The Concept of Global Citizenship

Running head: THE CONCEPT OF GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP 1

THE CONCEPT OF GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP 5

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A global citizen refers to a person who recognizes with being part of an arising world community and whose actions relatively contribute to the building of such community’s values and practices. With the rapid increase in global engagement there is the likely tendency of people identifying themselves as global citizens, with the creation of sense of belonging to a world community. This has been made possible by various factors revolving around the modern information technology, communication and transportation technologies. These factors are greatly enhancing the ability to connect to the rest of the world, this mainly includes in areas such as the internet, participation in global economy, through environmental concerns, engagement to help end civil conflicts and wars in other countries and through ease in travel and tourism (Reysen, Larey, & Katzarska-Miller, 2012).
Being a global citizen gives the ability beyond my limitation to travel, to make out a remarkable change throughout the world; this through platform like the internet which equips with updates of progression of world matters and helps identify individual roles in the society, thus taking obligations and responsibilities beyond national boundary. It helps in equipping with the world knowledge thus understanding important global trends such as in science and technology, development of cultures and trends in global economy work. Global citizenship allows enrichment in foreign languages such as the Arabic and Chinese which are vital for the prosperity of self and the country itself. It allows incorporation of civil values that differ from the United States which builds critical thinking skills (Reysen, Larey, & Katzarska-Miller, 2012).
Based on Reysen and Katzarska, A model of global citizenship: Antecedents and outcomes; there has been disparity between philosophers on the definition of the term global citizenship due to the fact that they draw from different disciplines and perspectives. Some have embarked on a political point of view, theological view, developmental view and others educational view to define this construct. The term highlights on the morality and ethics when defined by theorists in philosophy, for education theorists they touch on global awareness; this is so due to the fact that there is no legal recognition of a global group membership. From my point of view I define global citizenship as; recognition and participation in the ever-changing world and championing of community values and practices (Reysen & Katzarska-Miller, 2013).
From the diverse outcomes of global citizenship from the article, I object environmental sustainability and social justice as the most crucial in becoming a global citizen. Environmental sustainability places a global need and responsibility for all people to conserve natural resources and thus promoting a sustainable environment. Natural resources have to be put in the right purpose of primarily providing basic needs and not seeking material wealth. This is one of the crucial thing that global citizen seeks. Social justice seeks to ensure that people in countries that are developing and third world countries receive help from the privileged people in developed countries. This aims at ensuring that every person regardless his/her country of origin has access to key basic services such as clean water, food
, health care and ease to legal assistance (Ginzburg, 1999).
One of the relevant personal examples is my enrolment to Sierra Club which is conservation organization. Based on our different trips to different areas we have an opportunity to foster the teaching and guiding on measures to foster environmental sustainability. I have gained experience and knowledge relevant to pass to the globe at large to champion my interests on environmental sustainability.
One of the recent actions aimed to promote social justice was in 2012, when the United States allotted almost $ 12 billion to African nations in Official Development Assistance. This amount was provided to foster education, infrastructure, health and other economic development programs in the African countries. This is an event that seeks to achieve social justice of people in less able countries in Africa by ensuring they have the access to key basic requirements (Shaz, 2012).
Some General education courses have influenced me a lot to become global citizen, these includes; Anthropology and Linguistics. Anthropology is an academic discipline that studies human culture; this enables to understand experience outside my own social and cultural context which brings about the aspect of global citizenship where I value to recognize the need for valuing diversity. Linguistics is an academic discipline that is concerned with the society social aspects of human language. This helps exploring language in it social context. This greatly challenges me to become a global citizen
Historically, it has been found that human being have always formed diverse communities with shared values based on their shared identity which revolves around religious, social, economic and political beliefs. With the advancement in technology our eyes have been opened and our consciousness greatly increased, holding on our instincts that make us feel the need for that connection with others, there is no need to hold on to the old ways and alliances that seem not to be valid as they used to. There is nothing to hold back to, it calls for global citizenship that would assist to view the world as a whole and coming up with more suitable ways of creating a connection to those who share common humanity with us.

References
Ginzburg, V. (1999). What is happening to us?. Physics-Uspekhi, 42(3), 295-295. http://dx.doi.org/10.1070/pu1999v042n03abeh000641
Reysen, S. & Katzarska-Miller, I. (2013). A model of global citizenship: Antecedents and outcomes. International Journal Of Psychology, 48(5), 858-870. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00207594.2012.701749
Reysen, S., Larey, L., & Katzarska-Miller, I. (2012). College Course Curriculum and Global Citizenship. International Journal Of Development Education And Global Learning, 4(3), 27-40. http://dx.doi.org/10.18546/ijdegl.04.3.03
Shaz, B. (2012). Minority donation in the United States. ISBT Science Series, 7(1), 292-295. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-2824.2012.01546.x