ABSTRACT
Policies are most effective when they resonate with what people feel to be important and what is consistent with their experience, in short when they become meaningful. Global citizenship has to be seen as choice rather than prescription. Behaviour and action that are rooted not in personal conviction but in pretence or fear will eventually prove to be unsustainable. This is demonstrated clearly in the fall of authoritarian regimes with the terrible consequences inherent in the vacuum of values that they leave behind. As Richmond and Morgan outlined in 1977 in a major survey of Year 11 understanding and beliefs about the environment: ‘If attitudes of young people are to be translated into responsible social behaviour it would appear that these attitudes should be deeply rooted and based upon knowledge, experience and conviction, rather than superficially learned or instilled by indoctrination’ (Richmond and Morgan, 1977).
