This book eloquently articulates the timely topic of the “Global Citizenship Education” with a focus on the “Global South”, both in terms of the socio-geographic and geopolitical location and the prominence of the voices of the contributors. The epistemological approach highlights the significance of the book. Indeed, the volume provides a diversity of perspectives from the Global South. It is also intellectually rigourous yet accessible to the broader audience. Hence, I am delighted to contribute this foreword. The book encompasses contributions from established and emerging scholars with insightful and cutting-edge perspectives. The transnational and powerful voices of the Global South and various critical socio-spatial locations have autonomously and collectively articulated the importance of teaching and learning global citizenship toward in-depth and wider social transformation. Beyond the specific field and sub-fields of education, this seminal book constitutes a reference in other disciplines not only for teachers and students, but for all learners, researchers, practitioners, activists, and all people who can access it as a multifaceted resource for their engagements in transformative movements locally and on the global arena.
Global Citizenship Education (GCE) is conceptualised in this book as a forward-looking educational paradigm that aims to develop students’ knowledge and values in diverse areas including critical cognisance and inclusive self/identity. It is worth reiterating the deliberate emphasis of the contributions which are centred on the Global South, rather than the general socio-spatial configuration of the world or the Global North. This undoubtedly adds to the relevance and depth of the insights presented and the ability to achieve the goal set for the book. As the editors, Emiliano Bosio and Yusef Waghid, articulate in their introduction, “this book aims to begin a critical discussion that brings contemporary academic debate about ‘southern theory’ to GCE”. From this standpoint, this book situates the debate surrounding GCE in the Global South within a decolonial perspective inspired by principles and knowledge embedded in social justice and formulated in the framework of critical pedagogy. It encourages readers to acknowledge that GCE has the potential to represent much more than just a ‘fashionable synonym’ for international learning outcomes on the premise that it ought to be considered as a forward-thinking framework with the potential to contribute significantly to the creation of a society with greater justice, respect for human dignity, common collective well-being, and world of peace (Assié-Lumumba, 2017; Bosio & Torres, 2019). When discussed in this context, GCE can become a “pedagogy of hope” (Freire, 1994),
Education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that the son of a mine-worker can become the head of the mine and that a child of farm workers can become the president of a great nation.
Mandela’s concept of personal development is a reminder that education, especially GCE, should not be considered as a ‘transcendent heroic activity’ somewhat removed from the challenges of daily life. Rather, GCE teaching and learning ought to be about those daily classroom pedagogic practices aimed at promoting and enhancing learners’ humanity and critical consciousness, as the academics in this book meticulously demonstrate. As suggested above, Global Citizenship Education in the Global South is a book that all educators, researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and government officials should have handy as a practical and informative resource with an excellent and much needed insight into GCE from the Global South.
References
Assié-Lumumba, N. T. (2017). The Ubuntu paradigm and comparative and international education: Epistemological challenges and opportunities in our field. Comparative Educational Review, 61, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1086/689922
Bosio, E., & Schattle, H. (2021). Ethical global citizenship education: from neoliberalism to a values-based pedagogy. Springer, UNESCO-IBE Prospects Comparative Journal of Curriculum, Learning, and Assessment. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11125-021-09571-9
Bosio, E., & Torres, C. A. (2019). Global citizenship education: An educational theory of the common good? A conversation with Carlos Alberto Torres. Policy Futures in Education, 17(6), 745–760. https://doi.org/10.1177/1478210319825517
Freire, P. (1994). Pedagogy of hope: Reliving pedagogy of the oppressed (R. R. Barr, Trans.). Continuum.
Hansen, D. (2004). A poetics of teaching. Educational Theory, 54(2), 119–142.
Mandela, N. (1994). Long walk to freedom. Abacus.
Zaalouk, M. (2006). The pedagogy of empowerment: Community schools as a social movement in Egypt. The American University in Cairo Press.
N’Dri T. Assié-Lumumba
Professor of African and African Diaspora Education in the Department of Africana Studies and Director of the Institute for African Development (IAD) at Cornell University
President of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES)