Abstract
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) approach to global citizenship education (GCE) includes a set of values termed 'universal values'. These social ideals include peace, justice and sustainability, and are normatively considered a common good. A multimodal critical discourse analysis of universal values within key UNESCO texts reveals that rather than moving societies towards genuine mutual human well-being, a central theme of GCE, universal values are counterproductive to the achievement of GCE. To enable GCE to achieve its aims, UNESCO needs to incorporate a diverse concept of values that allows for motivations and actions towards global citizenship more relevant to local contexts.
Highlights
Target 4.7 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) promotes global citizenship education (GCE) as a vehicle to develop the skills, values and attitudes of learners so that they may work towards the resolution of the interconnected challenges facing the world today
Concentrating on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) approach to GCE, this article draws on a multimodal critical discourse analysis of eight UNESCO documents that are central to the organization’s approach
I argue that the approach taken to universal values within the texts contributes to socializing learners towards UNESCO’s agenda at the expense of values and forms of global citizenship more relevant to local contexts
Summary
Target 4.7 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) promotes global citizenship education (GCE) as a vehicle to develop the skills, values and attitudes of learners so that they may work towards the resolution of the interconnected challenges facing the world today. He further states that GCE must be accompanied by common themes ‘expressed as desires to live peaceably, justly, sustainably and in robust, engaged communities’ (Gaudelli, 2016: 7) These themes are echoed in UNESCO’s (2014a: 15) own conception of GCE: GCE aims to empower learners to engage and assume active roles, both locally and globally, to face and resolve global challenges and to become proactive contributors to a more just, peaceful, tolerant, inclusive, secure and sustainable world. While these descriptions of GCE may constitute the most widely accepted definitions, they are not without their issues. Through the analysis that follows, I argue that UNESCO’s universal values are counterproductive to the achievement of GCE
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