The session addresses different forms of “pandemic” – the widely experienced social problems that have tended to spread around the world and/or that have been unravelled and/or magnified by the current pandemic - and articulate how the GCED can contribute to the tackling of such ‘multiple pandemics’.
Professionals with a wide range of expertise will be invited to analyse the major issues and challenges GCED has to address in this time of crises.

COVID-19 has emboldened the wall of pre-existing discrimination, inequality, and social injustice in our societies. Institutionalized or systematic discrimination as well as deeply-rooted bigotry have become salient and often aggravated due to our current pandemic crisis. There has been a greater demand for education for social justice. We will share some innovative practice cases of education for social justice, and through them, we would like to encourage educators to explore in their own contexts the possibility of transforming a crisis into an educational opportunity.

The destruction of the ecosystem is closely related to the increase in infectious diseases as well as other forms of injustice. With or without a pandemic, but particularly as we are going through the current crisis, collective action is necessary
to raise the awareness of the climate change and ecological crisis and to actively participating in making differences so as to simultaneously ensure human security and ecological sustainability. This session will share insights and experiences on how to promote transformative engagement for sustainability through education.

As fake news and hate speech are much more prevalent in the time of a pandemic crisis, critical media and information literacy has become an essential competency for the 21st century. This session consists of experts’ presentations and hands-on activities addressing what kind of education is necessary for critical literacy in view of democratic communication, participatory digital citizenship, and transformative empowerment.