Cosmopolitan nationalism and the leadership of hope: Reimagining citizenship education for the anthropocene

This article reconsiders the viability of global citizenship education (GCE) in light of ecological, political, and institutional instability. While GCE advances a universalist civic ideal, its disconnection from national systems has limited its ability to support real-world citizenship. This paper introduces cosmopolitan nationalism (CN) as a more grounded alternative: a framework that links planetary ethics to national curriculum, democratic accountability, and affective belonging. Drawing on Gramsci's theory of the organic intellectual, Bendell's Deep Adaptation, and feminist ethics of love, the paper argues for a relational model of educational leadership rooted in care, solidarity, and moral imagination. Teachers are reimagined as civic stewards WHO build resilience and agency within democratic infrastructures. This focus applies primarily to schoolteachers and leaders operating within national education systems, particularly those embedded in formal public education structures. Rather than discarding national systems, the paper suggests they May serve as platforms for climate-informed, justice- oriented citizenship education. CN thus bridges the local and planetary by embedding pedagogical love, civic responsibility, and ecological urgency into the core of education policy and leadership practice. In so doing, it redefines the educator's role not as a curriculum technician, but as a moral and civic agent capable of regenerating citizenship for uncertain futures.