With the world growing increasingly interdependent, global citizenship education is becoming more vital than ever for international solidarity and inspiring learners of all ages to positively partake in their local and global communities. No wonder it serves as the perfect time to become a citizen of the world.
But what exactly does global citizenship education entail and why does it matter in the first place? Unlike citizenship, the global citizenship concept is based on the idea we are connected not just with one country, but with a broader global community. For this reason, positively contributing to it, we can also influence change on regional, national and local level.
It is worth noting that global citizens don’t carry with them any special passport of official title, nor do they need to travel to other countries or speak different languages to become one. Instead, it revolves around the mindset and actual actions that a person takes daily.
When you become a citizen of the world, you understand how the planet works, value differences in people, and work with others to find solutions to issues too big for any country. Keep in mind citizenship and global citizenship don’t exclude each other. Rather these two concepts are mutually reinforcing.
Thanks to the transformations that the world has gone through in the last couple of years, how we work, teach, and learn also has to change. Global citizenship educations is aimed at helping learners understand the world around them and work together to fix the big issues that affect everyone, regardless of where they are from.
Global citizenship education is all about teaching and learning to become these global citizens who live together peacefully on the planet. Actually, it entails adjusting curricula and content of the lessons to offer knowledge about the world and the interconnected nature of contemporary challenges and threats.
If this is not enough, it focuses on nurturing cognitive, social and other skills to put the knowledge into practice and make it relevant to learners’ realities. In short, be sure to do your homework before you finally become a citizen of the world.
