The GHFP, co-launched an Ethics Education Fellowship Programme, in partnership with Arigatou International, KAICIID, the Muslim Council of Elders, Global Humanity for Peace Institute, and UNESCO. The GHFP’s contributions include articulating a conceptual framework on ethics education, and developing collaborative approaches to programme monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL).
While ‘Ethics Education’ is a relatively new term, many of the concepts, values, practices and themes which contribute to it have been emphasised within other similar fields such as values-based education, moral education, character education, citizenship education and peace education. However, Ethics Education distinguishes itself with three pedagogical pillars: (1) Ethical Sensitivity and Ethical Reflection; (2) Ethical Relations and Dialogue; and (3) Child Agency, Participation and Transformative Action. The three pillars are distinct yet interrelated, and together they form the ethical foundation for learning and well-being.
The Ethics Education Fellowship Programme has been piloted and implemented with the Ministries of Education of Bangladesh, Indonesia, Kenya, Mauritius, Nepal and Seychelles with the support of the National Commissions for UNESCO.
The key pedagogical approaches to the Ethics Education Fellowship Programme are experiential, dialogic, human-centred and well-being sensitive. Through experiencing these innovative practices, the Fellows will have an in-depth understanding of the conceptual and ethical underpinnings of the programme. In this way, the Fellows will be able to further support teachers who would introduce ethics education and related practices to classrooms in their own contexts.
The GHFP has also developed a mixed-methods approach to programme monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL). This is envisioned to be a collaborative process that engages learners, teachers and others within the ecosystem of public education in understanding the impact of ethics education programme on the various stakeholders’ experiences of learning and well-being, and the shift in the relational culture within the wider learning community.
Through the Fellows personal and professional development, this programme will enhance teachers’ practices within public education institutions and further inspire and enrich learners’ ethical sensitivity, dialogue capacities and competences for transformative actions.
Ultimately, the Ethics Education Fellowship Programme seeks to foster a congenial culture of caring in public education, nurture learners’ holistic well-being, and empower youths as agent of positive change. In doing so, it helps contribute to more peaceful and inclusive societies, thereby linking our inner transformation with the transformation of the world.