Chapter 3: Creating Spaces Beyond Schools For Global Citizenship Education

Global citizenship and the education inspired by its name are enigmas since a variety of interests, sometimes competing, claim this goal. Some claim global citizenship in the name of institutions only in their infancy (e.g., supranational governance bodies such as the International Criminal Court of Justice), which are viewed as sites where a transformation toward global citizenship will emerge. Some contend that global citizenship is more like a broad, human affiliation, particularly those who espouse cosmopolitanism. Others suggest that global citizenship can be found only in markets and related technological communication as capital lies at the foundation of a recently invigorated global discourse. Still others believe that it is the oppression of workers by capitalism’s spread, a growth countered by a new form of bottom-up global solidarity by those systematically dispossessed by capitalism’s global march who seek to humanize its bonds. And still others believe that ecology and sustainability lie at the root of global citizenship discourse. It is in this domain that we see the most vibrant commitment to a singular planet with myriad locales and enormous ecological challenges throughout (Gaudelli, 2009; Gaudelli & Heilman, 2009).