A Pasifika perspective on global citizenship education

Jacoba Matapo, Associate Dean Pasifika in the Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Auckland, opens this discussion by introducing herself by way of her pepha; which she says is integral to who she is. She defines this as her way of being, connecting, and knowing the world. She describes herself as a Samoan, New Zealand-born Pasifika scholar, and intentionally shares her pepeha, honouring the reo (language) of the indigenous people of Aotearoa as well as sharing her ancestral connection to people and place. Matapo defines the term "Pasifika" as a collective reference to Pacific peoples who have made Aotearoa their home and is also inclusive of New Zealand-born Pasifika people. Pasifika as a term can be framed in various ways: as a transnational concept it allows for Pacific ethnic-specific ties to ancestral lands in the Pacific regions, including collective responsibility that traverses oceanic boundaries. Pasifika has also been defined by Pacific scholars within Aotearoa as a diasporic notion, one that influences emerging identities and new relations to places, keeping ties to Pacific homelands and genealogy. The theme of this discussion argues that Pacific scholars have also documented the homogenising effect of Pasifika as an umbrella term, which disregards ethnic-specific identities and cultural differences. Matapo begins by defining global citizenship framed by UNESCO, and wonders how a Pacific indigenous conceptualisation of human existence could challenge conventional understandings of human-rights-based approaches. She considers what happens when the human subject is presented as a multiverse being, not only connected to earth but also to cosmos, and how this challenges global education discourse and what it means to be a global citizen? These are fundamental questions for Pacific indigenous peoples who are traversing methodologies of Global Citizenship Education (GCED). For Pacific peoples, she suggests GCED fosters processes of decolonising education and the associated regimes of education. For Pacific peoples in the Pacific regions and in Aotearoa, GCED could create opportunities in education that honour history, culture, ancestors, connection to place, and a reconceptualising of indigenous personhood which has been subjugated and assimilated throughout Western education philosophy, programmes, and curricula.