reliable organisations and individuals in regions and countries around the world. In this way, resources, stories, and good practices from every corner of the globe can be collected in a fair, reliable, and balanced manner. This is the top priority for the second development phase of the Clearinghouse database.

Enhancing quality and quantity

The GCED Clearinghouse is approaching its second phase of development. The priorities are: increasing the quantity of the database, achieving regional balance, finding more good practices, promoting the Clearinghouse to a wider range of potential users, and developing other language versions. In order to make these a reality, multiple steps have been taken. One of them was to prepare to set up a systematic and formal collaboration network with key organisations in every region of the world for a strong working framework to make worldwide contributions available on the Clearinghouse database.

From the beginning of 2015 at the 2nd UNESCO Forum on GCED, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova highlighted the importance of the Clearinghouse in basing the concept of GCED in practice, laying the foundations for promoting GCED agendas, and building new partnerships for action. It is our heartfelt wish that the Clearinghouse continues to play a role as an information hub, fostering global citizenship around the world.

This article is based on the original article published in Issue No. 42, SangSaeng, APCEIU.


About the author

Dr Chung Utak is the Director of the Asia-Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding (APCEIU), in the Republic of Korea. He is a member of the Korean Committee of Education for the Future. Prior to this, he served as Assistant Secretary General and Director of Strategic Programs Divisions at the Korean National Commission for UNESCO.

Contact
(152-838) UNESCO APCEIU
120, Saemal-ro, Guro-gu, Seoul
Republic of Korea
www.unescoapceiu.org
www.gcedclearinghouse.org
utchung@unescoapceiu.org

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