Global Citizenship Education Between Qualification, Socialization, and Subjectification

Abstract

Today there is a renewed interest in a global notion of citizenship, particularly in “global citizenship” or “cosmopolitan citizenship.” While the concept of global citizenship is contested, ambiguous, and conceptually vague, education is one of the fields where this idea is most seriously used, particularly in the literature that theorizes the need for a globally oriented citizenship education. Global citizenship and especially its “associated construct,” global citizenship education (GCE), have become prominent concepts in educational discourses and policies. This chapter discusses different perspectives on global citizenship and its relevance in terms of a reconfiguration of citizenship education. Three different pedagogical frameworks are presented that construct GCE in terms of the qualification, the socialization, and the subjectification function of education. The chapter argues that GCE can provide educators with the perspectives necessary to help young people make sense of the contemporary world and take conscious decisions about the role they want to have in it. It highlights that GCE practice tends to focus mainly on qualification and socialization, thus merging a discourse centered on global competences with one emphasizing the qualities of “good global citizenship.” GCE demands that teachers and educators foreground also a subjectification approach centered on a political perspective grounded in social justice and the critical deconstruction of the dominant discourses that shape our understanding and actions.