Transforming Aesthetics in Global Citizenship Education: Experimental Reflections to Expand the Field

• In Event: Philosophical, Historical, and Global Understandings of Citizenship Education

Abstract

How can taking emotional-intellectual risks around the powerful discourse of Global Citizenship Education (GCE) work deepen the possibilities within the field for aesthetic education - “training the imagination for epistemological performance” (Spivak, 2012, p. 122) - and for what Anzaldúa and Keating (2015) termed transformational aesthetics, and why does this matter in the field? Departing from this question, this paper, conceptual with qualitative work, reflects on a larger project of explorative, experimental, intimate essays (called meditations) and interviews (critical dialogues) with leading scholars around belonging and citizenship work, confronting aesthetic failure in GCE and looking at new ways to expand the field in content and in form, with the aim of expanding socially-just inclusivity through GCE discourse.

Author

• Lauren Ila Misiaszek, Beijing Normal University