Role of NGOs in global citizenship education

This chapter explores the role of civil society organizations (CSOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in promoting, disseminating and implementing GCE practice and policy in school curricula. Based on a comparative policy analysis carried out in the European context, the political role of NGOs is explored, stressing their main areas of engagement and achievement, and their weaknesses, especially the cultural conflict between them and other political agents. Results show that NGOs, civil society and grass-roots social movements play a crucial political role in widening the decision-making basis and bringing critical voices from below into the global political arena. Unlike institutional bodies, NGOs are more flexible and open to change, they can reconcile the agenda of different governmental bodies and on different topics, and they have the potential to create links between different actors. In addition, civil society’s political participation in decision-making processes in education is important not only because bottom-up approaches are more equitable and promote democratic engagement, but also as they are more effective in grounding policies in educational practice.