Opening Ceremony

(Opening Remarks) SEOL Sae-hun (Deputy Minister for Planning and Coordination, Ministry of Education, Republic of Korea)
(Opening Remarks) CHO Hyung-hwa (Deputy Director-General for Public Diplomacy and Cultural Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Korea)
(Congratulatory Remarks) Qun CHEN (Assistant Director-General for Education, UNESCO)
(Welcoming Remarks) KIM Jong-Hun (Director, APCEIU)

Keynote Speech Could AI Play a Positive Role in This Time of Turbulence?

Kai-ming CHENG (Emeritus Professor, Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong)

Group Photos

Plenary Session 1. Wars, Walls, and Algorithms: Taking Stock of a World Falling Apart

The first plenary session will present key issues and challenges related to AI acceleration and deployment, including the fuelling of physical conflicts within and across national borders, the hardening of ideological and digital divides, and the pervasive yet invisible crisis of the environment. It will then reflect on the role of education–and GCED in particular–in re-centring humanity in an increasingly fragmented world.

- Mir MATIN (Manager of Geospatial, Climate and Infrastructure Analytics Programme, United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health)
- Dennis NGUYEN (Senior Assistant Professor, Inclusive AI Lab, Utrecht University)
- Clement ADIBE (Professor, Department of Political Science, DePaul University)
- LEE Kyungmee (Associate Professor, Department of Education, Seoul National University)
* Moderator: Nausheen ADNAN (Parliamentary Secretary, School Education Department, Government of the Punjab)

Plenary Session 2. Where the World Holds Together: Voices from the Forest and the Streets

The second plenary session brings together the two inaugural recipients of the UNESCO Prize for GCED—African Leadership Initiatives for Impact (ALII) from Tanzania and Bosque Escuela Tena from Ecuador—to share their experiences of building global citizenship from the ground up. Through individual talks followed by a moderated fireside chat, the session explores what it looks like to re-centre human values in contexts where the world is actively falling apart: a youth peace network navigating hate speech and social fragmentation in East Africa, and a forest school in the Amazon rooted in ancestral knowledge and ecological belonging.

- Joseph Brighton MALEKELA (Executive Director, The African Leadership Initiatives for Impact)
- Constanza MONTERO AGUIRRE (Director & Co-Founder, Bosque Escuela Tena)
* Moderator: JHO Daehoon (Professor, Department of Social Studies Education, Sungshin Women's University)

Plenary Session 3. Beyond and Back to the Human: A Dialogue on GCED, the Planet, and Our Collective Responsibility

The third plenary session brings together high-level representatives from across sectors—education, environment, foreign affairs, and civil society—to move the conversation from diagnosis to responsibility. Drawing on the fractures surfaced in the discussions on day 1, this session asks what it will take for GCED to operate at the scale the moment demands: across ministries, across sectors, and across the boundaries that typically separate educational policy from planetary concern. Through a structured dialogue followed by a brief closing statement from each participant, the session seeks not only to articulate shared commitments, but to name honestly what stands in the way of them.

- Ebaide Queen OMIUNU (Executive Director, The Ebaidebheki Initiative)
- Wing On LEE (Former Executive Director, Institute for Adult Learning, Singapore University of Social Sciences)
- Peter NGURE (Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Delegate of the Republic of Kenya to UNESCO)
- Miki SUGIMURA (President of Sophia University & UNESCO Chair Holder on Education for Human Dignity, Peace and Sustainability)
* Moderator: Obijiofor AGINAM (Director, UNESCO MGIEP)

Concurrent Sessions 1. Facing the Fractures: What GCED Is Up Against

The first concurrent sessions invite participants to confront the pressures that today's world places on GCED—from the AI-driven transformation of knowledge to the lived realities of educators on the frontlines, and the stubborn persistence of hate, conflict, and exclusion. Rather than offering reassuring answers, these sessions create space for honest reckoning with the challenges that define our moment.

1A. AI and the Knowledge Crisis: Implications for GCED
- KIM Myoung-Shin (Director of the Trust & Safety Office, LG AI Research)
- Divina FRAU-MEIGS (Professor Emerita, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, UNESCO Chair Holder for Savoir Devenir & Founder of NGO Savoir Devenir)
- Jack WEBSTER (Professional Teaching Fellow, University of Auckland)
- Dylan WRAY (Director, ThinkShow)
* Moderator: LEE Yangsook (Head of the Office of External Relations and Information, APCEIU)

1B. Teaching at the Edge: What It Means to Be a GCED Educator Today
- Martin OLIVER (Professor in Education Technology, University College London Institute of Education)
- LIM Jae-ill (GCED Lead Teacher, Yongin Heungdeok Elementary School & Adjunct Professor at Korea National University of Education)
- Samer AL-SUWAID (Supervisor, Directorate of Educational Supervision, Syrian Ministry of Education)
- Libby GILES (Director, New Zealand Centre for Global Studies)
* Moderator: Rowena HIBANADA (Director, Global Citizenship Education Cooperation Centre–Philippines)

1C. Hate, Conflict, and Exclusion: What GCED Can Do
- NAM Sangwook (Independent Film Producer, NPO Shiawase Namida)
- Lisa SPANIERMAN (Professor, Arizona State University)
- Abdul Ghani OYAIFO (President, International Society for Peace and Safety)
- Miren GONZÁLEZ-BALS CABADO (Associate Project Officer, Section of Global Citizenship and Peace Education, UNESCO)
* Moderator: PAK Soon-Yong (Professor, Department of Education, Yonsei University)

Concurrent Sessions 2. Mending the Fragments: How GCED Communities Are Responding

The second concurrent sessions will showcase transformative, ground-level GCED initiatives that serve as the connective tissue for our fragmented reality. Moving from theoretical discourse toward a ‘living’ practice, the sessions present diverse case studies from practitioners and communities around the world.

2A. Growing GCED Educators: Lessons from the Field
- Amirah Athirah AMIR YAZID (Lecturer, Universiti Teknologi MARA)
- JEONG Seongkyeong (Research Professor, Chungnam National University)
- Kaori KIKUCHI (Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Human Sciences at the University of Tsukuba)
- Rowena HIBANADA (Director, Global Citizenship Education Cooperation Centre–Philippines)
* Moderator: PARK Hwanbo (Professor, Chungnam National University)

2B. Bringing GCED to Life: Resources That Make a Difference
- Dora ŠIMUNOVIĆ (Advocacy Coordinator, European Council for Steiner Waldorf Education)
- EOM Jeongmin (Head of the Office of Education and Training, APCEIU)
- Javlonbek MELIBOEV (Deputy Director, Republican Education Center under the Ministry of Preschool and School Education, Uzbekistan)
- AHN Su Jeong (GCED Lead Teacher, Chung Ryeol High School)
* Moderator: Aaron BENAVOT (Professor of Global Education Policy, Department of Educational Policy & Leadership, University at Albany—SUNY)

2C. Connecting the Dots: How GCED Partnerships and Networks Create Change
- Takashi CHIBA (Teacher, Koriyama Higashi High School)
- Wei ZHANG (Executive Director, International Centre for UNESCO ASPnet)
- SHIN Jaeeun (Director of Policy Center, KCOC)
- Ditta TRINDADE (Head of Support & Innovation, Global Education Network Europe)
* Moderator: Jeff PLANTILLA (Independent Researcher)

Concurrent Sessions 3. The GCED Lab: Co-designing GCED for a Shared World

The third concurrent sessions provide an interactive platform for stakeholders to engage critically with GCED in practice—exchanging ideas on effective contextualisation, implementation, and monitoring, while also questioning whether existing frameworks remain adequate for the challenges of our time. Moving from reflection to action, the sessions invite participants to co-design responses grounded in their own contexts, with the aim of generating insights and proposals that carry beyond the conference room.

3A. Co-Designing Context: Adapting GCED for Diverse Realities
- Yi'En CHENG (Lecturer, National University of Singapore)

3B. Co-Designing Impact: Measuring What Matters in GCED
- Esther CARE (Professorial Fellow, Faculty of Education, The University of Melbourne)
- KIM Heeyoung (GCED Lead Teacher, Daejeon Samchun Middle School)

3C. Co-Designing GCED Futures: An Image Theatre Workshop
- Lea ESPALLARDO (Senior Artist-Teacher, Philippine Educational Theater Association)

Plenary Session 4. Youth GCED Photo Essay Contest Award Ceremony

The final plenary session will serve as a vibrant celebration of the Youth GCED Photo Essay Contest, placing youth perspectives and advocacy at the heart of the global dialogue. Jointly organised by APCEIU and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea, the ceremony honours students who bridge visual artistry with written reflections to explore the core pillars of global citizenship.

* Presenters
- CHO Hyung-hwa (Deputy Director-General for Public Diplomacy and Cultural Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Korea)
- KIM Jong-Hun (Director of APCEIU)

[Closing Ceremony]