AFS as a Key Actor in Global Citizenship Education
The mission for the AFS Global Symposium and the momentum for AFS going forward is to drive the global citizenship education movement to reach and cultivate partners, advocates, influencers, thought leaders and potential global citizens — young and old — especially those living or working in areas of great turmoil.
Melissa Liles, Chief Education Officer of AFS Intercultural Programs.
The AFS Global Intercultural Education Symposium on November 8, 2014, brought together more than 1000 representatives of the AFS Global Community with luminaries in the world of peace and justice at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. This historic event was an important milestone as AFS made a bold statement about the importance of global citizenship education (GCEd) and the key role AFS will play even more in its second century to advance this movement.
With renewed focus and motivation to serve both as thought leaders as well as active practitioners in the GCEd movement, AFS is hard at work to strengthen existing partnerships and create new alliances with relevant actors in the field. We are also sharing our expertise on matters of intercultural learning with the public. The past few months have been very productive. The status of our relationship with UNESCO has been formalized as a consultative partnership. We also launched two inaugural AFS regional symposiums on global citizenship education and intercultural learning. At the same time, we are increasing our collaboration with the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC). And, AFS representatives have been busy speaking at and attending major educational conferences and events around the world. Read on for more details.
AFS and UNESCO in Consultative Partnership
Since April 2015, the AFS worldwide network of organizations is in official partnership with UNESCO, with a consultative status. This important recognition is a validation of our work and an excellent opportunity to take many budding AFS initiatives to the next level of impact by pursuing project-specific alliances with UNESCO, both internationally and at the national level. The official partnership is a privilege for AFS as providers of intercultural education opportunities globally. It is also a responsibility, inspiring us to enhance our commitment to the GCED movement and contribute to other UNESCO initiatives relevant to our mission. Finally, the UNESCO alliance reinforces AFS’s role as an educational organization and advocate for preparing global citizens through intercultural learning and volunteering.
AFS Regional Educational Symposiums in Asia-Pacific and the Caribbean
The AFS-AAI-SIETAR Learning to Live Together — Intercultural Education: From Ideas to Action international conference took place in Bali, Indonesia between 15–17 April 2015 as one of the key regional events marking the AFS’s 100th anniversary. More than 100 academics and practitioners debated the importance of intercultural and global citizenship education in the Asia Pacific region — what it is, how it benefits society, and the role of educators, schools and others can take to advance this movement. This conference was also a best practice example of leadership in the field of intercultural education and continuation of the discussions that started at the AFS Global Intercultural Education Symposium in Paris last November.
AFS Indonesia/Bina Antarbudaya (The Indonesian Foundation for Intercultural Learning) hosted the event, which was co-organized by AFS Intercultural Programs; the AFS Asia Pacific Initiative (AAI); and the Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research (SIETAR) Indonesia under the leadership of the AFS Network Intercultural Learning (ICL) Work Group Member Irid Agoes. More information is available here.
The Regional Education Forum: Intercultural Learning in Latin America: Fostering Global Citizenship through Intercultural Dialogue was organized by AFS member organizations in the Caribbean and Central American region. The forum brought together different social actors from throughout Latin America to discuss their visions for intercultural learning and global citizenship, as well as their efforts to strengthen education in the region. The forum took place on 15–16 June in San Jose, Costa Rica under the patronage of UNESCO. Click here for more information.
AFS Participates in Key Educational Events
A proposal jointly developed by AFS International and AFS USA was accepted for the 2015 Intercultural Management Institute (IMI) Annual Conference at American University in Washington DC. This conference brings together 200+ academics, scholars and practitioners every year and this year’s title was Intercultural Relations: A Forum for Business, Education and Training Professionals. AFS’s session titled Inspiring Curiosity and Fostering Intercultural Competence with Creative Experiential Learning Activities showcased our expertise in providing intercultural learning opportunities to learners of all ages and backgrounds through non-formal and experiential learning activities.
The 2015 NAFSA (Association of International Educators) Annual Conference & Expo in Boston, Massachusetts (U.S.) is one of the key international education events of the year. Professionals from more than 100 countries gathered in Boston to learn, connect and explore new horizons in international education. Representatives of AFS attended the event to establish new connections and reinforce existing relationships with institutions and experts leading intercultural competence assessment. Thanks to the insights gained this year, AFS now has a better understanding of how we can present our unique perspective as a key actor in the global citizenship education movement especially (but not only) at the primary and secondary education levels. It bears mentioning, too, that AFS Netherlands Chairperson Hanneke Tekkens is a NAFSA Senior Fellow for Internationalization and NAFSA Executive Director and CEO Marlene Johnson is a past international trustee for AFS,
Plural+ 2015 Video Contest Showcases Youth Voices on Migration, Social Inclusion and Diversity
The PLURAL+ Youth Video Contest is organized by our friends at the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), along with the International Organization for Migration (IOM). This contest invites the young people around the world to submit original and creative videos focusing on the themes of migration, diversity and social inclusion. This is the third year that AFS is supporting the contest by presenting thePLURAL+ AFS Intercultural Award. Last year, AFS judges had a tough job selecting the best submission (from the entire pool of entries) that satisfies our award’s criteria — demonstrates strong educational and intercultural sensitive content in a truly original way and links to mission and core values of AFS. The 2014 AFS award went to the provocative film from Iran Blue Eyes. PLURAL+ 2015 call for entries closed June 15. Winners will be announced later this year. AFS invites young members of our global community to consider submitting their videos in 2016. We will post the 2016 call for entry and deadlines as soon as this information is available.
