Global citizenship education as a pedagogy of dwelling: re-tracing (mis)steps in practice during challenging times

ABSTRACT

Global citizenship education is full of contradictions and tensions. Neither the global nor citizenship are neutral concepts, and both come with long histories of violence, oppression and exclusion. While global citizenship education has often been discussed from a policy- or institution-level perspective, it is necessary to examine closely the practices that bring this concept to life at the course and individual instructor level, as well as beyond the classroom. In this article, I provide a first-person, first-hand analysis of the shortcomings of implementing global citizenship education in universities through the practice of internationalisation at home (IaH). I analyse a campus environment where US and international students lived and learned together, until they were separated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought a new perspective to the (im)possibilities of global citizenship within higher education. In doing so, I search for a pedagogy of dwelling or inhabiting as a possible way of enacting Global Citizenship Education.

KEYWORDS:

• Global citizenship education
• international students
• internationalisation at home
• living-learning communities
• residence halls

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).