Global citizenship education and the subversion human injustices: A philosophical inquiry
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20853/39-5-7760Keywords:
decolonial approches, ethical responsibility, global citizenship, human dignity, human justiceAbstract
Literature on Global Citizenship Education (GCE) abounds, spanning a wide range of theoretical, pedagogical, and policy perspectives. Our own work accentuates GCE as an autonomous, deliberative, and decolonial praxis aimed at cultivating social and democratic justice through critical engagement and ethical responsibility. Yet, when one surveys the existing body of scholarship on global human injustices, what emerges is a sobering pattern of persistent and systemic violations of human rights, particularly evident in regions such as Northern Africa, Palestine, and Ukraine. These contexts expose the tensions between the aspirations of GCE and the realities of structural violence and geopolitical domination. In this article, we therefore revisit and reconceptualise a plausible notion of GCE, arguing that the continuing atrocities and gross human rights violations across the world undermine the legitimate enactment and transformative potential of GCE as a vehicle for justice and solidarity.
Downloads
References
Aguilar-Forero, N. and F. Salazar. 2023. “Critical/decolonial global citizenship education and libraries from the Global South”. Prospects, 54(1): 1–13.
Amnesty International. 2022. Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel system of domination and crime against humanity. Amnesty International. Available at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2022/02/israels-system-of-apartheid/
Andreotti, V. 2011. Actionable postcolonial theory in education. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Bosio, E. 2021a. World-centred education: A view for the present. London: Routledge.
Bosio, E. 2021b. “Ethical global citizenship education: From neoliberalism to a values-based pedagogy”. Prospects, 51(3): 439–456. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-021-09571-9
Bosio, E. 2025.” Ethical global citizenship education for the common good”. Journal of Public Value, 4(1): 113–120.
Bosio, E. and V. Andreotti. 2020. “Towards a pedagogy of critical hope: Global citizenship education as an emancipatory practice”. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 18(2): 129–142. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2019.1704482
Bosio, E. and Y. Waghid. 2023. “Cultivating students’ critical consciousness through global citizenship education: Six pedagogical priorities”. Prospects, 54(2): 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-023-09652-x
Bosio, E. and Y. Waghid. 2024a. “Global citizenship education as decolonial praxis: Reflexivity, dialogue, and solidarity”. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 58(3): 421–439. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9752.12811
Bosio, E. and Y. Waghid. 2024b. “Guest editorial: Critical and creative practices of global citizenship education in the digital age of information and communication technologies”. Journal of Educational Thought, 58(1): 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1177/09732586231211397
Bosio, E. and Y. Waghid. 2025. “Embracing the decolonial, critical, and ethical shift in global citizenship education”. Prospects, 55(1): 1–5.
Development Education Review. 2021. “Civic engagement within global citizenship education: An antidote to despair”. Development Education Review, 37: 1–22.
Freire, P. 1970. Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum.
Giroux, H.A. and E. Bosio. 2021. “Critical pedagogy and global citizenship education”. In E. Bosio (ed.), Conversations on global citizenship education. London: Routledge, pp. 3–12.
Human Rights Watch. 2012a. World report 2012: Events of 2011. New York: Seven Stories Press.
Human Rights Watch. 2012b. Libya: Human rights violations under Gaddafi regime. Human Rights Watch. Available at: https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2012/country-chapters/libya
Mignolo, W. and C. Walsh. 2018. On decoloniality: Concepts, analytics, praxis. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Oxley, L. and P. Morris. 2013. “Global citizenship: A typology for distinguishing its multiple conceptions”. British Journal of Educational Studies, 61(3): 301–325. https://doi.org/10.1080/00071005.2013.798393
Papastephanou, M. 2023. “Global citizenship education, its partial curiosity and its world politics: Visions, ambiguities and perspectives on justice”. Citizenship Teaching & Learning, 18(2): 229–243.
Pashby, K., J. da Costa, S. Stein, and V. Andreotti. 2020. “Critical global citizenship education: Contesting neoliberalism and coloniality”. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 18(4): 449–464. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2020.1789396
Shultz, L. 2007. “Educating for global citizenship: Conflicting agendas and understandings”. The Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 53(3): 248–258.
Taylor, C. 2004. Modern social imaginaries. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Torres, C.A. and E. Bosio. 2025. “Global citizenship education as a planetary ethics: Embracing humans and non-humans in the pursuit of global solidarity”. Prospects, 55(2): 1–19.
UNESCO. 2015. Global citizenship education: Topics and learning objectives. Paris: UNESCO. Available at: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000232993
UNESCO. 2018. Preparing teachers for global citizenship education. Paris: UNESCO. Available at: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000265456
United Nations. 2015. Transforming our world: The 2030 agenda for sustainable development. New York: United Nations. Available at: https://sdgs.un.org/2030agenda
United Nations. 2023. Report on the human rights situation in Ukraine. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Available at: https://www.ohchr.org/en/countries/ukraine
Waghid, Y. 2025a. Living African philosophy of higher education. Cham: Springer.
Waghid, Y. 2025b. “Navigating complexities: Global perspectives on education and society”. Citizenship Teaching & Learning, 20(1): 3–5. https://doi.org/10.1386/ctl_00179_2
Waghid, Y. 2025c. “Reflecting on democratic citizenship education: Compassionate and imaginative action, educational encounters, and civic reconciliation”. Educational Theory, 75(4): 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1111/edth.70059
Wiseman, J.R. 1998. Global nation? Australia and the politics of globalisation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Chantelle Melanie August-Mowers

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
This journal is an open access journal, and the authors and journal should be properly acknowledged, when works are cited.
Authors, copyright holders, may use the publishers version for teaching purposes, in books, theses, dissertations, conferences and conference papers.
A copy of the authors' publishers version may also be hosted on the following websites:
- Non-commercial personal homepage or blog.
- Institutional webpage.
- Authors Institutional Repository.
The following notice should accompany such a posting on the website: This is an electronic version of an article published in SAJHE, Volume XXX, number XXX, pages XXX “XXX", DOI. Authors should also supply a hyperlink to the original paper or indicate where the original paper (http://www.journals.ac.za/index.php/SAJHE) may be found.
Authors publishers version, affiliated with the Stellenbosch University will be automatically deposited in the University Institutional Repository SUNScholar.
Articles as a whole, may not be re-published with another journal.
The following license applies:
Attribution CC BY-NC-ND 4.0