What is “World Citizenship Education”?
The idea of a world citizen is said to have originated in ancient Greece, when philosophers, asked “Which city-state (polis) are you from?”, answered, “I am a citizen of the world (cosmopolitan).” This way of being, free from attachment to a particular origin, place, or attribute, has continued to inspire people for more than 2,000 years.
In today’s world, however, humanity faces global challenges that transcend national borders, including environmental crises, war, terrorism, and the struggles surrounding migration. At the same time, anthropocentric ways of thinking are reaching their limits, and even the very concept of what it means to be human is being questioned. Against this backdrop, World Citizenship Education, an education that does not begin from the assumption of belonging to a specific place or cultural identity, has drawn increasing attention.
The key challenge, however, is how to cultivate and educate people who can genuinely live as citizens of the “world.”
Rather than limiting ourselves to cosmopolitanism, rooted in the cultural context of ancient Greece, or to the idea of the global citizen, associated with the worldwide expansion of social and economic activity, we are called to consider what it truly means to live as a world citizen, an existence within the dynamic whole of society and nature.
With this in mind, our project aims to explore the meaning and reality of being a world citizen, as well as the processes by which World Citizenship Education and human formation can be developed. More specifically, our project is divided into three areas:
（1）Division of Human Formation Education: Philosophical and pedagogical inquiry into the nature of world citizenship and human formation.
（2）Division of Social and Environmental Awareness: Focused on the formation of social and environmental consciousness.
（3）Division of Multicultural Education: Exploring perspectives of multicultural exchange and coexistence.
Together, these divisions aim to open new possibilities for education and human development.