WHAT IS GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION?
Global Citizenship Education (GCED) is an internationally recognised framework for delivering transformative education that begins in early childhood education, runs through primary, intermediate and high school, to tertiary education and lifelong learning. It has evolved from a range of initiatives such as education for international understanding, global studies, and education for sustainable development. GCED marks a rapid shift in education to meet the needs of the globalised, interdependent environment of the 21st century.
OVERVIEW
Global citizenship education is holistic and interdisciplinary; embedded in the teaching and learning, and pastoral care of the school, engendering empathy and prioritising well-being.
Giving equal weight to gaining knowledge, developing good character, and critical thinking skills fosters connectedness with knowledge and common goods. Students understand that it is their responsibility to seek the truth and to act upon it and not to assume the validity of information presented to them.
GCED covers three domains of learning – cognitive, socio-emotional, and behavioural. The three domains of learning are consistent with the principles of the Te Tiriti o Waitangi and linked to Te Ao Māori by three fundamental concepts, outlined in a Ministry of Education online document, Pūtātara (a call to action).
Tūranagawaewae - understanding where I stand
Kaitiakitanga - caring for people and place (guardianship)
Whakapuāwai - flourishing ever forward
GCED supports the aspirations of the New Zealand Curriculum, especially supporting its values, principles and key competencies. It fulfils international obligations for quality, future focused education for all, including UNESCO’s pillars of learning and the SDGs.
RATIONALE
The development of education for global citizenship is as exciting as it is urgent.
Rapid technological advancement paves the way for global problem solving at the same time as the earth and all that live on it face unprecedented challenges and existential threats, including climate change, rising nationalism, and violent extremism. Global citizenship is about being responsible and ready for our complex and rapidly changing world.
Responsibility is key, it gives legitimacy to the notion of global citizenship and provides a sound philosophical underpinning for teaching and learning. It is the basis for a move in thinking from the ‘us and them’ of self-interest to the ‘we’ of shared interests, while preventing the watering down of national and cultural identity by globalisation.
We can be at one with our place in the world when we are at one with ourselves. We seek to create an environment in which students will develop character strengths of resilience, optimism, flexible thinking, emotional regulation, empathy, and emotional awareness.