Addressing Rising Nationalism and Populism Through Global Citizenship Education

Introduction

As we approach the third decade of this century, there are clear signs of significant changes in the social and political landscape that shape the work of education around the world. We are at a time where broken relations – with neighbors, with organizations, and with the natural world – have challenged many of the aspirations of equality and equity in education that emerged in post-World War II liberal notions of development and universal human rights. These relations are challenged by global environmental, social, political, and economic issues that present critical, urgent problems for everyone on the planet. We see rising inequality; we are closer to nuclear war than any time in the past 50 years; climate instability reveals the real possibility that the earth may soon be unable to sustain life. Around the world, we see that governments are either unable or unwilling to act in ways that might fix these urgent problems. Within this context, it is not surprising to see...