Questioning the Good in Our Good Intentions

• In Event: Questioning Educational Values: Kindness, Good Intentions, Bravery, and Generosity

Abstract

Increasingly, educators are turning to various NGOs to assist them in teaching their students how to be socially just, global citizens. The work and learning that occurs through some of these partnerships may encourage specific ideas of goodness that are not always commensurate with notions of good global citizenship that appear in the literature. Rather than simply relying on these organizations to teach citizenship and social justice, educators can help their students move away from historical, developmental notions of goodness and towards critically and ethically good global citizenship through a deep questioning of the motivations of these organizations.

Author

• Rae Ann Shawna Van Beers, University of Calgary