Ecological global citizenship education: a reframing

A reconceptualization of education for sustainability and global citizenship education (GCE) is proposed, considering evidence from the United Nations decade of education for sustainable development (ESD) and from research with policymakers and adult educators in Wales. In this reframing, global citizenship education is foregrounded, and the model is underpinned by an ecological ethos, where webs of interconnections are highlighted. The model is informed by critical and holistic adult education, and it includes a focus on relational learning and on the affective domain, where emotions are recognised and valued alongside the rational and cognitive. These elements are supported by an ethic of care, which is introduced as a starting point for making what can appear as abstract concepts or remote issues, immediate and relevant to learners’ lived experience. The synthesis of the various theoretical perspectives embodies an inclusive ‘ecological global citizenship education’, where educators and learners are supported to engage with difficult and emotive topics. Dialogue is proposed as the method at the centre of a pedagogy that is critical and humanistic, and that facilitates and supports the often-uncomfortable learning as we honestly and critically examine ourselves and our world within a learning community.

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Charting a democratic course for global citizenship education: Research directions and current challenges

Education Policy Analysis Archives ◽

10.14507/epaa.24.2174 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 24 ◽

pp. 55 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

John P. Myers

Keyword(s):

Civic Education ◽

Citizenship Education ◽

Teaching And Learning ◽

Complex Dynamics ◽

Global Citizenship ◽

High Stakes Testing ◽

Significant Shift ◽

Research Directions ◽

Global Citizenship Education ◽

Starting Point

This article outlines research directions for global citizenship education, by emphasizing the centrality of democratic goals for schools in the 21st century. Despite a significant shift in educational policies and practices towards addressing education that respond to the conditions of globalization, there is not a clear vision regarding its role in schools. Furthermore, curriculum reforms such as global citizenship education inevitably face the issue of whether to adapt to neoliberal tenets of privatization, high stakes testing and standards-based accountability, or to resist and challenge these policies with alternative, democratic visions of schooling. This article argues that for global citizenship education to reach maturity, there is a need for a programmatic research agenda that addresses the complex dynamics that globalization has introduced to schooling, particularly the challenges to teaching and learning for helping youth to make sense of the world and their role in it. An analysis of recent advances in research and practice in civic education is used as a starting point to advance directions for global citizenship education. Two key directions are suggested: to gain a more secure foothold in schools and the need to focus on a shared conceptual focus that helps researchers, practitioners and other stakeholders to access the same body of practices and knowledge.

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Emergent constellations: Global citizenship education and outrospective fluency

Journal of Research in International Education ◽

10.1177/1475240918793963 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 17 (2) ◽

pp. 134-147 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Nicholas Palmer

Keyword(s):

Learning Community ◽

Citizenship Education ◽

Teaching And Learning ◽

Global Citizenship ◽

Communicative Action ◽

Essential Element ◽

First Century ◽

Global Learning ◽

Global Citizenship Education ◽

The Individual

Global citizenship education (GCE) is an essential element of twenty-first-century teaching and learning. For some, GCE signifies an attitude of cosmopolitan purpose, placing humanity ahead of self. For others, GCE embodies a fractured sense of both learner and educator identity. For a third group, GCE is a critical interrogation of pervasive norms. How schools practise GCE, despite globalised rhetoric, poses challenges for educators and students alike. In this article, research is presented from an ongoing study into the activation of GCE in a single international school. The conceptualisation developed as part of the research is aimed at reconciling the individual learner and the learning community, without losing the strengths of either. Underpinned by Habermas’ (1984) Theory of Communicative Action and Krznaric’s (2014) outrospective empathy, outrospective GCE features pathways towards mindful-yet-active global learning. The conceptualisation presented in this article, although reflective of universal ideas, does not account for all cases and contexts. Instead, outrospective GCE applies to educators seeking a means of engaging with and enlivening situated GCE innovation.

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