On May 12, 2023, the Learners to Leaders: Nurturing Changemakers Through Global Citizenship Education Program regrouped to hear from informal and formal educational experts from APCEIU, Korea Scouts Movement, Global Citizen, and Teaspoon of Change on how they inspire change with GCED.

The first speaker of the day was Lim Hyun Mook, the Director of the Asia Pacific Centre for Education and International Understanding (APCEIU). He warmly welcomed the changemakers and spoke of the importance of GCED and their role as leaders in the field. The world is facing complex crises “which require increased solidarity and cooperation within and across nations” he said. He emphasized the importance of building an identity as a global citizen to have a positive impact on perspectives and behaviors. Highlighting the work of APCEIU he said that last year over 75,000 teachers, educators, policy developers, researchers, and civil society practitioners have taken part in APCEUI’s programs on GCED.

Lee Yang Sook, the Deputy Head of the Institute of Global Citizenship at APCEIU was the second speaker of the day and gave an overview of how APCEIU worked with Korean educational institutes to enhance global citizenship by offering it across 58 courses in 26 universities. He named examples of GCED that can be implemented across informal educational areas as diverse as filmmaking, teacher education, street dialogue, and debates in community settings.

The final speaker in the morning session was Garam Jeon, a Korean author, and educator, and member of the Scouts movement. In her inspiring talk, she described the importance of informal education and how exposure to diverse learning methodologies through informal GCED is implemented by the scouts.

In the afternoon, the young change-makers took part in a workshop on best-practice examples of successful start-ups. Annabelle Roberts of Global Citizen introduced us to the stories of change Global Citizen uses to inspire their community to take action to end extreme poverty and promote social justice. She encouraged our cohort in their work claiming that “activism is the art of changing the impossible”. Advice that will prove to be useful as the changemakers go on to implement their own GCED micro-projects this summer.

Picking up from Annabelle’s focus on communications, d’Arcy Lunn from Teaspoons of Change spoke about “bringing your ideas into the lives of people you are trying to reach”. By using questions to provoke a personal response and challenging others to think of themselves as global citizens. By creating understanding, mixed with “a healthy balance of optimism and realism” he encouraged the changemakers to work within the constraints of structures and change them from within.

The Learners to Leaders course continued with their final session on May 19^th where participants dived into the art of storytelling.

Check out the summary graphic recordings of the workshop below: