Circular pedagogy - Towards a sustainable yet inclusive educational model

The dominance of Western societies on economic, social, and educational models represents a significant challenge to our global society that seems to be immersed in replicating the dogmas associated with the Neoliberal and Capitalist paradigms. Our societies have entered a new phase of material slavery subjugated to the needs of our consumer culture and its marketing dynamics that have taken the reins of our social interactions and are dictating the rules of the game. Existing levels of discrimination have significant roots within the educational context. They are closely connected to the dominance of the market economy and the pressures imposed by countries’ hunger for economic growth and development based on the dominance exercised by the world’s most advanced economies, which heavily influence the logic and structures of our educational systems. We live in a society defined by a modern concept of slavery, where marketing plays a critical role when communicating global values and aspirations due to its influence in creating and defining stereotypes mirrored by Western values and expectations. Business Schools’ curriculums are dominated by Western values, with a significant vacuum identified about how less developed economies are represented as part of our economic, social, and environmental concerns. In this chapter, we take a critical view of the impact of colonisation on educational models and its significance in the context of sustainable education. The discussions are developed within a critical framework articulated with the support of a novel pedagogy – Circular Pedagogy – that can help explore existing contexts and paradigms as we seek to engage in an effective transformation of universities’ educational models.