In addressing the quality of education in the post-2015 agenda, the concept of teaching global citizenship is especially puzzling - to policy maker, statisticians, and advocates alike. How do we design a curriculum that encompasses peace and tolerance, and how do we reliably measure the effectiveness of such a curriculum?
In the UN Secretary-General's Education First Initiative, global citizenship is listed as one of three priorities, intended to encompass "to forge more just, peaceful, tolerant and inclusive societies." For many, the benefit of this is to increase widespread participation in our global economy. For some, the most important feature of global citizenship is a renewed attitude of protection toward our common environment. For me, the recognition of our shared humanity would be enough - children thousands of miles apart mutually recognizing one another's existence and importance is reason enough to mandate a segment of universal curriculum.
Critical thinking and preparation for sustainable development as elements of global citizenship are emphasized in the brief Making Education a Priority in the Post-2015 Development Agenda, even though the Learning Metrics Task Force acknowledges the inevitable challenges in measuring and creating effective strategies for teaching global citizenship. The juxtaposition between these two values is intriguing: one within yourself, one between you and your community. If this connection is indeed as significant as it seems, it may serve to highlight the importance of the global citizenship goal overall.
Furthermore, the goal of global citizenship is not one that applies exclusively or even primarily to developing countries. Soft-skills like citizenship are displaced when easily measurable priorities ("can they or can they not answer this multiple choice question correctly?") are advertised, and this has been an issue that the U.S. has faced in recent years. Public schooling was arguably created for the purpose of fostering citizenship; successful coexistence between groups and individuals is conducive to maintenance of civil society. Given the boundlessness of our current capacity to communicate across physical barriers, all society is now a global society. Let's not forget that a world of efficient workers that nonetheless don't know how to get along with one another can never be an effective world.
The last sentence finds the sweet spot. Skills are important to teach, of course, but learning to apply an education in any number of adaptable ways is a top outcome of a strong interdisciplinary education.
ReplyDeleteKeep 'em coming, Aja.