2027-2028: Educating Changemakers: Global Citizenship and Leadership in Girls’ Schools

For the 2027–28 Global Action Research Collaborative (GARC) cohort, we invite fellows to investigate how schools cultivate global citizenship and global leadership—both as essential educational outcomes and as lived practices shaped by curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, and school culture—particularly within the context of girls’ education.

This focus aligns squarely with the mission of International Coalition of Girls’ Schools to elevate women’s leadership worldwide by educating and empowering students to become ethical, globally-minded changemakers. As global challenges—from climate change and geopolitical instability to technological disruption and social polarization—reshape the world young people inherit, schools face urgent questions about how to prepare students not only to succeed, but to contribute responsibly and lead with purpose.

Across international research communities, global citizenship has emerged as a central educational priority. Young people must learn to navigate cultural difference, grapple with complex global challenges, engage ethically with new technologies, and act with responsibility in an interconnected world. Research from organizations such as OECD and UNESCO emphasizes the importance of developing students’ capacity to understand multiple perspectives, communicate across differences, and contribute thoughtfully to the common good.

Global citizenship is not confined to international travel or discrete courses in history, languages or civics. It emerges when students examine global issues through literature, analyze environmental systems in science, debate ethical dilemmas in technology, or engage in cross-cultural dialogue through project-based learning and community partnerships. These experiences cultivate habits of mind—critical inquiry, empathy, moral reasoning, and civic agency—that are central to effective leadership in a pluralistic world.

This work holds particular significance in girls’ schools, where educators are uniquely positioned to foster voice, confidence, and social responsibility—capacities that research consistently associates with girls’ educational environments. Findings synthesized by UN Women and the World Economic Forum point to women’s strengths in collaborative leadership, ethical decision-making, and community-oriented approaches, even as women remain markedly underrepresented in public leadership worldwide.

In this context, girls’ schools play a critical role in cultivating students’ sense of agency and public purpose—preparing young women to recognize their leadership capacities, engage civic life, and imagine themselves as future decision-makers on the world stage.

As part of the Global Action Research Collaborative, fellows will explore how global citizenship and leadership are currently enacted in their classrooms and school cultures—and how those efforts might be deepened or reimagined. We invite inquiry into questions such as:

• What does it look like when students meaningfully engage with global or intercultural issues during everyday lessons?
• How do instructional choices shape students’ sense of responsibility, agency, or belonging in a wider world?
• How can schools design learning experiences that promote dialogue, ethical reasoning, and action-oriented problem solving?
• What assessment practices best capture growth in these domains?

Through this collective research, we aim to generate new insights about how girls’ schools can cultivate globally minded leaders—young people equipped not only with knowledge of the world, but with the empathy, discernment, and courage required to shape it.

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