Integrating planetary citizenship as a cross-curricular theme and a whole-school approach: using a value-creating approach to learning

Abstract

This article reflects on the double planetary crises of climate impacts and Covid-19 from a study of certain Indigenous perspectives. An early review of the impact of these crises suggests the importance of resilience at the national and regional level to combat these challenges. Value-creating global citizenship education is a pedagogical approach developed from a study of certain Indigenous perspectives to enhance the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and beyond. The key focus of this approach is to build resilience and hope through engaged relationships between learners and their natural, social and educational environments. Using this approach, education for planetary citizenship is proposed as a cross-curricular theme, and a whole-school orientation for education across nation states, within formal and non-formal settings. Under this banner, the study of human relationship to Nature and its exploitation, risks such as climate change crisis, threats from global pandemics and lessons from Green Schools and Eco-Schools are suggested as focal points of study. In discussing these issues, this article enacts a dialogic engagement with multiple world views that brings into focus different ways of thinking about ourselves, society and Nature, such as reflected in the Earth Charter, which can enhance the intercultural dimension of education.