ABSTRACT
The framework of global competencies, discussed in Chapter 4, imagines a particular self that is flexible, multiple, adaptable, tolerant, creative, a problem solver, technologically savvy, media wise, and importantly, an agent of change. In this chapter, I argue that this vision is built on a highly individualistic framework. The kind of self imagined by those trying to refashion education to prepare for the changing world is an enterprising self (Rose 1992)—a blend of expressive and utilitarian individualism rooted in myths of the Western Enlightenment (Bellah et al. 1985; Taylor 1989; Sandel 1996). Ironically, this individualism becomes a strong force for conformity, compelling students to acquiesce to highly particularized norms. This makes global citizenship education and its vision of cosmopolitan thriving much less “universal” than its explicit claims. The pedagogical strategies and philosophical assumptions behind the framework of global competencies also reveal that it has deeper roots in the past than it would like to admit. Rather than freeing students from authority and constraints, the global citizen ideal serves to conform them to uniquely modern notions of expressive and utilitarian individualism. In this way, it does precisely what modern schooling has done for centuries—conform students to particular narratives and ideals of the Western Enlightenment. In this, it is no more universal than its nationalistic antecedents.
