Towards Transformative Global Citizenship Through Interdisciplinary Arts Education

Abstract

This practitioner research study examined the potential of arts education to support students’ growth towards global citizenship including awareness, care, and understanding of—as well as active and responsible engagement in—current global challenges and social issues. We utilized research material generated during an interdisciplinary arts pedagogy course offered in subject teacher education at the University of the Arts Helsinki and Aalto University (Finland). During the course, students created teaching sessions in peer groups in which they explored pedagogical methods to enhance global citizenship through interdisciplinary arts education participation. In the study, we identified themes addressed in the teaching sessions: Renegotiating (cultural) identity, Facing otherness, Experiencing empathy, Coping with power and inequality, Awakening to ecological responsibility, and Engaging in critical and reflective thinking. Furthermore, we examined how arts education resonated with the aims of global education and discussed the many ways that arts education could support the cultivation of responsiveness and ethical awareness to advance transformative global citizenship.