Global Citizenship in Education
In our increasingly interconnected world, the actions and decisions of ordinary citizen are more likely to affect others across the globe than ever before. This can be extremely beneficial but can also be extremely dangerous. Within the educational system, the concept of global citizenship education (GCE) is beginning to supersede movements such as multicultural education, peace education, human rights education and international education. Additionally, GCE rapidly incorporates references to the aforementioned movements. The concept of global citizenship has been linked with awards offered for helping humanity. Teachers are given the responsibility of being social change agents. Audrey Osler, the director of the Centre for Citizenship and Human Rights Education at the University of Leeds, England affirms that “Education for living together in an interdependent world is not an optional extra, but an essential foundation”. With GCE gaining attention, scholars are investigating the field and developing perspectives. Here are a few popular perspectives:
Critical and transformative Perspective
Citizenship is defined by being a member with rights and responsibilities. Therefore GCE must encourage active involvement. Dr Michael O’Sullivan believes GCE needs to be taught from a critical and transformative perspective, whereby students are thinking feeling, and doing. GCE requires students to be politically critical and personally transformative. In this learning environment teachers provide social issues in a neutral and grade-appropriate way for students to understand, grapple with, and do something about.
Worldmindedness
Graham Pike and David Selby view GCE as having two strands Worldmindedness is the first strand which refers to understanding the world as one unified system and a responsibility to view the interests of individual nations with the overall needs of the planet in mind. The second strand is Child-centeredness, a pedagogical approach that encourages students to explore and discover on their own and addresses each learner as an individual with inimitable beliefs, experiences, and talents.
Holistic Understanding
The Holistic Understanding perspective was founded by Merry Merryfield, and focuses on understanding the self in relation to the global community. This perspective follows a curriculum that attends to human values and beliefs, global systems/issues/history, cross cultural understandings, and the development of analytical and evaluative skills.
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Famous quotes containing the words global, citizenship and/or education:
“As the global expansion of Indian and Chinese restaurants suggests, xenophobia is directed against foreign people, not foreign cultural imports.”
—Eric J. Hobsbawm (b. 1917)
“To see self-sufficiency as the hallmark of maturity conveys a view of adult life that is at odds with the human condition, a view that cannot sustain the kinds of long-term commitments and involvements with other people that are necessary for raising and educating a child or for citizenship in a democratic society.”
—Carol Gilligan (20th century)
“Columbus stood in his age as the pioneer of progress and enlightenment. The system of universal education is in our age the most prominent and salutary feature of the spirit of enlightenment, and it is peculiarly appropriate that the schools be made by the people the center of the day’s demonstration. Let the national flag float over every schoolhouse in the country and the exercises be such as shall impress upon our youth the patriotic duties of American citizenship.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)