Global Citizenship Education and Eco-Pedagogy at the Intersections: Anthropocentric and Biocentric Connections and Disconnections

• In Event: Global Citizenship Education and Sustainability Theories, Practices, and Policies

Abstract

The research presented will compare responses from a diverse pool of eighteen international experts in both fields to further understand how they connect and disconnect in their goals. The criteria of selection were international scholarship in globalization and renowned expertise in citizenship and/or environmental pedagogies. The participants, working in 6 continents, were asked eight open-ended questions focused on the following four topics: framing citizenship/citizenship education; essential aspects of environmental pedagogies; connections between citizenship and environmental pedagogies, globalizations effect on these connections and disconnections; and most needed pedagogical changes in both fields. The data were also compared with the canons of GCE and critical environmental pedagogies (e.g., ecopedagogy). The author will provide a summary of the results and then give focus on the anthropocentric and biocentric framings defined by the participants to give both parallel and perpendicular paths towards transformational actions guided by education within social and/or environmental justice models.
Constructs citizenship and global citizenship, and education of both, can be either contextually oppressive or empowering (Abdi, 2008; Abdi & Shultz, 2008; Andreotti, 2011; Richardson, 2008). This comparative education research will be guided by Lynette Shultz’s (2007) defined transformationalist framework of GCE (other frameworks: neoliberal and radical). The paper will introduce how the connections with citizenship and global citizenship are essential to understand because of the inseparable connections between social conflict and environmental ills that are often politically hidden (Gadotti, 2008b, 2008c; Gutiérrez & Prado, 2008; Kahn, 2010) [self-authored citations]. There are multiple definitions for ecopedagogy but all are grounded in critical thinking and transformability to construct praxis within social-environmental justice models (Gadotti, 2000, 2008c; Gadotti & Torres, 2009; Gutiérrez & Prado, 2008; Kahn, 2010).
Two results that will be discussed are the following. The first is globalizations’ effects on citizenship and citizenship pedagogies. Nearly half of the participants responded that critically teaching the contested terrain of globalizations was inseparable from citizenship education. The processes of globalizations influencing local spheres (e.g., private, community) were most focused upon when asked, “How do you define citizenship?” When asked how better to teach citizenship, answers centered on teaching to increase critical literacies of “citizenship” by better understanding multicultural framing of citizenship and the effects of globalization that singularly centers Westernization. GCE was emphasized as needing to focus on social justice by critically understanding the positive and negative effects of globalization within social justice models. Second is environmental and citizenship connections, including pedagogical connections, in an increasingly globalized world.
Teaching critical literacy of determining the socio-environmental effects of the conflicting processes of globalization was overwhelmingly stated as necessary for successful citizenship and environmental pedagogies that center on socio-environmental transformation. Three reoccurring themes from participant voices stressed this need. First, environmental problems do not respect geo-political borders, with particular disregard to political borders. Second, agents of globalization continue to intensify their influence on local societal (including education) and environmental governance. Third, although socio-environmental issues affect specific populations unequally (e.g., race, gender, socio-economics), environmental problems are largely democratic ones with all-inclusive harmful effects (Kopnina, 2011).

Author

• Greg William Misiaszek, Beijing Normal University