UNESCO AT CIES: Possible futures, a dialogue with UNESCO chairs: Panel I. Post 2015 reflections

Session Submission Type: Group Panel

Description of Session

Since its founding in 1945, UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, has served as one of the critical unifying forces “building the defenses of peace in the minds of men” and women. It has worked to address many of the broadest of global and local challenges from politics and economics to science, education, literacy and the arts. The internet age and burgeoning interests in education have brought new mechanisms and thousands of organizations and individuals working toward the common good, understood in different ways. Many of the myriad new players are administratively facile, well-financed, and well-equipped technologically.

UNESCO must confront these challenges with a new policy rationale and policy action. Despite challenges of funding and governance, particularly with the loss of US support, UNESCO’s mission – as a global forum representing many of the voiceless and focused on the vexing challenges of the times – is critical as ever.

This symposium consists of University UNESCO Chairs. We consider how UNESCO can retain its function as a guiding light, a facilitator of dialogue, a source of information, and a defender of human rights and dignity going forward. Panelists will share their critical, multi-disciplinary perspectives on possible scenarios for UNESCO in the rest of the 21st Century, from such viewpoints as governance, conflict management, the marginalized, urban and rural communities, global citizenship, literacy, gender equity, education for development and conflict. This panel reflects on the prospects and landscape post 2015.

Sub Unit

• General Pool

Chairs

• Bernhard Streitwieser, The George Washington University

• James Williams, George Washington University

Individual Presentations

• Issues of quality and equity in the post-2015 agenda for education - Mark Bray, University of Hong Kong

• UNESCO's role in promoting literacy: past, present and future - Dan Wagner, University of Pennsylvania

• Early childhood development, gender and literacy in the post-2015 agenda - Phyllis Magrab, Georgetown University

Discussants

• Aaron Benavot, Education for All Global Monitoring Report

• Mark Mason, UNESCO International Bureau of Education