Global citizenship and critical thinking in higher education curricula and police education: a socially critical vocational perspective

Abstract

The re‐emergence of the concept of global citizenship within higher education (HE) after what Smith et al. (2008, p.136) have described as ‘many years of comparative neglect’ has reopened the debate about the fundamental roles, responsibilities and purpose of HE. Rhoads and Szelenyi (2011, p8‐9) argue that not only do ‘universities have an obligation to use their knowledge capacities to advance social life and to better the human condition’, but they also have a responsibility for ‘advancing global social relations’. Likewise, Camicia and Franklin (2011, p.39) maintain that universities have the ‘intellectual authority that society needs to help it reflect, understand and act’ which suggests that Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have a profound and moral responsibility to take a leading and active role in creating a more enlightened, socially just and civilised global society.