Abstract
A reconceptualization of education for sustainability and global citizenship education (GCE) is proposed, considering evidence from the United Nations decade of education for sustainable development (ESD) and from research with policymakers and adult educators in Wales. In this reframing, global citizenship education is foregrounded, and the model is underpinned by an ecological ethos, where webs of interconnections are highlighted. The model is informed by critical and holistic adult education, and it includes a focus on relational learning and on the affective domain, where emotions are recognised and valued alongside the rational and cognitive. These elements are supported by an ethic of care, which is introduced as a starting point for making what can appear as abstract concepts or remote issues, immediate and relevant to learners’ lived experience. The synthesis of the various theoretical perspectives embodies an inclusive ‘ecological global citizenship education’, where educators and learners are supported to engage with difficult and emotive topics. Dialogue is proposed as the method at the centre of a pedagogy that is critical and humanistic, and that facilitates and supports the often-uncomfortable learning as we honestly and critically examine ourselves and our world within a learning community.
Highlights
Human activity is having a significant and increasing impact on the planet
A critical social justice model is at the core of Misiaszek’s work on ecopedagogy (2015, 2016, 2017, 2020a, 2020b) and, as an extension to this, I propose the inclusion of care ethics, which centres on the concepts of relationships and interrelationship within the discourses of justice, and offers ethico-political starting points
Facilitating learning on the topics that emerge in an ecological global citizenship education requires skill and sensitivity on the part of the teacher as we examine our values and motives while supporting a dialogic learning (Brookfield and Preskill, 2012)
Summary
Human activity is having a significant and increasing impact on the planet. Steffen et al (2011, 2015) have mapped global environmental, economic and social trends, and their research illustrates a great acceleration that includes loss of biodiversity and ecological degradation, coupled with increasing social polarization and inequalities. Political and ethical issues were not being integrated or addressed to the same extent as environmental ones, and this article is a contribution to redressing this imbalance. It is fundamentally informed by adult learning theory and practice, and it proposes a perspective shift that foregrounds the affective learning domain within a critical pedagogy and includes care theory as an ethico-political starting point. The term ‘sustainability education’ is used in place of education for sustainable development (ESD) because the contested concept of development has historically been linked with Western ideologies and notions of progress Not describing it as an education for sustainability provides a less normative concept. It is apposite to consider care ethics and the practical discourses it can contribute
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