An IPA-delegation, consisting of Ingrid Captain, Gregory Richardson and Régine Croes attended the Training and Cooperation Activity (TCA) “Teaching for Tomorrow: Global Education for Global Challenges - Citizenship and Inclusion in Teacher Training for Primary Education”. This program emphasized the urgent need to integrate (global) citizenship education into primary education, especially in the current social and geopolitical situation.
The training provided us with many concrete hands-on activities, exchanging with many European partners, on how to organize (global) citizenship education both in primary schools and in primary education teaching programs. The keynote lecturer em.prof.dr. Piet Avermaet highlighted the role of active citizenship education for social cohesion, democracy and participation in diverse societies.
During the discussions, it became clear that (global) citizenship education should not be limited to subjects such as history or social studies. Instead, it should be embedded across the whole curriculum, to foster critical thinking, dialogue and responsibility. The themes explored during this three-day program were closely aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals, especially SDG 4 (Quality Education) and SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions).
During one of the last sessions, the IPA-delegation presented the International Minor Globalisation, Diversity, Multilingualism & Education, as an example of how (global) citizenship education can connect European values within a wider global and Caribbean context.
Back in Aruba, the delegation shared their findings with the IPA-team to reinforce (global) citizenship education throughout training programs, professional development courses, research activities and community outreach.