Local Knowledge and Global Citizenship Through a Caribbean Lens

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

Abstract

This paper looks at the restrictions and possibilities of and for a third space in this discourse on globalizing citizenship as it pertains to the Caribbean. The author uses postcolonial theory as the framework for the paper. The paper links its argument to that of Okere, Njoku, and Devisch (2005) who claim that African people must first know what they have to offer the world and then be willing to promote it. In like fashion, the author suggests that if Caribbean people do not value their local knowledge or think that it is inferior, the knowledge will not move very far and will not contribute to the process of globalizing citizenship. To know is not enough.

The main objective of this paper is to critically examine some of the major issues that relate to the ability of the academic community in the Caribbean to utilize local knowledge as an educational tool and to participate effectively in the globalizing citizenship discourse without that discourse being lop-sided. It builds on the thoughts expressed by George and Lewis (2011) and brings to the fore some contentious issues: the impact of colonialism on the appreciation and valuing of local knowledge; the attention paid by teachers to students’ local knowledge; the impact of the images/content/priorities, which are displayed through the ever- pervasive media and which take little account of local knowledge; and the challenges that teacher educators and curriculum developers face in taking local knowledge on board.

The paper suggests that part of the solution might lie in the third space that can be created when academics from both developing and developed worlds engage in international research projects. It draws on the author’s experiences of being the local project leader of an international research project on teacher education and the lessons learned from it. Indeed, involvement in this evaluation research project confirmed that the terms for participating, funding etc. need to be thought through very carefully to ensure that a viable third space is created to allow for the meeting of knowledge from different places.

Finally, the paper argues that although some of the members of the academic community in the local Caribbean university have been able to break through from time to time into the academic third space at the global level, there is still need for work to be done to ensure that the rights of the peoples in the region are not violated and that university scholars/teacher educators and teachers appreciate and value their local knowledge and ensure that it is an integral part of the discourse on globalizing citizenship, in spite of the challenges and restrictions.


George, J., & Lewis, T. (2011). Exploring the global/local boundary in education in developing countries: The case of the Caribbean. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, First published on: 18 May 2011

Okere, T., Njoku, C. A., & Devisch, R. (2005). All knowledge is first of all local knowledge. Africa Development, 30(3), 1–19.

Author

• June Marilyn George, University of the West Indies