The Moral and the Political in Global Citizenship and Global Citizenship Education

• In Event: Global Citizenship Education and Sustainability Theories, Practices, and Policies

Abstract

The concept of global citizenship can express different views and different political orientations. Based on a review of the literature we distinguish an open, a moral, and a social political form of global citizenship. An open global citizenship expresses a neoliberal market oriented view, a moral (cosmopolitan) form expresses a concern for humanity, and a social political form expresses a need for social justice and more equal power relations.
In an empirical study we interviewed teachers of secondary education about these forms of global citizenship in their education. Most teachers avoid the social political and stress a moral global citizenship. We argue for a practice of global citizenship education in which the social political is presented as one the possible perspectives. Learning to think about different ways of organising the world should be a purpose of global citizenship education. A social justice oriented should be part of educational discourses and practices.
Based on this research we recently developed a scale to measure the three different forms of global citizenship and global citizenship education. At the conference, we will present the first quantitative data collected with this instrument among university students and teachers in the area of moral and citizenship education, both in the Netherlands and in Indonesia. The first analyses show interesting differences between the Dutch and the Indonesian students. The Dutch students focus in particular on a moral concept of global citizenship, the Indonesian students favour a social justice global citizenship stronger. This comparison is of interest because it is a comparison between a Western and an Asian country, and both countries had a colonial historical relationship in which the Netherlands dominated Indonesia.

Author

• Wiel M. Veugelers, University of Humanistic Studies Utrecht