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Internacional Journal of Education for Social Justice

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VOLUME 14(2), DECEMBER 2025

GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION IN A WORLD IN CRISIS: CHALLENGES, ADVANCES AND EXPERIENCES

Coordination: David Menendez Alvarez-Hevia, Mª Aquilina Fueyo Gutierrez (Universidad de Oviedo) and Mª Adelina Calvo Salvador (Universidad de Cantabria)

In recent years, numerous voices have been raised to point to the need of reviewing the socio-educational processes by which collective identities are constructed. Identities that in 21st century societies inevitably surpass the local context to move into a global environment characterised by its volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (Elliot et al., 2010; Davies et al., 2018; Stein, 2021).

International bodies such as UNESCO refer to the need to build a global citizenship with a global approach that implies a basic attitude to understand the existence of multiple levels of identity, including a "collective identity" that exceeds individual, religious, ethnic or other different cultures. Such citizenship must be inclusive, developed on the basis of the principles of social justice and in line with Sustainable Development Goal 4 of the UN Agenda 2030 or the Incheon Declaration for Education 2030 (UNESCO), which calls for inclusive, equitable and quality education for all. The construction of a collective identity influenced by the ideas of global citizenship is a highly relevant issue at national and transnational level, of interest for political, academic and educational debates. The Maastricht Declaration (2002), represents a framework for a European strategy to improve and enhance global citizenship education in Europe, establishing a definition that is now commonly accepted and known as the "Maastricht definition". It considers global citizenship education as a proposal that opens eyes and minds to the realities of the world, raising people's awareness for a more just, egalitarian, equitable and human rights-based world for all. It involves conceptualising education through perspectives such as Education for Development, for Human Rights, for Sustainability, for Peace and Conflict Prevention and Intercultural Education, emphasising the global dimensions of Citizenship Education (ANGEL, 2020).

From more critical perspectives, the issue of educating in global citizenship implies a total deconstruction of the concept of modernity on which the current educational pillars are based (Machado de Oliveira, 2021), even questioning the foundations of the concept itself (País & Costa, 2020). It involves embracing an open debate that shows that global education is a concept with multiple meanings (Mannion et al., 2011) that over time has been materialised in different forms that has taken place in different educational settings (Pashby et al., 2020).

Nevertheless, global citizenship education is not an easy task as it demands a broader interpretation of the traditional binary parameters of local-global, physical-virtual or natural-artificial (Fueyo et al., 2018).

Global Citizenship Education (GCE) emerges as a pedagogical response to the need to address contemporary problems from a thicker perspective in which the relationships between systems, people and the natural environment are intertwined in a complex local and global entanglement.  In Spain, GCE has a long tradition, originally linked to Development Education, Multicultural Education and Civic Education. Currently, GCE appears to be configured in a broader way, drawing on both official definitions - coming from international organisations - and discursive elements associated with critical and post-critical pedagogies, from which the influence of globalisation on our lives is analysed and questioned (Calvo, 2017).  In other countries, the concept of GCE is known as Global Learning (Austria or United Kingdom) or Global Education (Poland or Finland) and focuses on analysing the political, social, economic, educational and cultural dimension of our increasingly interconnected and interdependent societies (Davies et al. 2018). Recently, and with the incentive of GENE (Global Education Network Europe), the European network of Ministries and Agencies with responsibility in their countries for policies and funding in the field of GCSE, has issued a European Declaration on Global Citizenship (https://www.gene.eu/ge2050-congress). With a view to the year 2050, it underlines the essential role that education must play in addressing the multiple challenges of today's societies and in contributing to peace, international solidarity, human rights, global/universal social justice and sustainability.

On the other hand, it should be noted that the debate on GCE is also embedded in critical and post-critical pedagogies (such as, for example, the post-colonial perspective), questioning the possibility of conceptualising a global citizenship that recognises the same rights for all people in all countries and territories, critically analysing the ethnocentrism, androcentric and anthropocentrism of the concept of citizenship itself (Andreotti, 2010; Torres, 2019). The emergency of new approaches revitalises the debate, expand the field, highlight new challenges and open spaces for innovative theoretical models and practices of GCE.

This special issue aims to contribute to the advancement of the academic debate on GCE and its implications for educational practice and social transformation. We encourage the submission of papers based on original empirical studies that systematically and rigorously allow for a critical reflection on how to conceptualise GCE, integrate it into diverse educational contexts or link it to issues of social justice. However, we are also open for papers that provide theoretically driven discussions or discuss new methodologies, approaches or views of GCE. We are therefore looking for the presentation of research articles that cover some of the following topics, among others:

Download the call: HERE

Characteristics of the papers

The guidelines established by the journal will be followed.

https://revistas.uam.es/riejs/about/submissions#authorGuidelines

Calendar

Deadline for submissions: May 1st, 2025

Publication: December 1st, 2025

Process

The submission of originals is done through the Open Journal System (OJS) platform. The process includes sending the Letter of originality, conflict of interest and transfer of copyright and the manuscript.

It is essential to indicate as Comments to the editor that the submission is directed to the thematic section: "Global citizenship education in a world in crisis: Challenges, advances and experiences".