Global citizenship education, technology, and being

ABSTRACT

Despite the widespread promotion of the global school, it remains unclear as to how citizenship education (global citizenship education, GCE) is developed. Educational bodies such as UNESCO, Oxfam, and the International Baccalaureate are in the full throws of developing models for GCE yet questions remain as to how such a sweeping notion might take effect. Educational frameworks replete with theoretical, political, pedagogical, and methodological conundrums permeate much global education discourse. Modes of GCE thinking range from post-colonial perspective, critical perspectives, postmodernism as well as an oratory utopianism. This article presents an alternate model of GCE promoting both technology and art as complicit in the exacting of a multifaceted GCE. The balancing of art and technology, as demonstrated, presents an ontological stance that acts as a foundation for the Proto-Global Citizen or ‘Weltburger’. This article aims to support educators seeking a further means of conceptualising GCE embodying diversification while embracing a GCE consciousness. Furthermore, the development of GCE through art and technology creates an opportunity for educators to realign disciplinary focus in light of the increasing incentive for schools to ‘go global’.

KEYWORDS:

• Global citizenship education
• technology
• Heidegger
• Proto-Global Citizen
• arts education
• neo-liberalism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Alexander Gardner-McTaggart http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3150-0561

Nicholas Palmer http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8409-6219

Notes

1. Emphasis added.