In June 2007, NCDO (Netherlands Committee for Sustainable Development) together with Utrecht University’s Faculty of Geosciences initiated the development of a canon for global citizenship, chiefly intended for use in education.¹

A variously composed committee (see appendix 4 for the personal particulars of the committee members) was charged with the task.

Why a canon for global citizenship? The idea first arose after the success of the Dutch historical and cultural canon. Naturally that was a much larger-scale initiative than is feasible in our case. The establishment of the Committee for the Development of the Dutch Canon by the Minister of Education was based on a wide social consensus on the problem of inadequate historical awareness in Dutch society. The committee had ample resources available to realize its goals. Because of the sense of urgency felt about this issue, the historical canon received a great deal of media attention.² The accompanying website, www.entoen.nu, was and is frequently visited. Numerous local or thematic canons emerged in the slipstream of the national canon. In 2008, parties were organized in every province to launch the historical canon in the education sector. It has meanwhile been decided that the canon will be included in the core aims for primary education and basic secondary school curriculum.

In short, the national historical canon has created quite a stir: releasing creative energy, enthusiasm and debate.

Our project to develop a canon for global citizenship did not and does not have the same status, resources and ambitions as the Dutch canon project. Nevertheless we followed the idea of a canon. Reactions to the historical canon revealed that providing a selective list of topics, or if you like, icons or windows, fills a strong need for surveyability and choice-making. Global citizenship, as an area for special attention in education, is very comprehensive and difficult to define. These guidelines may therefore prove useful in clarifying the issue for teachers, trainee teachers, instructors, authors of educational tools and others.

Experience with the historical canon has made it clear that a canon proposal always results in debate: why were these elements chosen and not others, what is the underlying logic? With this canon for global citizenship we hope to incite a similar debate. After all, the discussion has a value of its own: by arguing about the selection of topics and windows everyone can hone their own ideas on global citizenship.

Note

1. The word ‘canon’ has different meanings. The word canon stems from ancient Greek, and means ‘measuring rod’ or ‘standard’. In this publication it is used as a group of themes which are generally seen as representing the field of global citizenship.