Sharing Civic Experience: NGOs and Global Citizenship Education, in Hsinchu, in Taiwan, 22-25 August 2017

Libby Giles, Adrian MACEY, August 2017

This conference was organised by the Global CItizenship Education Centre, National Chiao Tung University (NCTU) in association with the Paulo Freire Institute, UCLA, New Zealand Centre for Global Studies (NZCGS), and NCTU.

Dr Adrian Macey and Libby Giles were invited in our NZCGS capacity to join about 50 NGO participants predominantly from the Asian region at an interactive conference on ‘Global Citizenship Education’.

The conference was well supported and organised and the participants had a great deal to offer and share with each other. Their presentations on climate change and education, with responsibility as the focus, generated much interest and we were able to establish ongoing connections.

Take home highlights of the visit are that our links with the NCTU Centre have strengthened and proving useful in developing global citizenship education programmes and beyond.

Further work is likely with interest in more cooperation and very good support for a responsibility focus.

Dr Adrian Macey and Libby Giles had the privilege of being invited to Wesley Girls School in Taipei, an independent school that is rolling out a comprehensive, whole school approach Global Citizenship initiative. It was impressive to see the commitment being made to the programmes by the school’s principal and lead teachers. Libby Giles was taken by the ease with which the philosophical ideas are transcending traditional learning areas. There is no set model for the delivery of global citizenship education and there is much to gain through collaboration and sharing.

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