Understanding Global Citizenship Levels of Turkish Erasmus Students in Poland from Different Variables

Abstract

Global citizenship has been a phenomenon at presence since Kant’s Perpetual Peace (1795) though it is seemed nascent. The concept defined as “world citizen by Kant, has been widely used as “post national citizenship”, “cosmopolitan citizenship” and “global citizenship” as a solution to the problems of the global age. Sociology, International Relations and Educational Sciences emphasizes different aspects of global citizenship while all of them champion the effect of study abroad experience on global citizenship. In other words, study abroad experience helps awareness of the global problems, produce solutions for these problems and finally take actions at the global level. Hence forth, Erasmus program which is one of the most extensive study abroad programs is considered to contribute to personal awareness process for responsibilities beyond his own society. From this point of view this study conducted through descriptive survey model aims to understand the effect of different variables on the global citizenship levels of Turkish Erasmus students in Poland. In line with this aim, 201 Turkish Erasmus students in Poland were conducted “global citizenship scale” developed by Morais - Ogden (2010). Findings suggest that Turkish Erasmus students have an intermediate level of global citizenship, and get the lowest level from global civic engagement sub dimension. Also it is understood that some variables have an impact on global citizenship.