GCE - Module 2
VICKER 2020
Criticism of Eurocentric assumptions is warranted but problems arise with reliance on selective and historically flimsy claims of the uniquely colonial quality of modern western culture - this poses the risk of reinforcing Eurocentrism by preventing analysis of oppression and colonialism in non-western societies and discredits the efforts to more inclusive and culturally sensitive approaches to comparative analysis of education (Vickers 2020).
To combat oppression, we must pick our enemies and our language carefully. Rejecting the supposedly self-serving 'universalism' of 'modern western social science' and ignoring oppressive regimes elsewhere risks undermining associated universal social and political values (freedom of expression, civil liberties, rule of law) upon which critical scholars also rely (Vickers, 2020)
Critical pedagogy's embrace of ‘opacity’ and ‘epistemological diffidence' is problematic; being vague is not helpful when trying to interpret and explain unfamiliar societies, cultures, and education systems. Comparativists must write in clear and accessible language and should generalize with extreme caution (Vickers, 2020)
CER contributors propagate an essentialized view of ‘the West’ by presenting iniquity via coloniality as their sole attribute of Western modernity, which is inaccurate and dangerous (Vickers, 2020)
Damaging consequences for the field, credibility of scholarly output, and is unlikely to contribute constructive solutions to pressing problems like climate change, poverty, and inequality (Vickers, 2020)
Must rebalance the field to engage with the comparative history of colonialism and imperialism. challenging eurocentrism is important, radically anti-western decolonial discourse threatens the respect for common humanity which is necessary for effective scholarly collaboration across cultural boundaries. We must constantly remind ourselves of the capacity for evil or plain stupidity unites us all and we must confront this and resolve it together. (Vickers, 2020)
Tang & Wong (2021) discuss how the weak political framework of 'citizenship' led to a Hong Kong's two-faced political culture which teeters between economic instrumentalism and political activism. Discuss how teaching can cultivate a meaningful civic identity and global citizenship but spoon-fed pedagogy of civic and national education will not have desired outcomes (Tang & Wong 2021).
Uninformed education policies will lead to failed civic education and hence failed citizenship (Tang & Wong, 2021)
Civic identities are developed dynamically across local, regional, national, and global levels but civic and national education is often used by the sovereign state to develop a singular and regulated national identity. This does not fit with the purpose of citizenship education and does not assist youth in developing their civic identities. We must encourage political literacy of young people and emphasize the civic role of education to address risks, crises, and injustices of our global society (Tang & Wong, 2021).
Educating about global inequality is controversial and many aspects of the global economy continue to follow similar patterns to colonial times - increasing gaps between the world's richest and poorest (Mikander, 2016)
The relationship between colonialism and globalization rarely portrays people in the north as being responsible for poverty in the south. Globalization is not described as a political process. Presents the critical global citizenship education initiative as a way for students to learn to challenge common assumptions that hide historical and structural roots of power relations. Must also teach about privilege to help students understand their position in the world (Mikander, 2016)
Trying to simply maintain balance is unhelpful because it is not possible to do so perfectly. Teachers need to make subjective decisions about their teaching and everything will be biased in some way. The alterative proposed is to be open about the fact that balance can never be fully achieved and help students develop a critical awareness of bias and make this one of the central learning objectives (Mikander, 2016)
(MIKANDER, 2018) discusses the controversial nature of educating about global inequality but the need to address these issues despite the discomfort. Not teaching guilt, but the politically constructive and contingent nature of globalization. Teach students to ask critical questions so they can challenge assumptions of global inequity as something static. Teaching from a critical point of view can be challenging, especially when the educational material discourages critical thinking (Mikander, 2016)
Text books portray globalization as a 'natural force' not a political construct. Challenging Eurocentric thinking requires critical global citizenship, critical literacy, and deconstructing privilege to teach students to question their own role and the role of their own group plays in reproducing inequalities, including the contents of their own education (Mikander, 2016)
LUPINACCI, 2020) Highlights the importance of movements like Black Lives Matter and critical educator responses to social suffering, COVID-19, and critiques of current dominant assumptions of teacher education and Western education. Offers an ecocritical conceptual framework that emphasizes the importance of how educators can act as leaders in re-conceptualizing education as supportive of diversity, democracy, and sustainability. Calls for an ecocritical pedagogical approach to redesign teacher education through more local activist teaching and diverse collaborations with social movements in support of social justice, multispecies equity, and sustainability
(Lupinacci, 2020)
Howard, Dickert, Owusu, & Riley, 2018 explored how a school interventions to reinforce sameness/unity produced different understandings of global citizenship between students from different social class backgrounds and dissociated students from their native cultures to teach them the ways of knowing and doing necessary to live/work/study in the West and reinforced a hegemonic discourse. Calls for alternative forms of GCE that emphasize critical consciousness.
(HOWARD ET AL., 2018) The Pan-African school' s teaching efforts produced different understandings of global citizenship among students with different backgrounds. Attempts to dissociate students from their native cultures to teach them ways of thinking and doing to necessary to live/work/study in the West. Lessons about what it means to be a global citizen reinforce hegemonic discourse. Calls for alternative forms of global citizenship education that emphasize critical consciousness (Howard, Dickert, Owusu, & Riley, 2018)
The GCE at Sankofa a ‘soft’ version of global citizenship education (Andreotti) with a focus on morality and a common humanity and a global or world ethic’ which circumvents political engagement and efforts needed to promote the kind of liberation central to Pan- Africanism but instead, reproduce, perhaps indirectly and unintentionally, existing unjust systems of beliefs and practices (Pashby, 2011). (Howard, Dickert, Owusu, & Riley, 2018)
Andreotti (2006) proposes critical literacy and pedagogical approaches that promote critical engagement and reflexivity on the production of knowledge and power to give students opportunities to analyze and experiment with various ways of knowing and doing. (Howard, Dickert, Owusu, & Riley, 2018)
Critical approaches to GCE can provide a framework to transcend cultural homogeneity and embrace / enhance differences. It would estrange students cultural sameness and familiarize them with cultural differences. It will require openness and focus on multiple knowledges and practices of the groups who have faced systematic oppression and discrimination due to capitalism and colonialism. This will require that we avoid essentialist attitudes that develop identities through the unification of values, instead the practices of GCE would be derived from postcolonial theories which counter neoliberal cultural influences on education which have contributed to international moral and ethical crisis linked to commodification of our sense of global community (Howard, Dickert, Owusu, & Riley, 2018)
(VICKER, 2020) - Some critical decolonial or postcolonial perspectives on global citizenship education can be problematic due to acceptance of 'positionality' over evidence and logic and use of recklessly generalized notions of western influence and uniformly victimized 'non-west'). While attention must be paid to the lasing structures and influences of our past, we must be cautious not to allow these perspectives to impede constructive scholarly discourse and threaten the field of comparative and international education (CIE). Doing so would distract from the overarching goal of solving today's most pressing problems. We must balance critical scholarship about colonialism with attention to the actual history (Vicker, 2020)
Mikander (2016) elaborates that these approaches should provide students opportunities to challenge hegemonic forms of knowledge, problematize dominant discourses and question power relations (Howard, Dickert, Owusu, & Riley, 2018)
Inequity is universal and it often consists of essentializing and de-humanizing the 'other' (Vickers, 2020)
Issue: lack of awareness of histories of imperialism and colonialism (Vickers, 2020)
Evaluation and critique of ethnocentric assumptions is warranted but must not rely on unproven overgeneralizations about the uniquely colonial background of modern western culture while ignoring the histories of East Asia and other regions where colonialist or neo-colonialist attitudes and strategies also occurred. Despite this, decolonial theory suggests a widespread victimization of non-western 'others (Vickers, 2020)
More difficult to teach because the teachers cannot be experts; need to be reflective of their own biases, explore difficult topics and own biases, learn from students and work collaboratively with students.
Text books rarely portray people in the north being responsible for poverty in the south; globalization and colonialism are not linked or described as political processes (Mikander, 2016)
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