‘Globalizing’ ubuntu for global citizenship education: A decolonial perspective

Abstract

One of the authentic and relevant critiques of global citizenship education (GCE) is that its key concepts are dominantly underpinned by western ideals, values and norms. Seemingly, the current framing of GCE gives marginal recognition to cultural situatedness and perspectives from the non-western world, particularly Africa. Consequently, GCE is perceived to be an elitist movement whose overt objective is to entrench western-centric epistemological hegemony. Deploying decolonization of higher as a theoretical framework, we advance ubuntu as an expansion of GCE. Ubuntu features of human interdependence and dignity can reinforce the seemingly abstract notion of a common humanity as espoused in GCE. While we are aware of growing scholarly criticism against GCE, we seek to argue that GCE needs to be informed by a contextualized paradigm underscored by a notion of ubuntu.