Global citizenship education in a space of “flow”

Abstract

The world has become a space of flow due to globalization resulting from great strides in communication, transport, and the use of social media. This flow has gained impetus due to national borders becoming more permeable, leading to increased migration and social mobility. Apart from all the advantages that this new space might offer, it has brought with it a number of deplorable phenomena such as religious and cultural intolerance, discrimination, stereotyping, xenophobia, and violence. The core argument of this article is that although there is as yet no consensus about the definitions of citizenship and of global citizenship education (GCE), about the best theoretical positions to adopt in the current circumstances, and about the dimensions of the global flow, GCE curriculum designers, and citizenship educators in particular, are confronted with several challenges. These challenges include: how to ontically deal with the flow in terms of the ontic balance between permanence and change, and how to educate learners to become informed, critical, and conscientized citizens of their own nation-states while at the same time preparing them for drawing on the global flow as a pedagogical resource that will enable them to deal with the injustices in the world that might be associated with, caused, or highlighted by that flow. Five such challenges are outlined and suggestions offered about how to address them in these times of "glocal" flow.