Motivating first day at the GCED workshop

Official opening ceremony of the workshop

Official group picture

We started with the opening remarks by the representative of GEFI & APCEIU. Then we were welcomed by the representatives of the city Busan (Geumjeong- gu district). Mister Kim Se Yeon, member of the Korean National Assembly brought the congratulatory remarks. After all the remarks, the guests and participants were presented. We got presented by region. For the European region, we were only with three. A girl from Denmark (Natascha Skjaldgaard), a girl from Sweden (Alexandra Sjölin Falk) and me.   

The European delegates

Doctor Utak Chung, the director of Asia- Pacific centre of Education for International Understanding (APCEIU) presented an overall presentation about GCED. What are the main goals, where does it come from, the link between the Millennium Development Goals, the post- 2015 agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. After that presentation, one of the YAG (Youth Advocacy Group) members Rolando Villamero Jr. gave a very interesting and critical presentation about the challenges of GCED. In the following table you can find some of my notes, the points that were the most important for me.

Following an interesting morning we started the afternoon with summing up why advocacy is important: It’s part of education, it’s a process to let the society know about others/ about diversity, it’s about impact, we need to make our voice powerful. One important thing we need to keep in mind: “Your perspective is unique!”

After a lot of information and interesting presentations we finally got to the ice breaker exercise: We had to present ourselves in 20 seconds and end our presentation with a question (any question), everyone had 5 seconds to find an answer to the question, after 5 seconds the face of one of the participants was projected, so that person had to present themselves, answer the question and come up with a new question. I liked the ice breaker. Some questions caused very interesting answers, or very funny answers!

At the end of an interesting but busy first day, Deepika Joon from MGIEP (co-organisor of the workshop) gave a short summing up of the most important key notes from the day:

Deepika Joon (MGIEP)

• Government is involved, hope our governments might get inspired
• Sustainable Development Goal 4.7: by 2030 ensure all learners acquire knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including among others through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship, and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development
• The challenges of GCED
• Authentic?
• Context – universal?
• Neglecting the local meaning?
• It’s all about passion!
• Commitment
• Directed approach  
• The ice braking exercise: everyone brings in a lot of experiences
• Is everything in education GCED? Is GCED an umbrella term?
• Bring together the case studies! Bring together these diverse studies in a unique way!! 
• There can not be anything about us, without us.