Discussions around Education and Development in Dubai during Global Education & Skills Forum (GESF) – Global Forum or Global Education? Selected Aspects of Seeking New Educational Solutions in the Age of Globalization

Abstract

The article presents selected references to the Global Education & Skills Forum (GESF), an initiative of the Varkey Foundation and hosted every March in Dubai (United Arab Emirates). The Forum has been organized since 2013 as a multi-day educational forum. It gathers representatives from more than 100 countries every year. Education ministers from different countries worldwide are also among participants. Sunny Varkey, the Varkey Foundation’s Chairman, founded the Global Teacher Prize to identify an exceptional teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession. It is given every year during the GESF. This article presents some examples from recent years. Such issues as the outline of the concept of development and global education or a brief description of GESF with analogies to Forum in Davos are also being discussed in the article. Summary version of the concept of development with some references to the sphere of education, especially global education, shows that such issues as North–South relations, especially mutual interdependencies or Sustainable Development Goals (2015), are related to global education. Lexical aspects of the Forum name are also being discussed. Global education in Poland is, in fact, sometimes misinterpreted or defined in isolation from its immanent conceptual scope what is shown by different researchers.