UNESCO CHAIR

GloCo - Global Campus online

The project

The “Global Campus Online” (GloCo) is an international teaching-learning hub for students, researchers, professionals, and stakeholders from different world regions, who are dedicated to tackling the pressing issues of the 21st century. The heart of the project is a network of international dialogue groups that regularly meet to discuss the global crises and challenges and their implications for global and transformative education. These groups are formed by participants from different countries in the global south and the global north, who bring together their unique perspectives, professional backgrounds and experiences in the discussion of local perspectives on global problems and transdisciplinary, transnational solution approaches. In a next step, we encourage the dialogue groups to use the exchange and network to create local initiatives and projects in relation to the discussed topics. Possible projects will be financially supported by the UNESCO Chair.

Overall, the project aims to foster a mutual learning process and exchange between its participants, who then in turn serve as multipliers in their respective communities. Ideally this process will also inspire and support the development of different learning opportunities and formats for transformative learning and Global Citizenship Education, best practice examples and local initiatives as well as related scientific contributions and publications.

Our goals

Within the project, we aim to:

Explore possibilities of action for change
Develop different teaching-learning settings and delivery formats for transformative education
Support related local initiatives and projects (through educational platform, exchange, network, support in planning and execution, possible funding)
Impart praxis-oriented, creative methods for dealing with the topics, for example through theatre, rap/poetry or photography
Accompany and document the working and learning processes in the dialogue groups to have a basis for strengthening transformative learning methods in the scientific discourse and to make them accessible for institutional and political action
Contribute to the curricular strengthening and dissemination of Global Citizenship Education as an important educational perspective
Foster a dialogue between different approaches to Global Citizenship Education and worldviews in general, in the hope of actively counteracting the domination of the westernized, neo-colonial perspective.

The project activities

Regular meetings of dialogue groups in a digital space, to
- discuss current issues of global interest and negotiate common goals
- discuss strategies for local action in relation to these objectives
3 Transnational meetings with international guest speakers and room for exchange between the different dialogue groups; virtual closing conference
The identification and participatory involvement of stakeholders who are necessary for further steps
The support of the development of participatory local projects, to test the discussed strategies and to document the process with simple methods of action research
Online events with international guest lectures and presentations in relation to the key issues
Social media and online activities, as well as a scientific blog

And further,

The reflection, evaluation and documentation of the teaching-learning processes happening
The sharpening of existing curricula and the development of 3 new modules for Global Citizenship Education
The issuing of a publication with the project outcomes and a joint handbook with best practice examples, theoretical reflections, dossiers and the new modules
A digital learning platform as a place for discussion and exchange, not least of resources and best practices as a way to support a strong network of people from all over the world who are all dedicated to common goals

Funding of local projects

One of the key activities of GloCo are the local participatory projects. The UNESCO Chair will be able to financially support a number of local initiatives that are developed within the course of the project. Furthermore, the team of the UNESCO Chair is available to support the planning and execution of the initiatives.

Theoretical framework and background

Global Citizenship Education

Global Citizenship Education is an educational concept that aims to support young people in their development as self-determined, empathetic and responsible members of the global community. Thematically, various topics such as environmental and climate issues, sustainability, injustice, power relations, racism and gender are being approached from a critical perspective. Methodologically, GCED works with participatory, transformative and reflexive methods, taking into account the individual perspectives of each member in a learning community. The concepts pillars are approaches such as postcolonial theory, global justice, human rights, intersectionality, ecological and global responsibility and a pedagogy of empowerment.

We see Global Citizenship Education as crucial to tackling the major challenges of the globalized world, but it still needs to be sharpened in terms of content and didactics on one hand, and on the other hand, measures to anchor it in educational structures and educational offers. The GloCo project wants to contribute to deepening Global Citizenship Education theoretically and methodologically through the exchange of experiences in different countries, but at the same time to develop strategies for a stronger curricular anchoring. The concrete goal is to develop curricular modules for Global Citizenship Education that are flexible enough to consider different national and regional conditions and form the basis for a global curriculum for learning for global citizenship.

The SGD’s

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) are the main point of „The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development“, adopted by all Member States of the United Nations on the UN Sustainable Development Summit in New York in September 2015.

The SDG’s are a follow up of the Agenda 21 and the Millennium Development Goals to end poverty and other deprivations [e1] [C2] as well as developing strategies to improve health and education, reduce inequality, spur economic growth, dealing with climate change and preserving oceans and forests.

There are 17 SDG’s:

No Poverty
Zero hunger
Good health and well-being
Quality education
Gender equality
Clean water and sanitation
Affordable and clean energy
Decent work and economic growth
Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Reduced inequalities
Sustainable cities and communities
Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
Climate action
Life below water
Life on land
Peace, justice and strong institutions
Partnerships for the goals

Source: Homepage United nations; URL: https://sdgs.un.org/goals [1.1.2022]

The project is particularly contributing to the achievement of SDG’s number 4, 10 and 17.

Information for potential participants

The dialogue groups

The dialogue groups will be hosted by the team of the UNESCO Chair of Klagenfurt University and aim to not only discuss topics with global relevance, but to develop, refine and discuss ideas for local or regional projects related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) and/or transformative, global education.

The group members should be interested to actively participate in local transformation processes. They should be willing to use shared knowledge to initialize projects of any kind. The goal is to connect people from the global north and the global south with different professional backgrounds, such as scientists and experts from different fields, educators, students, activists and artists, so that they can learn and benefit from each other’s knowledge, settings and backgrounds.

The groups will work autonomously in their local surroundings but be in regular contact and exchange with other groups/members and the project team. The composition of the group members can vary, but should reflect the diversity of society in terms of gender, minorities, social/economic status etc.

The meetings

Within the meetings, the groups will take advantage of the mutual learning process to develop ideas for local projects with the goal to tackle challenges in the communities of the group members. The implementation of the projects can be accompanied by the dialogue groups and group members are also invited to present their ideas or projects with their experiences or troubles to open discussion and exchange about possible solutions, forms of adaptation for other regions or the development of further projects.

With this global online campus, we aim to provide a creative space where the group members can inspire as well as support each other in various settings. Besides offering a shared space for discussion and exchange, we will also introduce methods for collaborative online work that integrate visual, acoustic or even performative aspects to foster an inviting learning space.

The group meetings are planned to last about two hours with a short break in between. The meetings start with a welcoming warm-up and the joint setting of the agenda, followed by presentations on relevant topics or projects. Afterwards there will be the possibility to discuss and exchange ideas and opinions in groups of different sizes. After the break will be time for collaborative work, collecting outcomes and learning points and discussing plans for the next meeting.