The great 20th Century philosopher Hannah Arendt argued that it is not really possible to be a global citizen, as citizenship is necessarily tied to a nation-state. Of course, she was right: claiming one is a global citizen as a philosophical position is all very well, but our actions and their repercussions tend to resonate within the confines (or liberating) parameters of one’s passport—an altogether different state of affairs.

The whole concept of global citizenship is core to international education, the idea being that we aim to educate young people to see themselves as interconnected in a planetary whole, not separated by nation-state allegiance. It’s not a simple project, and one that is possibly more challenged in 2025 than it was some 30 years ago: globalisation is collapsing in a number of ways, politically and economically, and therefore the concept of supra-state nationalism needs to be rethought.

Digital citizenship (something Arendt probably would have thought even less possible than Global Citizenship) is the idea that when online, we should subscribe to certain ontological behaviours and that, educationally, we should nurture a set of competences that allow students to flourish in a digitized world. These include collaborative and networking skills, ethical practice, and innovative thinking.

In fact, perhaps the idea of digital citizenship is more accurate to today’s world than global citizenship: if there’s one thing that unites humans today, it is surely the massive and widespread use of technological platforms, devices, and social media.

The World Economic Forum’s “future of jobs” report puts the following as the fastest growing professions: big data specialists; fintech engineers; AI and machine learning specialists; and software and applications developers. However, an education for digital citizenship means paying attention to many of the core competences of any meaningful learning journey: critical thinking so that the plethora of sound bites on social media might be looked at with some discernment and circumspection; self-awareness allowing for some cognisance of one’s digital footprint; restraint and kindness so that online behaviour is wise and measured; contextual knowledge in the form of understanding data security.

So whether one is a citizen of the world, a citizen of a single country, or a digital citizen, the tenets of a good education will continue to be related to the development of fundamental concepts, behaviours, attitudes, and skills that strengthen the individual and the group to think independently and interact humanely.

Photo by Blake Guidry on Unsplash