Transforming International Educational Development through Living Global Citizenship

Abstract

In this first chapter we establish the origins of the idea of ‘Living Global Citizenship’ and we represent it as three transformations in thinking that have taken place over the past 12 years as we have engaged in discussions about the nature of international educational development and learning through partnerships. We set it in the context of the discourse regarding partnerships between the Global South and the Global North, arguing that it is consistent with a postcolonial perspective that seeks to address issues of injustice and unequal power relations. We also position it in terms of the debate regarding educational cosmopolitanism and universal values and suggest that such notions ignore the importance of learning from difference, whereby difference is to be celebrated as a cultural asset. Finally, we suggest that Living Global Citizenship, by putting values at the heart of partnerships, can be regarded as an antidote to the prevalent ideas of de-skilling, de-moralisation and de-valuation inherent in contemporary economic rationalism.