Global
Citizenship
It
is our responsibility as Americans to recognize our role in educating others on
global citizenship in everything that we do from our jobs, to social
gatherings, volunteering, leading, and everyday interactions with others. We need to see our responsibilities as active
members of our global community to absorb, reflect, and share different points
of view and roles within our global interconnected society today.
In today’s society there is more uncertainty,
more diversity, more complexity, and much more inequality. Global education
will equip people to live together in our world by addressing all these things
to help globalize the societies that was once not a priority in the past. The
main goal of global education is to understand and talk about the complex relationships that we
have in common with social, ecological, political, and economic issues and come
up with a new way of thinking and acting towards each other as we live, work,
and socialize together (Studio12TV, 2012). Just as you are buying a new
television, you want to know the company that stands behind the product and
what it will do for you. Once we look at people in the same way then we have a
better understanding of this global citizenship. For example, the coffee you
drink in the morning comes from a coffee bean that was grown in places such as
Africa, Indonesia, Brazil to name a few.
Wouldn’t it help to know more about the people who grow these beans and how
they make it to America? This would increase are awareness, access knowledge,
and see how we are connected creating a global society and citizenship. Do we
know their multilayer identities in these people? This is what makes us a
global as well as a national citizen (Studio12TV, 2012).
The
Maastricht Global Education Declaration was created in 2002 and it stated that,
“it is education that opens people’s eyes and minds to the realities of the
globalized world and awakens them to bring about a world of greater justice,
equity, and human rights for all.” Since we are a global dimension of education
for citizenship, key outcomes of the Maastricht Global Education Declaration is
understood to encompass the Development Education, Human Rights Education,
Education for Sustainability, Intercultural Education, and Education for Peace
and Conflict Prevention (Loughlin, & Wegimont, 2002).
My
environment is full of diversity when it comes to globalized citizenship. The development
of my own identity to which my environment has huge influences not only to me,
as well as in my children’s lives. Starting with diversity and its value, I run an
in home day care and have been in business for 27 years now. The intergroup of empathy and diversity that I
show is daily by who is enrolled in my care. I take it upon myself to learn all
I can about each child’s back ground, where they came from, what their beliefs
are, rituals, religions, and family life. I want to learn all I can about them,
so that I can show diversity and intergroup empathy towards each child in care
and their families. It is because of these experiences that have given me such
respect for the global community as a whole. Having worked with so many children over the
years has helped develop my own identity, especially pertaining to global
citizenship even though back when I started it was not looked at in the same
way as it is today. I continue to practice these values with each and every
child I bring in my home along with their families. The opportunities that I have encountered as a
result of running a day care, going to school, being a part of social
networking groups, in addition to the privileges that I have been blessed with
have given me such insight and appreciation for the social justice in my
community and life as a whole. The biggest outcome is my reputation as a person,
and how I run my business with the children and their families. Today the
families that are enrolling are more diverse than ever and they come from all
types of ethnic backgrounds, cultural backgrounds, inter-racial backgrounds,
and even children that comes from gay and lesbian homes. I feel as though I
have a level of responsibility in being aware of how we are connected with
others in the global world along with their behaviors (Reysen, &
Katzarska-Miller, 2013).
A personal example that I have been blessed
with, is to teach and talk at workshops for child care providers about helping
these diverse and multi-cultural families feel comfortable with interviewing,
handbooks, and questions to ask. I relate personally to these groups because I
live in a very diverse family with all types of ethnic backgrounds from French,
Scottish, African American, Blackfoot
Indian, German and more.
Indian, German and more.
One
of the best examples that I had was traveling to the Bahamas in 2012 and
visiting this country. I learned so much about how the native people live, get
their food and teach their children. I visited schools, and women who took care
of children and how they were taught. The schools were just buildings with dirt
floors in some areas. It was the best
experience of my life. I had no idea how poor the natives there were and what
they did to survive. The tourism there is what keeps them going financially and
even then they do not make very much at all. My husband and I spent one evening
sitting in a cab with one of the natives talking for almost two hours about his
life and how he lives. It was fascinating. I grew a whole new understanding for
this area and the people in it. We gave the guy a $40.00 tip just for taking up
so much of his time and the excitement in his face was incredible to see.
$40.00 is nothing to us. He stated that this would buy two weeks of food for
his family.
The
general education courses that I have taken here at Ashford University and at
the College of Southern Maryland have influenced me to become a global citizen
by teaching me culture, science, humanities, social sciences, and math. They
have taught me about racial differences, cross-cultural communication and
global awareness (Austin, 2011). They
taught me to deepen my appreciation and respect for other cultures and their
behaviors, personalities, and how they live from their viewpoint making me a
better global citizen.
As
our world continues to become more connected and our exposure to global
cultures increases on a daily basis it affords us as individuals great opportunities
to develop global identities and knowledge of the world we live in with one’s
interconnectedness with others (Reysen, Katzarska-Miller, 2013).
References
Austin, M. W.
(2011, April 13). The value of general education [Blog post]. Retrieved
from
https://www.psycholology.com/blog/ethics/everyone/201104/the-value-general-education
Reysen, S., &
Katzarska-Miller, I. (2013). A model of global citizenship: Antecedents and
outcomes. International
Journal of Psychology, 48(5), 858-870.
Doi:10.1080/00207594.2012.701749
Loughlin, E. &
Wegimont, L. (2002, November 17). Global Education in Europe to 2015.
Maastricht
Global Education Declaration. Retrieved from www.globaleducationeurope.net.
Studio12TV. (2012,
January 3). Global education and
global citizenship [Video file]. Retrieved
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