Shanghai 2006
The AIE Conference in Shanghai (27-29 October 2006) brought together more than 300 international Conference delegates for a full programme of reflection and exchange on “EDUCATING FOR GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP”.
The Strand Themes were the following
Abstracts of the strand presentations can be found below. If you would like to have more information about one or more presentations, please write an email to the AIE (info@intedalliance.org)
1. Defining global citizenship
Issues surrounding the current debate, in both national and international contexts, about the nature of global/world citizenship both from ideological/political standpoints and from the realities of implementing ideas in practice. Ideological and pragmatic dimensions have been explored.
Strand 1 Abstracts
2. Developing the global citizen in diverse contexts
Exploration of the ways in which differing cultural, political, economic, social and religious perspectives can contribute to the achievement of education goals for global citizenship in both national and international institutions.
Strand 2 Abstracts
3. Helping teachers and administrators to promote global citizenship
Local, regional and global implications for the preparation and professional development of teachers and administrators in the pedagogic challenges for global citizenship education in national and international schools.
Strand 3 Abstracts
4. Designing curriculum for global citizenship and international understanding
An exploration of the ways in which appropriate forms of knowledge, skills, attitudes and values in the promotion of global citizenship can be incorporated in the design of subject- and non-subject-based curricula at all levels of the educational process, including lifelong learning, in both national and international contexts. Challenges in the assessment and evaluation of global citizenship.
Strand 4 Abstracts
5. Partnerships that make a difference in promoting global citizenship
Sharing of experiences of successful collaborations in the promotion of global citizenship and the generation of criteria for effective planning for partnership in the future, within and between both national and international partners.
Strand 5 Abstracts
6. Challenges for institutions that promote global citizenship
Issues surrounding the development of effective organisational structures, management regimes and governance models in the promotion of global citizenship in both national and international institutional settings.
Strand 6 Abstracts
Downloads
Strand 1 Abstracts
Strand 2 Abstracts
Strand 3 Abstracts
Strand 4 Abstracts
Strand 5 Abstracts
Strand 6 Abstracts
Keynote Speech
We Humankind, Our Earth—Education for the Global Citizenship in the Globalization Era Speech at Alliance for International Education Conference 2006, Shanghai, China
Paul Yip Kwok-wah, Chairman of Hong Kong Policy Research Institute and Council Chairman of Institute for Asian & European Studies at Xi’an Jiaotong University
Civilization interactions among regions and continents, including materials, knowledge and cultural exchanges, whether in a peaceful or conflicting way, have been taking place in the history of humankind. Nevertheless, globalization in the past 20 to 30 years has had the epoch-making significance in terms of civilization interactions. In the real world or the virtual world, our world has grown interrelated and interdependent more than ever. Such form of relation and interdependence has been different from any of those that existed before, and the degree and speed of the changes of relation and interdependence have been far greater than any of those in the past.
Globalization has brought to many countries, companies and individuals unprecedented markets and opportunities. However, the present-day world has not been able to establish a worldwide system, which can transcend interests of individual countries and sets limits to superpowers in pursuing unilaterally and across the world their national interests in political, economic, military and value aspects. We need a system, which is genuinely concerned with the interests of the whole world and humankind, effectively co-ordinates the development of the whole world and leads the globalization to develop along a path based on the knowledge and wisdom of humankind. In this way, the majority of the people of the world will be benefited and this planet can continue to provide a lasting habitat for our future generations and coexistence of all species.
A key to building such system is to construct a world outlook and value. We have already seen that as there is absence of a world outlook and value which concern with the interests of the whole world, it is difficult to establish a balanced and harmonious world order. This era is confronted with the question of whether civilizations are conflicting or integrating with each other and how people take up the responsibilities of a world citizen in addition to the responsibilities of a national citizen.
All schools in the world should take initiatives to meet the challenges of education for global citizenship, tell our children how the world is going to change and teach them
how to become a national citizen and at the same time a world citizen. For an educator, this has been the most urgent job so far. This is because the world is changing every second, and members of the next generation are becoming adults rapidly in an ever-changing environment. Their world outlook and value system will affect the future of humankind.
Globalization: How we look at the world and ourselves
The greatest impact of globalization on us is the challenge it poses to our world outlook and value system, which are the core of forming the building capacities and the attitudes of individuals and countries. The concepts to view the world and values to guide the deeds will determine the capacity, scope, way and effectiveness of people interacting with each other, will determine whether the interactions will enhance understanding, trust and co-operation or increase suspicions and confrontations, and will also determine whether the interactions will promote the well-being of the majority of people or lead to more misfortunes and deaths of humankind.
The world has entered a space era in which ordinary people can participate. Only if we expand our sight and perspective beyond the Earth to the universe and look at humankind and our blue planet from the perspective of the universe, we can understand better our environment, tolerate more the plight that we are facing, and adopt a more suitable direction for development. Only by using the yardstick of the vastnesses of the universe to judge the smallness of humankind, we can really understand that as human beings we have to be humble.
The accumulated achievement of the science and technology in the past 100 years has affirmed that through the various dangers confronting the Earth, twists and turns of species and millions of luck in the past billions of years of the evolution of our planet, humankind and the Earth have survived. In the vast universe, humankind is rare but it cannot be affirmed that we are unique. So how can we be arrogant and reckless? How can we be impassive and merciless? How cannot we co-exist with other species? How cannot different civilizations appreciate each other and live harmoniously? How cannot today’s humankind leave behind a sustainable home to next generations of humankind and other species?
In order to display the merits and avoid the demerits of globalization, and enhance well-being of humankind, we have to look at our world outlook and value system on a vantage point and devote our efforts to educate the next generation to become global citizens. This is unavoidable both to national schools or international schools.
To international schools, this is an urgent pilot scheme. Students in international schools come from those mobile families in the upper economic stratum. They are from different countries and races, speak different mother’s tongues, and come from different religions and cultures. They study and live at the same campus, and they share joy and sorrow together, and their future is tied together. They will shape the future world.
We have to reflect on what we are relaying and will relay to the next generation regarding the world outlook and value system. We also have to reflect on how do we look at the opportunities and challenges in the globalization era—will we stick to our stubbornness and prejudice due to our own fear and arrogance, and commit mistakes and foolish acts? Will we again engage in a fight for world supremacy because of our concern about short-term benefits?
How do we look at other civilizations? Will we be hindered by the past arrogance and prejudice? Are we getting from closeness and misunderstanding to conflicts of civilizations?
How do we look at the balance of distributions of worldwide resources, interests and responsibilities? Will the imbalance of such distributions lead to more serious terrorism?
How do we look at our own planet? Will we leave a beautiful home with a good natural environment to our future generations and other species?
How do we look at the balance between nationalism and globalism? While we are exercising the rights of a national have we neglected the rights and obligations of a member of the Earth’s inhabitants? While we are constructing our own country, should we also show concern for other corners of the Earth and look at our planet from the perspective of the universe?
What kind of citizens the world needs
When we look back at our blue planet from the universe, we find the interconnectedness among human beings and species is increasing. No country, region or nation can now close to others and no citizens can be confined to their own countries. Interconnectedness and interactions have become the basic existence mode of today’s humankind. The concepts of family and country have been extended to a global level, and the rights and obligations are not confined to country and nation, but also are related to other countries and nations as well as other species. Citizens of every country, therefore, have dual citizenships – that is, they are nationals of their own country, and at the same time global citizens of the “global village”. As a world citizen, a person is a member of 6 billion people on the Earth, and a member of one kind of hundreds of thousands of species on the Earth. Every responsible country and every responsible citizen has to balance the rights, interests and responsibilities of national citizens with those of global citizens.
On the question of “what kind of citizens the world needs”, this conference will explore from various perspectives. Here, I would only offer my own thoughts on it for your consideration.
Firstly, we have to reflect on some age-old notions and clichés, such as Darwin’s natural law of competition and “humans are top form of species”. How should we adjust our views on them or adopt a new interpretation? Should we make the value system of a certain civilization or country as the sole criterion of the world on right or wrong? How will different civilizations and faiths engage in dialogues and integration
so that a world value and ethical system that is conducive to the co-existence and co-prosperity of humankind can be established? How do we make the traditional ethics an integral part of the worldwide ethics today?
The core value of China’s Confucian tradition is “to learn for oneself”, that is, to learn to make oneself to become a perfect person with a mission. “Oneself” in the modern sense is “citizen”. The Confucian tradition emphasizes “cultivating one’s moral character” and extending responsibilities and obligations from individuals to include others, families, neighbors, society, country and nature in order to achieve the “combination of nature and humankind”. The Chinese classic work, The Great Learning, says, “The ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the world, first ordered well their own states. Wishing to order well their states, they first regulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons...” A Chinese scholar in 11th Century, Zhang Zai, contended that “all people are my brothers and sisters, and all things are my companions.” One of China’s traditions is to extend the humanity concern for individuals to community, species, nature, the Earth, and the universe. This kind of sentiments of “all people are my brothers and sisters, and all things are my companions” and “combination of nature and humankind” is a manifestation of co-existence and co-growth of individuals as national citizens and global citizens and of all species, and also a combination of the humanity concern for “we humankind” and global concern for “our Earth”. “We” used here, as “self” used in the past by the Chinese, refers not only to individuals, relatives, friends, colleagues and community, but also to the Earth, humankind and all species, and their lasting co-existence and co-growth.
Global citizens should hold up the perspective and obligation of “we humankind and Earth”, should strike a balance between different countries and nations in regard to their worldwide rights, distribution of resources and responsibilities. Global citizens should respect cultural differences, cherish the attitude of endorsing co-existence, co-sharing and co-prosperity, and stick to worldwide ethics and value. Global citizens should negotiate differences, solve conflicts, and create harmony and develop together. Speaking at the United Nations Summit to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the world body, Chinese President Hu Jintao talked of civilization tolerance and building a harmonious world. His statement underlines the Chinese culture’s respect for diversity and hope for harmony and common prosperity.
As a world citizen, one has to possess the ability to build up things. One has to possess the basics of modern scientific knowledge and skills; to know how to use the information technology to obtain knowledge and information; to know how to distinguish, analyze and apply the knowledge and information. One has to master the learning and comprehension skills for life-long learning. One has to have a balanced comprehension and internalization of knowledge of science, technology, humanities and arts. One has to acquire an ability to reflect on oneself, good value system whose core is humility, compassion and kindness. In this way, one’s ability to build up things will not easily turn into a destructive force. This is choice dictated by the fate of the world. In 80s of the last century, Club of Rome already made such an advice for people in the 21st Century.
As a world citizen, one has to strike a balance between awareness for the national culture and comprehension of cultural diversity. Knowing one’s national culture is the basis for one’s identity and comprehension of the world’s cultural diversity. Developing different cultures is itself a contribution to the world’s cultural diversity. One should adopt an open, respectful, appreciative, understanding attitude, seeking co-existence and co-prosperity. China’s traditional culture always acknowledges diversity and existence of opposing sides in the world, advocates “being harmonious yet different”, and proposes using harmony to negotiate differences and solve conflicts. Zhang Zai’s famous statement contends that “whenever there is an object, there will be an opposing side; whenever there is an opposing side, there will be an opposition; whenever there is an opposition, there is resentment; whenever there is a resentment, there will be reconciliation and solution.” Regrettably the world is prone not to solve the conflicts and hatred by respecting differences and enhancing harmony, but by fierce struggles or wars and in the way of zero sum game.
As a world citizen, one has to strike a balance in using one’s ability in constructing one’s country and fulfilling one’s mission for the world. Contributing to the construction and development for one’s country and people is part of the effort to contribute to the world’s development. At the same time, one should make an effort to tackle the problems of the worldwide poverty, disasters and diseases. This is the realization of human rights and humanitarian spirit, and also a practical demand arising from the needs for balancing worldwide interests and safety. Every citizen has to bear the responsibility of solving the worldwide ecological and environmental problems. Sustainability is not only a matter for governments, multi-national companies and international organizations, but also an ethical yardstick for individuals in their work, life and consumption. We should take heed of our deeds’ effects on our regions, other regions and future generations and other species. We should above all remember the old wise African saying, “The earth is not ours. It is a treasure we hold in trust for our descendants.”
As a world citizen, one has to understand, admire and implement the worldwide applicable values and ethics, which include rule of law, freedom, democracy, equality, solidarity, tolerance, and respect for nature and shared responsibility. These values and ethics are well stated in international declarations, such as the Charter of the United Nations, International Covenant on Civil and Political Right, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Universal Declaration of Human Responsibilities, and Declaration of a Global Ethic. Mutual understanding, respect and support are ingredients of the worldwide values and ethics, which themselves are the cultural basis for mutual respect, understanding, tolerance and harmony among individuals and peoples in the globalization era. These values and ethics should not only be applied within one country and one nation, but should also be applied in the international community and made the norms for exchanges among countries and nations and the basis for a worldwide system.
If we can arrive at some consensus on global citizenship after discussion, such as the international community’s acknowledgement of worldwide applicable value and ethics, as international schools we should put them in practice and have them reflected in the curriculum, teaching, culture, artistic atmosphere, system, management as well as in the concepts of the staff.
We should not only concern ourselves with the diversity of the nationality, race and culture of our students and staff, nor with whether the teaching medium is a foreign language, the curriculum is from a developed country and the open examination is an international one. The so-called international schools which only concern themselves with these do not necessarily convey effectively the value and notions of international education. The key to education for global citizens is to enact such goals, programmes and curricula, to ensure that the staff understands the cultural diversity, global concern, value and ethics, and to guarantee that the school management fully implements them. Traditional national schools, therefore, can carry out education for global citizenship in their national curriculum. International schools, on the other hand, should play pilot and demonstrative roles in providing education for global citizenship. Of course, education for global citizenship should take reference of the local cultural and practical conditions to underline glocalization which sees the internationalization compatible with indigenization.
Taking up the responsibility of universal ethics
The history of humankind is only a small fraction of Earth’s long history. How far can this “Earth” space ship travel? Where will it be headed to? As things develop, will humankind come to extinction at their own peril? Or will Earth be destroyed by hitting by another planet from the outer space unexpectedly (in fact Earth was hit by other planets many times in the past)? Philosopher Bertrand Russell and scientist Stephen Hawking are worried about if humankind have another 1,000 years ahead of them and if they can avoid the fate of self-destruction.
Human beings appear to be the wisest survivors on the Earth, and they should eventually know the lasting way for humankind and other species to co-exist. Let our educators reflect on the worry raised by the two wise men.
But judging from the knowledge and deeds of humankind today, the answer is still not clear. We are still making an effort to get the answer, and indeed every try is worth.
From the time when Thomas Huxley and others founded The London College of the International Education Society (some of the students came from North Africa and Asia besides those from Europe) for promoting the cosmopolitan concept in 1866 until this conference on education for global citizenship, educators around the world have been making numerous efforts in exploring global citizenship. We need to continue to carry out systematic efforts and studies on concept, culture, programme, curriculum, system and teaching staff. We need to continue to implement education for global citizenship through teaching and learning and school management in order to lead the students to realize internalization of the multi-culture and global ethics.
- Firstly, education for global citizenship should be made into the goal and philosophy of schooling. In the globalization era of 21st Century, it is incumbent upon schools to lead students to look at Earth and humankind from the perspective of the universe. We should be concerned with this planet where we live and the relations between humankind and other species. We should be humble in looking at ourselves, and be happy and positive about our existence. Human beings are only one kind of species on the Earth, should enjoy an equal and independent relation with other species, and share the resources on the Earth. Different nations are like brothers and live together in this common home.
- Bi-lingual or multi-lingual education and multi-cultural education should be a main part of the curriculum. Modern global ethics and value, as well as multi-cultural, multi-religious and multi-racial understanding should be integrated in the language study.
- Co-teaching by teachers from different cultural, linguistic and disciplinary backgrounds should be encouraged so that students can learn in a culturally diversified classroom.
- A tolerant multi-cultural and mutually-appreciative campus culture should be created. Different nations, cultures and religions should be integrated in the campus. Teachers and students should have opportunities in participating in cross-cultural exchanges and in discussing international affairs from a worldwide perspective.
- MIS should be made a strategic part of the campus’s facilities. The MIS in teaching and curriculum, e-learning, human resources and recruitment can greatly enhance the efficiency of school management. They are also a platform for teachers and students to share worldwide information.
- Teaching staff is the most valuable asset of education for global education. In order to educate our next generation as global citizens, our teachers should also possess the perspectives, concepts and attitudes of global citizens. Teachers should be good citizens who are open, engage in life-long education, and have global concern and mission. To international schools, the building of the teaching team is crucial.
In the last days in preparing this speech, I received an e-mail from my daughter who is now in Eastern Africa’s Kenya (where the first ancestors of humankind came), informing me of her blog. After graduation from Harvard University, she now works at an internationally renowned investment bank. In her blog, I learn about her voluntary work--“ At long last, I am no longer a cog in the capitalist machine and can ‘make a difference’. Even though I wasn't working at Doctors without Borders (my life long dream job) I was finally working at a non-profit…. I would be a part of something bigger than myself, I would be helping develop sustainable economies and markets, and I would be doing something noble and ‘worthwhile’.
I’m glad that young people of today have begun to act.
My daughter’s choice has reminded me of my advice to my staff 20 years ago—“The world is our home, and our roots are on the Earth”. I would like to use this concern for Earth to end my speech. I hope that educators from the five continents can jointly take up the mission of the world ethics and value.
Conference Summary
Malcolm McKenzie,Principal, Atlantic College, malcolm.mckenzie@atlanticcollege.org
Ni Hao
Ni Hao, Peng You
Those of you, the majority, who do not speak Chinese, should now put on your headphones.
I wish I could go on in Chinese but, unfortunately, I can’t.
I am not quite sure why I agreed to try to review this conference. I did it last time, two years ago in Düsseldorf. I found it very difficult then. Foolishly, I thought that it might be easier the second time. But it has been much harder. There is one clear reason for this: the nature of our thought, discussion and debate has become more subtle and more sophisticated, more challenging, deeper, more flexible and also more committed. I said last time that the strand sessions were characterized by a rare blend of the committed and the conversational: to this I would add here in Shanghai the open and the intellectual. That is a very unusual mixture: on the one hand the committed yet open, on the other the conversational but intellectual. Friends, we have enjoyed a really exciting weekend.
It has, in addition, become obvious to me during this conference that we have a developing sense of connectedness with what has gone before. Interconnectivity is one of the conference buzzwords and one place where this has local significance for us is within our growing AIE traditions. Some presenters have referred quite deliberately to papers given in both Geneva and Düsseldorf. This allows for a layered, richer dialogue than before. We are building on previous, shared experience and allowing ideas to develop and mature. What we must guard against, however, is the possibility that this might become exclusive and make it difficult for newcomers to enter our dialogues on collegial terms. We must ensure that all our conference participants are citizens of AIE first, and then the world!
The theme of this conference has been Global Citizenship. The word “global”, by itself, has many meanings. One of them is to describe something big, all-embracing, perhaps planetary in size. Betty, the banners that have announced our presence in Shanghai have certainly been that. We have enjoyed a global welcome from you and everyone from your Yew Chung campus and Foundation, as well as from those in Shanghai who have come here in different capacities to be part of our gathering. I add my thanks to the thank yous that have already been given so appreciatively by others.
You have also added a special dimension to this conference by bringing in so many Chinese colleagues and making sure that we have heard, and learnt, about the amazing changes that are taking place in your country. I hope that at future conferences we shall have the privilege again of meeting local colleagues and finding out about educational practices, problems and advancements in the host country. Here, we have become aware of a nation moving at an amazing pace, bursting with pride and apparently little prejudice. Your thirst for growth is infectious. In education, the scale of investment and the increase in student numbers at all levels is staggering. Last night we were told of the further need for about 3000 International Schools in China. This is unbelievable. More important, the quality shifts are deeply impressive. We have been told of teacher reform, of teachers active and outspoken in training workshops, of student-centred learning, of classrooms without walls. I am humbled by the desire among so many to learn as much as possible, and to learn it from all over the world; by the huge growth in English language skills; by the abundant knowledge of the world outside China; and by the genuine interest in becoming global citizens and what you yourself called “equal members of a world community”. There is much to be learned from this example by those in the so-called developed nations who might not share this sense of urgency about progression. The East that is China is clearly learning rapidly from the best of the West and the rest; sadly, I am not sure that the reverse is happening.
Now to the strands. Debate and discussion in the strands, especially in small groups, was intense and provocative. Many participants clearly would have liked more discussion time. Should we restrict presentations to two per session in future and try to put all the papers on the website a week or two before we meet?
Although they had been given different areas of focus, there were many overlapping interests that emerged in these discussions. It is quite impossible to capture the wealth of these sessions in a few words but I shall make some brief comments about each in turn. To jazz things up just a little, I have taken the liberty of giving each strand my own nickname, using some of the many words in the English language that describe friends or groups of acquaintances. So I start with Strand 1, nicknamed the definition dudes.
Definition Dudes
Those trying to define Global Citizenship had both the best and the worst of times and so I shall give them a little more space than the others. At the start, I overheard one saying that his strand was the mother of all strands. After all, how could the other strands proceed without knowing what the true definition of Global Citizenship was! Just after lunch on Friday, the definition dudes had reached the pluralistic decision that definitions of Global Citizenship are so highly variable that perhaps they do not exist. At that point someone suggested ending the conference. This suggestion was bravely rejected and so they went on to further vigorous debate for another day and a half.
At the coffee break yesterday afternoon, I noticed about 8 people in that strand carrying on discussions so intensely that they never left the room. Perhaps that’s what Global Citizenship is: a stimulus much stronger than caffeine. But, seriously, the definition dudes really did grapple with a complex topic. They realized the massive effects of globalisation on our lives and saw the need as educators to understand this phenomenon. As I have already mentioned, they rejected the possibility of any one, fixed definition. Within the local context, they saw global citizenship as an essential process to be engaged with in learning communities. Mere checklists will not be sufficient and cognitive dimensions to the concept need to be complemented by affective and emotional aspects, and so knowledge and skills, identity formation and procedural issues and values are all part of a process of realizing global citizenship. Because of this, a commitment to reflective action is entailed. In schools, teachers and students are learners equally of such citizenship and so the role of the teacher might need redefinition. Finally, global citizenship does not deprive an individual of any local allegiances and responsibilities. In fact, in a globalised world where so many are displaced both within and outside their own countries, GC might come to give rights to a few as well demanding responsibilities from the many.
The Context Crew
The crew of the good ship “Context” sailed across oceans. If global citizenship is to be available to all, potentially at least, then it must be capable of being developed in a multiplicity of contexts. Frequently, the context is that of the other, those whom “we do not see”. If the other can also be right, this can stretch belief and create difficulties in maintaining personal integrity. In the context of religious belief, global citizenship has serious challenges that it should not ignore. In the context of the conference, China, this country has embarked ambitiously on a programme to find its place in the global community. In the context of International Schools, and other schools that intentionally offer education for global citizenship, huge advances have been made and such schools should be leaders in the further development of this fine ideal.
The Faculty Friends
This group of friends was in a questioning, interrogative mood. How do teachers and administrators (let’s call them faculty) prepare for the challenges of global citizenship development in the way they interact with and teach their students? Do they have to be global citizens themselves? If they are, will this infect their students automatically, like a benign virus? Is the new technology of information processing and computing a major vehicle for conveying global citizenship? How much does the development of global citizenship in schools depend upon teacher recruitment? Do faculty have to understand a model for learning internationally? Must there be ongoing training for teachers in international-mindedness? Is there a need for carefully designed support materials? Should global citizenship be promoted in all schools?
Our Curriculum Cronies
The curriculum cronies looked at and explored ways in which global citizenship had been injected or infused into curricula at all levels of the educational process. There is exciting evidence of curriculum related work in some countries but little coherence.
Presenters discussed core elements of a curriculum for global citizenship and both critical thinking and moral reasoning were suggested as being essential skills within such a framework. But it was also pointed out that Global Citizenship has an affective and emotional component that should not be left out. An award programme was proposed based around student action, values and attitudes, which rewarded change and development rather than standards reached. Reflection by students on their personal global footprints might form a part of this.
Aspects of global awareness need to be structured into the curriculum so that something happens. Schools must make this formal commitment. There is some evidence from practice that context is more important than content and a curriculum for global citizenship will need to balance competing demands, of which these are two.
Partnership Pals or Partnership Peng You
These pals realized that partnerships can be at the heart of creating global citizenship. At their best, they are practical expressions of the potential of this ideal. Partnerships and linking programmes of many kinds were discussed. Resources, financing, the student leadership dimension and effective evaluation are all important in developing successful partnerships. There are many challenges to partnerships and we must seek out those that will promote our desired ends. Partnerships between international and national schools are especially desirable, as are partnerships where there are language and cultural variations, challenges to be overcome not avoided. We have seen this morning, in the experimental partnership fair, what has already been achieved in this area and what potential there is still to be explored.
Institution Inmates
Those confined to our institutions, strand 6, I have called inmates. Within our institutions, we should try to see global citizenship as a process and a discursive practice. It is not static. We must, therefore, consult within our institutions to help all our members become sensitive to the complex nature and obligations of global citizenship. Institutions and educators need to model the values and mission of global citizenship so that there is continuity between rhetoric and practice. Creative practices that are already happening within our schools should be recognized and celebrated and a further critical engagement with them should be encouraged. The multiple narratives that are emerging in different schools need to be shared in order to promote a dynamic relationship with ideas of global citizenship. Measuring success is important but how do we assess this, especially in the affective domain?
Throughout the strands, as well as in our main addresses, a few key words or phrases that emerged for me are these: transformation, relationality, imagination, state of mind and duality. They are not new words but they have been used in unusual contexts and given new dimensions.
I heard teachers and educators talk of the transformative nature of the global citizen experience, that moment when we feel that we have been touched by someone different, someone who has not previously entered our experience. This type of transformation can be an “existential awakening”, to borrow an overheard phrase. We encounter, meet, and can be moulded by, the other. This leads me directly to “relationality”, one of Professor Rizvi’s epistemic virtues. Concerned not so much with the other’s culture, fixed as a commodity, nor with where we are located, but more with the relationship between the two, we enter a process of becoming globally “citizened”, if you will excuse the grammar.
Relationality changes our perception of the other. This frees us to employ our “imagination” in novel ways, to enter an attitudinal “state of mind” that is neither merely skills-based nor values-based but that produces a qualitatively new form of global citizenship. In this state of mind so many of the dualities that were located as points of creative tension in papers and discussions can be fused: particular and universal; local and global; nation and world; patriot and cosmopolitan. Or perhaps we should call it a “state of heart”. That would bring together neatly another oppositional duality that came up again and again in stereotypical form, that of West and East.
A feature of this conference was partly the fact that we broke new geographical and cultural ground, and this was important for many from the West. Let me rather say many of us who had not been to China before, or whose knowledge and experience of Asia was limited. This has been a transformational experience for us. I hope that we continue to break new ground in our choice of conference venues in the future. There has been much talk of East and West this weekend but little of the South, or even the Middle. Those gaps might give a clue as to where we might go soon, I hope.
It was pointed out in one of the strands that the phrase “global citizenship” had only one mention in the programme notes four years ago in Geneva. It has not taken long for it to move from relative insignificance to become our conference topic. In looking through the titles and notes in this year’s programme, I wonder if there are other new words or phrases that are just beginning to emerge. I have spotted one. You will not guess what it is, although we have all drunk much of it from plastic bottles this weekend. “Water”, mentioned only once, like global citizenship four years ago. But the water project described late yesterday afternoon by Richard Harwood raised the burning issue, literally burning, of the environment, touched on from time to time by other speakers. There is, it seems, not enough water to put out this fire. As many strands felt a need for some call to action, perhaps environmentalism, or education for sustainable life and living, might be a future conference topic.
Let me end with some thoughts about action. It may be the case, as was suggested more than once, that global citizenship is a predominantly western construct. If that is so, let’s open up a narrow concept, not throw it away. It certainly seems right that we should talk of global citizenship not only in cultural terms but that we must include economic, political, social and other related factors. If we do not, how do we even dare to talk of global citizenship on our globe that is so divided into the very few that are rich and the huge numbers that are so poor and that never travel outside their immediate locality? Jeff spoke at the beginning of the possibility of “better intercultural understanding and world peace” and Professor Yip reminded us that “in an era of growing interdependence we still have not been able to develop a system in the interests of humankind”.
One speaker said that global citizenship was “being part of a community where people can make a world of difference by being empowered to work internationally with their peers to develop solutions for global issues”. Let’s make this true and do so urgently. Perhaps we need to perform actions at our conferences in addition to talking about issues. Perhaps we need to set up working parties, take resolutions, decide on action statements that can be followed through between conferences. Practice and action are just as important in global citizenship as are habits of mind. We must use our conference topic as an instrument to make a difference, and we must encourage our colleagues and students to do the same.
We have heard mention this weekend of ancient sages, reminding us that interest in global citizenship has a long and distinguished history. Confucius was concerned with harmony, balance and sustainable living for all species on our planet. Diogenes the Greek first used the word “cosmopolitan” over two thousand years ago. One speaker mentioned the old Japanese tradition of “kyosei” or sharing. Another spoke of an anonymous Arab poet who concluded, because he was made of dust and would return like us all to dust, that “all humans are my relatives”. I leave you with an old Sanskrit saying: Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, the world is one family.
Let’s act on that.
Thank you. Xie Xie.
