Spirituality and education for global citizenship: developing student teachers’ perceptions and practice

We, the non-global citizens: Reflections on the possibilities and challenges of democratic global citizenship education in higher education contexts

“…Rather, the project drove them to the identification of the differences between the non-global citizen-subject and the global one and to a willingness to acquire the global attributes (Oxley & Morris, 2013) in order to become the later. Similar projects appear to have been more successful towards the democratic purpose (Caruana, 2014;Woolley, 2008) and comparison with them might illuminate some of the intrinsic limitations of the educational design. I will now examine these possible limitations whilst discussing potential inherent challenges on democratic GCE.…”

“…Within this approach, Caruana (2014) has successfully evidenced the possibilities of a pedagogy based on storytelling and cultural biographies with HE international students. Similarly, Woolley (2008) has concluded that a module combining multicultural and antiracist seminars and immersion into inner-city multicultural schools allowed student teachers to challenge their own cultural stereotypes. Democratic GCE, nevertheless, is not exempt from critique.…”

“…"The problem arises", they write, "when we conceive education not as the realisation of a collectively motivated goal through continuous ethical commitment, but as the strictly individualistic goal of passing the course or achieving the highest grade" (Pais & Costa, 2017, p. 8). In contrast with Woolley's (2008) project, where students did submit a group assignment, the participants here submitted their individual assignments and it was in these assignments where they emphasized their neoliberal conceptualization of the global citizen-subject. So, there is a possibility that the individualistic or collaborative nature of the assignment might have some impact.…”

“…Haigh, 2002). Among them, some small-scale projects have analysed how students' understandings of global citizenship are reconceptualized through an exploration of their own biographies (Caruana, 2014;Woolley, 2008).…”

A Mighty River: Intersections of Spiritualities and Activism in Children’s and Young Adult Literature

“…These general themes lend themselves to one of the most frequently emphasized criteria: literature must provide the readers with opportunities to engage with spiritual transcendence. The spiritual concept of transcendence means that one is able to stand outside of oneself, understand that there is a unity and connectedness between all entities, and view life with a greater meaning and value (Cannon, 1996; Gebara 1999; Woolley, 2008). The importance of this criterion is illuminated by Corr's (2004) analysis of the spiritual aspects of death‐related children's literature.…”