Politics and Society Unit 1: Global Citizenship

This Unit is one of four from the GCE subject Guide Lessons for a Wise World: Global Citizenship Education in Politics and Society.

Click the button below to access the PowerPoints which accompany the lessons in Unit 1 and all supporting materials.

The PDF for Unit 1, available here, contains step-by-step instructions for the following 5 lessons:

A. What is Global Citizenship

In this lesson learners explore what Global Citizenship means to them and work collaboratively to develop their definition of Global Citizenship. This lesson includes an additional activity, Pentagon Placement, which explores the WWGS Guiding Principles for GCE.

B. Cosmopolitan Citizenship

In this lesson learners explore the development of Global Citizenship from its first ancient expression as Cosmopolitanism. They relate Cosmopolitanism to Key Thinkers and have a walking debate.

C. Inspiring Acts of Global Citizenship

Here learners explore Global Citizenship in action. Through the story of Hugh Evans, founder of the global movement ‘Global Citizen’, learners see how small steps can lead to meaningful change. In the second part of the lesson, learners identify a ‘dream action’ to undertake as a class or school and make a plan for learner-led meaningful action.

D. Global Frameworks

The aim of this lesson is to learn about global frameworks and how these both facilitate and restrict global citizenship. The lesson is broken into 3 parts.

Part 1 is a research task where learners do a case study on a global framework (e.g. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child).
Part 2 is the presentation of the case studies and the sharing of learning.
Part 3 explores the rules-based international order (RBIO) and considers what it means for Global Citizenship.

E. Negotiating as a Global Community

This is a fun activity to inspire good governance and global citizenship. Firstly, learners use their creativity, vision and hope to imagine their ideal society in the form of a nation. Secondly, the ‘nations’ come together as a global community to develop and negotiate a global framework or international agreement.