Lifelong Learning as a strategy for educating global citizens within higher education.

Recent research emphasizes the need for education on global citizenship (GC) within higher
education (Davis, Evans & Reid, 2005; Ibrahim, 2008; Schultz, 2007). However, GC is an illdefined
concept (Schultz, 2007) and its position in university policies is unclear (Holvoet, 2007).
Therefore, the GC concept is difficult to implement within universities' educational practice
(Fullan, 2002; Hargreaves & Goodson, 2006). In order to overcome possible impediments, the
reported research aimed at elucidating visions of policy makers on the role of higher education
institutes with regard to positioning GC in society.
The findings resulted from a two round Delphi inquiry and in-depth interviews with 20 key figures
in the field of academic policy making in five Flemish universities, representatives of the Flemish
government's education department and members of GC education agencies.
Respondents reported two components as basic conditions for universities to educate their
students as global citizens: the need for a reflexive learning approach and an international
learning environment. Conditions and difficulties in creating such environments were
distinguished. As lifelong learning is defined as "a way of empowering people for active
engagement with important personal, social and global issues" (European Commission, 2001),
this concept is considered as appropriate to supply a framework for GC.

Jaar van publicatie:2010

Trefwoorden:global citizenship, higher education