The Educational Implications of Populism, Emotions and Digital Hate Speech: A Dialogue with Scholars from Canada, Chile, Spain, the UK, and the US

The recent rise of authoritarian populism, fueled by the spread of digital hate speech and the preeminence of emotions in the political arena, has not aroused much interest among educational researchers. In response to this gap in the literature, the authors of the present article aim to provide an overview of the educational implications of the recent wave of authoritarian populism by interviewing a group of experts on democratic citizenship education from various countries and backgrounds. The dialogue resulting from their responses helps to move forward the educational debate on how schools can deal with the emotions and hate speech that motivate support for authoritarian populisms

Imágenes sobre la educación para la ciudadanía en la formación inicial del profesorado

Aunque en las pasadas décadas se ha escrito en abundancia acerca de la educación para la ciudadanía, al menos en España se sabe muy poco acerca de cómo se educa para educar en la ciudadanía en las instancias de formación del profesorado. En estos últimos años hemos intentado contribuir a tapar dicha laguna con una línea de investigación que hasta la fecha se ha centrado en los formadores universitarios de estudiantes de los Grados de Magisterio de la Universidad de Cantabria. Tras acopiar sus racionalizaciones verbalizadas acerca de la vida política y la educación ciudadana a través de entrevistas semiestructuradas, se nos hizo evidente la necesidad de ir más allá de ese nivel de análisis y utilizar nuevas técnicas indagativas que nos permitieran adentrarnos en el substrato tácito y menos sujeto a control reflexivo de las representaciones de los docentes, toda vez que éstas no pueden considerarse como el mero producto acabado de ejercicios mentales deliberados y racionales. De ahí que se optara por examinar ciertos tropos del lenguaje menos sometidos al control consciente como las metáforas, aprovechando las recientes aportaciones de la ciencia cognitiva y la neurociencia sobre el pensamiento automático (Kahneman, 2012) y su influencia en nuestras decisiones políticas (Haidt, 2012; Lakoff, 2008). Esta mirada a las evidencias empíricas recogidas permitió detectar, bajo la forma de distintas expresiones metafóricas, alegorías como los “ciudadanos como plantas”, la “ciudadanía como motor” o la “democracia como meta” que perfilan un relato sobre la educación ciudadana en exceso idealizado

Evidence of curricular standardization: Environment pedagogy in the Chilean and Spanish official curricula in primary education

Resumen: Este estudio realiza un análisis del tratamiento del entorno sociocultural en el área de Ciencias Sociales (Educación Primaria) de los currículos oficiales de Chile y España, a la búsqueda de indicios de esa estandarización que la escuela neoinstitucionalista de la sociología histórica educativa postula como derivado de la institucionalización mundial de la educación.. Las diferencias entre ambos decretos en el enfoque de estudio del medio sociocultural responden más bien a cuestiones específicas o de grado que a divergencias en los aspectos esenciales de la naturaleza del currículo. A partir de la reflexión en torno a la mayor o menor coherencia y consistencia que presentan ambos currículos se puede observar el uso de lenguajes y retóricas de la pedagogía políticamente correcta que encubren las verdaderas funciones del currículo y la ideología instrumental que subyace en ambos y que deriva en una gran cantidad de incoherencias internas. La falta presumiblemente consciente de medios para la consecución de algunos de los fines declarados es el ejemplo más evidente de la superficialidad de estos discursos que resultan ser, además, sorprendentemente afines.Abstract: This study analyzes the treatment of the socio cultural environment in the Chilean and Spanish official curricula in Social Sciences (Primary Education) in search of evidence that The New Institutionalism in Historical Sociology of Education postulated as arising from world institutionalization of education. Differences between both decrees have to do more with specific details or matters of degree than with divergences in essential aspects of the curriculum. The use of discourses and rhetoric of politically correct pedagogy that conceals the real functions of the curriculum and instrumental ideology that underlies both curricula and that leads to a large number of internal incoherencies may be observed in both of them. The presumably conscious lack of means to achieve some of the stated purposes is the most obvious example of the superficiality of these discourses which are, moreover, surprisingly similar

A Struggle to Denature Citizenship Education

RESUMEN: Las próximas líneas pretenden, más que hacer justicia al contenido de la tesis doctoral de la autora retratar sucintamente la pelea que ha supuesto contra sí misma su propia confección. No tanto por las condiciones objetivas sino por otra clase de resistencias subjetivas: aquellas que rehuyen desnaturalizar lo que se da por sentado. Una, de entrada, no se espera que la mayor dificultad a la que se enfrenta con una tesis sobre educación para la ciudadanía radique precisamente en desvelar los presupuestos sobre los que esta expresión descansa. Mas, cuestionar la veracidad y la legitimidad de la misma acabó siendo la clave principal de la investigación cualitativa llevada a cabo con un grupo de profesores y profesoras del Grado de Educación Primaria de la Universidad de Cantabria. Gracias a ello, se pudo intuir algo mejor hasta qué punto la educación para la ciudadanía en la formación inicial del profesorado oscila entre idealizaciones y tradiciones.ABSTRACT: More than to do justice to the content of the author's doctoral dissertation, this paper attempts to portray briefly the fight against herself that has implied its development. Not because of objective conditions, but because of other kind of subjective resistances: those that refuse to denaturalize what is taken for granted. One does not expect the greatest difficulty in doing a thesis on citizenship education is unveiling the assumptions on which this expression rests. Yet, questioning the veracity and legitimacy of this concept was precisely the main key of the qualitative research carried out with a group of teacher educators of the Primary Education Degree at the University of Cantabria. Thanks to this, it was possible to better understand the extent to which citizenship education in initial teacher training is caught between idealizations and traditions

Imagining a Post-COVID-19 Global Citizenship Education

RESUMEN: La pandemia del COVID 19 ha creado condiciones sin precedentes en todas las áreas de la vida. A medida que la suspensión de las actividades escolares se ha convertido en ?la nueva normalidad?, numerosos expertos y formadores de opinión se han apresurado a lanzar sus recomendaciones a gobiernos y organizaciones educativas para normalizar las operaciones escolares. En este contexto novedoso, analizamos las propuestas para expandir el modelo de Educación para la Ciudadanía Global (ECG) que está siendo cada vez más apoyada por organizaciones internacionales, gobiernos y académicos. En este artículo, sostenemos que la orientación redentora que los modelos y propuestas de ECG han desarrollado en las últimas décadas resulta muy limitada para entender y resolver problemas actuales como la restricción de derechos de privacidad de la ciudadanía o el fortalecimiento de los nacionalismos excluyentes. En cambio, se necesitan modelos más realistas de ECG. Este documento concluye con nuevas preguntas para robustecer el debate y las alternativas para imaginar una ECG realista y no redentora.ABSTRACT: The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented conditions in all areas of social life and as the suspension of schooling became "the new normal," numerous experts and opinion-makers rushed to voice their recommendations to governments and educational organizations for normalizing schooling operations. In light of this worldwide crisis, we re-evaluate proposals to expand the model of Global Citizenship Education (GCE) that have received increasing attention and support from both international organizations, governments, and scholars. In this article, we argue that the predominately redemptive nature of GCE models and proposals since the mid-1990s cannot handle global problems associated with the current pandemic such as the restriction of citizen?s privacy rights or the strengthening of exclusionary nationalistic messaging. Instead, more realistic models of GCE are needed. This paper concludes with new questions to strengthen the debate and alternatives for imagining a non-redemptive and more realistic GCE

Who Needs Global Citizenship Education? A Review of the Literature on Teacher Education

Given the seemingly ever-increasing scholarly production about the ideas and ideals of global citizenship education (GCE), it is not surprising those discussions started to gain influence in teacher education (TE) debates. In this study, we examine the discourses that tacitly shape the meanings of GCE within the contemporary academic literature on TE. After analyzing the peer-reviewed scholarship published from 2003 to 2018, we identified patterns in how GCE for TE was described and defended, beyond the differences in their conceptual frameworks. The dominant trend found is to frame GCE as a redemptive educational solution to global problems. This framing requires teachers to embrace a redemptive narrative following a model of rationality based on altruistic, hyperrationalized and overly romanticized ideals. Ultimately, TE literature contributes to the configuration of an excessively naïve discourse that tends to ignore the neoliberal context in which both GCE and TE take place today

Teacher Education for Citizenship in a Globalized World: a Case Study in Spain

Abstract: Considering the attention that global citizenship education has recently received, it is not much of a surprise that teacher education programs and courses around the world are including stated goals related to the preparation of teachers to educate their students for global and participatory citizenship. This is also the case of the Faculty of Education at the University of Cantabria (Spain). This study explores how a group of teacher educators from this university conceptualize citizenship education, if they include global perspectives in their notions, and how they educate for democracy in an increasingly globalized world. Although teacher education can contribute to challenge pre-service teachers’ perceptions of the nation state as the only locus for democracy and citizenship, the inclusion of global perspectives done by these teacher educators has been very limited. Also, the participants that were more globally concerned were those who had a stronger sense of social justice

Critical considerations about the globalization of education systems: Jesús Romero, Inés Dussel y Thomas S. Popkewitz

RESUMEN: Esta sección trata de complementar el título del presente número de nuestra revista (Conocimiento, poder y mundialización), trasladando la problemática genérica sugerida en el mismo a un tema cada vez más sobresaliente en la era de la globalización y del totalcapitalismo, a saber, la progresiva mundialización de la omnipresente razón escolarizadora nacida en los albores de la modernidad occidental. Ciertamente, la aproximación crítica a esta cuestión se puede realizar desde distintas ópticas y especialidades académicas. Por nuestra parte, hemos optado en esta ocasión por la colaboración, a través de una suerte de mesa-coloquio, de tres personas muy descollantes en el campo de lo que podríamos llamar historia del curriculum. Se trata, por orden de aparición en este número, de Jesús Romero (España), Inés Dussel (México) y Thomas S. Popkewitz (Estados Unidos).ABSTRACT: This section complements the generic title of this issue of our journal (Knowledge, power and globalization), moving the generic issue to an increasingly prominent topic in the era of globalization and total capitalism, namely the progressive globalization of the ubiquitous school reason born at the dawn of Western modernity. Certainly, the critical approach to this issue can be made from different perspectives and academic specialties. We have opted on this occasion for the collaboration, through a colloquium, of three outstanding scholars in the field of curriculum history. They are Jesús Romero (Spain), Inés Dussel (Mexico) and Thomas S. Popkewitz (United States)

Os Paradoxos da Educação para Cidadania Global na Formação Docente

RESUMO: Propostas de Educação para Cidadania Global (ECG) são frequentemente apresentadas como se derivaram de processos quase-naturais de evolução pedagógica. Nesse pensamento evolutivo, a ECG representa um estágio mais avançado de inovação pedagógica e, consequentemente, aparece como o melhor e mais abrangente modelo educacional. É importante apontar que no período 1990-2019 duas tendências simultâneas procuram desenvolver modelos de cidadania diferentes. Se a ECG procura desenvolver um/a cidadão global cosmopolita outras propostas pedagógicas apontam a transformar as noções de cidadania dando prioridade aos direitos de um "consumidor global" neoliberal sobre os direitos "cidadãos globais/cívicos". Este artigo discute 62 artigos sobre ECG e identifico o predomínio de uma orientação pedagógica redentora idealizada que tem muitas limitações e fundamentalmente não confronta às opções consumistas oferecidas pelos modelos pedagógicos de orientação neoliberais.ABSTRACT: Proposals for Global Citizenship Education (ECG) are often presented as derived from quasi-natural processes of pedagogical evolution. In this evolutionary thinking, ECG represents a more advanced stage of pedagogical innovation and, consequently, appears as the best and most comprehensive educational model. It is important to point out that in the period 1990-2019 two simultaneous trends seek to develop different models of citizenship. If the ECG seeks to develop a cosmopolitan global citizen, other pedagogical proposals aim to transform notions of citizenship by giving priority to the rights of a neoliberal "global consumer" over "global / civic" rights. This article reviewed 62 peer-reviewed articles on ECG and identified the predominance of an idealized redemptive pedagogical orientation that has many limitations and fundamentally does not confront the consumerist options offered by neoliberal pedagogical models

The paradoxes of citizenship education: Frames and factors influencing dispositions toward discussing political issues in the classroom

This article aims to explore two assumptions that have underpinned most research on teachers' perceptions of citizenship education (CE). These are, firstly, that teachers' perceptions of CE are relatively coherent, conscious and classifiable into citizenship models and, secondly, that these perceptions are strongly connected to their political ideology and civic engagement. In this article, we present a study conducted at a Spanish public university to test these two assumptions. We designed a questionnaire to investigate the possible effect of tacit framing on preservice teachers' perceptions of CE -by observing whether the use of different wording led them to reason about CE in different, or even contradictory, ways- and the relationship between preservice teachers' disposition toward discussing current political issues and their political ideology and civic engagement. The findings illustrate the power of framing in shaping CE perceptions and show a non-significant relationship between preservice teachers' disposition toward including politica issues in the classroom and their political ideology/civic engagement. Although the items used in the questionnaire cannot fully account for the diversity of views of CE, political ideologies and civic engagement experiences, the results provide enough evidence to begin questioning the assumptions that have dominated the research on teachers' perceptions about CE. These results have important implications for social studies educators and scholars