People
issue 91 dec 2024

Empowering Students for a Changing World: A Global and Social Justice Perspective

Professor Wiel Veugelers, a renowned expert on citizenship education from the University of Humanistic Studies in Utrecht, offers fresh insights into the evolving concept of citizenship in today’s interconnected world. Beyond political engagement, he emphasizes the growing importance of cultural, social and environmental dimensions in shaping global citizens. Drawing on his extensive research and cultural comparisons, he explores diverse approaches to global citizenship. In this excerpt from his talk at the recent joint conference by NIE’s Singapore Centre for Character and Citizenship Education and Seoul National University’s Character Education Research Center, he inspires educators to present varied perspectives while empowering students to become thoughtful, inclusive contributors to global democracy.

 

Defining Citizenship Education

As part of my membership of the Programme Advisory Committee of the International Study on Citizenship Education, the definition of citizenship education I have come up with comprises three parts.

Firstly, education for citizenship is about acquiring the abilities and attitudes necessary for an individual to participate in political and civic life on a local, national and global level. The second part of citizenship education is about learning to relate to others – particularly to those with different social, cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Lastly, there is the direction, or purpose, that can imply concerns for the sustainability of humanity, the planet and of democracy.

Evolution of the Concept of Citizenship

The concept of citizenship has changed over the past decades; I call this a deepening of the concept of citizenship. At first, citizenship was only formulated on a political level and was about political life. However, nowadays it is also about the social and cultural life, about how to live together, about what our cultural heritage is, and about things like our important books and our language. The social and cultural levels, and even our relationship with nature, have become part of citizenship over time. I refer to this as the process of deepening. Deepening means that citizenship focuses strongly on the identity development and character development of the people.

Traditionally, the concept of citizenship was about the nation and the region, but the concept has been broadening from the national and regional to the global level. With the broadening of the concept of citizenship, global citizenship has also grown to be a big concept that includes many aspects of our life and that also influences the identity development of young children, young people and future citizens.

“At first, citizenship was only formulated on a political level and was about political life. However, nowadays it is also about the social and cultural life, about how to live together, about what our cultural heritage is, and about things like our important books and our language.”

Professor Wiel Veugelers, on what citizenship means today

Different Types of Global Citizenships

After doing some research projects on global citizenship education, studying the literature and doing some empirical studies, I have been able to distinguish three difference types of global citizenship.

First, we have an open global citizenship. This is a neoliberal market ideology of openness, open to the world and other cultures, and very market oriented. It’s not very easy to find real philosophers of this kind of global citizenship.

Next, we have a moral global citizenship. This type of citizenship is about appreciating diversity, enhancing humanity, and taking care of the world, and is a moral call for a better world for all of us. This is articulated in particular by Martin Nussbaum and by David Hansen of Columbia University.

The third one is what I call a socio-political global citizenship. The moral global citizenship has been criticized due to not being political enough, and that global citizenship should also challenge power relations and ask for social justice. As such, the socio-political global citizen is more oriented to change power relations. This type of citizenship tends to be influenced by people like Paulo Freire and Chantal Mouffe.

Research and Findings on Global Citizenship

In an interview with 10 Dutch teachers, I presented the different orientations of global citizenship to them and asked them about what they thought.

These teachers found an open and more global citizenship important, but not so much a socio-political citizenship. Several teachers said that they know values are always embedded in social and political relations, but they preferred to focus on the moral level and were reluctant to focus explicitly on political values and on more transformative ideas, in particular.

The more I thought about it, the more I felt I could understand them. In the Netherlands, and many other countries, it is not common to speak a lot about social and political power relations. They do not play much part in the formal curriculum and are not commonly practiced in schools. As such, individual teachers end up not paying much attention to social and political power relations. However, it is my opinion that teachers should still show that the socio-political global perspective is still a part of global citizenship education. I do not ask them to support this idea, but to at least pay attention to it.

In another research I conducted, I used my moral and citizenship students from the University of Humanistic Studies in Utrecht and reached out to students from the citizenship education programme at Yogyakarta State University. I then asked these two groups of students about how important they find the three different orientations of global citizenship, articulating more on the socio-political global citizenship aspect.

Based on my findings, the Dutch and Indonesian students did not have many differences in their opinion of open global citizenship and moral global citizenship. Interestingly, I found that the Indonesian students were far more socio-politically oriented than the Dutch students. While the Dutch students wanted to stay more on the moral level, the Indonesian students wanted to go beyond and focus on the socio-political level.

This shows the importance of operationalizing global citizenship. Often, many people say that the Western people are more aligned with global citizenship than those from the global south. However, my findings showed that the Indonesian students were more politically engaged than the Dutch students. As such, it really highlights the importance of articulating what you mean by global citizenship and global citizenship education.

Developing Global Citizens

To develop global citizens, we can look into the different elements of democracy.

First, we have the freedom of speech that allows people to develop autonomy. Next is that active participation and engagement in political life, civil society and in the community. Lastly, we can gather individuals from all levels of society to foster deliberation and dialogue and build consensus with one another.

Developing global citizens in this manner can help to make society larger, richer and more inclusive by giving everyone a chance to participate in democracy and in society. However, it is important to realize that people have different ideas and practices of democracy.

It is also important to note that the educational ideologies of each society shape and influence the global society.

Overall, it is important to have a pedagogical strategy for global citizenship education. I think it is very important that teachers show different perspectives in all kinds of ways, show that the political aspect is indeed part of citizenship education, and focus on the values embedded in social and political power relations. Lastly, teachers should show different perspectives without taking a strong political stance, thus giving the students the democracy and possibility to articulate their own position.

Never Miss A Story
Scroll To Top