Global Citizenship Programme

Purpose

The purpose of the Global Citizenship Programme at Rysensteen Gymnasium is to give the school’s students the opportunity to understand their learning in a global context so that they begin to perceive themselves as world citizens. Moreover, the aim is to encourage the students to think of themselves as people with social duties and responsibilities in a local, regional and global context. They acquire the academic foundations of these concepts through academic work and extracurricular courses.

Globalisation’s problems and challenges will become apparent and concrete through cooperation that we have established with the partnership-schools around the world. We work with schools in Argentina, Canada, China, Croatia, Egypt, India, Poland, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Turkey, Uganda and the USA.

Programme overview

The programme is based on the culture of democratic engagement that already exists at Rysensteen, where democratic processes are an important part of the school’s vision. For many years the school has worked to involve the students in the decision-making processes at Rysensteen, which has resulted in a wide-ranging delegation of responsibility to them.

The students’ engagement informs the organisation of the teaching, their participation in the teaching, and in the development of an evaluation culture. In addition, there is both a formal and informal committee culture, where students work on everything from education policy to the production of the annual musical, and from arranging parties to a strong engagement in Rysensteen’s local community.

In cooperation with our partner schools we have designed a three-year programme for each class on Global Citizenship. The project started in September 2011.

The starting point is that all of the school’s first-year classes will have a partner-class. The basic idea is that cooperation with students at the partner-school will make it possible for our students to see other students in other parts of the world and, thereby, see themselves as others perceive them. This should enable them to take greater responsibility for the formative dimension in their education.

During the first 2 years the students cooperate virtually via, amongst other things, social media. This work will facilitate the students’ acquisition of knowledge about other young people’s way of life, opportunities and rights. We will use the Citizenship concept in all of the involved subject areas, including General Studies. We will also use it in extracurricular arrangements and events, where we will focus on the rights and responsibilities one has as a citizen of the world. This will be achieved through work on the key issues of our times. The geographical area will be used in the teaching as cross-disciplinary studies.

The project will culminate in an exchange visit where students will, as far as possible, stay with families in their homes.