Blue Sky Stuff: #GlobalCitizenshipEducation

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Global citizenship education is the tool people need to help them critically examine our shared world. It enables us to explore the impact of our own actions and attitudes, both locally and globally, by encouraging us to challenge our own assumptions and question the systems we live in. Through a focus on global issues – such as human rights, equality and diversity – global citizenship education can help shift individual world views and empower us to act in support of fairer and more sustainable societies. People must understand the complexities of the challenges we face in order to have the power to engage with them or take meaningful action.

In Scotland, there is support for global citizenship education in schools through the development education network, IDEAS, which is made up of regional development education centres across Scotland and supported by larger development charities. The classroom has been a focal point for discussing and analysing the impact of the Covid-19 crisis and it has become clear that now, more than ever, young people need to be equipped with the skills and values to negotiate the uncertainties we face.

But we never stop needing to learn about the world around us or how to be an active citizen. Old and young; we all have a role to play in building a better world. Lifelong learning is part of the focus of the EU-funded Bridge 47 project. In Scotland, the project has partnered with organisations like the NHS.

The principles of global citizenship apply to governments as well as people. This was echoed by Scotland’s International Development Alliance in an open letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson regarding the announcement earlier in June that the Department for International Development (DfID) will merge with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). With bases in both East Kilbride and London, DfID has built over 20 years of experience in administering overseas UK Aid to promote sustainable development and eliminate poverty. The concerns raised by the IDEAS network and Scotland’s International Development Alliance are that the crucial aims of DfID could be diminished if combined with the political and strategic aspirations of the FCO. Members of the Alliance called for the UK government to endorse four key pledges to ensure a commitment to the eradication of poverty and aid effectiveness, accountability, and support for the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.