Imagination as a Form of Democracy

by | Oct 20, 2025 | Global Citizenship, Musings, Pedagogy

What does it mean to imagine together?

How might shared imagination become a form of democracy?

To imagine together is to hold a space between us where new worlds can take shape.  It begins in conversation — not in agreement, but in curiosity. When we imagine together, we make room for multiple truths, unfinished ideas, and the possibility that the future might look different depending on where we stand.

Imagination is often treated as private: the artist alone in the studio, the thinker deep in reflection. But shared imagination is something else. It’s collective, relational, and deeply civic. It asks: What might we make possible — not alone, but in the company of others?

Imagination as a Civic Practice

In democratic life, imagination is not a luxury; it’s a responsibility. Every act of citizenship — from voting to volunteering to visioning — depends on our ability to picture a world that doesn’t yet exist.

When we imagine together, we rehearse democracy itself.  We learn to listen, to disagree with empathy, to co-create meaning.  We practice the habits of inclusion — making space for voices that were once silent, perspectives that were once unseen.  This is the imagination of we.

The philosopher Maxine Greene called this the “social imagination” — the capacity to see things as if they could be otherwise, and to join others in making that “otherwise” real. Democracy, then, is not just a system of government. It is a shared act of imagination: a constant re-creation of “the possible” through participation, dialogue, and hope.

In the Classroom

Teachers can make this visible.

  • When students co-design classroom norms, they imagine together what justice and respect might look like.

  • When they build models of sustainable cities, invent new rituals of belonging, or reimagine school from the ground up, they are doing democratic work through imagination.

  • When they write collective stories — one sentence at a time — they learn that meaning is made in relation.

These are not side projects; they are the essence of education for global citizenship.  Shared imagination is how learners practice being part of a larger “we.” It’s how they move from critique toward creation, from awareness toward agency.

Imagination and Equity

To imagine together also means confronting the limits of who has been allowed to imagine publicly.  For centuries, the futures of some have been imagined for them, not with them.  Shared imagination as democracy requires dismantling this asymmetry — expanding who gets to shape the world’s stories.

When we center marginalized voices and collective dreaming, imagination becomes a tool of justice.  It transforms classrooms into microcosms of democracy — spaces where new configurations of voice, power, and belonging can be practiced safely before they’re lived fully.

A Practice of Hope

Shared imagination is ultimately a practice of hope — not wishful thinking, but disciplined, relational hope.  It’s the willingness to stay in conversation even when we can’t yet see the outcome.  It’s the belief that possibility grows in community, not isolation.

And it’s the quiet understanding that democracy, like imagination, is always unfinished.

“Democracy must be born anew every generation, and education is its midwife.”
— John Dewey

To imagine together is to take up that work — again and again — with courage, humility, and care.

WANTED: An AP Course in Global Citizenship

by | Sep 22, 2025 | Global Citizenship, Pedagogy, Theory

A World Our Students Already Inhabit

Picture this:

  • A teenager in Ohio follows a climate strike in Europe on TikTok before the school bell rings.
  • A tenth grader in California asks her teacher why artificial intelligence can write news stories faster than journalists.
  • A student in Texas watches headlines about migration while her own family navigates the realities of displacement.

Today’s students are already immersed in a world that is fast, fragile, and interconnected. They don’t just read about global issues in textbooks — they experience them in real time, on their screens, in their communities, and sometimes in their homes.

And yet, our schools rarely provide the framework to help them make sense of it all. Too often, the global is treated as “extra” — a Model UN club, a cultural assembly, a short elective, or a study abroad program available only to a few.

It’s not enough.

 

What Schools Miss

Advanced Placement (AP) courses offer rigor, recognition, and opportunity. Students can study U.S. History, Government, Human Geography, Environmental Science, and more. Each is valuable. But taken together, they still leave a gap.

There is no AP course designed to prepare students for global citizenship.

Instead, global learning remains scattered across classrooms and schools:

  • A service project here,
  • A world language course there,
  • A passing conversation about climate change or migration when the news demands it.

Without a dedicated, integrated approach, students are left with fragments. And inequity grows: some schools invest in global education, while others lack the resources to do so.

What Students Could Learn

Now imagine a classroom where:

  • Students debate the ethics of climate action using data from multiple regions of the world.
  • A math lesson is grounded in statistics on global inequality.
  • A literature unit pairs African poets with Asian novelists to explore shared themes of migration, identity, and resilience.

An AP Global Citizenship course would provide the framework to make these connections explicit and rigorous.

Students would:

🌍 Explore how global systems shape local realities.
 They’d see how climate change affects the food on their table, how global supply chains shape what they wear, and how technology reshapes communities both near and far.

🤝 Build intercultural skills.
 They’d practice empathy, dialogue, and collaboration — not just for travel or exchange programs, but for the workplace, civic life, and democracy itself.

🔎 Analyze issues through multiple perspectives.
 They’d approach sustainability, inequality, migration, and digital ethics as lived realities, not abstract concepts — moving beyond stereotypes toward nuanced understanding.

🧭 Develop critical thinking and empathy together.
 They’d learn to evaluate sources, spot misinformation, and connect intellectual rigor with moral imagination.

This is not enrichment. It’s education for life.

 

The Geographical Imagination

At the Geographical Imaginations Expedition & Institute (GIEI), we call this work challenging and expanding the geographical imagination.

Part of the geographical imagination is the capacity to see how our lives are bound up with people, places, and ecosystems at home and beyond our immediate surroundings. It’s about asking:

  • How does what happens “over there” affect us “here”?
  • How do our choices ripple outward into the wider world?
  • And how can we act responsibly, with empathy and foresight, in light of those connections?

This isn’t about memorizing capitals or maps. It’s about reimagining the world as an interconnected home, full of overlapping stories and shared challenges.

We’ve seen students light up when they recognize these connections — when they begin to see themselves not just as local actors, but as part of a global community. An AP Global Citizenship course could help scale this learning for millions.

 

Why AP? Why Now?

Why AP? Because AP matters. It sets a standard of rigor. It legitimizes subjects in the eyes of schools and colleges. It makes opportunity accessible to more students, not just those in specialized programs.

And why now? Because the world is demanding it.

  • UNESCO identifies Global Citizenship Education as a cornerstone of building peaceful, sustainable societies.
  • The OECD measures global competence as a key 21st-century skill.
  • Colleges and employers want graduates who can think critically, communicate across cultures, and lead in an interconnected world.

     

The College Board has acknowledged that no AP course in Global Citizenship or Global Competence exists today. But they are listening. Which means this is the moment to act.

 

A Call to Action

Every generation has to decide what kind of education it owes its children.

In ours, the answer is clear: education must go beyond preparing students for college and career. It must prepare them to be responsible global citizens.

That’s why we’re calling for the creation of an AP Global Citizenship course.

Because students deserve more than test scores.
They deserve to be prepared for the real world they’re inheriting.
They deserve the chance to become the globally competent leaders our future needs.

📢 We’ve launched a petition to show the demand. Add your name, share widely, and help us make this vision a reality: https://chng.it/XjWQzXDbH8

 

WANTED: Director of Global Citizenship (in Every School)

by | Sep 22, 2025 | Geographers, Global Citizenship, Pedagogy

The World Our Students Inherit

Look around: the world our students are inheriting is fast, fragile, and unforgivingly interconnected.

A wildfire in South America can turn skies gray in another hemisphere. A TikTok posted in Asia can stir political debates in Europe. A pandemic can sweep across continents in weeks.

For today’s students, climate change, displacement, inequity, and disinformation are not distant headlines — they are everyday life.

And yet, most schools are still organized around an outdated promise: prepare kids for college and career. Important, yes. But no longer enough.

Education must do more. It must prepare young people to be responsible global citizens — able to think critically, act empathetically, and work across borders to build a more just and sustainable world.

 

Why Global Citizenship Belongs in K–12

Too often, “global citizenship” is treated as an enrichment activity — perhaps a travel program, a Model UN club, or a cultural assembly once a year. These are valuable, but insufficient. Global citizenship is not an add-on; it is central to what it means to be an educated person in today’s world.

Global citizenship education equips students to:

  • Recognize perspectives beyond their own.
  • Analyze complex issues that transcend borders.
  • Communicate across cultures with empathy and respect.
  • Take informed, ethical action to improve their communities and the wider world.

     

Research from UNESCO, the Asia Society, and the OECD shows that when students develop global competencies, they not only become more compassionate citizens, they also perform better academically and build resilience for careers in a rapidly changing workforce.

But here’s the challenge: most schools lack the structures to make global citizenship a sustained, strategic priority. Instead, it remains fragmented — a world language class here, a service project there. Without a unifying vision, opportunities for deeper learning are lost.

What’s needed is dedicated leadership. That’s where the role of a Director of Global Citizenship comes in.

 

What a Director of Global Citizenship Can Do

A Director of Global Citizenship is not simply another administrator. This role exists at the intersection of curriculum, culture, and community, weaving global perspectives into the daily life of the school.

Here’s what the position could encompass:

1. Curriculum Integration

  • Embedding global competencies — sustainability, human rights, intercultural literacy — across subjects.
  • Helping teachers connect lessons to global contexts. For example, a literature class might explore voices from multiple continents, or a math class might analyze global data sets.
  • Expanding opportunities for world language learning and exposure to diverse texts and histories.

2. Student Programs and Leadership

  • Developing student-driven initiatives like global issue clubs, Model UN, and intercultural dialogues.
  • Overseeing travel and exchange programs, ensuring they are equitable, ethical, and transformative.
  • Creating opportunities for students to lead awareness campaigns around issues like climate action or refugee support.

3. Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging

  • Connecting local DEI work with global justice movements, so students see how struggles for equity are shared across contexts.
  • Ensuring curricula highlight diverse voices and perspectives, especially from historically marginalized communities.
  • Guiding reflection on how identity, privilege, and culture shape experiences of global interdependence.

4. Service Learning and Partnerships

  • Designing reciprocal service-learning programs that avoid charity models and emphasize partnership.
  • Building relationships with NGOs, nonprofits, and schools worldwide.
  • Encouraging students to reflect on the ethical dimensions of service and community engagement.

5. Faculty Development and School Culture

  • Providing professional learning on global pedagogy, cultural competency, and inclusive practices.
  • Shaping school-wide events — global awareness weeks, visiting speakers, intercultural celebrations.
  • Advising leadership on aligning school policies with a global citizenship mission.

6. Communication and Accountability

  • Developing frameworks to assess global competencies, such as empathy, perspective-taking, and action.
  • Sharing stories of impact with families, alumni, and the broader community.
  • Staying current with best practices in global education to keep the school at the forefront. 

 

The Geographical Imagination

At The Geographical Imaginations Expedition & Institute, we emphasize the importance of cultivating the geographical imagination — part of which is the capacity to envision how our lives are deeply connected with people, places, and ecosystems beyond our immediate surroundings.

This is not about memorizing maps or capitals. It is about learning to imagine the world as an interconnected home, full of overlapping stories and shared challenges.

Expanding students’ geographical imagination helps them to:

  • See how local actions ripple globally, like how clothing choices connect to global supply chains.
  • Recognize how global forces shape local realities, from climate change to migration.
  • Question the narratives of place that media and politics present, and develop their own informed understanding. 

A Director of Global Citizenship could make the geographical imagination a guiding framework for schools — helping students situate their personal experiences within wider global contexts and see themselves as both local and global actors.

 

Alignment with Best Practices

This vision aligns with leading frameworks in education:

  • UNESCO’s Global Citizenship Education (GCED): promoting peace, sustainability, and human rights.
  • Asia Society’s Global Competence Matrix: guiding teachers to help students investigate the world, recognize perspectives, communicate ideas, and take action.
  • NAIS Principles of Good Practice: supporting intercultural fluency and equity.
  • The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): linking classroom learning to urgent global challenges.

These frameworks provide legitimacy and practical guidance. By creating a Director of Global Citizenship role, schools can join a global movement toward holistic, future-ready education.

 

The Impact on Students

When schools make global citizenship a priority, students:

  • Understand that they are part of a wider world, not just their immediate community.
  • Learn to analyze complexity and hold multiple perspectives at once.
  • Develop both critical thinking and empathy — skills often treated as separate, but essential together.
  • Build the confidence to take informed action on issues they care about.

Perhaps most importantly, they discover that their choices and voices matter. They leave school not only ready for the next stage of education but also ready to contribute meaningfully to a global society.

 

Why Now?

The urgency of this work cannot be overstated. Consider:

  • Climate change demands scientific literacy, ethical awareness, and global collaboration.
  • Artificial intelligence and digital networks are connecting — and dividing — people faster than societies can regulate.
  • Disinformation spreads globally in seconds, requiring critical media literacy.
  • Students are already global actors, encountering international issues daily through social media.

We cannot afford to wait. Global citizenship is not a luxury — it is a necessity for education in the 21st century.

 

A Call to Action

Every generation has to decide what kind of education it owes its children.

In ours, the answer is clear: one that goes beyond college prep and career readiness. One that equips students to navigate a world that is fast, fragile, and deeply interconnected.

That means cultivating empathy alongside critical thinking. It means teaching students to imagine the world differently — challenging and expanding our geographical imaginations.

And it means schools stepping up. Not with scattered programs or one-off initiatives, but with dedicated leadership. A Director of Global Citizenship can bring it all together — curriculum, culture, community — and make global learning part of everyday life.

This is not a luxury. It is a necessity.

Because the world our students inherit depends on it.

Glossary – International Day of Democracy

by | Sep 15, 2025 | Culture, Musings, Pedagogy

Assemblies – Gatherings where people meet face-to-face to deliberate and make decisions collectively.
Commons – Resources (land, water, knowledge, digital spaces) shared and governed by communities rather than controlled by markets or states.
Consensus – A decision-making process aiming for agreements everyone can support, not just majority wins.
Decentralization – Shifting power from centralized authorities to local communities or multiple smaller decision-making bodies.
Deliberation – Careful, inclusive discussion where people listen, weigh evidence, and reason together before making decisions.
Direct Participation – Citizens directly shape policies and choices, rather than delegating authority only to representatives.
Horizontalism – Non-hierarchical organizing, where power and responsibility are distributed equally among participants.
Intersectional Justice – Recognizing and addressing overlapping systems of oppression (such as racism, sexism, and classism) within democratic practice.
Mutual Aid – Networks of people supporting each other’s needs through cooperation and solidarity.
Pluralism – Welcoming and valuing diverse perspectives, cultures, and identities in shaping decisions.
Prefigurative Politics – Living out democratic values in the present, creating small-scale examples of the society we hope to build.
Transparency – Openness and accessibility in decision-making, ensuring accountability and trust.
Voice – Ensuring all people, especially marginalized groups, have a meaningful say in decisions that affect them.

Crossing the Abyss: Thomas Merton, the Geographical Imagination, and the Journey of Global Citizenship

by | May 22, 2025 | Culture, Geo-Storytelling, Geographers, Musings, Pedagogy, Theory

In an age marked by technological marvels and unprecedented connectivity, the words of Thomas Merton strike a timeless chord:

What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we are not able to cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves? This is the most important of all voyages of discovery.

With this reflection, Merton challenges the notion that outward achievement—symbolized by space exploration—can substitute for inward awareness. While humanity continues to chart the outer edges of the universe, he reminds us that the deepest and most necessary discoveries lie within. This idea takes on new significance when we consider our understanding of the world through our geographical imaginations and our responsibilities as global citizens.

Geographical Imaginations: How We Know the World

The geographical imagination refers to the ways individuals and societies envision the world and its people—often shaped by culture, history, media, education, and power. It is through this imagination that we form mental maps of distant places, understand global relationships, and develop emotional responses to unfamiliar cultures. However, this process is not neutral. It can be infused with stereotypes, shaped by colonial legacies, or distorted by economic and political agendas.

In Merton’s metaphor, the “abyss” is not just the chasm within the individual but also the gap between how we imagine the world and its complex realities. If we do not reflect critically on how our worldviews are formed, we risk reinforcing systems of misunderstanding and marginalization. Without this introspection, our engagement with other cultures becomes superficial or exploitative, cloaked in curiosity but driven by control.

The Inner Journey and Global Citizenship

To be a global citizen is to recognize one’s interconnectedness with people and places far beyond national borders. It means understanding global systems—environmental, economic, cultural, and political—and acting in ways that promote justice, sustainability, and mutual respect. Yet, as Merton suggests, one cannot truly be a global citizen without first engaging in the inward journey: questioning our assumptions, recognizing our privileges, and becoming aware of the ways we have been shaped by our surroundings.

This inward reflection is not a retreat from the world but a necessary preparation for authentic global engagement. It transforms curiosity into empathy, and knowledge into wisdom. When Merton speaks of the “most important of all voyages of discovery,” he is calling for a kind of consciousness that allows us not only to see the world but to see ourselves in relation to it — as participants, not just observers.

Reframing Exploration

Merton’s critique of the moon landing is not a condemnation of progress, but a call to reframe what it means to explore. The heroic narratives of discovery and conquest—whether of new worlds or new markets—often ignore the inner void that can accompany unchecked ambition. Without a corresponding moral and spiritual evolution, such explorations can deepen divisions and alienation.

The geographical imagination, when rooted in self-awareness, becomes a powerful tool for connection. It allows us to move beyond simplistic images of “the Other” and toward more nuanced understandings of different peoples and places. It helps cultivate a form of global citizenship that is not about possessing knowledge, but about participating in a shared human story.

Bridging the Divide

Thomas Merton’s insight remains urgent today. As we chart paths across continents and into space, we must also chart the terrain of our own consciousness. We must question how we know what we know, and whose voices have been silenced in the stories we tell about the world. The “abyss that separates us from ourselves” is also the distance between surface-level engagement and true global solidarity.

To cross that abyss is to become not just travelers, but pilgrims—seeking not only knowledge of the world, but wisdom in our place within it. It is the most important of all voyages, and one that begins within.

 

Espiello 2025 #2: Memory, Cinema, and the Festival

by | Mar 7, 2025 | Culture, Film Reviews, Geo-Storytelling, Pedagogy, Spain

Inhabiting Oblivion, Preserving Memory

For twenty-two years, Espiello has transformed the Sobrarbe region of the Spanish Pyrenees into a site of cinematic reflection, where ethnographic documentary serves as both a mirror and a bridge. This year’s edition, themed Memoria: Habitando el Olvido (Memory: Inhabiting Oblivion), invites audiences to engage with films that explore the fragility of cultural memory, the ways in which histories are preserved, erased, or reinterpreted, and how communities negotiate their pasts in the present.

Memory, as both a concept and a lived experience, is deeply tied to geography. The landscapes of the Pyrenees hold the echoes of oral traditions, historical migrations, and political struggles. At Espiello, these landscapes intertwine with cinematic narratives, reminding us that memory is not just about the past—it is an ongoing, dynamic process that informs identity, place, and belonging.

This year’s Espiello takes on new urgency as societies worldwide grapple with collective memory and the forces of historical amnesia. Whether through political upheaval, climate change, or urban transformation, communities are continuously renegotiating their relationship to the past. This year’s films serve as testimonies to that process, ensuring that voices, places, and traditions that might otherwise fade into obscurity remain present in the cultural consciousness.

As Sobrarbe welcomes filmmakers, anthropologists, and audiences once again, the festival’s imagined geography takes shape, offering a space where cultures connect through film, discussion, and shared experience.

 

The Imagined Geography of Espiello: A Festival as a Cultural Crossroads

Like previous editions, Espiello 2025 is more than a festival—it is a temporary village, a community built through storytelling. Over the course of ten days, Boltaña becomes a gathering point where the boundaries between local and global, past and present, dissolve. The festival functions as a living ethnographic space, where filmmakers from across the world bring their own landscapes and histories, mapping their experiences onto Sobrarbe’s mountainous terrain.

This ephemeral yet enduring sense of place is what makes Espiello unique. Unlike urban film festivals with sprawling venues and industry-driven programming, Espiello maintains an intimate, community-oriented atmosphere. The festival’s sections—Espiello Pirineos, Espiello d’Arredol, Anvistas, Falorias, and Cachimalla—reinforce a commitment to regional storytelling while connecting with global ethnographic cinema. In each screening and discussion, the festival becomes a meeting ground where different ways of knowing and remembering take center stage.

This year’s theme, Memory: Inhabiting Oblivion, deepens Espiello’s role as a site of historical reflection. What does it mean to inhabit oblivion? How do communities make sense of what has been forgotten or erased? These are not just questions for historians or anthropologists—they are questions for all of us, as individuals and as members of collective identities that are shaped by what we choose to remember.

 

Film Selections: Mapping Memory through Cinema

The official competition lineup features 16 carefully selected documentaries from nearly 500 submissions, each offering a perspective on memory’s role in shaping identity. These films span continents, cultures, and histories, but they are united in their exploration of how memory is woven into the fabric of everyday life.

Here are the selected films for Espiello 2025:

  • Atín Aya. Retrato del silencio – Spain

  • Sau: la memòria submergida – Spain

  • Cuando el mundo cambia – Spain

  • Jardin Noir – France–Belgium

  • TransUniversal – Spain

  • María la portuguesa – Spain

  • Mascarades – France

  • El estigma del silencio – Spain

  • Telles que nous sommes – France

  • Minga en Tenaún – Chile

  • Ropa sucia – Spain

  • (Re)pensant l’educació sexual – Spain

  • La jeune fille, les chouettes et les hommes lion – Chad

  • Un hombre sin miedo – Spain

  • Suharra – Spain

  • El arte de los analfabetos – Spain

  • Naharina – Spain–Syria

Each of these films presents a distinct vision of memory, whether through the landscapes that shape it, the voices that carry it, or the struggles to preserve it in the face of erasure.

The Siñal d’Onor Espiello will be awarded to the Asociación por la Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica de Aragón (ARMHA), recognizing their work in rescuing Spain’s forgotten histories. Meanwhile, Eugenio Monesma, a lifelong documentarian of Pyrenean traditions, receives the Siñal Mayestros, honoring his dedication to cultural preservation through film.

 

Beyond the Screen: Espiello as a Community-Engaged Festival

Espiello is not confined to the darkened theater. It extends into public discussions, artistic exhibitions, and educational workshops that turn the entire region into an immersive learning experience. Among the standout activities this year:

Theatrical Performance – “Olvido” by Biribú Teatro, a play that humorously unpacks the bureaucratic archiving of history, questioning what is remembered and what is left behind.

Exhibitions on Historical Memory curated by ARMHA, including Mujeres Republicanas. Un Sueño Frustrado (Republican Women: A Frustrated Dream) and Una Utopía Necesaria. La Educación en la II República (A Necessary Utopia: Education in the Second Republic).

Cine bajo las Estrellas (Cinema Under the Stars), where selected documentaries will be screened in small villages throughout Sobrarbe, reinforcing the festival’s rural and communal ethos.

Collaborations with the University of Madrid and Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, bringing students and scholars into direct dialogue with filmmakers.

The festival’s commitment to linguistic diversity is evident in the Espiello Agora x l’Aragonés section, celebrating films produced in Aragonese, a language that has fought against historical erasure. The screening of “Baitico, l’ombre-libro de la Valle Bielsa”, documenting one of the last native speakers of the Belsetán dialect, highlights the fragile yet resilient nature of cultural memory.

 

Espiello 2025 as a Living Archive

At its core, Espiello is an archive in motion—a living, breathing documentation of memory, identity, and place. In its twenty-second edition, the festival reaffirms its role as a custodian of intangible heritage, a space where cultures reflect on themselves and on each other through the lens of documentary filmmaking.

As audiences settle into the ochre and black seats of the Palacio de Congresos, the festival’s signature brass mortar sounds, signaling the beginning of another screening, another journey into memory. And for those who participate—filmmakers, scholars, and locals alike—Espiello is not just a festival. It is a communal act of remembering, a place where forgotten stories find voice, and where the past becomes an ever-present guide to the future.

Bienvenidos a Espiello 2025. Let the festival begin.