Peaceful Minds, Global Hearts: The Transformative Power of Global Citizenship Education on European Youth Beliefs about Global Citizenship Behavior

• In Event: Educating for peace and global citizenship: Integrating life skills, non-violence, and philosophical wisdom for social cohesion and sustainable futures

Proposal

Peaceful Minds, Global Hearts: The Transformative Power of Global Citizenship Education on European Youth Beliefs about Global Citizenship Behavior

Abstract

Global Citizenship Education (GCE) empowers learners to build peaceful, inclusive, and sustainable societies through both curricular and experiential learning. Endorsed by UNESCO’s SDG 4.7, GCE promotes human dignity, environmental responsibility, and critical engagement with global challenges. While its universality is debated, research highlights how gender and socioeconomic inequalities shape its implementation. This paper analyzes GCE learning opportunities among European youth using ICCS 2022 data, with a focus on how civic beliefs intersect with gender and socioeconomic status. Findings suggest schools are moderately effective, calling for deeper inquiry into access and equity.

Objectives

Global Citizenship Education (GCE) lies at the heart of rethinking education and peace in a divided world as it fosters global awareness, critical engagement, and social responsibility by addressing issues like climate change, inequality, and human rights. This paper examines how learning opportunities in GCE shape youth beliefs about global citizenship behavior across 20 European countries. Using data from the ICCS 2022 study (Schulz et al., 2023), it explores intersections with gender (Mostafa, 2021) and socioeconomic status (Goren & Yemini, 2017) within diverse educational contexts.

Research Questions

Within the European context, we explore the following questions:

1. How do national contexts and student engagement with global issues shape beliefs about global citizenship behavior?

2. To what extent is global citizenship education (GCE) integrated into the 8th-grade curriculum across European countries?

3. What gender-based differences exist in students’ self-reported levels of global citizenship beliefs across national contexts?

4. Do students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds report more substantial alignment with global citizenship beliefs compared to peers from lower socioeconomic backgrounds?

Theoretical Framework

This study adopts a comparative approach grounded in Farrell’s (1979) concept of conceptual equivalence, enabling cross-contextual analysis of Global Citizenship Education (GCE) among European youth. Key concepts—citizenship, opportunities to learn, socioeconomic status (SES), and gender—form the core of our theoretical framework. Citizenship, as Giroux and Bosio (2021) argue, is a dynamic, participatory practice shaped by political, ethical, and cultural forces, extending beyond legal status to include lived experience and moral responsibility. Their critical pedagogy fosters reflective and transformative engagement with global challenges, including climate change, migration, inequality, and threats to peace. Opportunities to learn, defined by Carroll (1963) and Husen (1967), include access to quality instruction, time, materials, and support—all influenced by SES and gender. SES reflects family income, education, and occupation, while gender captures socially constructed roles and expectations. These factors shape educational access and outcomes. Using data from the IEA ICCS 2022, this study explores how GCE intersects with SES and gender to reveal structural inequalities and inform inclusive educational practices across Europe.

Methods

Data Analysis

This paper uses multilevel analysis to account for the hierarchical structure of educational data, recognizing that students are nested within classrooms, schools, and countries. This approach distinguishes individual-level factors—such as gender and socioeconomic status (SES)—from broader contextual influences. We examine how these factors relate to S_GLOBCIT scores (a scale measuring students’ perception of the importance of good citizenship behavior), GCE learning opportunities, and outcomes across countries. All variables were standardized to a z-score to facilitate comparability across measures.

Data Sources

This study draws on data from the ICCS 2022, which surveyed over 66,000 eighth-grade students across 24 education systems, including the 20 European countries in this study (Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, France, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands, Germany [North Rhine-Westphalia & Schleswig-Holstein], Norway, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden). With nationally representative samples from 2,800 schools, ICCS assesses civic knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors, offering insights into youth engagement with democratic values and global citizenship (Torney-Purta et al., 2001). We focus on the Global Citizenship Behavior Scale (S_GLOBCIT), which comprises four items that measure beliefs about globally oriented citizenship (Schulz et al., 2024, p. 202). Our analysis explores how access to GCE is shaped by gender (Mostafa, 2021), socioeconomic status, and school-related factors (Edwards et al., 2020; Goren & Yemini, 2017). Scale scores were estimated using the IRT Rasch partial credit model (Masters & Wright, 1997). Complete information about the scaling procedures can be found in the ICCS 2022 Technical Report (Schulz et al., 2024).

Results

Q1: National Contexts and Global Citizenship Beliefs

Participating countries show notable differences in students’ global citizenship beliefs, shaped by cultural, social, and educational contexts (European Commission, 2020; OECD, 2018; Tarozzi & Inguaglato, 2018; UNESCO, 2024). These contextual variations likely influence how GCE opportunities affect student outcomes.

Q2: GCE Integration in 8th-Grade Curricula

Across all countries, opportunities to learn (OTL) are significantly linked to stronger global citizenship beliefs. The strongest effects are in Italy (b = 0.29), Netherlands (b = 0.28), and Norway (b = 0.26); weaker but still significant effects appear in Spain and Slovakia (b = 0.14). Weaker coefficients in Spain, Slovakia, and Schleswig-Holstein suggest that limited access or quality of GCE integration in the school curriculum may reduce its impact.

Q3: Gender Differences in Global Citizenship Beliefs

Girls consistently report stronger global citizenship beliefs than boys. The largest gender gaps are in Sweden (b = 0.48) and Poland (b = 0.44), with smaller differences in Malta (b = 0.20) and France. In Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia (b = 0.35) shows a slightly wider gap than Schleswig-Holstein (b = 0.32), possibly reflecting cultural or educational differences.

Q4: Socioeconomic Influence on Global Citizenship Beliefs

Socioeconomic status (SES) significantly affects global citizenship beliefs. The strongest effects are seen in Lithuania and France (b = 0.11), followed by Schleswig-Holstein, Cyprus, and Slovakia (b = 0.10–0.11). Spain and Norway show weaker associations, with regional variation within Germany.

Significance

The importance of Global Citizenship Education (GCE) is apparent in today’s world, marked by rising extremism, human rights violations, forced displacement, increasing wars, and widespread disinformation. Schools must offer coherent curricula and consistent civic values, as these cannot be left solely to families. GCE must be taught and practiced across classrooms, communities, and nations.

Authors

• Maria Teresa Tatto, Arizona State University

• Zhijun Chen

• Andres Sandoval-Hernandez, University of Bath