Event: UNESCO Ethics Teacher Training Course
April 28, 2009
The Division of Ethics of Science and Technology
Sector for Social and Human Sciences
UNESCO
UNESCO Ethics Teacher Training Course in Windhoek, Namibia (24-28 August 2009)
One of the activities undertaken to disseminate information concerning the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights, adopted in 2005 by UNESCO, is the Ethics Education Program. This program is mapping existing teaching programs in the area of ethics in the Member States of UNESCO. The various programs are described, discussed in expert meetings, and made available in the Global Ethics Observatory (www.unesco.org/shs/ethics/geobs). Experiences concerning the contents, intensity, methods and materials of existing programs are therefore publicly accessible and can be exchanged among experts. Teachers who want to initiate ethics teaching can find suggestions and ideas in the database. UNESCO has organised meetings with ethics teaching experts in the previous years inBudapest, Moscow, Split, Muscat, Istanbul, Marrakesh and Abidjan. In 2009 similar meetings will take place in Dakar, Senegal and Kinshasa, DR Congo.
The quality of ethics teaching programs, however, substantially depends on the quality of the teachers. Ethics teaching can be made much more influential and attractive for students if it is presented by a highly qualified, stimulating and inspiring teacher. In order to promote the quality of ethics teaching, UNESCO has developed an Ethics Teacher Training Course. The first course has taken place in Bucharest, Romania and has been a very positive experience. Subsequent courses have taken place since 2007 in Egerton University, Kenya (in cooperation with the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics in Kenya), in Bratislava, Slovak Republic, in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and in Minsk, Belarus.
The next Ethics Teacher Training Course will take place from 24 until 28 August 2009 at the University of Namibia, Windhoek.
This course will provide training to ethics teachers with the purpose to enhance their skills and abilities. It aims particularly at a younger generation of university teachers so that ethics teaching programs in the near future can expand and improve in all Member States of UNESCO. The course is supported by the Universityof Namibia and the Namibia National Commission for UNESCO. It is organised in cooperation with the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics in Haifa, Israel.
We would like to bring this new initiative to your attention, encouraging you to stimulate young teachers to use this opportunity to enhance their competencies in the field of ethics teaching. More information as well as a registration form can be found on the SHS website:
http://portal.unesco.org/shs/en/ev.php-URL_ID=12702&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
