This report contains two related documents. First are the Conclusions from the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) Regional Network Meeting on GCED, held in October 2017, Santiago, Chile. Second is the Founding document of the Regional Global Citizenship Education Network for Latin America and the Caribbean that is based on these Conclusions. The event brought together regional researchers, members of civil society organizations and activists, educational communities, social movements, government educational authorities and universities.
The objective of the meeting was to promote dialogue on the concept of Global Citizenship Education (GCED), deepen the regional perspective on the topic and create a network that helps strengthen the implementation of GCED in the context of the Latin America and the Caribbean region. This document summarizes the main topics addressed and issues discussed at the meeting. This document offers a valuable insight into a LAC-based understanding of GCE that is grounded in very different lived realities and critical theoretical orientations than those that seem to be guiding most of GCE policy agenda in Northern and Global (UNESCO) contexts.
The document offers a sharp and explicit critique of colonialism, modernity, neoliberalism, scientism and introduces some of the concerns that are not part of GCE discussion elsewhere, such as the notion of epistemicide (the extermination/subjugation of non-Western based knowledges and cosmologies). Unlike almost any other approaches to GCE it sees modern Western schooling as being at heart of the problem and continuation of neo-colonial exploitation.
While the critique introduced in this document may be considered quite nuanced and radical – in comparison to other regional or global frameworks, the ensuing recommendations for the emerging LAC network, offer less radical or innovative propositions, which may be considered indicative of the challenges of translating critique into the pre-set language of institutionalized education and policy.