Celebrating Interdependence With Global Citizenship Education

Forbes

04-07-2025

National flags of world countries around Earth globe isolated on white getty
As we celebrate Independence Day in the US, many Americans are contemplating their citizenship and celebrating their nation. While many aspects of our nation indeed are worth celebrating, our role as citizens of the world — as global citizens — needs to be considered as well. Our personal and national obligations to be responsive to the needs of all of humanity is one that has become increasingly important as global trade, geopolitical issues and climate change make it impossible to isolate any nation as being truly independent. As we celebrate Independence Day, it would be helpful to also celebrate our interdependence on other nations and peoples that provides the foundations for our freedom. In this regard, we can celebrate our roles both as citizens of our nation and as global citizens.
Global citizenship is a notion that combines intercultural awareness, geopolitical realities, and global challenges. As these issues underlie many of our most urgent challenges facing our country and the world, an increased emphasis on global citizenship education would help students prepare to help solve many of these global challenges. However, global citizenship education does not fall neatly into any one discipline, and so universities and colleges need to build interdisciplinary programs to explore global citizenship. The theoretical ideas arise from philosophy and religious study, while implementing global citizenship generally arises from the social sciences of international studies, psychology, sociology and political science, and often include components of community-based learning.
Global Citizenship in Ancient Greece and Rome
Western notions of global citizenship often trace back to Diogenes the Cynic who described himself as a " kosmopolitês ," or literally "a citizen of the world." Philosopher Martha Nussbaum has written that this sensibility "urges us to recognize the equal, and unconditional, worth of all human beings' that demands that 'politics ought to treat human beings both as equal and as having a worth beyond price. The Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius later expressed the cosmopolitan ideal directly in terms of citizenship, writing, 'My city and my country, as I am Antoninus, is Rome; as I am a human being, it is the world' For Aurelius, the binding tie between humanity was reason, stating that 'If reason is common, so too is law; and if this is common, then we are fellow citizens. If this is so, we share in a kind of organized polity. And if that is so, the world is as it were a city-state.' From this perspective, global citizenship is a natural extension of one's loyalty to country to a larger body of one's fellow humanity.
Ubuntu and African Concepts of Global Citizenship
Cosmopolitanism ideas transcend any one nation or culture. The philosopher Anthony Appiah emphasizes that "cosmopolitanism shouldn't be seen as some exalted attainment: it begins with the simple idea that in the human community, as in national communities, we need to develop habits of coexistence: conversation in its older meaning, of living together, association." The African philosophy of ubuntu provides one powerful lens for considering the meaning of global citizenship. Desmond Tutu described ubuntu as 'the very essence of being human' and an ethos that is 'generous, hospitable, friendly, caring and compassionate.' Tutu explains the meaning of ubuntu as "I am, because you are' – which ultimately rests on our interdependence. Nelson Mandela recognized the power of these ideas and said that "humankind cannot become truly free and happy as long as others are oppressed and suffering." Barack Obama, eulogizing Mandela, described Mandela's greatest gift as 'his recognition that we are all bound together in ways that are invisible to the eye; that there is a oneness to humanity; that we achieve ourselves by sharing ourselves with others, and caring for those around us." Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai exemplified global citizenship through her grassroots environmental activism of the Green Belt Movement in Kenya, which as described by her daughter Wanjira, revealed how 'the environment, democracy, and peace were inextricably linked."
Global Citizenship from Asian Perspectives
Many insights on global citizenship come from Buddhism and other Asian traditions. Mahatma Gandhi in his work All Men Are Brotherssaid that 'we are all tarred with the same brush, and are children of one and the same Creator, and as such the divine powers within us are infinite. To slight a single human being is to slight those divine powers, and thus to harm not only that being but with him the whole world.' Japanese educator and philosopher Daisaku Ikeda, founder of Soka University of America, provides a Buddhist perspective on global citizenship rooted in three main ideas that include the 'interconnectedness of all life,' the 'courage not to fear or deny difference,' and the 'compassion to maintain an imaginative empathy that extends to those suffering in distant places."
Global Citizenship Education in US Colleges and Universities
Forward-thinking institutions aren't waiting for consensus—they're acting. A growing number of universities have launched global citizenship programs that prepare students for an interconnected world: Webster University's Global Citizenship program, University of Houston's Global Citizens Credential, Florida State's Global Citizenship Certificate program, and Lehigh University's Global Citizenship program. These programs provide certificates in many cases and span a variety of courses across the curriculum. Other colleges and universities have interwoven global citizenship education through their curricula, such as Soka University of America, which anchors its interdisciplinary curriculum in Ikeda's three essential elements while requiring four semesters of language learning and mandatory study abroad. SUA's mission to "foster a steady stream of global citizens committed to living a contributive life," translates into concrete educational practice, extending this framework to K-12 educators through its Global Citizenship Education project housed within the Soka Institute for Global Solutions (SIGS). Among other liberal arts colleges, Haverford College and Macalester College stand out for having centers for global citizenship. Haverford's Center for Peace and Global Citizenship works to build partnerships and community engaged learning in Philadelphia and beyond, while Macalester's Kofi Annan Institute for Global Citizenship, named for one of its alumni who became secretary-general of the United Nations, works to develop leadership skills and multicultural awareness among its students.
Leading research universities have also recognized the importance of a deeper investigation of the meaning of global citizenship, and many have developed innovative courses on the topic. Examples include Stanford's Citizenship in the 21st Century course, a centerpiece of its new COLLEGE core curriculum, which studies community membership across geographic, religious, racial and ethnic communities, and Harvard's Educating Global Citizens course, designed to develop strategies for K-12 educators. Several universities have also created complete degree programs and curricula for global citizenship, such as Georgetown's IAJU Global Citizenship Fellows program, which brings together students from 10 Jesuit universities across 9 countries, Duke University's Freedom, Justice and Citizenship FOCUS program, which explores the philosophical, historical and political dimensions of global citizenship, including how cosmopolitanism impacts local and global identities, and what rights and obligations come with global citizenship.
As we celebrate our Independence Day, let us also remember our interdependence and the power that comes from celebrating our cultural differences. In the words of Anthony Appiah, "Cosmopolitanism is an adventure and an ideal,' which just like our nation's independence, is well worth celebrating.