This reflective article offers an account of important lessons I have been taught as an educator in the field of global citizenship education over the last 20 years. The article highlights some of the complexities and challenges in this area, with particular attention to problematic patterns of north-south relations and to the role of education in addressing systemic complicities in harm and unsustainability. The stories of practice presented in this article describe pedagogical experimentations in depth education and gesture towards global citizenship education 'otherwise'.