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The Impact of AI on Curriculum Systems: Towards an Orbit-Shifting Dialogue (In-Progress Reflection; no. 32, 2019) Year of publication: 2019 Corporate author: UNESCO International Bureau of Education (IBE) ‘Artificial Intelligence’ (AI) refers to the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence. In order to achieve transformational change in contemporary curriculum systems and learning environments, we need to engender an orbitshifting dialogue about the potential relationship between AI and education, in terms of both independent variables (threats), and dependent variables (opportunities). Through such a dialogue, we need to create foresight indicators that can predict the process of this relationship. It is, however, crucial that the relationship between AI and education is strong and directly proportionate. If the potential of the relationship is not exploited sufficiently, then underdeveloped education systems will lag behind and fail to achieve their potential for transformation, whether radical or incremental. Indeed, some may even become obsolete. The paper contends that in order to effectively contribute to the knowledge economy and to sustainable development in the age of the 4th Industrial Revolution (characterized by a fusion of cyber-physical technologies) modern educational systems need to overcome obstacles to innovation in order to maximize the potential for transformative change. To achieve this will require an ‘orbital shift’ in educational planning, practice and resourcing, to enable schools to respond more effectively to the rapidly changing needs of young people, society, the economy and environment in the third decade of the 21st century. Schools, educational institutions and environments, need to transform from being primarily spaces for teaching and taking exams, into spaces for innovation and personal learning, based on a culture of actively listening to the voices, choices, needs and goals of learners. Teachers need to become facilitators, coaches and mentors for learners. Schools need to create AI-enabled, flexible, collaborative working spaces. Visionary, energetic educational leaders need to communicate effectively with all stakeholders, including employers and parents, to inspire and manage change and smart decision-making to develop schools of the future. The aim of this reflection is to initiate an ‘orbit-shifting’ dialogue about the potential of AI applications to transform all components of the curriculum system to meet emergent 21st century educational goals. The conceptualization aims to explore the variable roles and impact of curriculum learning and assessment on these emerging educational goals. Theme 1 of the paper outlines the concepts and characteristics of a range of existing AI systems and their potential to enhance teaching learning and assessment. Theme 2 reflects on the potential to embrace AI systems across the curriculum system. Theme 3 proposes an action model to enable AI to have an ‘orbit shifting impact’ on all the components of the curriculum system (i.e. learners, teachers, learning environments, leadership and management, content, pedagogy and assessment) by enhancing opportunities for individualization, creativity and uniqueness. 
What Makes a Quality Curriculum?: In-Progress Reflection No.2 on Current and Critical Issues in Curriculum and Learning Year of publication: 2016 Author: Philip Stabback Corporate author: UNESCO International Bureau of Education (IBE) Sustainable Development Goal Four has to do with education in the post-2015 development agenda. It aims to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”.Given the essential role of curriculum in enabling quality learning and in articulating and supporting education that is relevant to holistic development, our purpose in this paper is to identify what makes a quality curriculum, so as to support curricular innovation in UNESCO Member States to the end of the realization of Sustainable Development Goal Four.In this we are assuming that curriculum, given its essential role in the provision of quality learning for all children and young people, and in articulating and supporting education that is relevant to holistic development, is critical in the realization of SDG 4. It is the curriculum that determines to a large extent whether education is inclusive, thus playing a significant role in ensuring that provision is equitable. It is the curriculum that provides the structure for the provision of quality learning, especially where teachers might be under-qualified and inexperienced, their classrooms under-resourced, and their students lacking the prior frameworks within which to situate their learning. And it is the curriculum that articulates both the competencies necessary for lifelong learning and the competencies needed for holistic development.We thus argue that curriculum lies at the crossroads of these four key aspects of SDG 4: that education should be (1) inclusive and equitable, (2) characterized by quality learning, (3) promoting lifelong learning, and (4) relevant to holistic development. Curriculum, in other words, provides the bridge between education and development – and it is the competencies associated with lifelong learning and aligned with development needs, in the broadest, holistic sense of the term, that span that bridge. 
Content, Comprehensiveness and Coherence in Policies for Early Childhood: How the Curriculum Can Contribute Year of publication: 2016 Author: María Isabel Díaz Corporate author: UNESCO International Bureau of Education (IBE) In the context of international agreements and commitments concerning early childhood, the purpose of this document is to review and renew the challenges that are involved in forging educational and curriculum policies for the first level of education. In the light of early childhood being increasingly included in the public agenda, countries are making sustained efforts to increase equity and quality in the design and implementation of policies for the early years.These are policies that are in the process of changing by including quality and participation criteria; fine-tuning monitoring and assessment mechanisms; going beyond the lack of sectoral and territorial coordination, among other limitations; moving from a needs-based approach to a rights-based approach; and adopting a comprehensive view. The document analyses, from a long-term public policy perspective, some of the challenges that second-generation policies face, positioning the curriculum as the articulating factor for the development of comprehensive policies for early childhood. 
IBE-UNESCO preparatory report for the 48th ICE on inclusive education Year of publication: 2007 Corporate author: UNESCO International Bureau of Education (IBE) The International Conference on Education (ICE) is a major international forum for educational policy dialogue among Ministers of Education and other stakeholders (researchers, practitioners, representatives of intergovernmental organizations and NGOs). The ICE is organized by the International Bureau of Education (IBE), the UNESCO institute specialized in assisting Member States in curriculum development to achieve quality Education For All. The IBE Council, composed of 28 UNESCO Member States, has proposed in January 2007 that the 48th ICE session, to be held in Geneva in November 2008, should focus on the theme “Inclusive Education: the Way of the Future”. The 48th ICE will focus on broadening the understanding of the theory and practice of inclusive education while discussing how governments can develop and implement policies on inclusive education. The IBE is hosting a series of regional preparatory workshops dedicated to exploring and advancing inclusive education in preparation for the ICE 2008. The Regional Preparatory Workshop "International Workshop on Inclusive Education, Andean and Southern Cone Regions” was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina on the 11-14 September 2007. This event was organized by the International Bureau of Education (IBE/UNESCO), the Division for the Promotion of Basic Education (ED/BAS, UNESCO Paris), the Regional Bureau of Education for Latin America and the Caribbean (OREALC/UNESCO); University of de San Andrés, Ministry of Science, Technology and Education, in collaboration with the Community of Practice - Southern Cone and Andean Regions; it had the participation of ten countries from the Southern Cone and Andean Regions. This report is based on the workshop’s country reports and presentations on the conception and status of inclusive education in participating countries, and on the ideas proposed by participants on what the next steps should be on how to advance inclusive education policy and implementation in the region. 
Green Technology Book 2022: Solutions for Climate Change Adaptation Year of publication: 2022 Corporate author: World Intellectual Property Organization WIPO’s new Green Technology Book puts innovation, technology and intellectual property at the forefront in the fight against climate change. This inaugural edition focuses on available solutions for climate-change adaptation, which aim to reduce vulnerability and increase resilience to climate impacts. The Green Technology Book comes at a time when we are all experiencing the effects of climate change. It concentrates on three areas where climate impacts are important: agriculture and forestry, water and coastal regions, and cities. A practical guide for those struggling with climate change firsthand, the book showcases 200 solutions for climate-change adaptation that are readily available or in the making. The findings build on the WIPO GREEN Technology Database, which connects green technology providers from around the world with those seeking environmentally friendly solutions. The Green Technology Book is a source of encouragement and inspiration, demonstrating the diversity of solutions available and ready to be scaled up.1. Climate change adaptation and technology2. Innovation and transfer of solutions3. Agriculture and forestry4. Water and coastal regions5. Cities6. Conclusion and recommendations 
On This Journey No One Cares If You Live or Die, Volume 2: Abuse, Protection and Justice Along Routes Between East and West Africa and Africa's Mediterranean Coast Year of publication: 2024 Corporate author: International Organization for Migration (IOM) | Mixed Migration Centre | UN. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) In the complex landscape of migration, this second volume of the report, On This Journey, No One Cares if You Live or Die, emerges as a crucial body of work that sheds light on the stark realities faced by refugees and migrants traversing the perilous Central Mediterranean route all the way from East and Horn of Africa and West Africa to the North African coast of the Mediterranean and across the sea. Jointly published by IOM, MMC and UNHCR, this report delves into the protection risks faced by refugees and migrants during these journeys. It aims to inform increased and concrete routes-based protection responses to reduce the suffering associated with the desperate journeys refugees and migrants undertake, and to serve as a call to action in addressing the root causes of displacement and drivers of irregular migration through positive action on peace, climate change, governance, inequality and social cohesion, as well as the creation of safe migration pathways. 
Learning to live together: an intercultural and interfaith programme for ethics education Year of publication: 2008 Corporate author: Interfaith Council on Ethics Education for Children | Arigatou Foundation (Switzerland) Learning to Live Together has been developed for use in different religious and secular contexts as a resource for everyone concerned with promoting ethics and values. The objective has been to develop a resource that is relevant on a global level and yet flexible enough to be interpreted within different cultural and social contexts. The resource has been tested in many different regions and cultural contexts to assure that it is relevant in regional and local contexts (see ‘We did it like this’, p.187).Test workshops have been held in 10 different countries, where the GNRC was able to bring together various religious and secular organisations working with children. During the test workshops, this resource manual was used to the benefit of more than 300 children and youth, representing African Traditional Religions, Bahá’í Faith, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, members of Brahma Kumaris and a number of people of secular thinking. Test workshops as well as input and comments from experts in the area of education, ethics, spirituality, intercultural and interfaith learning and child rights have contributed important experiences and opportunities for learning for the development of this resource. Learning to Live Together is already having an impact. In a GNRC programme in Israel, the resource material was used during a six-day journey made by a group of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim youth to the historical sites of Israel and Palestine, all of which have symbolic relevance to the conflict in their region. At each stop, youth participants discussed their values and their differing perceptions of their shared history.Learning to Live Together is an adaptable resource that can be used with children from many different cultural, religious and social contexts to nurture common values and a mutual respect for different backgrounds and traditions. The resource provides space for enhancing children’s innate potential for spirituality and hope for a better world, as a contribution to changing the situation for children worldwide. The Users Guide provides all necessary information for its use. UNESCO and UNICEF have been closely involved in developing Learning to Live Together and have endorsed the material as an important contribution to a quality education, which takes a multicultural and multi-religious society into consideration. UNESCO’s Guidelines for Intercultural Education underpin the philosophy and the approach of the resource: “Religious education can be described as learning about one’s own religion or spiritual practices, or learning about other religions or beliefs. Interfaith education, in contrast, aims to actively shape the relations between people from different religions”. 
Global Framework for Refugee Education Year of publication: 2019 Corporate author: Global Refugee Forum Education Co-Sponsorship Alliance | UN. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) This Global Framework for Refugee Education has been produced by the Global Refugee Forum’s Education Co-Sponsorship Alliance, comprising more than 60 partners. It aims to help partners to translate the Global Compact on Refugees and the Refugee Education 2030: A Strategy for Refugee Inclusion into pledges for concrete action to help achieve inclusive and equitable quality education for all by 2030. 
UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS MECHANISMS and the Right to Education in Insecurity and Armed Conflict Author: Takhmina Karimova | Gilles Giacca | Stuart Casey-Maslen Corporate author: Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights This publication, United Nations Human Rights Mechanisms and the Right to Education in Insecurity and Armed Conflict, seeks to respond to the acute need to identify trends in the practice, and contribution, of United Nations human rights mechanisms to the protection of education in times of insecurity and conflict. It is the result of a one-year research project carried out by researchers at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights (Geneva Academy). The research was overseen by a Legal Advisory Committee and subject to multi-disciplinary peer review. Accompanying the publication is a summary policy document intended to guide future work in this area. An electronic version of each publication is available at http://www.geneva-academy.ch and at http://www.educationandconflict.org.United Nations Human Rights Mechanisms and the Right to Education in Insecurity and Armed Conflict is the second in a series of legal research documents commissioned by Protect Education in Insecurity and Conflict (PEIC) on the protection of education during insecurity and armed conflict. PEIC is a programme of the Education Above All Foundation, an independent organization chaired by Her Highness Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser of Qatar, UNESCO Special Envoy for Basic and Higher Education. A policy, research, and advocacy organization, PEIC is concerned with the protection of education during insecurity and armed conflict. PEIC’s Legal Programme contributes to such protection through the strategic use of international and national law. Its legal research papers are authored by academics and/or practicing lawyers. They are aimed at a varied audience, including international and national lawyers; non-legally trained education experts and policy-makers within governments; political, social, and cultural bodies; and civil society. The Geneva Academy aims to provide instruction of a high academic standard, conduct and promote scientific research, organize training courses and expert meetings, and provide legal expertise in the branches of international law relating to situations of armed conflict. Founded in 2007, the Academy replaces the University Centre for International Humanitarian Law created in 2002 by the Faculty of Law of the University of Geneva and the Graduate Institute of International Studies, now the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies(IHEID). 
The New educational pact: education, competitiveness and citizenship in modern society Year of publication: 1997 Author: Juan Carlos Tedesco Corporate author: UNESCO International Bureau of Education (IBE) As things are, individuals are just not sure where exactly they stand. The identity of the progressive educational movement and thought is in a state of crisis, and the simple answers of the past are no longer sufficient to define an educational policy which responds to the objectives of democracy and equity in the distribution of knowledge.This book is therefore a response to a personal need, which may be shared by others, namely the need to reflect on the role of education in this new social scenario laden with uncertainty and to try and find an alternative, both to the social disintegration derived from neo-liberal tendencies and to the totalitarian unity advocated in fundamentalist, anti-modern theories. The following script therefore moves between the past and the future. The look back at the past does not claim to be a historical analysis. It does try, on the other hand, to provide a useful instrument for a better understanding of what is changing. The glimpse into the future is not intended either to forecast what will happen, but to indicate which way we should be trying to guide our actions. As a result, the book is eclectic in more than one sense. From a theoretical point of view, it combines different disciplinary approaches : history, sociology, pedagogy, psychology and philosophy. From a political point of view, it adopts positions, but also allows for doubts and queries. Excluding doubt is a way of encouraging the predominance of dichotomous views, which promise us either a glorious destiny or total disaster. In this sense, the book tries not to fall into the trap of having to choose between pessimism and optimism and, perhaps excessively, assumes a conscious voluntarism based on a trust in the learning ability of human beings.