This summer, I took part in the Global Citizenship Education course at the University for Peace (UPEACE), a United Nations–mandated institution dedicated to developing leaders who can build a more peaceful, just, and sustainable world. I am pursuing the Global Leadership Diploma through their Centre for Executive Education, and this was the second of five courses in that journey.
From the outset, I realized this course was different. It was not simply about learning the theory of global citizenship education (GCED). It was GCED in practice — modeled for us each week. Through interactive workshops, design-thinking activities, guest speakers, and sustained dialogue, we were not just studying global citizenship, we were living it together in community.
The most powerful dimension of the course was the exchange among participants from across the world. Each week we brought our lived experiences into the space: teachers, activists, administrators, peacebuilders, and learners representing diverse geographies, cultures, and perspectives. Theory never floated above reality; it was tested against stories from Ethiopia, Finland, Puerto Rico, Madagascar, Afghanistan, and beyond.
In that diversity, we were constantly reminded that everyone is both a teacher and a learner. This, for me, is the best part of UPEACE courses: the way they invite us into community, where knowledge flows in multiple directions and the classroom expands across borders.
Global citizenship education also requires unlearning: questioning the frameworks we inherit, recognizing Western-centrism and tokenism, and naming the power dynamics embedded in education itself. We explored empathy and cultural humility, critiques of soft GCE, and the tensions between local and global approaches.
These sessions challenged me to deepen the lexicon I use in my work. Words like empathy, humility, power, justice, accountability grew sharper in meaning through dialogue with others. Vocabulary is never just academic; it frames the way we act in the world.
At the same time, the course constantly turned us back toward practice. Weekly assignments weren’t afterthoughts; they were vehicles for integrating learning into our lives and work. Drafting vision statements, articulating challenge questions, and creating a personal manifesto pushed us to imagine how GCED might live in us as educators, leaders, or community members.
Here, GCED was not abstract. It was a lived pedagogy — a weaving together of head, heart, and hands. Knowledge and skills (cognitive), empathy and values (socio-emotional), and action (behavioral) came together.
If there is one reflection I carry forward, it is this: global citizenship is not a destination, but a cycle. To learn, unlearn, and relearn — again and again.
It sounds simple, but in practice it is profoundly demanding. To learn is to embrace complexity. To unlearn is to let go of frameworks and assumptions that no longer serve. To relearn is to weave new understandings into our lives and actions — anchored in justice, empathy, and sustainability.
Each turn of this cycle deepens our consciousness, sharpens our practice, and roots our commitments more firmly in care for both people and the planet. The lexicon expands, the meanings deepen, and we are reminded that global citizenship is not just something we teach, but something we become.
For me, the course also became a mirror for my ongoing work with The Geographical Imaginations Expedition & Institute (The GIEI). It sharpened my vision of how mapping, storytelling, and inquiry can move beyond “soft” global citizenship toward praxis — where ethos and action are inseparable.
This is the ongoing challenge: how to design learning expeditions that invite learners to see the world, and themselves within it, with renewed consciousness and responsibility. To keep cycling through learn–unlearn–relearn as a lifelong practice.
To the UPEACE team, my fellow participants, and our guest educators: thank you for creating a space that was equal parts challenging, compassionate, and inspiring. The course didn’t just teach global citizenship education — it modeled it, showing us what it can look like when lived in community.
The seeds we planted together will continue to grow, in classrooms, communities, and collaborations around the world.
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