Building inclusive societies through Global Citizenship Education

Advocacy cycle2023-2025

Building inclusive societies through Global Citizenship Education

GCE Definition

2025 Policy Paper Beyond Barriers

Roadmap

GCE Alliance

Disseminating our message

An interactive policy brief about the policy developments in education & lifelong learning

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During the 2023-25 advocacy cycle on Global Citizenship Education (GCE), SOLIDAR + published:

2024

2023

WE ALL BELONG: The role of GCE in supporting democratic participation and addressing current global challenges

Global Citizenship Education and Democratic Participation in Europe

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3 LOCAL LEVEL EVENTS

online training

2025 roadmap

also organised

Civil Society Alliance for global citizenship education

6 EU level events

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Shared definition of Global Citizen Education in the SOLIDAR network

Solidar + and its members understand GCE as political education on a global scale which prepares learners to develop a sense of belonging to the global community, to get involved and to take an active role in society in order to contribute to.a peaceful, just world in which ecological resources are preserved.

A common frame that reunites the membership of Solidar + is the fact that each one of them is striving to achieve social justice through education, ensuring that all learners have access to quality, public education that is done in a lifelong learning manner. Together, members have developed a shared definition of Global Citizenship Education based on the work of Vanessa Andreotti (2014), that provides common ground, while acknowledging that the concept continues to evolve and can be understood in diverse ways

Title

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Subtitle

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2025 Policy Paper "Beyond Barriers: Strengthening Global Citizenship Education for Inclusive Societies

Background

Main findings

Pointers for improvement

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Background

Aims and objectives

Concepts

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Main findings

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Pointers for improvement

At the policy level

At the practice level

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Roadmap on advancing inclusion and Global Citizenship Education in the European Education Area

GCE fosters critical thinking, intercultural understanding, and civil participation, while inclusive education ensures that every learner - regardless of background, ability, or status - has equal access to quality learning opportunities. Together they form the backbone of a future-oriented European Education Area (EEA) aligned with the EU's social and democratic values and the UN's SGDs.

This Roadmap aims to promote the integration of Global Citizenship Education and inclusion within education systems with a lifelong learning approach, thereby empowering learners, supporting educators, and stregthening democratic participation.

Global Citizenship Education (GCE) and inclusive education are essential for building resilient, democratic, and socially cohesive societies across Europe.

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Roadmap on advancing inclusion and Global Citizenship Education in the European Education Area

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DAFNI KEK

CEMÉA

Centre for Peace Studies

Solidar + organised together with its members three local events, in Croatia (Centre for Peace Studies), France (CEMÉA), and Greece (DAFNI KEK) in 2025, gathering stakeholders to reflect on how European policies on Global Citizenship Education can support its practice and development at the local level. Outcomes of these discussions fed into the Roadmap.

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Civil Society Alliance for Global Citizenship Education

Together with EAEA, Südwind, SOLIDAR+ is one of the coordinators of the Civil Society Alliance for Global Citizenship Education. The Alliance brings together ca. 25 Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) across Europe that are dedicated to advancing Global Citizenship Education (GCE).

Read the Alliance's latest statement on the MFF

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Disseminating our message

As part of its work on GCE, SOLIDAR+ has disseminated its message on GCE:

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Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

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Concepts

In this policy paper, inequality is not seen as a single phenomenon, and thus we refer to the term 'inequalities'

• Vertical inequalities refer to "hierarchical disparities within a society or a group. They can typically be expressed through data and often relate to how much power and status an individual or group has within a given society" (Ehmke & Ciravegna, 2025, p.5). Some of the most common dimensions of vertical inequalities are income, wealth, and political power.
• Horizontal inequalities point to "differences between social groups, which are formed around markers and categories by which people are classified or self-identify" (Ehmke & Ciravegna, 2025, p.9). Some of these markers are class, gender and/or sex, ethnicity/race, disability status, religion, etc. It is based on these markers that people can experience either privilege and/or discrimination. This is why using an intersectional lens to understand how these markers interact vertical inequalities is needed: power and privilege are not fixed in time or space, and the way in which we are affected by both changes according to our lived experience in society.

Aims and Objectives

This policy paper aims to further the knowledge of the impact of Global Citizenship Education on inequalities, particularly among learners with diverse socio-economic backgrounds. The general objectives for this paper include:

• mapping the provision of GCE for learners with different socio-economic backgrounds and innovate practice in this field;
• investigating whether certain socio-economic backgrounds are particularly deprived of GCE.

At the practice level

• Keep open and maintain spaces for dialogue and collective reflection with learners, practitioners, and the communities living in our own contexts to encourge critical reflection coupled with action around GCE.
• Mainstream decolonial, transnational, and intersectional approaches in GCE initiatives to move closer to a critical reflection coupled with action. This means, among other things, providing platforms to voices that represent systematically marginalised groups, instead of talking on their behalf; questioning what counts ad "official knowledge" in GCE; and aiming for concrete actions that tackle asymmetric power relations within the GCE community of practice.
• Foster network development among people participating in GCE activities to support collective action towards social change; this could translate in generating contextual knowledge about how to dismantle asymmetrica power relations, developing resistance actions against oppression, implement concrete care-based and solidarity practices among participants, etc.
• Maintain avenues for collaboration with other education stakeholders (including education providers, NGOs, etc) to ensure all learners, regardless of their socio-economic statues, can access GCE.

This policy paper underlines GCE's positive impact on youth democratic engagement.

At the policy level

• Ensure that education policies that mainstream GCE are followed by curricula that better integrates GCE at school.
• Provide training and capaity-building opportunities to pre-service and in-service teachers, educators, school directors, and school staff about GCE, is paramount to ensure that GCE curricula is mainstreamed.
• Open spaces for cross-sectoral learning including different educational actors (from the formal and non-formal education sectors), to foster a dialogue on how to improve the GCE practice.
• Maintain avenues for collaboration with other education stakeholders to ensure that all learners, regardless of their socio-economic status, can access GCE is key.
• Support higher education and research institutions to produce timely and evidence-informed research on GCE implementation, in particulal in non-formal education.
• Facilitate the dissemination of research findings related to the role of GCE in addressing inequalities, highlighting innovative practices and successful examples.
• Ensure that funding opportunities are sustainable to allow the implementation of long-term GCE initiatives.

This policy paper highlights the importance of GCE and non-formal education providers