South Africa

UNESCO Chair in Teacher education for diversity and development (852), established in 2009 at the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)

 

Fields/Disciplines Teacher education. Objectives The development objective of its activities shall be to build a solid base for knowledge generation and exchange in teacher education to meet the contextual challenges of countries in the global South in a period of globalization and a growing knowledge divide. The Chair intends to be a Center of Excellence in the region, which will enrich debate on policy and practice in teacher education as related to diversity and development, and this in turn will contribute to debate on education in knowledge societies. The focus of its activities will be to: Build a local-South Africa and Southern African Development Community (SADC) –knowledge network on teacher education as a fundamental priority, by bringing existing role players (teacher educators, teacher education institutions, policy makers and NGOs) into a more inclusive framework of knowledge exchange as related to diversity and development; Provide platform for exploration of key challenges in the region within the framework of the Second Decade for Education in Africa, to drive the research agenda; identify problems, as well as good practice, with a view to building a common agenda among role players; and, act as a basis for research activities and capacity building; Extend the network by engaging in knowledge exchange for the promotion of south-south co-operation, with a view to the development of joint project and exchanges, as related to diversity and development, and to the establishment of Chairs in participating institutions; and Extend the network by linking with other appropriate institutions in the North to deepen capacity building, research and development, and to facilitate exchanges. Host Institution University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa) UNESCO Sector/Office responsible for the Chair/Network Education, UNESCO Office Windhoek