LESSON 15

GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP
 GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP
A global citizen is someone who is aware of and understands
the wider world - and their place in it. They take an active role in their
community, and work with others to make our planet more equal, fair and
sustainable. Global Citizenship is restricted to jetsetters, socialites, and
influential people only. A global citizen is someone who understands that
individual conduct and behavior is the basis of a community’s culture.
The four main parts of global citizenship are civic responsibility, cultural
awareness, global economy and environment.
An active global citizen takes responsibility for their actions,
and can also help people, wildlife and plant life.

For Oxfam, global citizenship is all about encouraging young people to develop the knowledge, skills
and values they need to engage with the world.
Education for global citizenship is not an additional subject - it's a framework for learning, reaching
beyond school to the wider community. It can be promoted in class through the existing curriculum or through
new initiatives and activities.
 The benefits are felt across the school and beyond. Global citizenship
helps young people to:

 They build their own understanding of world events.

 Think about their values and what's important to them.

 Take learning into the real world.

 Challenge ignorance and intolerance.

 Get involved in their local, national and global communities.

 Develop an argument and voice their opinions.

 See that they have power to act and influence the world around
them.
Global Citizenship
It is a way of living that recognizes our world is an increasingly complex web of
connections and interdependencies. One in which our choices and actions may have
repercussions for people and communities locally, nationally or internationally.
Global Citizenship nurtures personal respect and respect for others, wherever they live. It
encourages individuals to think deeply and critically about what is equitable and just, and
what will minimize harm to our planet. Exploring Global Citizenship themes help learners
grow more confident in standing up for their beliefs, and more skilled in evaluating the
ethics and impact of their decisions.
 Global citizenship is a choice and a way of thinking. National citizenship is an accident
of birth; global citizenship is different. It is a voluntary association with a concept that signifies
"ways of thinking and living within multiple cross-cutting communities—cities, regions, states,
nations, and international collectives…" (Schattl, 2007, 9). People come to consider themselves as
global citizens through different formative life experiences and have different interpretations of
what it means to them.

Global Citizen
Hannah Arendt said that “An ethic of care for the world.”There is a great deal of debate and
discussion around this, as there is around the whole concept of globalization. A useful working
definition, however, is offered by Oxfam:
A Global Citizen is someone who:

Is aware of the wider world and has a sense of their own role as a
world citizen

Respects and values diversity

Has an understanding of how the world works

Is outraged by social injustice

Participates in the community at a range of levels, from the local to

the global

Is willing to act to make the world a more equitable and sustainable

place

Takes responsibility for their actions

To be effective
Global Citizens,
young people need
to be flexible,
creative and
proactive. They need
to be able to solve
problems, make
decisions, think
critically,
communicate ideas
effectively and work
well within teams
and groups.
• A global citizen is someone who identifies with being part of an emerging world community and
whose actions contribute to building this community’s values and practices. Such a definition of
global citizenship is based on two assumptions which this article explores: (a) that there is such a
thing as an emerging world community to which people can identify; and (b) that such a community
has a nascent set of values and practices.

• Today the forces of global engagement are helping some people identify themselves as global
citizens, meaning that they have a sense of belonging to a world community. This growing global
identity in large part is made possible by the forces of modern information, communication, and
transportation technologies.

• Those who see ourselves as global citizens are not abandoning other identities; such as allegiances to
our countries, ethnicities, and political beliefs. These traditional identities give meaning to our lives
and will continue to help shape who we are. However, as a result of living in a globalized world, we
find we have an added layer of responsibility. We have concern and a share of responsibility for what
is happening to the planet as a whole, and we are members of a world-wide community of people
who share this concern.
• The values being proposed for the world community are not esoteric and obscure. They are the
values that world leaders have been advocating for the past 100 years. They include human rights,
religious pluralism, gender equity, the rule of law, environmental protection, sustainable worldwide
economic growth, poverty alleviation, prevention and cessation of conflicts between countries,
elimination of weapons of mass destruction, humanitarian assistance, and preservation of cultural
diversity.

• There are significant gaps of policy in many domains, large questions about how to get countries and
organizations to comply with existing policy frameworks, and issues of accountability and
transparency. Most importantly, from a global citizenship perspective, there is an absence of
mechanisms that enable greater citizen participation in the growing number of institutions practicing
global governance.

• Governance at the global level, for the most part, is in the hands of the representatives of sovereign
states and technocrats. Global governance organizational leaders are usually distant and removed
from those that their institutions serve.
Global Citizenship Education

"Education must be not only a

transmission of culture but also a
provider of alternative views of the
world and a strengthener of skills to
explore them", Jerome S. Bruner.
Global citizenship education best implies a set of value and attitudes to improve the world and its
inhabitants, engage with diverse groups in the locality, and interconnect people an issue of the world.

• Global citizenship education does not only belong exclusively to tertiary education. It can also be applied
in all levels of education.

• Global citizenship education is always adapted to local contexts. It is relevant today

because it is warranted in light of contemporary challenges, and it is a way to
understand, connect, relate and share with other cultures. Citizenship education &
knowledge of issues are an imperative in the world of globalization.
 Politically through international relations and systems of regulation.

 Socially and culturally through the media and telecommunications, and through travel and migration

Economically through trade

Environmentally through sharing one planet

 The opportunities our fast-changing ‘globalized’ world offers young people are enormous. But so too are the challenges.
Young people are entitled to an education that equips them with the knowledge, skills and values they need in order to
embrace the opportunities and challenges they encounter, and to create the kind of world that they want to live in. An
education supports their development as Global Citizens.

 Education for Global Citizenship and Sustainable Development also promotes pupil participation in the learning process
and in decision-making for the following reasons:

Everything done in school sends out messages, so we need to exemplify the values we wish to promote. If we wish to
affirm beliefs about the equality of all human beings and the importance of treating everyone fairly and with respect, we
need to ensure that learning processes, and relationships between pupils and teachers, reflect and reinforce these values.

Research shows that in more democratic schools pupils feel more in control of their learning, and the quality of teaching,
learning and behavior is better.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child affirms the right of children to have their opinions taken into account on
matters that affect them.
Global Citizenship Education

(GCED)
Global Citizenship Education (GCED) is
UNESCO’s response to these challenges. It
works by empowering learners of all ages to
understand that these are global, not local
issues and to become active promoters of more
peaceful, tolerant, inclusive, secure and
sustainable societies.

GCED is a strategic area of UNESCO’s

Education Sector program and builds on the
work of Peace and Human Rights Education. It
aims to instill in learners the values, attitudes
and behaviors that support responsible global
citizenship: creativity, innovation, and
commitment to peace, human rights and
sustainable development.
 UNESCO’s work in this area is grounded in its own Constitution which aims to ‘build peace in the
minds of men and women,’ the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Education 2030 Agenda
and Framework for Action, notably target 4.7 of the Sustainable Development Agenda, the
Recommendation concerning Education for International Understanding, Co-operation and Peace
and Education relating to Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (1974), and the World
Program for Human Rights Education (link is external) (2005-ongoing).
 Under the GCED umbrella, UNESCO has several special themes: Preventing violent extremism
through education, Education about the Holocaust and genocide, Languages in education and the
promotion of the rule of law through global citizenship education.
 UNESCO collaborates with an extensive global network to disseminate GCED including its own
Category 1 institutes, other UN agencies and inter-governmental organizations, including regional
organizations, most notably: the UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for
Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP), the International Institute for
Capacity Building in Africa (IICBA), the UNESCO Institute for Statistic (UIS),
the Asia-Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding
(APCIEU), the UNESCO Associated Schools Project Network (ASPNet) and
UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs.
What does it look like in the classroom?
"Education is not a preparation for life, it is life itself." John Dewey
Education for Global Citizenship deals with issues of global interdependence, diversity of
identities and cultures, sustainable development, peace & conflict and inequities of power,
resources & respect.

These issues are addressed in the classroom through a wide and evolving variety of participatory
teaching and learning methodologies, including structured discussion and debate, role-play,
ranking exercises, and communities of enquiry. Such active methods are now established as good
practice in education, and are not unique to global citizenship. Curriculum for Excellence has at its
core a commitment to improved student participation in order to develop the four capacities:
successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors
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THANK YOU!
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