Culturally inclusive global citizenship education: metaphysical and non-western approaches

Global citizenship education (GCE) is supposed to be culturally inclusive in its literal sense. In this metaphysical study, I argue that GCE is grounded in epistemology-driven knowledge systems that may facilitate a particular mode of being (e.g. abstract or liberal individualism) and an epistemic system (e.g. instrumentalism), and its insufficient ontological and axiological discourses may result in cultural exclusivity. By applying the three dimensions of metaphysics, namely ontology, epistemology and axiology as a methodological approach to cultural diversity, I critically review GCE literature and its pedagogical values through lenses of non-Western values embedded in Aboriginality, Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam and Taoism. In the conclusion, I argue that culturally inclusive GCE needs to be reconceived in a way to promote authentic intercultural interaction, and to do so, non-Western cultures/religions need to be repositioned as equal participants in culturally inclusive GCE development.