[APCEIU] Interview with Toh Swee Hin: Importance of Peace Education is not its name, but what one does as an Educator

Dr. Toh conducting an activity at the 2014 Asia-Pacific Teacher’s Workshop organized by APCEIU.

Toh Swee-Hin is Distinguished Professor at the UN mandated University for Peace in Costa Rica. From 2003 to 2009, he was also the founding Director of the Multi-Faith Centre, Griffith University, Australia, a centre that promotes inter-faith dialogue towards a culture of peace. Born in Malaysia and a citizen of Canada and Australia, he has been a high school teacher and taught in Faculties of Education of universities in the interrelated fields of Education for a Culture of Peace, human rights, justice, intercultural understanding, environmental sustainability and interfaith dialogue, as well as sociology of education and education for national development. He has also contributed greatly in the field of education for a culture of peace, working on various projects in Uganda, South Africa, Jamaica, Japan, United States and the Philippines. Dr Toh has also contributed to several international networks and is especially committed to APCEIU as one of the members on the Governing Board and was involved as facilitator in various APCEIU workshops. He was awarded the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education in 2000 in recognition of his efforts towards peace education and peace building. I am extremely honored and grateful to Dr Toh for taking time out of his busy schedule for a skype interview to talk about some of his personal experiences, his thoughts on peace education and some of his motivations in overcoming challenges.

[APCEIU] American Field Service (AFS) Global Intercultural Education Symposium “Learning to Live Together—from Ideas to Act”

The American Field Service (AFS) Global Intercultural Education Symposium “Learning to Live Together—from Ideas to Act” was held on November 8^th in Paris, France. The symposium was granted UNESCO patronage, and was organized by the American Field Service Intercultural Programs, an educational organization focused on intercultural learning opportunities. 1,000 experts and young thought leaders from the fields of education and peace-­building participated in the symposium, which was held as part of the celebrations of the 100^th anniversary of the AFS.

Live chat event with current Underwood International College students!

After a few months of spamming you guys with travelling in Korea and education-related topics, I am finally sharing more about studying in Korea! Hope that you guys don’t mind because I do feel that you can learn more about travelling in Korea as part of student life, and education articles are a way of showing what activities you can join in Korea as a “SNS supporter” of a UNESCO organization.

This “SNS supporters” thing seems quite unique to Korea, basically organizations like to recruit university students to help promote them or some ideas on their own SNS channels. For instance, Wow Korea supporters aim are supposed to promote Korean tourism. And as UNESCO APCEIU supporter I join conferences or events and through writing articles I’m supposed to promote education for international understanding. There are many other organizations recruiting supporters too, such as KOTRA from what I’ve heard. So depending on your interests there are many such organizations you can join, outside of school!

But I digress. The main point of this post is this live event that I’m very excited about! So basically two of my best friends in school, Amalia and Thanh who are running the Woori UIC Youtube channel are planning to hold a live event via Youtube! What this means is that you get to chat with them in real time, and get all the answers to your questions immediately!

[APCEIU] Conference on Global Citizenship Education held in Brussels

The “Citizens for Global Education, Education for Global Citizenship” Conference was held from 24^th to 25th June in Brussels, Belgium. Organised by CONCORD Europe, in partnership with UNESCO, Oxfam International, the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe, Beyond2015, Education International, the Global Campaign for Education, Engagement Global, CIVICUS, 100 European policy-makers, representatives of civil society and researchers participated in the conference with the aim of discussing and contributing to a solid proposal on a Global Citizenship Education (GCE) target in the Post-2015 framework.

[APCEIU] Asia-Pacific Conference on Ethics Education for All to be held in Thailand

The Asia-Pacific Conference on “Ethics Education for All: Searching for a New Paradigm of Learning to Live Together” will be held from October 28 to 30 October 2014 in Hua Hin, Thailand. Organized by the UNESCO Office in Bangkok, the conference aims to discuss the nature and needs of developing ethics teaching programs in the Asia-Pacific region. Particular attention will be given to the themes of global justice, curriculum and future trends in ethics education.

[APCEIU] UNESCO holds workshop for Education Costing in Myanmar

A technical training workshop on costing and simulation modelling was held from September 9^th to 12^th in Yangon, Myanmar. Conducted by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the workshop is part of UNESCO’s support of Myanmar’s education reforms under Phase Three of the Comprehensive Education Sector Review (CESR). Covering education policy cycles, education indicators and key concepts in education costs and finance, the four-day workshop was attended by more than 30 participants from Myanmar’s Ministry of Education (MOE).

[APCEIU] Workshop on Counter Trafficking of Cultural Property held in Iran

The workshop on Counter Trafficking of Cultural Property was held on September 9^th, 2014 in Tehran, the Islamic Republic of Iran. Jointly organized by United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the workshop explored the role of civil society in countering trafficking of cultural property with 80 participants from NGOs and civil society, experts from Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicraft and Tourism Organization (ICHHTO), law enforcement and government officials.

[WOW Korea] Gochang and Gimje Horizon Festival

In this week’s #wowkoreasupporters mission we will be introducing that places that we will be visiting on our 3rd tour next weekend, Gochang and also the Gimje Horizon Festival which we will be visiting! These two are not so common tourist destinations so I’m very glad that I have the opportunity to introduce them to you so that you can get more information when you visit these places!

Gochang

Gochang county is located in Jeollabuk-do, on the west coast of South Korea. It is really a place worth exploring because it is not only a place filled with many historical relics, but a place of natural beauty as well (it is actually a designated UNESCO protected biosphere reserve for its mudflats, wetlands and mountain park!). If you are visiting Gochang, here’s 2 recommended sites that you should definitely visit!

If you’ve watched some variety shows in Korea, you might have seen mudflats appearing very often.

Lee Haru from popular variety show “Return of Superman” catching seafood in the mudflats. Source: Kookje Shinmun

Song Il-kook and his triplets also on “Return of Superman” playing in the mudflats on a recent episode. Source: OSEN

Have you ever wondered where all these mudflats are? Are they really so common in Korea? In fact, since I’ve not been to a mudflat where I can actually play in the mud or look at all these sea creatures, I’ve always wondered how it would feel to visit one of these mudflats.

[APCEIU] 14th Asia-Pacific Training Workshop: EIU, Fostering Global Citizenship

The 14^th Asia-Pacific Training Workshop (APTW) was held from August 21^st to 29^th in Seoul, South Korea. Organized by the Asia-Pacific Center of Education for International Understanding (APCEIU) and sponsored by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea, 27 participants from 17 countries in the Asia-Pacific including Myanmar, Bhutan, Vietnam, Samoa, Australia, etc attended the workshop subtitled “EIU, Fostering Global Citizenship” this year.

[APCEIU] UNESCO mission in Cairo for Egypt’s Education Development Plan

A UNESCO mission led by Assistant Director-General for Education Qian Tang was welcomed by Egyptian Education Minister Mahmoud Abou Nasr and other officials in Cairo on September 11, 2014 for a meeting to discuss cooperation between the organization and the ministry for education development in the country.