Embedding Global Citizenship Education (GCE) into Higher Education

Overview

In an era marked by accelerating global crises – from environmental collapse and deepening inequality, to threats to democracy and social cohesion – higher education plays a critical role in preparing learners to understand and act on the interconnected issues shaping our shared future.

Global Citizenship Education enables learners to explore the root causes of global injustices, understand interdependence, and develop the knowledge, skills, values, and confidence to act for social, economic, and environmental justice. In higher education, this means moving beyond awareness-raising toward cultivating critical thinking, ethical action, and solidarity in both local and global contexts.

This Open Course introduces higher education staff to the principles, pedagogies, and practices of Global Citizenship Education (GCE), supporting you to embed these into your teaching, research, student engagement approaches, and wider institutional structures and policies. It explores how GCE relates to and differs from complementary fields such as Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), development education, human rights education, anti-racism education, social justice education and intercultural education. 

Participants will examine what global citizenship means within their own disciplines and identify concrete ways to integrate it into curriculum design, assessment, research, and campus initiatives.

• Identify the key principles, pedagogies, and frameworks of Global Citizenship Education (GCE)
• Distinguish how GCE relates to and differs from complementary fields such as Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), development education, human rights education, anti-racism education, social justice education and intercultural education
• Locate and reflect on examples of good practice in embedding GCE within higher education, both in Ireland and internationally
• Explore with colleagues across disciplines opportunities for integrating GCE values, perspectives, and methodologies into your own professional or institutional contexts
• Develop and present an actionable activity, plan, resource, or pedagogical approach that demonstrates how GCE can be embedded or strengthened within your teaching, curriculum, research, student engagement, or broader institutional practice.