Global Citizenship from an Interdisciplinary Perspective
by Manal Zeineddine
Founder of O.R.B.I.T.S. Development Code.
Global Educational Consultant
Saudi Arabia
Manal Zeineddine has been working in education for twenty-two years, thirteen years of which in leadership. She is currently a global educational consultant, a school inspector, and a potential development specialist, supporting holistic learning/teaching/leadership, quality monitoring, systems thinking, sustainability, STEM/STEAM, and nature education. She is the founder of O.R.B.I.T.S. Development Code.
Introduction by Venkat
In physics, we know that a stationery object can actually be moving. It all depends on the frame of reference one chooses to view from. The perception shifts based on one’s position. At certain scales, a complete switch of perception is needed to be able to understand phenomena like looking at light as wave at times and as particles at other times. In the vedas, the sages are said to have divine powers of perception to be able to discover 6 other universes beyond and 7 other universes below our physical one. It is quite clear that we need to shift our perception to gain a better understanding and a way of evolving, especially when the scales change.
Looking at life as a human on this planet is at a much different scale than looking at oneself as an individual in a local community. It demands a shift of perception and when that happens, we begin to see new connections and interconnections between life across cultures and time. Ecosystems have been studied and it is a clear fact that any change in one component impacts all the other components that make it.
Global citizenship, that Manal elucidates on, comes from the paradigm shift that is needed to be able to work towards a solution for the various global problems we face and experience. The truth is that we all are influencing our environment and the rest of the human race (knowingly or unknowingly) at various levels starting from the individual to the global level, all the time. Realizing this power in our hands brings the needed responsibility towards the right actions. To take a common example, this is how employee engagement improves in corporates when the employee is able to shift the perception from personal goals to a company’s strategic goals.
For sustainability, the shift in perception is not sufficient and one needs a long term approach to bring the needed collective action which is well coordinated and effective. Manal proposes the O.R.B.I.T.S. approach for conscious learning and being as a global citizen. While this is an overview, it already looks promising as it is holistic and an all-encompassing approach that is inclusive and secular as well. I wish to convey my thanks to Manal for contributing her beautiful insights and giving a great model to apply towards the betterment of our world.
Global Citizenship from an Interdisciplinary Perspective
A hurricane of conflicting interests, exploitation of resources, and violence has been developing in our ocean in the past decades, and after it has gained momentum in the past two to three years, it culminated in a pandemic, a ghastly war in Europe, economic crisis, cultural conflicts, adding to the already-existing global red flags. And here we stand, at a crossroads when we must decide, whether we yield to such hurricanes or find ways to save our coasts and prevent those surges from bulging inland. Many, if not all, select the second option. Whilst we cannot stop those dangerous hurricanes from evolving into storm surges, we can monitor our horizons, above and below water, land elevations, water depths, and barriers, and we can at least prevent damages from hitting us, the collective, very hard.
Water depths are a perfect analogy to understand the hidden factors governing our world. Our families and educational institutions are never isolated from the world. For this reason, digging deep into our practices, habits, and fixed systems sheds light on the matters that lurk under the heavy weight and darkness of the ocean waters. Only digging deep enables us to become aware of those threats. Land elevations are a perfect analogy to understand the dimensions to what issues may reach. Again, being part of this world, families and educational institutions can push matters upwards, giving them more height, and consequently, visibility and false awe. Barriers are organic representations of conditions, circumstances, and occurrences, that ferociously stand in our way, reminding us of our vulnerabilities and fragility.
Here comes the urgency to collectively think at granular levels of core issues, those of social, economic, environmental, and political impact. Global citizenship is the most relevant term to refer to the direction that we can take to approach those issues wisely and effectively. The United Nations defines global citizenship as “the umbrella term for social, political, environmental, and economic actions of globally minded individuals and communities on a worldwide scale. The term can refer to the belief that individuals are members of multiple, diverse, local and non-local networks rather than single actors affecting isolated societies. Promoting global citizenship in sustainable development will allow individuals to embrace their social responsibility to act for the benefit of all societies, not just their own.”
Going back to the above analogy of a storm surge, I cannot but agree that global citizenship is a reliable concept as it embeds Sustainability Development Goal 4 (insuring inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning), reinforcing it in education through Global Citizenship Education GCED. GCED’s primary goal is stated by the United Nations as the “nurturing respect for all, building a sense of belonging to a common humanity and helping learners become responsible and active global citizens.” However, after years of observing and studying our professional and personal experiences, I do believe that we need to conceptualize GCED with sagacity. Having a specific approach in education, O.R.B.I.T.S., an approach for conscious learning and being, I strongly believe that such critical matters must be solved or at least examined and handled at grassroots level, and this mandates the involvement of all members of a community, individually and collectively, without excluding or undermining any unit in the community. GCED through my approach reinforces interconnectedness of humans and our mother earth, being natural, rather than international, demonstrating responsibility, not duty, and operating from freedom, not fear. Embarking from these points, nine elements can help bridge the gaps: human rights, peace, prosperity, inclusion, equity and equality, ecocentrism, innovation, wisdom, and conscious oneness.
From the vantage point of my approach, the nine elements are harmoniously connected, serving a higher purpose, which is to “learn” and simply “be”, learn how to give and receive, while enjoying the processes. Sustaining oneself, the community, and the world becomes a natural outcome. If global citizenship aims at creating “proactive contributors to a more peaceful, tolerant, inclusive and secure world”, then we need to see beyond documents and declarations. While it is always important to assume good will and intentions, there are still some threads that signpost misinformation, disinformation, centralization, and much more. These happen not only at state levels, but also at unit levels in a community: we, as individuals, and people we live with and work with every day.
At granular levels, human rights means caring for ourselves and our family members, colleagues, friends, learners and teachers, acknowledging our boundaries and respecting theirs, giving ourselves and them the right to express opinions, attending to safeguarding matters, never judging oneself or others without evidence, or at least giving ourselves and them the benefit of a doubt until shown otherwise, encouraging or allowing ourselves and them to be part of decision-making, attending genuinely to moments of triumphs and failures, understanding needs for rest and leisure, understanding and assisting ourselves and them in times of pain and sickness, providing ourselves and them with the available tools to learn, grow, and become truly active in the community. The same goes for peace, equity, equality, and inclusion. All these are fostered to add value not only to humans themselves, but also to our precious natural resources. It is pure selfishness to think of saving the planet because we are living on it. Saving the planet means our beautiful planet earth that embraces us humans, animals, plants, rocks, rivers, soil, sunlight, air, and minerals. It’s this biotic and abiotic canvas, ecocentrism, that gives spirit to our world. Ecocentrism also mirrors prosperity and the law of the flow, the chaos that creates harmony and abundance. All these elements can lead to wisdom, and what is even more profound, conscious oneness. We, every living and non-living, are all ONE and we flow into each other, just like beautiful waves, and we flow into life, just like the low and the high tides. This is the quantum that makes global citizenship authentic, the “global citizenship” that can genuinely embody rights, rights for “each and all”.
by Manal Zeineddine
Founder of O.R.B.I.T.S. Development Code.
Global Educational Consultant
Saudi Arabia