The ideas for this reader came out of a conference organized through the Centre for Global Citizenship Education and Research (CGCER) at the University of Alberta in 2013. With the high expansion of global citizenship education scholarship in the past 15 or so years, and with most of this scholarship produced in the west and mostly focused on the citizenship lives of people in the so-called developing world, or selectively attempting to explain the contexts of marginalized populations in the west, the need for multidirectional and decolonizing knowledge and research perspectives should be clear. Indeed, the discursive as well as the practical constructions of current global citizenship education research cannot fulfill the general promise of learning and teaching programs as social development platforms unless the voices of all concerned are heard and validated. With these realities, this reader is topically comprehensive and timely, and should constitute an important intervention in our efforts to create and sustain more inclusive and liberating platforms of knowledge and learning. “This collection of cutting-edge theoretical contributions examines citizenship and neo-liberal globalization and their impacts on the nexus of the local and global learning, production of knowledge, and movements of people and their rights. Case studies in the collection also provide in-depth analysis of lived experiences that challenge the constructed borders, which derive from colonial and imperial re-structuring of the contemporary world and nation-states. The contributors articulate agency in terms of both resistance and proactive engagement toward the construction of an alternative world, which acknowledges equality, justice and common humanity of all in symbiosis with the social and natural environment. It is a valuable reader for students, scholars, practitioners, and activists interested in the empowering possibilities of decolonized global citizenship education.” – N’Dr

Norah Barongo-Muweke aims to reconstruct a theory of citizenship education for the postcolonial South. She works towards fostering scientific construction and mainstreaming of postcoloniality as analytical category, dimension of gender, policy, sustainable learning and societal transformation. A consistent conceptual framework for theorising together gender and postcoloniality is absent so far. In her analyses citizenship awareness and its bedrock institutions are eroded.

The essays in this edited collection open up a hopeful dialogue about the existing state of democratic education and the ways in which it could be re-imagined as an inclusive, democratized space of possibility and engagement.

This volume bridges the gap between contemporary theoretical debates and educational policies and practices. It applies postcolonial theory as a framework of analysis that attempts to engage with and go beyond essentialism, ethno- and euro-centrisms through a critical examination of contemporary case studies and conceptual issues. From a transdisciplinary and post-colonial perspective, this book offers critiques of notions of development, progress, humanism, culture, representation, identity, and education. It also examines the implications of these critiques in terms of pedagogical approaches, social relations and possible future interventions.

This set of essays critically analyze global citizenship by bringing together leading ideas about citizenship and the commons in this time that both needs and resists a global perspective on issues and relations. Education plays a significant role in how we come to address these issues and this volume will contribute to ensuring that equity, global citizenship, and the common wealth provide platforms from which we might engage in transformational, collective work.

This volume presents a critical discussion that brings contemporary academic debate about ‘southern theory’ to Global Citizenship Education (GCE). It situates the discussion on GCE in the Global South within a post-colonial paradigm informed by critical pedagogy ingrained in social justice.

Teaching Global Citizenship brings together perspectives from former and current teachers from across Canada to tackle the unique challenges surrounding educating for global awareness. The contributors discuss strategies for encouraging young people to cultivate a sense of agency and global responsibility. Reflecting on the educator’s experience, each chapter engages with critical questions surrounding teaching global citizenship, such as how to help students understand and navigate the tension at the heart of global citizenship between universalism and pluralism, and how to do so without frightening, regressing, mythicizing, imposing, or colonizing. Based on narrative inquiry, the contributors convey their insights through stories from their classroom experiences, which take place in diverse educational settings: from New Brunswick to British Columbia to Nunavut, in rural and urban areas, and in public and private schools. Covering a broad range of topics surrounding the complexity of educating for global citizenship, this timely text will benefit those in education, global citizenship, curriculum development, and social studies courses across Canada. FEATURES: - Grounded in narrative inquiry, experiential learning, and teacher-based research - Includes study questions at the end of each chapter - Written by teachers for teachers with the accessibility of the material, diverse voices, and a broad spectrum of classroom settings in mind