GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP IN SCHOOLS

In recent days the former United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, spoke at GEMS Academy schools in Dubai. While addressing students and underlining the role of quality education for a better world, his standout message to students was about the importance of being global citizens and of being compassionate.

When an individual of this stature, with an unparalleled world view, expresses opinion such as this, there is a need to, at least, take note.

His speech was delivered in a school setting, which like many others around the world, would view itself as being international and aspiring to produce young global citizens. Indeed, global citizenship development is sometimes seen as being most identifiably situated in what are called international schools.

But what is this global citizenship and is it the preserve of ‘international schools’ alone?

Calling a school ‘international’ adds cachet. It can appeal to parents who are motivated by the idea of giving their children a global perspective. Looking to the future, perceptive parents may conclude that the world into which their children will graduate requires an international or global mindset, allied to a portfolio of skills and personal attributes, which will allow them to live well and productively in this uncertain century. These parents imagine that an international school setting is best positioned to provide this foundation. But will these same students be global citizens?

There are now many international schools across the world, with an exponential increase in their number in recent years. This increase has often accompanied burgeoning economic and social development. South East Asia is a particularly relevant current example – incidentally, noted with alacrity by the steady stream of established European and American schools now franchising the area at a heady pace! Do they add global citizenship to the portfolio of their students?

In any event, what does it mean to be an international school? Is a school international simply by having students from several nationalities on its roll? Is a school international if it celebrates significant festivals or events from a range of nationalities or peoples? Is a school international if it is situated in a different country than its original foundation? Is a school international if it offers an international curriculum? How does one square the circle of a UK school, curriculum and ethos, for instance, positioning itself in SE Asia, for example, admitting local nationals and imbuing them with the characteristics and ethos of the mother school in the UK and then expecting them to be global citizens!?

Is global citizenship not more a mindset, an attitude, an openness, an empathy, an interest, a determination to be informed about the world and its peoples, an appreciation of difference and of our increasing interdependency, a recognition that the ‘human condition’ is not hugely different across the world (leaving extremes of wealth and poverty aside) – and a developing aspiration to interact positively with the real world upon graduation.

In my opinion global citizens can emerge from a range of schools both national and international; the outlook, worldview and modus operandi and modus vivendi of the school is crucial in developing the global citizenship of its students. ‘Do as I do’.

Perhaps all the above can be subsumed under the powerful word ‘compassion’, as so wisely and pointedly used in his speech by Ban Ki-moon.