The Role of a Responsible Global Citizen (Gitizen) in the 21st Century: The Need, the Challenges and the Future

Abstract

UNESCO promoted global citizenship (gitizenship) since the launch of the UN Secretary-General’s Global Education First Initiative (GEFI) on August 22nd 2012, which made fostering global citizenship one of its three priorities. This is a pedagogical guidance on global citizenship with 3 major outcomes: Education, Defense and Trade. (Taylor, 1997). It is the prerogative of the international community to clarify the conceptual underpinnings of global citizenship and provide policy and programmatic directions, this paper which is to a large extent conceptual and directive in nature has been developed in response after deeply studying the needs and demands of and on integrating global citizenship in most of the active countries in the world. It presents suggestions for translating global citizenship education concepts into practical and age specific topics learning objectives in a way that follows principles of adaptation in local contexts.It is intended as a resource for educators, curriculum developers, trainers as well as policy-makers, but it will also be useful for other education stakeholders working in non-formal and informal settings. Global citizenship encompasses a sense of belonging to whole humanity and common mankind. It emphasizes political, economic, social and cultural interdependency and interconnectedness between the local, the national and the global. Growing interest in global citizenship has resulted in an increased attention towards global dimension of citizenship, education, policy, curricula, teaching and learning. They can serve as the basis for defining global citizenship goals, learning objectives and competencies, as well as priorities for assessing and evaluating learning. These core conceptual dimensions are based on three domains of learning: cognitive, socio-emotional intelligence and global citizenship education (Freud, 1905).