چكيده لاتين :
Introduction
Today, understanding globalization as a phenomenon that affects all aspects
of human life, is more than ever possible. As a process integrating international,
cross-cultural and global dimensions into the goals, functions and method of
education, globalization has had a tremendous impact on all aspects of human life
including culture and higher education. One of the goals of educational systems
around the world is to train effective and active citizens for the community as the
future of every nation depends on the level of ability and awareness of its citizens
as well as the kind of vision they have of various issues. In fact, citizenship
education seeks to teach people how to become informed, active and responsible
citizens and to achieve their rightful place and role in an urban, national and
global society. In other words, in the age of globalization, citizenship education
has three important tasks: a) helping young people to increasingly coexist in local
communities, b) helping the national community, and c) bringing social stability
and cohesion in the interconnected world. Nevertheless, facing global challenges
requires global awareness and collective action. The aim of the present study was
to identify and validate the components of global citizenship education, adopting
a sequential-exploratory mixed methods design that involved conducting
quantitative descriptive survey for data collection and qualitative thematic
analysis for data analysis.
Research Questions
1. What are the components of global citizenship education from the experts’
point of view?
2. Do the components of global citizen education have the necessary validity?
Methods
Potential participants in the qualitative sector consisted of globalization and
higher education professionals with scientific expertise or practical experience in
the realm of globalization education. Accordingly, 15 participants were selected
using snowball sampling method. On the other hand, the statistical population for
the quantitative sector of the study included all the postgraduate students (MA
and Ph.D.) at Semnan and Shiraz Universities. Of this population, 194 students
were selected as the sample via stratified random sampling method. To collect
data, a researcher-made questionnaire was used whose components were
extracted from the qualitative thematic analysis conducted in the qualitative part
of the study. The global citizen education questionnaire consisted of 47 items,
devoted to seven main components, each emphasizing the development of a
citizen with the following features: a) ethicality, b) commitment to social
responsibilities, c) dedication to peace, d) concern about the environment, e)
global identity, f) global competence, and g) theoretical/practical abilities. Of the
47 items in the questionnaire, five items were devoted to each of the first three
components, seven to the fourth component, 8 to the fifth, 7 to the sixth, and 10
to the last component. All the items in the questionnaire were scored on a sevenpoint Likert scale ranging from very low (1) to very high (7).
Overall, 230 questionnaires were administered among the participants, of
which 194 could be used for further analysis in the study. Cronbach’s alpha
coefficient was calculated to determine the reliability of each component in the
questionnaire. The indices for each component were correspondingly as follows:
a) ethicality (0.886), b) commitment to social responsibilities (0.822), c)
dedication to peace (0.878), d) concern about the environment (0.932), e) global
identity (0.915), f) global competence (0.910), and g) theoretical/practical
abilities (0.924). The values suggested an acceptable level of reliability for all the
components in the questionnaire.
Results
The results of the qualitative data analysis lead to the identification of 47 basic
items in the field of global citizenship education that were organized into seven
pivotal components (moral education, civil rights education, human rights
education, environmental education, social-cultural education, global
competence education, scientific-practical education). The data were collected
using a questionnaire developed in the qualitative phase of the study. The
questionnaire had 7 factors and 47 markers. The participants having filled out the
questionnaire, the reliability of the instrument was assessed using Cronbach’s
alpha coefficient; exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were also
conducted to verify the validity of the questionnaire. The results corroborated
both the reliability and validity of the questionnaire with 7 components and 47
items as a tool for measuring global citizenship.
Discussion and conclusion
In the age of globalization, it is vital for any country to have citizens with
global features, able to solve global problems such as soil degradation, habitat
destruction, extinction of some animal and plant species, deforestation, the spread
of global poverty and human rights violation, which are beyond national borders.
Hence, there is a need for global citizenship education because solving such
global issues requires the simultaneous realization of global membership, rights,
duties, responsibilities and participation which is only possible through the
institutionalization of global citizenship. The results of the study confirmed the
importance of informing students of their civil and citizenship rights, ethical and
environmental duties and their responsibilities as citizens in the global
community. The finding highlights the significance of developing and designing
activities in the field of global citizenship education, including offering courses
in this field, and developing curriculum content for this purpose. The results
further bring to light the salience of educating learners in other aspects of global
competence, including the willingness to resolve conflicts with others peacefully,
awareness of current issues in international relations, expressing their opinions in
a local media about global inequality, the ability to solve global problems,
awareness of their role in the global community, the ability to draw people’s
attention to global issues, and getting ready to live in the community. The codes
extracted in this study can pave the way for more in-depth research on the other
dimensions of the global citizenship education program. Finally, it is
recommended that educational institutions provide the necessary conditions for
fostering the students’ intellectual and moral opportunities.
