Toward Teacher Preparation for Global Citizenship: Beyond Awareness to Action

• In Event: Reimagining the “Global Citizenship" Discourses: A View From the Contexts of Developing Countries

Abstract

Global citizenship for today's world is no longer an abstract concept. What is global citizenship and for what purpose? This paper will define, explain and illustrate what may be considered as global citizenship education towards a global problem solving approach FOR TEACHERS in an African context. The paper describes a course for teachers that I taught at the University of Bamako, Mali, titled: " History of education: The case of Mali." I will also consider how my own perspective as a global citizen working in both Mali and the US informed the content and pedagogy in this course.

Using the prevailing curriculum, this course provided a foundation for global citizenship for Malian teachers by highlighting social justice, the appreciation of identity and heritage within diversity, and the importance of sustainable development. Moreover, global citizenship should not be considered as an additional subject matter. It should be perceived as an ethos. And education, as one of the best means to achieve it, should infuse this dimension into teacher preparation as a pre-requisite.


Maiga, Hassimi O. (2011). Balancing written history with oral tradition: The legacy of the Songhoy people. NY: Routledge.

Orr, David W. (2004). Earth in mind: On education, environment and the Human Project. Washington, DC: Island Press.

Power, Edward J. (1970). Main currents in the history of education. NY: McGraw Hill

Author

• Hassimi Maiga, The Academy for Diaspora Literacy, Inc.,