Teaching and Learning for Global Citizenship Education challenges and opportunities: a comparative analysis of approaches in Australia, Colombia and Mexico

• In Event: Analyzing challenges, innovations, and intentions in Global Citizenship Education

Proposal

This presentation will examine Global Citizenship Education (GCE) in the contexts of three different countries Australia, Colombia and Mexico based on a research collaboration with academics from these countries which spans 2024 and 2025. The approach to the research is comparative and has a focus on teaching and learning approaches used in GCE and the discourses associated with them (see Aubert et al. 2008; Peraza et al. 2022). In recent years various international organisations including UNESCO and The United Nations have acknowledged that the principles which have underpinned GCE have often been based on western (Global North) epistemologies and world views to the exclusion of perspectives from the Global South including those from indigenous communities. Many of these countries have been subjected to processes of colonisation from countries in the Global North, and are still experiencing the historical legacy and impact on their economies, political systems and cultures.

The investigation is be underpinned by the dialogue between the Global South (represented by Colombia and Mexico) and Global North (represented by Australia), derived from comparative research which examines the academic literature, education policies, programs and curriculum in these three countries. The objective is to advance the understanding and practices of GCE across different national educational contexts, focusing on effective pedagogical methods and reflections on teaching practice. To conduct this analysis of pedagogical discourses we adopt a critical perspective by taking into account a range of pertinent issues such as critical interculturality (Dietz, 2017) gender, and student activism (Araiza & González, 2017). The presentation will critically examine specific teaching methodologies that can be employed to foster critical global citizenship education based on democratic principles, through meaningful active engagement and relevant contextual learning. These teaching and learning experiences can enable students to develop a critical awareness of the issues faced in their communities, regions, countries and the wider world. An essential feature of this approach is respecting students as peers in the dialogic process and recognising their interests and concerns. Arising from this shared understanding educators can provide opportunities for students to research, discuss and challenge dominant paradigms and discourses related to GCE including Neoliberalism, and others based on western colonial epistemologies and consider alternative de-colonial perspectives (see Aguilar Forero & Salazar 2023; Stein & Andreotti, 2021; Torres & Bosio, 2020).

The comparative dimension to this research also addresses how GCE can be engaged with through digital education and the utilisation of online communication and resources. In the post Covid-19 world, digital learning has gained prominence and has influenced the ways in which GCE is conceptualised and specific pedagogies that can be employed which align with online learning. The internet has great potential to create and enhance dialogue between students and educators from Global North and Global South. Our project engages with these dialogues through digital communication as a way in which to promote understanding and critical awareness about global issues and national issues. We also acknowledge that there are disparities in access to digital resources and connections between students and educators between in different regions of the world. Likewise, the digitalisation of GCE is not without its challenges which are ethical, technical, pedagogical, and the sense of remoteness that can occur in online learning. There is not a large field of research in relation to how GCE can be fostered and enriched by digital and online learning and even less on the ways in which it can engender a dialogue between the Global North and Global South. Our study seeks to address two key questions which are.
1) What does a comparison of GEC between Australia, Colombia, and Mexico reveal about the contextualization of GEC in these countries and the key challenges and issues arising espeically in relation to modes of digital learning.
2) How can the notion of a GCE could represent a distinct pedagogical framework to re-conceptualise traditional forms of GCE from a critical and post/decolonial perspective in Australia, Colombia and Mexico, which can both empower and conscientize learners.


The presentation will cover key social and political issues which have been the focus of recent student activism as this can also facilitate the comparative inquiry. We acknowledge the role of developing students’ competencies, values and knowledge to promote GCE, however, we advocate for the development of dispositions which promote, empathy, solidarity and collective civic action to consolidate students’ participation as critical global citizens. Cultivating these dispositions is complex and challenging in a world characterised by increasing digitalisation in the provision of university higher education (including the uses of artificial intelligence), marketization, and the ever-increasing trend of globalisation. In light of these factors our chapter explores powerful pedagogical strategies embedded in real life experiences to illustrate an active form of critical global citizenship education, which can emerge and flourish in different national contexts, founded on critical inquiry and dialogic practice. Arising from our project we propose several recommendations for educators to enhance GCE these are: 1. Promote active learning strategies for transformative collective action, in the contexts students are in. 2. Emphasize project-based learning as a way of deepening the experience and awareness of GCE. 3. Consider ways of re-conceptualising university education so as to engage meaningfully with GCE linked to democratic an emancipatory principles.

The findings of this study broaden and enrich understandings of the ways in which GEC is contextualised, and furnishes insights that arise from engaging in international comparisons. In doing so we also seek to challenge and interrogate embedded assumptions and influential discourses which characterise this field, and construct meaningful alternative approaches which can sustain GCE into the future.

Author

• BERNARD JOSEPH BROWN, University of Canberra