Global Citizenship

The Year of Global Citizenship

Display at Bangkok Patana School's Library on Global Citizenship

Golobal Citizenship seems to be on the tip of everyone's tongues this year. In education it feels like it is the year of global citizenship as it becomes central to all schemes of learning. I say this positively as developing citizenship is, I believe, the way that we can prepare our young people for a positive future. In our library at work we hope that we have taken the lead in this area.

What is Global Citizenship?

Empowerment, Empathy and Ethics

How Libraries Develop Global Citizenship

Global Citizenship is an understanding that we all have a shared responsibility for the issues and problems facing out world, both locally and globally. 

In our libraries by helping our students develop a love of reading we are helping them learn how to connect to other people’s emotions; entering into a different world to their own is a key way of connecting with different worlds and experiences and thus develops empathy amongst our students. This is central to global citizenship.

Becoming good researchers and helping our children learn how to use online, book, physical and human sources to search for information and gain knowledge, without plagiarising is empowering and encourages ethical behaviour.
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The two strands of encouraging a love of reading and becoming skilled researchers go hand in hand and both develop global citizenship. So from choosing excellent resources and sharing books; to engaging our children in fun competitions; to interacting with visiting authors; to running poetry competitions, Readers’ Cups; to Readers Theatre competitions; to completing research projects, including good old fashioned referencing skills, libraries and librarians are all part of what we do day to day to help our children be empowered to become ethical and empathetic global citizens.
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I recently caught the tail end of a TV interview where the explorer being interviewed use a librarian’s role negatively to present how little they impact on the real world in comparison to their own. I beg to differ. Librarians are at the very core of developing great global citizens.