A few days ago I was asked to give a presentation on the global citizenship at the teacher-info of the ARS11 exhibition in the Museum of Modern Art Kiasma, Helsinki. This is what I did:
I started with the basis of the Finnish national curriculum 2020. Much of the ground work lays on the ATC21S -meeting in Melbourne, Australia. Finland has also been involved with the ATC21S -work and signs of the work can be seen in our future curriculum.
The Finnish National Board of Education has a project right now on the global citizenship. The aim is to find ways of supporting global citizenship in our schools. How to educate global citizens? What is a global citizen?
In my point of view the global citizenship grows from the strong local identity. You have to feel secure to conquer the world. You'll have to have strong roots to grow the wings to fly to the world. You can't climb to a tree from the top!
A certain kind of teacher is needed to support the global citizenship. You have to make the cultural encounter possible. But before that you have to strengthen the local identity. Show the children where they are from.
After that they can go and proudly show the world who they are. But most of all, they can interact with the others and respect their cultural values without being afraid that it would destroy something from their own values.