Transformative Education (TE) is a lifelong process that needs to be mainstreamed at all ages. Higher education institutions are distinguished actors in fostering its values: through providing preservice training, in-service training, and continuous professional development opportunities for teachers and through supporting national policy and curricula development in the field of education, higher education institutions actively contribute to mainstreaming Transformative Education at all levels of education.

The UNESCO Multisectoral Regional Office in Beirut is glad to introduce the new publication ‘Including Transformative Education in pre-service teacher training: A guide for universities and teacher training institutions in the Arab region’.

This guidance document was developed by the UNESCO Multisectoral Regional Office in Beirut based on the outcome of a meeting of the UNESCO Arab Transformative Education Network, that was held in Tunisia from 30 November to 2 December 2022, in cooperation with the UNESCO Multisectoral Regional Office in Rabat (Tunis antenna) on the topic ‘GCED/ESD in Higher Education in the Arab region: reflecting on a course for teacher pre-service training’, where also UNIMED was present. The evidence base of the document was further reinforced by bilateral meetings with experts from Arab countries. Therefore, in total, 25 experts from nine Arab countries, together with the UNESCO Chair on Global Citizenship Education in Higher Education (University of Bologna, Italy) and UNIMED– Mediterranean Universities Union contributed to the discussions and provided technical inputs which facilitated the production of this guidance document.

The main objective of the document is to support faculty deans and academia in defining the scope and the key parameters to consider while developing a course on Transformative Education for teachers’ pre-service training, including defining course objectives, format, content, and pedagogy, as well as choosing the right facilitator(s) to deliver the course.

The report is publicly available at the following URL: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000388668