Welcome to the United Nations
Addressee: UNESCO, Member States
Full Text
The Permanent Forum recommends that UNESCO and other United Nations entities facilitate the work of language activists, including through methodological, educational, scientific, psychosocial and financial support, within the framework of the International Decade. The Permanent Forum invites UNESCO and its Forum of National Commissions, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research to develop, in cooperation with experts and representatives of indigenous peoples, an incubator of international methodologies in multilingual education, including studies of language revitalization best practices, teacher training and cross-cultural learning tools by 2025
Responses
UNESCO
SDG4 related activities undertaken by UNESCO in support of Indigenous Peoples issues, include:
• The UNESCO International Literacy Day took place on 8 September on the theme of Transforming literacy learning spaces. UNESCO’s Education Sector committed to continuing to promote learner-centric literacy spaces and literacy in local languages to support the inclusion of marginalized groups and transform learners’ literacy learning.
• Language Expert meeting on Multilingual education and publication UNESCO will publish the revised and updated version of the UNESCO Position Paper “Education in a Multilingual World” 2003 towards the beginning of 2023. The new document will consider multilingual education Guidelines for global contexts and specific contexts which respond to the needs of the excluded, the marginalized population, indigenous peoples. Language experts including Indigenous experts have brought in their experience and knowledge during the revision process in 2022.
• Course on family learning and Indigenous knowledges (UNESCO Institute of Lifelong Learning, UIL). The UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, in collaboration with the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) and supported by the UNESCO Chair in Adult Literacy and Learning for Social Transformation at the University of East Anglia is launching a self-directed, self-paced online course on Family Learning and Indigenous Knowledges to address the integration of local and indigenous knowledges into family and intergenerational learning programmes. The overall objective is to contribute to improving literacy for all and achieving sustainable development.
• Webinar on Teaching and Learning Indigenous Languages: Inspiring Practices from the UNESCO Associated Schools Network, October 2022. The ASP Webinar organized with the support of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO furthered the objectives of the Decade within the framework of the Global Action Plan of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages. ASPnet launched a global survey in May 2022 on the teaching and learning of Indigenous languages in the network’s schools. The survey requested information on the institutional framework for the teaching of Indigenous languages in ASPnet schools and prompted schools to share relevant practices. 210 schools replied to the survey from 38 countries from all around the world. The survey demonstrates a wide array of practices for the teaching and learning of Indigenous languages and cultures in schools. Overall, the survey showed three major trends that are important to highlight:
− Teaching of Indigenous languages in in-person or digital classroom settings
− Promoting of Indigenous languages through international days and activities
− Mainstreaming of Indigenous Peoples' culture, history and knowledge, based on a human rights approach
UNICEF
· UNICEF regional office for Latin America and the Caribbean (UNICEF LACRO) has been working together with the Indigenous Peoples Development Fund (FILAC) in the promotion and development of activities of the recently created Ibero-American Institute of Indigenous Languages. The work includes disseminating information on the critical situation of indigenous languages in the Latin American and Caribbean region and promoting various actions being developed in the countries for their protection, conservation, use and development. It also provides technical support based on the experiences and best practices in Intercultural Bilingual Education (IBE) that the countries of the region have been developing. A systematization of good practices for intercultural bilingual education during the COVID-19 pandemic was published in 2021.
· Significant support has also been provided for the development of materials and other educational resources in indigenous languages, with the participation of bilingual teachers and in many cases of Indigenous community members, guaranteeing the cultural and linguistic relevance of these materials, as well as an innovative and intercultural pedagogical approach. UNICEF LACRO has developed a platform called Intercultural Portal of materials and resources in indigenous languages for intercultural bilingual education. This portal contains educational materials and resources for Intercultural bilingual education from 12 countries in the region: Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Brasil, Paraguay, Guatemala, Panama, Honduras, Venezuela and Mexico. This portal allows different actors in the different countries to learn about the productions made in other countries and motivate each other to design similar materials. In the case of cross-border languages, they can be used by teachers and other educational actors in multiple countries. See here information specifically about the experience of Paraguay
Final Report of UNPFII Session 21 (2022)
Area of Work
