ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book traces the different activities to implement the GEFI project and its dual goals of global citizenship education and education for sustainable development, goals that are of particular relevance to United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and other United Nations specialized units. It constitutes a very useful guide for implementing global citizenship education in the world's classrooms. Global Citizenship Education (GCE) is one of the three pillars of the 2012 UN Global Education First Initiative (GEFI), promoted internationally by the support and work of UNESCO. The book also traces the realpolitik of the concept and how it reached its current development, and reviews the emergence, definition of the main phases of implementation and its relevance in the international system, in the United Nations and its specialized institutions, specially UNESCO.
