Virtual exchange and the integration of global and ecological citizenship in foreign language education

Abstract

This thesis was written and is framed in a context of educational change and global challenge marked by historic events such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the conflict in Ukraine and the environmental crisis among others. As asserted in the 2022 UN's annual 'Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Report': "Today, we stand on the precipice of a critical moment. Either we fail to deliver on our commitments to support the world's most vulnerable or together we turbo-charge our efforts to rescue the SDGs and deliver meaningful progress for people and the planet by 2030" (UN, 2022, p. 4). For this reason, the pedagogical activities proposed here take on special relevance due to their suitability for the development of intercultural (Byram, 2008), global (OECD, 2018), and ecological (Dobson, 2000 citizenship competences that favour sustainable and peaceful coexistence. As stated by the OECD (2018): "Developing a global and intercultural outlook is a process -a lifelong process-that education can shape" (p.5). It is following this idea of using education as a shaping power for preparing students to seize the opportunities and face the challenges that the present context poses that this doctoral thesis is born.