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Put simply, critical world citizenship is an attitude. Critical world citizens combine scientific knowledge and personal development to actively improve society. Practicing critical world citizenship requires a set of skills that blend moderation with determination. These competencies are rooted in active learning methods and are presented here with concrete tools and tips for teachers and students.
Skills
Do you want to know which skills contribute to being a critical world citizen, or are you looking for inspiration? Visit the pages below for detailed information, practical tips, teaching activities and learning materials for each skill.
Q&A about this toolbox
As we see competing networks of authority emerge in society, education in general and academia in particular are changing. Climate change, humanitarian emergencies, (geo)political polarisation and other pressing societal issues challenge us to rethink the purpose and the format of teaching within university settings. Transfer of knowledge between staff and students remains important but, at least as important is the need for educators to draw students’ attention to their surroundings (both immediate and more remote) in ways that allow us to engage meaningfully with and to the benefit of our surroundings.
Tackling the challenges of our times requires knowledge and skills but, above all, the ability to navigate society confidently and efficiently, even as we find ourselves exposed to a broad spectrum of advisors while not having the time or disciplinary training to make an informed judgement. In some situations, we may have to decide upon contradictory opinions although we ignore these advisors’ backgrounds and motives.
This is why we, in our community of learners (students, staff, societal stakeholders) can use some guidance along the routes we travel – however fast or slow – on the journey to become better critical world citizens. This toolbox, then, serves as a handbook on active learning to keep in a backpack and consult whenever we are looking for pointers in our encounters with the world’s contemporary (teaching) problems, large and small. Below, we explain why we think this toolbox was needed, how we hope it can be useful to you and how it came about. And, if you are curious enough, what exactly we understand by critical world citizenship.
The EUR Strategy 2024 aims to involve students as co-creators and critical citizens, focusing on interdisciplinarity and inclusiveness in an international context. The strategic vision did not, however, indicate what exactly critical citizens are nor how they should gain critical thinking skills.
The value of this toolbox on critical world citizenship skills lies in its capacity to serve as a point of entry for anyone interested in the concept, be it in a role of student or as a teacher; as novice or expert. Since we believe that critical world citizenship is, ultimately, an attitude of constant exchange, affirmation and reflection that leads to permanent improvement and readjustment, we deliberately developed this toolbox from the bottom-up, based on insights from Erasmus University College (EUC) teaching staff, students and alumni.
As a microcosm of EUR due to its diverse curriculum and community, EUC has a longstanding commitment to educating critical world citizens, an ambition integrated in the Intended Learning Outcomes of its programme. Despite this explicit aspiration and a focus on active learning formats, many (EUC) students have found it hard to acquire and practice critical world citizenship skills throughout the curriculum. This leads to paradoxical situations whereby, on one hand, EUC is recognised as a pioneer in critical world citizenship but where, on the other hand, practical implications of this concept are not clearly articulated. Thus, a variety of perspectives on critical world citizenship circulate: we find it employed as cross-cultural communication but we also find it employed in activist terms connected to achieving social justice.
De facto, these multiple perspectives can lead to tense debates on what critical world citizenship means with regards to contemporary topics such as climate activism, migration, biodiversity or decolonisation and geopolitical threats. We believe that this toolbox can facilitate discussions on such hot issues in an informed and empathetic manner.
On one hand, this imperative requires thinking beyond immediate surroundings and engaging with global issues by encouraging collaboration and constructive criticism to continuously improve ourselves. On the other hand, fostering critical world citizenship skills can lead us to uncomfortable situations in which tensions within our community are laid bare. We are faced with questions about the purpose, meaning, and impact of our education: are we improving the status quo from within or are we tackling hegemonic powers upholding that status quo?; do we act as in- or outsiders?; can critical world citizenship be taught with or without practicing it?; if so, should that praxis be local or global in scope?
We do not claim to solve these issues, rather we believe that the skills in this toolbox are an invitation to engage in such discussions with courage and authenticity. More than ever, it is important that we teach our students how to think, not what to think.
The tension between viewing the university as a mere training ground or approaching it as a battleground of ideas is nothing new. In his days, Desiderius Erasmus did not hesitate to address big problems of his era: the relation between science and religion; discussions about state and religion and the excesses of Catholic clergy. This took place in a context of early globalisation and nascent colonial imperialism. Erasmus proposed a humanist approach to confront major societal transitions in a world moving from isolationism towards incremental globalism; he questioned ethical principles of Christianity by broadening his scope of action in a very cosmopolitan way.
It is in the critical attitude Erasmus had vis-a-vis his environment that we, in all modesty, see potential to connect this toolbox. Navigating big issues of our times can be daunting for students and staff. Many students indicate feeling overwhelmed by the burden of future challenges at various stages of their studies. While it is inevitable to experience obstacles during any learning trajectory, we believe that the ideal of critical world citizenship can be a force of emancipation.
On many fronts, this ideal can align with the aspirations guiding the identity, thinking, and actions at Erasmus University. In accordance with the Erasmian values of social engagement, transnationalism, cooperation, entrepreneurship, and open-mindedness, a critical world citizen does not let the scope of their actions be determined by national borders and the states they are legal citizens of. Instead, they think and operate beyond state boundaries and aim to make a positive societal impact at a global level, without presumptions and mindful of others.
We are fully aware that teaching critical world citizenship skills is a tall order that is unlikely to be ever fully accomplished. The ambition of this project is not to resolve contradictions that reflect polysemous understandings of the term in academia. Rather, we aim to clarify what critical citizenship means, not only philosophically but especially in pedagogical terms: how to teach critical world citizenship skills?
It is our hope that this toolbox can offer some ideas or hooks if, as a student, you are looking what skills to hone exactly or if, as a curious teacher, you are looking for concrete activities or exercises to experiment with in class settings. If, on the contrary, you are an expert in the field, we hope you will feel encouraged to point out gaps and blind spots in this toolbox. Or, better still, that you will reach out to contribute and address them in a constructive way.
Accurately serving such a vast audience in an exhaustive manner is impossible. Therefore, an important caveat is in place. In many ways, this toolbox is a trade-off rather than an end-product: it is a selection of the broad array of skills, exercises, and resources available. We insist that this selection is intended to help you in managing expectations of change-ability that we may harbour as students, staff or practitioners. This is about sharing, about inspiring each other and, consequently, serves as a starting point for further exploration. Perhaps the main skill, then, of a critical world citizen is awareness that these skills are in permanent flux: that is the only way to relate constructively to others and to today’s issues. We wish you good luck, fun and failure all along.
In academic literature, critical world citizenship is often described as critical global citizenship, which is a subform of ‘global citizenship education’. Four principles are key to critical world citizens:
- As global citizens they share an ambition of realizing their talents and capacities for the benefit of society.
- Still in line with global citizenship, critical world citizenship adopts a holistic approach to learning, and to sustainable coexistence.
- Critical world citizens go beyond global citizenship in their contribution to challenging oppressive structures, fostering emancipation, and promoting social justice.
- Critical world citizenship encourages practicing the duties and responsibilities we hold as citizens in any given polity.
The overarching aim of global citizenship is to allow learners to flourish, in the sense that the individual can fully realizing their talents and capacities in ways beneficial to themselves and to society. Global Citizens identify as a global social, cultural, and economic being and thus embrace cosmopolitanism (i.e. a worldview of interdependence) in their search for multi- and interdisciplinary answers to global concerns and challenges.
A second feature of global citizenship is its aspiration to holistic education, one that does not only pay attention to cognitive outcomes but also to affective, ethical, moral, peace-based, aesthetic and artistic forms of learning. This is linked, furthermore, to sustainability, since global citizen education invites learners to de-center themselves, deepen their sense of responsibility, and to disinvest from harmful desires to (co)exist on the planet we all share.
Thirdly, critical world citizens go beyond the cosmopolitan mindset of global citizens in directing the praxis of their citizenship rights and duties in ways that highlight issues of power, voice, and difference, for example, between global north and global south. It is awareness of such structures of inequality, and the commitment to reflexivity vis-Ã -vis universality that drives their attempt to make a positive societal impact and contribute (however modestly) to emancipate less-privileged others.
Fourthly, critical world citizens emphasise the importance of ethical values, social responsibility, and active citizenry. They share an understanding of citizenship defined not only as a certain legal status as a citizen, but also as a sense of belonging to a community in which citizens exercise their rights to action for societal change. In other words, an understanding of citizenship rooted in ‘doing’ and in ‘practicing’ citizenship.
Practicing critical world citizenship requires a set of skills that blend moderation with determination. Nine such competencies, including autonomy, patience, and self-reflection are presented here in some detail. A truly harmonious implementation of all these skills at once remains a utopic ideal. There rarely is only one right way of observing the attitude of a critical world citizen. Rather, are there multiple paths of meaningful action that occur simultaneously – with all the benefits and contradictions this entails - and aim, each in their way, to advance genuine equality, authentic liberty and resilient personal or collective growth. In this sense, this toolbox for critical world citizens is more a permanent invitation for dialogue and deeper investigation than a template to be emulated.
This toolbox was developed based on insights from Erasmus University College (EUC) teaching staff, students, and alumni. At EUC, we pay extra attention in our teaching real-life problems in contemporary society because we do not have a disciplinary field of specialisation. Instead, through active learning assignments, we strive to educate critical world citizens who dare to engage with the major issues of their time -many of which are interdisciplinary by nature.
Rather than designing new tools in a one-size-fits-all manner, we deployed a three-step approach to (1) take stock of how critical world citizenship is being taught across EUC curricula and see (2) how these practices can be usefully operationalised for teachers within our university and beyond, so that (3) we can align, improve, and circulate an interdisciplinary transferable toolkit to build critical world citizenship skills.
In 2022, we started with an inventory of understandings and approaches on critical world citizenship gathered during focus groups with EUC students and staff. The summary of these findings then served as input for a round of workshops (again involving students and staff) in which we presented the initial findings and jointly distilled a preliminary list of skills. With the assistance of RISBO and CLI, we then elaborated this list into a publicly accessible toolbox. It is this repository we are now making available via TeachEUR.
The benefits of this exercise, so we hope, go well beyond our small-scale education community. Given its co-created nature, we hope that this toolkit can be recognisable and use-able for students and staff at other EUR faculties and beyond university. This may sound ambitious, but we are adamant about giving back to the wider (EUR) community and consolidating EUC as a centre of expertise in critical world citizenship that can develop tools for real-life challenges.
We therefore encourage you to explore the practical set-up of this toolbox, hoping it will offer you concrete ideas, suggestions, and exercises you can use or share. Through this collaborative use, this website can grow and serve as a resource hub for students and scholars interested in global critical citizenship education and for practitioners in society at large.
Towards a Critical Citizenship Skills Toolbox
More about the CLI Fellowship
Dr. Ward Vloeberghs is senior lecturer Political Science at Erasmus University College (EUC). Together with Jop Dispa and Katja Skenderija, Ward is conducting research on the inventory, operationalization, and dissemination of conceptual and practical competencies. With this page on TeachEUR, we aim to deliver a publicly accessible, interdisciplinary transferable toolkit so that we can align, improve and circulate critical world citizenship skill-building within our university and beyond.
- Bosio, E. (Ed.). (2021). Conversations on global citizenship education: Perspectives on research, teaching, and learning in higher education. Routledge.
- Mansouri, F. (2017). Critical global citizenship: contextualising citizenship and globalisation, Journal of Citizenship and Globalisation studies, 1(1), 1-9.
- Pais, A., & Costa, M. (2020). An ideology critique of global citizenship education. Critical Studies in Education, 61(1), 1-16.
- Torres, C. A. (2017). Theoretical and empirical foundations of critical global citizenship education. Routledge.
- Oxley, L. & Morris, P. (2013). Global Citizenship: A Typology for Distinguishing its Multiple Conceptions, British Journal of Educational Studies, 61:3, 301-325.
- Luckett, K. & Bhatt, I. (2024). Getting critical about critique in higher education: provocations on the meanings of ‘Critical Perspectives’, Teaching in Higher Education, DOI: 10.1080/13562517.2024.2335223
- Biesta, G. (2022). World-centred education: A view for the present. Routledge.
- https://www.aacu.org/initiatives/value-initiative/value-rubrics
- https://transitionmakers.nl/
- https://onq.queensu.ca/shared/TLHEM/active/index.html
Project team
dr. WP (Ward) VloeberghsHead of Department SBS (EUC)
JC (Jop) DispaLecturer SBS (EUC)
Katja SkenderijaStudent assistant (EUC)
Advisory team
- dr. Gera Noordzij
Department Director (EUC)
- dr. CDC (Christian) van der Veeke
Senior Lecturer (EUC)
- prof.dr. E (Esther) Rozendaal
Professor (ESSB)
- dr. R (Roy) Kemmers
Lecturer (ESSB)
- dr. JP (Julien) Kloeg
Lecturer (ESPhil)
- Ivar van de Loo
Projectmanager (CLI)
- S (Sandra) Lousberg, MSc
Senior educational consultant (Risbo)
- KC (Celine) van der Lienden
Educational consultant (Risbo)