Think Tank Report: Empowering Communities through Citizenship Education and Lifelong Learning

This short, explorator y repor t from the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) is the outcome of ‘Placing citizenship education within a lifelong learning perspective: From research to action’, a think tank meeting held in Hamburg in 2023. The meeting brought together experts from international organizations and academia and was organized by UIL in collaboration with the Asia-Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding.

The report reflects the inputs of participants while also drawing on the proposals of the International Commission on the Futures of Education (ICFE, 2021); the findings of the Fifth Global Report on Adult Learning and Education (GRALE 5) (UIL, 2022a); the Marrakech Framework for Action (UIL, 2022b); and the outcomes of the United Nations Transforming Education Summit of September 2022 (UN, 2023a; UN 2023b); as well as UNESCO’s Revised Recommendation concerning Education for International Understanding, Co-operation and Peace (UNESCO, 2023).

It makes a case for putting citizenship education, interpreted not as a means of reproducing the status quo but as a catalyst for civic and social empowerment, at the heart of efforts to create more equitable, tolerant and just societies for all. It argues that citizenship, so construed, should be woven into the fabric of education, throughout and across the life course, recognizing its role in narrowing social and economic inequalities, overcoming social fragmentation, addressing the climate crisis and tackling the backlash against human rights and gender equality.

This report calls for citizenship education and lifelong learning to be core pillars of a systems-level transformation in education, and provides recommendations for policy-makers, national and local governments, educators and civil society organizations to make citizenship education a priority in their policies and practices.