Global Citizenship: The Most Important 21'st Century Skill Developed In Students By Participating In ISA

Global Citizenship

Global Citizenship instruction creates information, aptitudes, and understanding that students need to have a full impact in the public eye as dynamic and capable residents. Students find out about governmental issues, parliament, and casting a ballot just as human rights, equity, the law, and the economy. They additionally get familiar with the abilities of dynamic citizenship. Instructing is enlivened utilizing main problems and occasions in nearby to global settings.

Definitions of Global Citizenship according to different organizations:

"Global knowledge, sensitivity to and respect for other cultures, active involvement in addressing issues of human and environmental sustainability." (Fullan and Langworthy, 2013)

"Awareness, tolerance, openness, respect for diversity, intercultural understanding, ability to resolve conflicts, civic/political participation, conflict resolution, respect for the environment." (UNESCO, 2013)

British Council definition of global citizenship: 

 "Active, globally-aware citizens who have the skills, knowledge, and motivation to address issues of human and environmental sustainability and work towards a fairer world in a spirit of mutual respect and open dialogue. Developing students’  understanding of what it means to be a citizen of their own country and their own country’s values"

Global citizenship, characterized as the awareness of different societies and contributing and moving in the direction of network upgrades, is an essential quality of 21st-century learning. Learning through experience is without a doubt the most exhaustive approach to participate in global citizenship development. The mutual advantages of global citizenship are frequently clear – more subtle, be that as it may, are the individual advantages to be gathered from this freshly discovered global awareness. Such abilities as problem solving, communication and collaboration, and cross-cultural awareness are generally pertinent individual advantages to the global time in which we presently live. Through encounters like instructive travel, these aptitudes can at last be obtained. 

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving:

Problem-solving is a significant 21st-century expertise as the issues the world countenances develop in scale. Critically thinking about the world's problems is basic; inductive and deductive thinking and investigating how components connect with one another can help produce an imaginative arrangement. This kind of innovation and dynamic strategy for thought is key to the way toward accomplishing global citizenship in light of the fact that effectively taking an interest on the planet and moving in the direction of progress is the conclusive objective of global awareness. Through movement, it is conceivable to watch the world and its problems, and, in particular, investigate and start to assemble the best arrangements. 

Network and Collaboration: 

Through online life destinations we have just started to draw in and experience global citizenship training. A genuine global resident, in any case, utilizes this feeling of a network to improve their general surroundings. Communication isn't just a significant expertise for a global resident to have, yet it is additionally a significant fundamental ability, too. Through global travel, and open collaboration with new individuals from fluctuating foundations, societies, dialects, and qualities, voyagers can improve their verbal and nonverbal communication strategies in an assortment of settings. Thusly, this builds their capacity to work with various scope of individuals to take care of a problem and exercise adaptability. Community-oriented work is fundamental to problem-solving—authorizing a change in the universal field requires various individuals from various societies sharing a shared objective and utilizing their exceptional foundations to develop arrangements. 

Innovation Skills: 

The 21st century is set apart by the inescapability of innovation and wealth of media and data. To adequately cultivate change and capacity in the 21st century, individuals must have the option to decide how to best utilize these data advancements. By voyaging and seeing the world firsthand, youngsters are urged to build up their own point of view on the world, empowering them to become dynamic clients of media as opposed to aloof beneficiaries. Assessing data critically advances distinction, and through that the improvement of new thoughts. 

Flexibility:

Flexibility is one of those characteristics that any world voyager will learn. When voyaging, nothing ever goes splendidly. There are consistently difficulties, regardless of whether it is a language obstruction, becoming mixed up in a new spot, or flight delays. The capacity to acclimate to changing conditions and manage hindrances is significant to a global resident. Without this significant trademark, problems could never get tackled in light of the troubles in question. A genuine global resident frequently takes in flexibility from their movements and keeps an uplifting demeanor when the street gets harsh. 

Cross-Cultural Awareness: 

Ability when speaking with different societies is regularly testing to adapt yet it is important to get open-minded and sympathetic with a wide scope of individuals. Global residents have cross-cultural aptitudes, which means they understand that varying qualities, dialects, and customs don't liken to contrasting objectives for the world. Cultural submersion is evidently gained while voyaging and coming into contact with individuals who are not the same as oneself. This permits explorers to relate to other people, create empathy, and figure out how to work with others viably and effectively.

As we all know that the world has now become Global Village due to advancements in internet technology. Now the location does not matter everything is just at a distance of few clicks. So to survive and excel in such a digitized world a student should have 21st-century skills. And the main aim of the British Council Connecting Classroom Project (ISA Award) is basically to connect the classrooms all over the world to incorporate the above mentioned 21st-century skills in students and to promote Global Citizenship so that the today's students become global citizens and can easily find jobs and survive in the 21st century. 

My school (GGHS AMF Kamra Pakistan) also participated in the British Council Connecting Classroom Project (ISA Award) in 2016 and after one whole year we won an ISA Award in 2017. By participating in this program our students communicate and collaborate with different countries and they not only learn different international languages but also got a lot of information about the culture and festivals of different countries. They collaborate with the students of Tunisia on the global issue of Global Warming and the students of both countries critically think about this issue and share their ideas with each other on how they being students can control this global issue. So my students have somehow now become Global Citizens and all this is because of the British Council Connecting Classroom Project (ISA Award). Thanks to British Council for taking an initiative towards Global Citizenship.

If you enjoyed reading this, I welcome you to also check out my post about another 21st-century skill developed in students by participating in ISA Award that is Critical Thinking and Problem Solving