Global Citizenship Education (GCE) is a form of education that can be applied both to the school context and to non-formal education contexts (in some contexts it is known with partially different names, such as “education for world citizenship”). In general, it aims to train citizens, making them aware of the global dimension of the great problems of the present and of the attitudes and behaviours that contribute to their resolution.
UNESCO describes education for global citizenship as a practice that develops a sense of belonging to a wider community and to common humanity, and that highlights political, economic, social and cultural interdependencies and the interconnection between local and national and global.
UNESCO also considers that the general objectives of the GCE can be divided into specific objectives that belong to three distinct but closely interconnected educational dimensions:
- Cognitive objectives: acquire knowledge, understanding and critical thinking on global, regional, national and local issues and on the interconnection and interdependence of different countries and populations.
- Socio-emotional objectives: develop a sense of belonging to a common humanity, share values and responsibilities, empathy, solidarity and respect for differences and diversity.
- Behavioral objectives: learn to act effectively and responsibly at a local, national and global level, for a more peaceful and sustainable world.
According to UNESCO, the GCE aims to be transformative, building the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes that students need to contribute to a more inclusive, just and peaceful world.
The Get Up and Goals project aims to promote the adoption of GCE within the different disciplines and as a global approach to the school. The promoters of the project believe that the GCE should become an approach through which to review the objectives, contents, methodologies and methods of evaluation of the teaching of each discipline, orienting them towards the training of citizens of the global world, capable of contributing to the achievements of the UN Agenda 2030. At the same time, Get Up and Goals considers that it is essential that the entire school environment and all the training and organisation devices present in the centres take into account the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to rethink and improve its practices.
The project is aimed in particular at secondary schools and brings together the SDGs around 4 of the hottest global problems of the present: Climate Change, Global Migration, Gender Inequality, International Inequality. It is aimed primarily at teachers, identifying them as key figures for both the training of future generations through the GCE approach and the objectives of the SDGs, both for their duration over time and for the multiplication of the results of the proposed actions.
Based on the results of previous European experiences and actions, the project offers all the teachers involved different types of operational tools through which the GCE and the SDGs can be taken to daily teaching:
- Four Teaching and Learning Units (TLUs) on each of the aforementioned topics that can be included in the annual teaching design for teachers of different disciplines.
- A manual of Global Geo-History made by European teachers of global history from the 4 “hot” topics of the project and with an approach that goes beyond the nationalism and Eurocentrism of the texts normally disseminated. The manual can be used as the main text and as a supplementary text for the teaching of history – check out the introduction to the Geo-History textbook here or visit the international GUAG site to download all three volumes here
- A set of assessment and self-assessment tools inspired by the GCE principles that will help the participating centres and teachers to document the progress achieved by their students from a cognitive point of view and the GCE-related skills, also allowing schools to evaluate the degree of adherence to the GCE approach and contribution to the achievement of the SDGs.