Intersections and collaborative potentials between global citizenship education and education for sustainable development

Abstract

This article examines intersecting agendas and concerns in global citizenship education (GCE) and education for sustainable development (ESD) in the face of current global crises and pressures. While it cannot be assumed that the two educational projects automatically converge, generative and promising overlaps emerge from the shared interest in the SDG 4.7 education target. The article elaborates on a conversation emerging from the Bridge47 Knowledge Exchange Partnership focused on critical global citizenship education, and discusses the tensions, ambiguities, limitations and implications for critical, transgressive and potentially transformative GCE + ESD. While GCE and ESD can be ambivalent and constrained in formal educational settings, especially in comparison to informal projects where there are direct partnerships with people living on the margins of society, we argue that the potential generativity and transgressive possibilities of engaged and collaborative research have been under-emphasised. Participatory and praxis methodologies where education and research overlap offer significant transgressive and transformative potential. We point to important collaborative potentials in research practice that can help to bridge GCE-ESD gaps, given their substantial theoretical and practical experience in situated contexts, engagement with transgressive politics and creative and inclusive ethics of practice.