Post-pandemic citizenship: The next phase of global citizenship education

As globalization has grown, the concept of “global citizenship” has also evolved. The drive to expand citizenship beyond national borders spurred a nascent discipline known as global citizenship education (GCE). This article examines the continuum from globalization, to global citizenship, to a global pandemic (Covid-19)—and how the lessons from this growing age of globalism can serve as a blueprint for a new form of global citizenship following the pandemic, defined as “post-pandemic citizenship”. The first part chronicles the drive toward globalization since the second half of the 20th century. The second part details the defining traits of global citizenship. The third part calls for a new form of global citizenship that should become part of GCE and be included in global-studies-related secondary-school courses and curricula in the wake of Covid-19—a so-called post-pandemic citizenship education (PPCE)—that emphasizes public health, empathy and compassion, self-sacrifice, and cooperative spirit.