Blog - NISSEM

Back to the Future: Can UNESCO’s New Recommendation on Education Bring Lasting Peace to the World?

January 8, 2024

By Jean Bernard The Angel of Nagasaki, the only surviving fragment from a church reduced to rubble by the plutonium bomb dropped on the city of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, watches silently over the Peace Garden at UNESCO Headquarters...

Happy Fifth Anniversary, NISSEM! Now reach out to writers of curricula, subject syllabuses, and educational materials to support transformative learning

December 22, 2023

Third and final blogpost in a series by Margaret Sinclair, marking five years of NISSEM I began my career as an education planner, so I am keenly aware of the policy–practice gap. I have worked in countries where inspectors/advisers couldn’t...

Happy Fifth Anniversary, NISSEM! What is ‘transformative learning’?

December 15, 2023

Second of three blogposts by Margaret Sinclair, marking five years of NISSEM Since the UN Transformative Education Summit of September 2022, the concepts and values of SDG Target 4.7 – including education for sustainability and globally responsible citizenship, supported by...

Happy Fifth Anniversary, NISSEM! Now comes the hard part

December 11, 2023

First of three blogposts by Margaret Sinclair, marking five years of NISSEM This year marks the fifth anniversary of the founding of NISSEM – Networking to Integrate SDG Target 4.7 and SEL into Education Materials. The prequel to founding the...

Engaging secondary students in learning English in Buenos Aires

October 7, 2023

Gigi Lynch, Coordinator of the English Department at Colegio Madre Teresa, Buenos Aires, Argentina In this blogpost, Gigi Lynch captures ways in which the ideas and theories presented in NISSEM Global Briefs, Volume 4: Doing More with Language Teaching can...

Adjusting the flag and baring the soul

June 29, 2023

This article responds to Audrey Bryan’s stimulating article, “From ‘the conscience of humanity’ to the conscious human brain: UNESCO’s embrace of social-emotional learning as a flag of convenience” (Compare, published online 18 October 2022)

Belonging

October 16, 2022

Belonging is of course part of identity. But children’s sense of identity is inseparable from the diversity in which they find themselves. This is the difference between citizenship as civics, with its knowledge of systems and laws, and citizenship as...

Putting our ideas into action

June 7, 2022

Andy Smart and Margaret Sinclair describe a new sample for a science textbook.

SEL in Context: Mexico

May 7, 2021

Embedding SEL at System Level Elisa Bonilla and Patricia Vázquez speak with Andy Smart and Margaret Sinclair "I went into classrooms and saw how lonely the kids were - the way they approached me and the way they used to...

SEL in Context: Ethiopia

May 7, 2021

The Speed School approach Professor Kwame Akyeampong, of the Open University in the UK, was interviewed by Margaret Sinclair and Andy Smart “If you can get a textbook – which teachers and students are so familiar with – to be...

What’s next for ‘education in emergencies’? A veteran reflects.

November 24, 2020

Margaret Sinclair reflects on INEE's Twentieth Anniversary Webinar By Margaret Sinclair Go for it, INEE! Cross the humanitarian-development divide and build the nexus to ensure children’s education It was great to see representation of the founders and current actors within...

Responding to Covid-19 in Colombia

September 7, 2020

Luisa Gomez talks to S. Garnett Russell Teachers College, Columbia University “Students are more aware of what they want to be able to learn, and to learn by themselves” View full transcript here. Luisa Gomez is an education planning and financing specialist...

Responding to COVID-19 in Sierra Leone

August 12, 2020

Interview with Massey Samuel Tucker and Mariana Martinez Massey Samuel Tucker and Mariana Martinez talk to Andy Smart and Margaret Sinclair. “The government has been very much proactive in the fight against Covid, especially in ensuring that children learn, even...

Responding to Covid-19 in the Bahamas

July 26, 2020

Interview with Marcellus C. Taylor Marcellus C. Taylor talks to Aaron Benavot. View the full transcript here. “Here in the Bahamas we have a lot of people who tend to look at why we can’t do something. It’s like there’s no...

Responding to COVID-19 in Lebanon

July 25, 2020

Interview with Rima Malek Rima Malek talks to Jean Bernard and James Williams. "I cannot give a face-to-face course, then take the same content and put it online. This is not enough!" View the full transcript here. Rima Malek is an Educational...

Responding to Covid-19 in Uganda

June 22, 2020

Baale Remegious talks to Andy Smart and Margaret Sinclair. "We need to have all these social issues in our education system. Let us not just go back to that academic thing only." This is the first of a series of blogposts based...

Responding to COVID-19 in Kenya

June 6, 2020

Interview with Ngángá Kibandi and Lucy Maina Lucy Maina and Ngángá Kibandi talk to Andy Smart and Margaret Sinclair. "The challenge is to think around how to change the way questions are phrased...so that questions require children to engage with...