Workshop: “What does national identity mean today?” – the relationship between local, regional, national and global Citizenship
That Citizenship Education nowadays should focus on the different levels of local, regional, national and global Citizenship is widely agreed. That as well implies the identification as citizens of the respective spheres.
Global challenges like climate change, the rise of transnational movements and the recent pandemic seem to demand a stronger focus on the cosmopolitan dimension of Citizenship. At the same time, we observe rising debates about identities in different parts of the world. Some refer to the national frameworks and in essence questions of how to build inclusive democracies in diverse societies others like postcolonial movements refer to global dimensions.
At the backdrop of these developments, we as an international community of Citizenship Educators would like to look at the situation in different regions of our networks and exchange on recently relevant issues of identity and Citizenship.
Starting a discussion on the role of Citizenship Education in this context, we ask the question “What means national identity in our present time?”
With trying to find an answer, we want to explore whether the idea of global Citizenship can play a leading role in the future’s vision at the moment – or if this might be a false conclusion?
Being aware of the complexity, we will take this meeting as a starting point. Based on case studies from the perspective of practitioners in CE in different regions, we will present insights from Belarus, Tunisia and Uganda.
With this approach, we want to start an exchange and a discussion about questions around identity, Citizenship and Citizenship Education.
The workshop aims to start an international exchange and define questions on the topic that will be tackled more in-depth during upcoming follow-up events.
Moez Ali, UTIL, NACE, Tunisia
Sheila Nabachwa, Civic Education Network for Eastern and Southern Africa (CENESA), Uganda
Vladimir A. Yanchuk, Belarusian State University, EENCE, Belarus
Moderation: Nelly Corbel, Global Civic Consulting, NECE Advisory Board, NACE, France / Peggy Piesche, Federal Agency for civic education, Germany