Abstract
Today, globalisation expands the affiliation of the individual from a national level to an international level. Global citizenship has been regarded as an important outcome for students in major universities around the world, yet there is little literature about how it is integrated at universities in the Arab world, although some of them emphasise it in their policies. This article reports on how one Omani University, namely Sultan Qaboos University, interpreted and implemented global citizenship education in their undergraduate programmes. Particularly, this study seeks to identify the perceptions of students who studied a course entitled Global Citizenship Education in the academic year 2018–2019. The data were collected using two tools: a questionnaire which was administered to a sample consisting of 49 students and semi-structured interviews with 10 students. The data analysis was conducted by calculating the medium for the questionnaire and by employing an inductive process where the data were coded and then the themes that emerged from the data were highlighted. The results indicated that Omani University students had different perceptions of global citizenship and their perspectives tended to be more cosmopolitan and humanistic . In addition, they highlighted the impact of the course on developing three dimensions of global citizenship education: the cognitive, socioemotional and behavioural dimensions.
Introduction
The intersection between citizenship and universities has received growing attention by researchers influenced by a set of transformations, such as the social reproduction of youth inequalities, the formation of identities and the development of values in modern societies (Rao et al., 2016). Global citizenship (hereafter, GC) in higher education institutions (hereafter, HEIs) has attracted increasing attention from researchers in the last decade (Reysen et al., 2013; Thanosawan and Laws, 2013). Thanosawan and Laws (2013) stressed that major universities regard GC to be a desirable attribute that should be developed by their graduates during their studies. As a result, a growing number of researchers highlight that HEIs need to prepare their graduates to be global citizens (Bourke et al., 2012; Leask, 2015; Thanosawan and Laws, 2013; Trede et al., 2013). For instance, Trede et al. (2013) underlined that Australian universities are called on by employers to enrich their graduates’ international experiences by integrating GC into their curriculum. From the viewpoint of Schoorman (2000), HEIs should take ‘internationalisation’ of the curriculum into consideration in order to assist students to cope with the changing world. According to Reysen et al. (2013), HEIs have an integral role to play in helping their graduates to move from local, nationalistic and independent perspectives to a world view that accounts for the interdependence brought about by globalisation.
On the basis of the above, it is clear that calls for educating graduates for GC have been met by different universities around the world both in Western countries (Glover et al., 2013; Guimaraes-Iosif, 2011) and in developing countries. Literature shows that there is ample data on how Western universities (Glover et al., 2013; Shultz, 2011; Sklad et al., 2015; Weistra et al., 2015 ) and Asian universities (Thanosawan and Laws, 2013) deal with Citizenship Education (CE) in their curricula, and also Turkish (Basarir, 2017) and Mexican Universities (Roux, 2019). Yet, there is a shortage of data on how universities in developing countries, especially Arab universities, have responded to these transformations. In this article, we explore the experience of one Arab country in preparing its graduates for exercising GC, namely Sultan Qaboos University (hereafter, SQU) in Oman. In particular, we are curious about the perceptions of students who attended a new introductory course called Global Citizenship Education (hereafter, GCE). These perceptions will be explored in terms of students’ views about GC and the impact of the course on developing GC. Before approaching the methodology and results, it is crucial to present the study framework in terms of the meaning of GC in general and its relationship to HEIs as current debates have revealed, in addition to introducing the status of GE in the context of the study, namely Oman.
Study framework
Global citizenship concept
GC is viewed by researchers as a complex concept that can be defined from different perspectives (Roux, 2019; Heela and Yemini, 2016). Some researchers viewed GC as a pluralistic concept that expands the individual’s allegiance from the national to the international level (Schattle, 2008; Trede et al., 2013). As Trede et al. (2013) stated, GC is a way to link local and global issues together in order to enhance a sense of responsibility. Reysen et al. (2012) defined it as action requiring ‘caring, embracing diversity, promoting social justice’. Streitwieser and Light (2009) view GC as a broad concept that includes rights for universal justice and basic human dignity, obligations towards the well-being of others and the health of the planet and that challenges existing power structures and their association with political, social, governmental and legal activities. Yet, Chen (2011) stressed that GC, unlike national citizenship, is not a legal status that is officially given, rather it is gained by self-identification through an individual’s behaviour and attitudes towards global responsibility.
In order to simplify the complexity of GC as a concept, two theoretical attempts were introduced by Andreotti (2006) and Oxley and Morries (2013). Andreotti (2006) classified GC into two categories: soft and critical GC. From his perspective, soft GC aims to make students familiar with the word and cultural tolerance, whereas critical GC entails deeper engagement. In other words, the former focuses on information about global issues and the latter stresses conflict, power and opposing views. In contrast, Oxley and Morries (2013) provided a systematic typology of GC, consisting of two main categories: the cosmopolitan type and the advocacy type. The cosmopolitan type of GC refers to common humanity and its universalist values shared by people around the world. This type of GC is further divided into the following four subcategories: political, moral, economic and cultural GC. The advocacy type of GC emphasises people’s participation to counter social inequalities and consists of the following four subcategories: social, critical, environmental and spiritual. Table 1 describes the main ideas of each main and subcategory type of GC.
The main ideas of each main and subcategory type of GC according to typology introduced by Oxley and Morries (2013).
GCE in higher education
As globalisation of the world is expanding, GC becomes more of a necessity for education systems, especially at the higher education level (Myers, 2016; Glover et al., 2013). Reilly and Niens (2014) claimed that GCE has become a central topic for governments which tend to support teaching about global issues instead of focusing on narrow citizenship that focuses on patriotic nationalistic values. Yet, developing GC among university graduates is regarded as a controversial process because of the varying perspectives on the attributes of global citizens that universities need to develop (Boni and Calabuig, 2015; Hunter et al., 2006; Killick, 2012; Lilley et al., 2014; Streitwieser and Light, 2009). However, the literature showed different insights into what constitutes a global citizen. Hunter et al. (2006) argued that a global citizen is one who has an open mind and actively interacts with other people outside his or her country. Lilley et al. (2014) cite links between values of openness, tolerance and respect in the character of a global citizen and his or her exercising of responsibility towards the self, others and the planet as a whole. Similarly, AlMaamari (2009) contented that the global citizen requires respect for all religions, beliefs and nationalities and opts to make dialogue with other cultures and civilisations. In addition, Nussbaum (1996) highlighted that a global citizen needs to engage with the global community in order to participate in solving global problems.
In order to obtain these attributes, Tawil (2013) argued that GCE is required to connect local and global levels in a curriculum. Engel’s (2014) view is that connection can be achieved by linking three components together in teaching GCE: values, skills and reflexive components. More recently, UNESCO (2014) provided three dimensions for GCE: the cognitive, socioemotional and behavioural dimensions. The cognitive dimension is about acquiring ‘knowledge, understanding and critical thinking about global, regional, national and local issues and the interconnectedness and interdependency of different countries and populations’ (UNESCO, 2015: 15). The socioemotional dimension emphasises the feelings of belonging to a common humanity in terms of enhancing respect, solidarity, empathy, openness and intercultural communication skills. The behavioural dimension is about actions at local, national and global levels, to make the world a more peaceful place for all. In other words, the behavioural dimension is about making a difference in the lives of marginalised people and those who suffer harsh conditions.
On the basis of the above, two points need to be taken into consideration. First, knowledge and action cannot be separated in GCE, as they are strongly related to each other (Brown and Morgan, 2008). Second, global action starts at the local level in order to counter broad global issues (Pike, 2008). This is to say, that as the world increasingly becomes more connected at different levels, the decisions and behaviours of people in one place or country affect the lives of others around the world (Estelles and Romero, 2016).
Focusing on introducing students in HEIs to GCE that underlines the three different dimensions helps to prepare them to be global citizens. Chang (2016) mentioned that students who are not exposed to GCE encounter difficulty in identifying themselves as global citizens. Boni and Calabuig (2015) attempt to discover the influence of three spaces: international cooperation, a mobility programme that took place mainly in Latin American countries and a student-led university group on developing a sense of GC among university students at the Universitat Politècnica of Valencia. They conclude from their study that there is the necessity of creating cosmopolitan communities inside the university from the faculty, students and staff in order to promote GC and that the challenges of this is one thing that needs to be investigated.
Based on the review earlier, it appears that GC constitute a very important theme in the HEIs. By identifying the growing status of GC in different contexts across the world, the focus of this study concentrates on university’s students perceptions, the less investigated area in Arab contexts. Indeed, the study benefitted from previous literature especially the typology of GC categories provided by Oxley and Morries (2013) and the three dimensions of GCE introduced by the UNESCO (2014). They employed as frameworks to both analysis and understand the perceptions of participants of the study.
The study context: Sultan Qaboos University
Generally, speaking, Oman is a developing Arab country that puts much emphasis on preparing its students to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century. While the country acknowledges the importance of developing a sense of GC in their students, it is also strengthening the national identity in them for a strong base for interaction with the wider world. According to Al-Maamari (2014), the Omani education system is not highly nationally centred, rather it allows a space for teaching students about global issues, and yet, GCE is not a concept often touched on in Oman, at either curriculum or research levels. Therefore, this study is timely, as it provides empirical data on students’ perceptions of GC after they completed an elective course about it at SQU.
SQU was established in 1986 as the first and the only public university in Oman. The university, which is located in the capital Muscat, consists of nine colleges: Education, Arts and Social Sciences; Law, Nursing, Medicine, Engineering; Agriculture; Commerce and Political Sciences; and Science. Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) (2015) has emphasised the attributes of GC and promoted them in their statements of graduates’ outcomes: ‘SQU graduates should value good citizenship qualities, be conscious of their national identity and social responsibility, engage in community affairs and be mindful of contemporary issues’ (p. 106). In the university’s strategic plan (2016–2020), it was stated that the university should encourage ‘global and regional perspectives in university teaching and research through various cooperative and exchange programmes with foreign institutions’. More recently, the SQU (2015), like other HEIs, is required to implement the Omani national 2040 vision of education which stresses the need ‘to develop human resources possessing the necessary work and life skills to be productive in a knowledge-based world, able to adapt to change, preserve national identity and its inherent values, and contribute to the advancement of human civilization’ (p. vii). On the basis of this vision, the SQU (2015) forms its vision to ‘continue its national leading role in higher education and community service and also to be internationally recognized for innovative research [and] the quality of its graduates’ (p. x). As a sign of the implementation of these policies, SQU introduced an elective course for its students entitled GCE in the academic year 2018–2019 in order to expand global awareness among its students. In fact, the course is regarded to be the first course of its kind in HEIs not only in Oman but also in other Arab Gulf Countries’ universities. This implementation is supported by some findings. Hett (1993: 128) revealed a significant correlation between the number of global studies courses taken and global awareness. Stevens (2013) suggested that including courses related to global issues would promote a stronger global-mindedness perspective among students. In the light of the above, this study is directed at investigating the perceptions of students who attended this course, in terms of their understanding of the meaning of GC and the impact of the course on the students’ own development and participation in this area.
Method
The research
This article draws on a research that investigated students’ perceptions of GC after they had attended an elective course called GCE, which was introduced by the College of Education at SQU in spring 2019. Participants were selected from two classes that the researcher taught (a total of 49 participants).
The course lasted 13 weeks. It aimed to introduce the students to the following topics: (a) the concept of GC; (b) the attributes of the global citizen and his or her role in ensuring stability and development; (c) education for peace, tolerance, and acceptance of others; (d) the relationship between GC and human rights and values of justice; (e) GC from the Islamic perspective; (f) civil society and social solidarity; (g) the role of international organisations in promoting the values of GC; (h) the role of Oman in enhancing GC and peaceful coexistence worldwide.
Research design
This study mainly applies mixed methods that combine the quantitative and qualitative data that was collected from both a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. To collect the data, a questionnaire was administered to the 49 students at the end of the GCE course and the interviews were conducted with 10 participants. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse the data obtained for this study. The data were examined for reliability (Cronbach’s alpha) and normality (i.e. skewness and kurtosis).
Participants
The population included 49 students who were enrolled in 2 classes of the elective course introduced by the College of Education, SQU, in the spring term of the academic year 2018–2019. This sample was distributed by gender (33 male and 16 female students) and college type (13 from applied science colleges and 36 from the humanities colleges). This sample was the first cohort of students to undertake the GCE course in Omani HEIs, which might help to collect highly specific data about the impact of this course on GC from the viewpoints of these students.
The sample for the semi-structured interviews consisted of 10 students: 5 male and 5 female. Table 2 shows the demographic information about the participants in terms of code, gender, college and year. Those participants volunteered to participate in the interviews after filling in the questionnaire, and they represent different colleges at SQU, except for medicine, from which no student was enrolled in the course, in order to get a variety of responses which enrich the data of this study.
The demographic information about the interviews’ sample.
Instruments
The first instrument was a questionnaire, which was widely used by different researchers regarding GC (Katzarska-Miller et al., 2012). The original questionnaire consisted of 23 items based on a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from ‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’. In this study, 18 items were adopted from the original questionnaire and translated into Arabic, and the researcher further added 11 items regarding the impact of the GCE course on the participants’ perceptions of GC. The items adopted were four items about how much self and others in one’s normative environment value being a global citizen, three items assessing global awareness, three items assessing global responsibility, three items assessing global participation, and five items assessing cross-cultural empathy. The total number of items on the questionnaire was 29. In addition, the questions included some general items related to demographic variables such as gender (male/female), college types (applied science/humanities). The internal reliability of the questionnaire was checked and a Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.89 was found.
The participants’ responses to the questionnaire were numbered and coded, and then they were fed into the SPSS programme. Specifically, the descriptive statistics, especially means and standard deviations were obtained as indicators of the participants’ perceptions of GC and the impact of the course on developing it. Criteria that were applied to judge the degree of participants’ perceptions was based on a 5-point scale, ranging from very high to too low (5–4.50 = very high; 4.49–3.50 = high; 3.49–2.50 = medium; 2.49–1.50 = low; 1.49–1.00 = too low).
The second instrument was semi-structured interviews that were conducted after administering the questionnaire in order to deepen the participants’ responses regarding GC and the importance of the course in expanding their understanding about world issues.
A total of 10 interviews that lasted between 25 minutes and 30 minutes were conducted by the researcher at the College of Education, SQU, in a private office. All interviews were conducted in Arabic and were recorded and transcribed in order to enable thematic coding. The semi-structured interview questions were developed by reviewing the related literature. The participants’ were asked two questions: ‘What are the attributes of the global citizen that they think Omanis hold?’ and ‘What is the impact of the GCE course on developing their attributes as global citizens?’ Through the two broad main questions from the interviews, I sought to allow for a wide array of perspectives without directing the participants towards a specific response. Some questions were included to collect information regarding participants’ gender, college and academic year.
The thematic analysis of the interviews was conducted according to the guidelines suggested by Radnor (2002). There are seven steps to analysing interviews, according to him, including topic ordering, constructing categories, reading for content, completing the coding sheets, generating coded transcripts, analysing coded transcripts and exploring the relationships and patterns that might emerge across topics and categories.
Results
In this section of article, the findings of the study will be presented, starting with the questionnaire findings followed by the semi-structured interviews’ findings. Then, the findings will be discussed in the light of the literature mentioned in the beginning of the article.
The questionnaire findings
This section presents the participants’ perceptions obtained from the questionnaire. Table 3 highlights the distribution of participants’ perceptions regarding the six domains that make up the questionnaire.
The distribution of participants’ perceptions regarding the six domains that make up the questionnair.
From Table 3, it is clear that the participants had divergent perceptions of GC. The degree of these perceptions fluctuates between very high and medium, according to the criteria set up by the researcher. Specifically, the participants’ perceptions degree was very high and also high regarding global responsibility, global participation (except for one item), and participants’ perceptions of studying the course and their effects on global issues. Yet, the participants’ perceptions degree was medium regarding how much self and others in one’s normative environment value being a global citizen, global awareness (except for one item), and cross-cultural empathy.
The participants emphasised that studying the GCE course highly influenced their views about global issues. The highest impact of the course was on helping them to become ‘familiar with the role of NGOs’ activities in minimising the effects of global issues’, followed by the statement ‘I became more familiar with attributes of the global citizen after studying this course’ and ‘The course widened my horizon regarding the world’s diverse cultures’.
Interviews analysis
In this section, I present the findings according to the themes that emerged from the participants’ perceptions, regarding two main themes: the attributes of the global citizen and the attributes that were developed by the GCE course. These emergent themes will be presented in that order.
The attributes of the global citizen
The participants who were interviewed presented interesting and somehow different perspectives of the attributes of the global citizen. Generally, their perceptions reflect three factors related to the attributes of GC: the socio-political context of where they live, their conduct towards others inside Oman and outside when they are travelling abroad, and their engagement in discussions about global issues on social media. In the following sections, I will present the findings related to each broad theme.
The influence of the socio-political context on the attributes of the global citizen
Generally speaking, we can say that the majority of participants describe themselves as global citizens from the viewpoint of the socio-political situation of their country. They gave very similar responses to describe the attributes that make them global citizens. A typical example of participants’ thinking in this regard is reflected in the following statement articulated by a female participant from the College of Arts and Social Science: I think I am a global citizen as I belong to a country like Oman, which has politically and culturally strong ties with many countries around the world, in the past and now. We learn from our political authority that we are in Oman and do not interfere in any country’s affairs, and we must respect others and their own choices. (P1)
Likewise, a male participant from the College of Law made a comparison between Omani citizens who ‘respect the law in any country they travel to’ (P2) and the citizens of some countries who ‘break the law and, sometimes, are involved in causing some trouble that harms humanity’ (P2). He continued, ‘we always choose to play a positive role in our world, and accordingly you will not find any Omani committing any crime in the world’ (P2). Similarly, there appears a cultural influence in those participants’ perspective about the attributes of the global citizen, which is reflected in the words of a female participant from the College of Education, who claimed that ‘Omani society always has cultural links spread beyond its borders with different places such as Iran, Pakistan, Zanzibar, and so on’ (P3). According to her, this ‘makes Omani people more welcoming to foreigners’ and ‘more open to interacting and learning from their cultures’ (P3). Interestingly, another male participant from the Engineering College claimed, ‘Omani people are characterised by others as open-minded people, and that is necessary for any person to be a global citizen in the age of globalisation’ (P4).
Their conduct towards others inside Oman and outside when they are travelling abroad
Notably, the participants in all interviews expressed that they found themselves exercising GC attributes in their country by dealing with foreigners who lived in or came to visit the country. One male participant from the College of Education put it as follows: ‘although Omanis have a strong a sense of national identity, they are not hesitant to use English to communicate with those who are not able to speak Arabic’ (P10). In line with this perspective, the participants stressed social values of Omani society such as ‘hospitality’, ‘generosity’, and ‘tolerance’ alongside other traditions and beliefs. One female participant from the Nursing College claimed that exercising these values means that the person ‘fulfils the conditions to become a global citizen, as we have to show the world our best values’ (P9). She stated that in her family in Muscat, the capital of Oman, ‘they invited, on the occasion of Ramadan and Eid, some western and Asian friends to share some Omani Islamic traditions with them’ (P9), which, from her point of view, results in ‘minimising the stereotypes’ (P9) and enhances ‘tolerance’ among societies. Acting as a global citizen, as the majority of participants highlighted, also extends to travel outside the country, especially by participating with others in their culture’s events and celebrations. A female student from the Science College claimed, ‘she went on an academic visit, organised every summer by the university for outstanding students, to Australia where they attended one cultural event there’ (P6).
Their engagement in discussions about global issue in social media
Being a global citizen in the twenty-first century means, from the viewpoint of some participants, the ability to use technology to be able to connect with people in the rest of the world, in addition to being active on social media to show support to those who attempt to tackle global issues. Participants claimed that on Twitter and Instagram they engaged in discussions regarding the ‘environment’, ‘global warming’, ‘human rights’, ‘starvation’, ‘women struggling’, ‘Middle East conflicts’, ‘wars’ and ‘United Nations organisations’ and ‘NGOs’. By participating in these discussions, participants hoped to use technology to bring about change. Hence, a male from the College of Law expressed his, sympathies with those who have lost their homes in the conflict in some areas of the Middle East and as a result lost their basic human rights. At least, if not able to help them to return to their homes, we must sympathise with them. (P2)
Another female from the College of Agricultural, mentioned that global warming has ‘led to the deterioration of hopes of limiting the spread of starvation’ (P5). Therefore, she always engages in discussion about environmental issues in order to build an awareness to protect it. Nevertheless, a female from the College of Science highlighted that one is not free to participate in any discussion freely on social media, as some of the issues are ‘very critical and might influence us negatively’ (P6). She gives an example of criticism against some governments and their role in the Yemen conflict.
Global education through the course
The participants, when asked about how the GCE course helped them to develop their perspectives of GC, expressed different views than can be classified into three categories: cognitive meaning of GC, building positive attitudes towards global issues, encouraging taking actions to make a difference. In the following sections, I will present the findings of each theme.
Building the cognitive meaning of GC
In general, all participants highlighted that attending the GCE course helped them to become more familiar with the concept of GC. They had not thought about it before. One male student from the College of Engineering stated that ‘in the first session of the course, when the lecturer asked, “how many of you had heard of the term ‘global citizenship’?”, I remember that two out of 29 students in the class claimed that they had heard of it’ (P4). Another male from the College of Commerce and Political Sciences stated, ‘the term was mentioned in high school in a textbook called World Around Me’ (P7). A male student from the College of Education said the study plan does not give space to this issue. He claimed, ‘in my opinion, I am now in year four, but GC has not been discussed in any general or optional courses’ (P10). Therefore, all participants contend that the course expanded their knowledge about different aspects of GC such as ‘meaning of GC’, ‘the attributes of the global citizen’, ‘human rights’, ‘the international organization’, ‘civil society’, ‘tolerance and empathy’, and ‘the role of Oman in GC’. In addition, the participants referred to the fact that the activities of the course increased their knowledge about GC. A female participant from the College of Science said, ‘when we prepared for the poster about Nelson Mandela, we read a lot of information about his role in challenging the anti-apartheid policy in South Africa’ (P6). Similarly, a female participant from the Arts and Social Science College stated, I had no idea about the law on NGOs in Oman, but, in the lecture on civil society, I understood many things. Some of them can be regarded as possibilities and some can be regarded as challenges, such as being prohibited from dealing with politics, religious issues. (P1)
More importantly, a female student from the College of Education mentioned that discussing the relationship between Islam and GC helped her to realise that this concept is not only a ‘Western concept that has come with the era of globalisation to threaten our national identity’ (P3).
Building positive attitudes towards global issues
All in all, the participants understand GC not as a set of information about the world’s issues; instead, they uncovered that the course helped them to develop some positive attitudes towards what happens in the world. Three important values were expressed clearly by the participants: ‘tolerance’, ‘solidarity’, and ‘empathy’. Commenting on tolerance, one male participant from the College of Engineering said, ‘after studying the role of Oman in GC, I feel proud that my country always calls for solving international problems by means of dialogue and it stresses tolerance among the religions in its religious discourse’ (P4). With regard to ‘solidarity’, which was one of the main topics in the course, a female participant from the Nursing College highlighted that ‘when society bases development on solidarity, many problems can be solved like poverty. I benefited from learning about the experience of Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh, which was presented in the course’ (P9). Taking empathy into consideration, all participants felt more empathetic after studying the course, especially with ‘poor people’, ‘women’, ‘war victims’, ‘victimised people’, and ‘Third World countries’. In addition, they also showed high admiration for international organisations, as, from the viewpoint of one male participant from the College of Commerce and Political Sciences, they can be regarded as a ‘symbol of human unity towards the world’s increasing problems’ (P7).
Encouraging to take actions
The participants stressed that the course enhanced their awareness of GC and the shared responsibilities to counter problems. They mention three mains things they had experienced during the course and learnt from to bring about the change. First was choosing a world change-leader in any field to prepare a poster to present in a poster gallery for the rest of the university students. A female student from the College of Science stated, ‘I was inspired by the role of Martin Luther King. We need more like him at the moment’ (P6). Second was working on a problem that has an impact on different levels in order to train them in how to approach the problems at national and international levels. This activity left a positive impact on the participants, as one female participant from the College of Agriculture mentioned, ‘I feel I need to be a member of one civil society organisation which cares for gifted people, after studying the rights and problems of these people in my society’ (P5). Third was that some participants declared that during the course, they started to discuss some topics with their friends and families and participated in discussions on social media, which enhanced their identification as global citizens. A male participant from the College of Law mentioned that he discussed, ‘the human rights council with his friend, after studying this topic’ (P2), on Twitter. All the actions that the participants mentioned are related to the course activities but none of them mentioned participating in any activities or initiatives in the wider society during the course period.
Discussions of the findings
One of the important issue emerging from this study is pertinent to the meaning of GC. Overall, the participants’ perceptions mainly reflected the contested nature of GC that several scholars highlighted (Yemini and Heela, 2016). They specifically associated it with different meanings and attributes, which reflects the fact that they viewed GC as not having one perspective around the world. However, more importantly, their debates about GC are similar, somehow, to the debates that are taking place in the Western context, where GC seeks to achieve several aims, among them the well-being of others and the health of the planet (Reyson and Katzarska-Miller, 2013).
Specifically, it seems that the participants’ perceptions belong to a cosmopolitan type of GC developed by Oxley and Morries (2013). They are more humanistic in their understanding of GC, either towards humanity or towards the environment.
It is clear that the participants’ perceptions are associated with moral and cultural cosmopolitan citizenship in comparison to other kinds of advocacy citizenship. That is to say, they believe that global citizens are those who held moral obligations towards others, respected their culture and rights, and sympathised with their conditions and suffering, which validated the results of the study conducted in Turkey by Basarir (2017). In addition, they put greater emphasis on the impact of personal responsibility as a sign of global awareness. This perspective is supported by several theorists who link GC with feelings of unity among all humans (Brunell, 2013; Osler and Starkey, 2005; UNESCO, 2015). Brunell (2013), for instance, defined GC as working to achieve the ‘welfare of the community as a whole’ (p. 18). It is clear from both survey and interviews that participants are eager to find out more about world issues in order to become more familiar with them and also to make ethical choices. Furthermore, it is evident that they are conscious about the effects of their daily actions on the lives of other people in the world. As a result, they saw this as an important prerequisite for exercising GC in their country, as it influences others no matter where they live, in the country or beyond it.
Nonetheless, the participants still did not realise the advocacy of GC, which requires critical GC and actively engaging to counter inequalities. This kind of GC has been widely raised in the literature, particularly by Andreotti (2006), who highlighted that critical citizenship entails deeper engagement by dealing with conflict, power and opposing views. Similarly, Oxley and Morries (2013) argued that critical GC is necessary, as it focuses on power structures and post-colonial perspectives. These findings posed important questions regarding the future development of GC provision at SQU: will it attempt to prepare students for critical GC or continue to maintain the current situation as it is more pertinent to the Omani political context?
In addition, the findings also revealed that the GCE course influenced the participants’ global awareness in terms of three dimensions mentioned by UNESCO, (2014) for GCE: cognitive, socioemotional and behavioural dimensions.
Overall, it is clear from Table 3 that participants believed that the course had a positive impact on their views about GC. According to their perceptions on both questionnaire and interviews, the course highly developed their cognitive background about the meaning of the term, the attributes of a global citizen and global issues. Likewise, the course also enhanced a set of socioemotional values in them towards global issues such as ‘tolerance’ and ‘solidarity’, and ‘empathy’, especially with marginalised groups in the world such as ‘poor people’, ‘women’, ‘war victims’, and ‘victimised people’. Bates (2012) stated that these values present a sense of responsibility towards others. Osler and Starkey (2005) argued that interacting with many different groups locally, regionally, nationally and globally helps to find similarities among them, which strengthens solidarity. Unlike the other dimensions, it seems that the behavioural dimension was less developed by the participants and restricted to only some cognitive skills such as critical thinking, solving problems and attempting to influence only the other students in the university or the close circle of families and friends, but not to spread it on a national and international level as Tawil (2013) highlighted. From UNESCO’s perspective (2014), it is necessary to prepare students to make a difference in the world, not only to equip them with information about the world and its challenges. In order to overcome this challenge, SQU needs to think of other ways to introduce GCE, in parallel with the current approach. The possibility of implementing other approaches needs to be investigated by researchers in order to achieve ‘global and regional perspectives’, which are regarded as a target to be achieved in the university’s strategic plan (2016–2020) (SQU, 2015).
To conclude, it seems, especially from the interviews, that GC is reinforced by a positive historical, cultural and political national context. Therefore, taking the context into consideration is crucial to understanding the perceptions of these participants. Oman has its own political and cultural orientations that differ from the other countries in the other Arab contexts. Politically, as the participants highlighted, Oman is a neutral country that refuses to interfere in any internal affairs of other countries (AlMaamari, 2009). This is reflected in the thought of its citizens, who also isolate themselves from any discussions that might influence others negatively. However, although the context enhances some desirable attributes of global Omani citizens such as ‘respect’, ‘tolerance’ and ‘positive participation’, it limits the scope of global participation. According to the Omani constitution, which was issued in 1996, Omani citizens can only be active inside the few civil society organisations that run according to governmental regulations. In addition, the cultural aspect influences the perspective of the participants in terms of openness towards other cultures and their realisation of national identity values that they should present to the world. Interestingly, participants in their perception of GC, were not able to isolate themselves from the context in which they live. In other words, they believed that GC is not a threat to their national citizenship, or it is not contradictory to their Islamic identity. Instead, they regard it as part of their Islamic and national identity; as one participant directly highlighted, it is not a ‘Western concept that has come with the era of globalisation to threaten our national identity’. These results validated the results that were revealed by Al-Maamari (2014), who found that the educational system in Oman is not nationally centred, as it directs attention towards learning about global issues. In addition, the results also reflect the intention of SQU statements about graduate outcomes and the university’s strategic plan (2016–2020), both of which highlighted the importance of preparing the students for exercising GC obligations.
Limitation
This study is limited by the sample of participants. Undergraduate students at the Faculty of Education may have responded differently to the study tools than participants in other HEIs in Oman would. The use of this sample possibly hinders the ability to generalise the findings of this study.
Conclusion
The data from this study indicate that Omani students who have studied the GCE course tended to identify themselves as global citizens by showing positive perceptions of GC, especially in terms of cognitive and socioemotional dimensions. This result validated what was found by Hett (1993) and Stevens (2013) regarding the positive impact of GCE courses in shaping the students’ perspectives regarding world issues. Yet, it is not possible to attribute these positive perceptions to attendance of the course, as the participants also related their views to the nature of the political and social context that they belong to which is characterised by Al-Maamari (2014) as not totally nationalistic. Generally, the participants associate GC with the humanistic approach that raises a feeling of common humanity, as some researchers stated (Brunell, 2013; Osler and Starkey, 2005; UNESCO, 2015). As a result, their perspectives are still far from advocacy citizenship that entails challenging inequalities at national and global levels. This highlighted a gap between the university’s mission that places much emphasis on developing critical GC as a desirable outcome in their students and the students’ views that arose from this study, which tended to avoid the implications of this critical GC. One reason behind that might be the limited opportunities at the university level to deepen students’ understanding about global issues, especially those related to multiculturism and existing global responsibility.
If SQU and the HEIs in Oman want to promote students’ engagement with global issues at the higher education level, they should consider the findings of this study in terms of the positive impact of direct formal teaching about global issues, which can be expected from policy application in the near future.
The results of this study pose an important question: How can SQU and the other HEIs in Oman enhance the level of internationalisation in their future policies, especially at a time when all these institutions are working to become accredited by international organisations that put much emphasis on global issues and diversity? Future research could also be directed at studying the role of the university as a whole in developing a sense of GC among students. In addition, as this study focused only on the students’ perceptions, a future study might be necessary to explore their educators’ perceptions and practices of GCE. Finally, exploring the perceptions of non-Omani students who come to the university under exchange programmes might be an important topic for future research in order to generate data to make comparisons and find similarities.
Footnotes
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
