GCED CDI Partners’ Meeting 2025: Advancing GCED Integration into the Curriculum

The GCED CDI Partners’ Meeting 2025 was held from 27 to 30 August 2025, in Seoul, Republic of Korea. 

The aim of this Meeting was to provide a platform for Global Citizenship Education (GCED) Curriculum and Integration (CDI) Project Partners to deepen their understanding and strengthen their capacities in GCED and to share their progress, achievements, and challenges in implementing the GCED CDI Project.

The Meeting took place over two parts: Part 1. Capacity Building and Knowledge Sharing on GCED (27–28 August) and Part 2. GCED CDI Technical Consultation Meeting & Networking (29–30 August).

Part 1 was linked to the 10th International Conference on GCED (IConGCED), held under the theme “Democracy in the Post-Truth Crisis: The Role of GCED.” Participants explored the values of democracy in today’s world and reflected on the need for GCED in today’s context. Through keynote speeches, plenary and concurrent sessions, they had the opportunity to deepen their understanding and strengthen their capacities in GCED.

During the conference, the CDI representatives, including Ms. Nausheen Adnan, Parliamentary Secretary for School Education in Punjab (SED Punjab), and Ms. Yoke Pin Chen, Senior Manager of Arts-ED, were invited to serve as moderators or speakers. By sharing their insights and experiences, they enriched the discussions and contributed to making the conference even more fruitful.

Part 2 was dedicated to the GCED CDI Technical Consultation Meeting & Networking, which brought together around 25 participants, including representatives from the ongoing 5th Round (2024-2026) and 6th Round (2025-2027) GCED CDI Partners, as well as one former partner and international experts.

The morning session started with greetings from Dr. Hyun Mook Lim, Director of APCEIU, followed by presentations from representatives of the 5th Round Partners: Thailand, Nepal, Pakistan, and Morocco. Each representative provided an overview of their CDI Project, including goals, expected outcomes, and deliverables. They also shared the strategies they used for implementation, the progress made so far, and key features of their work. Additionally, they discussed challenges and difficulties faced, as well as lessons learned during the process.

In the afternoon session, Ms. Chen Yoke Pin from Arts-Ed Malaysia, a partner from the 4th Round (2022-2024), presented a Good Practice Case. Drawing on Malaysia’s successful completion of the Project, she shared in detail the process over three years—from situational analysis and baseline study to mapping and aligning GCED with the existing curriculum, developing a Teachers’ Guide, conducting GCED workshops, and pilot testing lesson exemplars.

Following the Good Practice Case session, presentations were made by the 6th Round Partners, Uzbekistan and Fiji. As both are in the first year of their projects, they shared their initial work, such as establishing the curriculum development committee (CDC), capacity-building for CDC members, and aligning GCED values with the existing national curriculum. From there, they moved on to share the difficulties they face and their plans for the next two years.

After the presentations delivered by each CDI representative, a discussion and Q&A session took place. Participants engaged in an open exchange of questions and ideas, discussing how GCED can be effectively implemented in the curriculum without becoming an extra workload for teachers. The discussion went beyond simple Q&A, becoming a space for sharing experiences and insights.

The GCED CDI Partners’ Meeting 2025 provided participants with an opportunity to network with partners from other countries, recognize both the differences and shared challenges across contexts, and explore ways to more effectively integrate GCED into the national school curriculum. The meeting also reaffirmed the importance of GCED in shaping a better future through education.