global citizenship

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

an idiom and educational concept describing an identity and set of responsibilities that transcend national citizenship, based on recognition of the interdependence of all people and the need for individuals to engage with global issues — climate change, inequality, human rights, migration — as members of a single global community with obligations to one another that are not bounded by national borders; global citizenship education — promoted by UNESCO and numerous educational institutions — aims to develop learners' knowledge of global issues, skills for cross-cultural communication and critical thinking, and dispositions of empathy, solidarity, and civic responsibility that extend beyond the national community; critics of global citizenship note the tension between cosmopolitan ideals and the persistent realities of national sovereignty, inequality of access to global mobility, and the risk that the concept reflects elite globalised perspectives rather than the lived experience of people whose primary political and social ties remain firmly local; nonetheless the concept captures an important aspiration for education and civic identity in an interconnected world