Higher Education Summit 2020
Network Meeting “The New Stage of the Asia-Pacific ESD Teacher Competency Framework”
Date and Time: 13:30-15:00 CEST (11.30-13.00 GMT) on September 1, 2020
Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) occupies a prominent place of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2015. It is a key enabler to achieving all theSDGs, as stated in the UN General Assembly in its resolution 72/222. Teachers play the most important role in this global
pursuit of ESD. In the “Global Action Programme on ESD” (2015-2019) and the subsequent “ESD for 2030” (2020-2030), which
are UNESCO's ESD promotion measure, the spread and development of ESD teacher education is taken up as a priority action
area.
Recognizing the critical importance of teachers in the context of SDGs, Okayama University, the only UNESCO chair on ESD inAsia, launched the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Core-to-Core Programme (Type B. Asia-Africa SciencePlatforms) (2017-2019), and established core research exchange institutions for ESD teacher education and their academicnetwork in Asia and trained the next generation of researchers. Subsequently, the University obtained a grant sponsored bythe Japanese National Commission for UNESCO (2018-2019), and created an “Asia-Pacific Framework of Teacher Education
Programme for ESD”, in collaboration with 34 institutions in 16 countries in Asia-Pacific region and in cooperation withUNESCO Bangkok, ACCU (Asia-Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO) and INTEI (UNESCO Chair at York University, Canada). At
present, the framework is a programme guideline for ESD teacher education in the region as well as its research and educationachievements.
On the other hand, core institutions for ESD including the UNESCO chairs on sustainability in Europe, North American, etc.
also have excellent achievements of teacher education for ESD. However, there is still no way to return such achievements
to the whole world. It is expected that international cooperation among core institutions will be expanded globally for thespread of ESD with the aim of achieving the SDGs.
The purpose of this meeting is to share the results of teacher education for ESD and discuss the feasibility of developing a
global framework for ESD teacher education programmes, in collaboration with teacher education institutions in the worldthat are active or interested in ESD. In addition, the meeting aims to discuss measures to steadily disseminate such aframework and to train leaders of next-generation ESD researchers and practitioners.
At this meeting, the participation of various teacher educators from all over the world will be greatly welcomed to further
promote ESD teacher education worldwide.

Organized by Hiroki Fujii and Hiroko Shibakawa, Okayama University, JapanDr. Hiroki Fujii is a professor of science education in the Graduate School of Education at Okayama University and the director
in Okayama University ESD Promotion Centre at the UNESCO Chair in Research and Education for Sustainable Development,
Japan. He has served on a vice chairperson of the steering committee in RCE Okayama since 2015, as well as a vice presidentof the Society of Japan Science Teaching since 2019. Fujii organizes a joint research project in Asian-Pacific region, entitled“Formation of International Centre of Excellence to Promote Teacher Education on ESD”. http://ceteesd.ed.okayama-u.ac.jp/
Dr. Hiroko Shibakawa is an assistant professor of ESD Promotion Centre/the UNESCO Chair in Research and Education forSustainable Development in the Graduate School of Education at Okayama University, Japan. She has served as an ESD
coordinator of RCE Okayama to support UNESCO Associated Schools, and an advisor of Okayama UNESCO School High School
Network since 2012. She is also a secretariat of the abovementioned joint research project by Dr. Fujii.