Global Citizenship Education from a Daoist Perspective

Abstract

Global citizenship education (GCE) is an educational program actively promoted by UNESCO. It maps out how education can help students develop the knowledge, values, attitudes and skills needed for a more just, inclusive and cohesive world. However, GCE has been conceptualised within a Westernised and colonialised framework of knowledge and values. This can make it harder for students to understand how global issues might be approached from different epistemic frames, and to perceive the underlying inequality in power dynamics. This situation undermines the overall goals of GCE in promoting social justice, cultural diversity and inclusivity. Thus, to be truly global, GCE must draw on diverse traditions beyond Western-European epistemic paradigms.

My research presents a theoretical and philosophical account of GC and GCE from the perspective of Daoism. In Chapter One, I present the social background and problems associated with GC and GCE, and outline my research method. In Chapter Two, I introduce the main Daoist concepts that will be applied to illuminate GC and GCE in the subsequent chapters. In Chapter Three, I examine a ‘fluid’ model of GC inspired by the symbol of water in Daoism. In Chapter Four, Zhuangzi’s concept of hua (‘spontaneous change’) is harnessed to promote a more non-coercive GCE at both personal, group and institutional levels. In Chapter Five, in reference to the particular example of global poverty, I employ Zhuangzi’s concept of great knowledge and his perspectivism to enrich our understanding of the cognitive domain of GCE. In Chapter Six, I reflect on the existing debate over the nature of ‘race’ to develop a Daoist account of ‘race’ and critical racial literacy in GCE. In Chapter Seven, I propose an account of Daoist ‘emptiness-mindfulness’ which is used to elaborate an individual-oriented approach to anti-racism. Chapter Eight predominantly focuses on the behavioural domain in reference to inner peace building.