4. Critical Pedagogy and Global Citizenship Education
4.6. Critical pedagogy and GCE-What Can They Do For Each Other?
visible. Both approaches are concerned with utopian visions of the future as a possibility. Both approaches set the shift from a culture of individualism that is often connected to dominance and suppression to a culture of dialogue and cooperation as their ultimate
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objective. Both approaches criticize the status quo in our educational system that is characterized by the reproduction of a culture of inequality and injustice. (North-South Centre 2010: 13) They pursue more or less the same goals; however, as has already been mentioned above, critical pedagogy is not precise enough where this more democratic, dialogical, cooperative society should lead to. It perceives democracy as the ultimate aim and does not enlarge upon its possibilities. Hence, critical pedagogy has to be reinvented for the purposes of GCE to actually serve the needs of our contemporary society. The latter brings very specific contents and foci to the curriculum that are relevant in the 21st century. Moreover, it points to the interdependence of diverse global problems and hence establishes the connection between the local and the world as a whole. It specifies the knowledge, skills and values that ought to be acquired by human beings who want to live peacefully and sustainably together on a global level. Global citizenship education replenishes critical pedagogy by adding these new more global dimensions, including ecological well-being, that definitely have to be considered in the struggle for social justice and peace in our times. Furthermore, GCE informed by the Earth Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights makes the language of possibility more explicit. The ideal solutions suggested in the international documents referred to can call into question the supposedly ―natural‖ realities of the present situation and evoke the desire for enhancement.
In return, critical pedagogy is also profitable for GCE. The language of critique ensures that GCE is not degraded to an additional skill in the curriculum that exists within the neo-liberal orientation of the school. The critical analysis of present circumstances lays the foundation for a more complete understanding of GCE and its aspirations. Critical pedagogy makes the students more open for new values as they are empowered to see the faults of the current system and are more prepared to move towards another, more sustainable direction.
In order to reach this required critical awareness in the learners and thereby improve the effectiveness of GCE, GCE has to apply the strategies provided by critical pedagogy. The development of critical thinking is an integral part of the GCE methods and also the curriculum of schools in Austria.
Global education should help learners to approach issues with an open, critical mind, reflect on them and be willing to consider their opinions in light of new evidence and
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rational argument. They should be able to recognise and challenge bias, indoctrination and propaganda. (North-South Centre 2010: 22)
Although the ability to interact critically with the world obviously constitutes an essential quality of global citizens, GCE remains too imprecise about the actual methods to foster critical thinking and much less it offers ideas for applying critical approaches in the foreign language classroom. For that reason,the practice of critical literacy and problem-posing are elements of critical pedagogy that should definitely be borrowed from GCE practitioners as they supply the concept of critical thinking in GCE with a substantive theory.
Moreover, it is a missing element in the Oxfam curriculum to make clear how the defined GC-knowledge, skills, values and attitudes can be used to become active at school and also within the larger community. (Tasneem 2005: 181) The concepts of empowerment and action of critical pedagogy clarify this connection.
Finally, I have already touched upon the fact that critical pedagogy is particularly useful with regard to GCE in foreign language teaching. It offers concrete alternative, more critical approaches to language and culture education that stress the political nature of language and its power to bring about change. Practitioners of critical pedagogy have developed models of language and culture learning that are perfectly suitable to promote sustainability and social justice. The insights of critical pedagogy have the potential to transform intercultural competence into a tool of promoting global civic culture. Correspondingly, the intercultural dimension of language learning as it is defined by the Council of Europe can be enriched and more directed towards GCE if the foreign language classroom is inspired by critical pedagogy.
To sum up, GCE and critical pedagogy are brought together in this paper because a successful change of the status quo is more likely if elements of both are combined. Secondly, a more complete and rich line of reasoning can be offered for the incorporation of the global perspective into the foreign language classroom. Critical pedagogy does not fail to take into consideration the political dimension of language use and its relevance for GC.
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After having emphasized the effectiveness of bringing GC and CP together in the classroom, I would like to present the concrete tenets of critical pedagogy that GCE can make use of. From the work of authors such as Paulo Freire, Giroux, McLaren and other advocates of critical pedagogy crystallize seven useful concepts for the production of global citizens that are both, critical towards cultures and the world in general. These pedagogical processes are reflection, dissent, difference, dialogue, empowerment, action, and hope. (Phipps and Guilherme 2004: 3)