Students positioned as global citizens in Australian and New Zealand universities: A discourse analysis

ABSTRACT

Higher education plays a critical role in producing society’s leaders by preparing graduates with the knowledge, capabilities and disposition to appreciate diversity and address social injustice. Many higher education institutions within and beyond Australia have aimed to internationalise their curricula to ensure students achieve capabilities that enable them to contribute to an evolving global knowledge economy. However, the inclusion of global citizenship as a graduate attribute embedded in internationalised curricula, and the processes to achieving this, are highly contested. Guided by a discourse analysis approach, this study explored how Australian and New Zealand universities position students as global citizens in public web pages. Publicly available policy and other text documents on university websites relating to internationalisation and/or global citizenship were collected and screened. Those that met inclusion criteria were analysed to identify discourses and to further understand how higher education institutions describe their plan to advance and achieve global citizenship agendas. Two key themes were generated: expressions of internationalisation policy and global citizenship as an obscured educational intention. These findings are further elaborated, providing an outline of the possible implications for higher education policy and practice relating to the internationalisation of curriculum for global citizenship and its potential impact on educators and students.     

The global citizenship agenda and the generation of cosmopolitan capital in British higher education

Cosmopolitanism has been cast by some in recent years as a form of cultural capital, disproportionately available to students on elite educational pathways. This article tests this supposition, by comparing the enactment of global citizenship education reforms at two high-status and two low-status universities in the United Kingdom. These enactments have indeed differed, as some students are being encouraged to cultivate a sophisticated cosmopolitan disposition for positions of leadership, while other students are not – even if they are being encouraged to learn more about the world, or to develop social tolerance. Comparing the practices and meanings attributed to the global citizenship agenda among universities in different positions in the higher education field, this article illuminates dynamics related to the creation, legitimation, and differentiation of cosmopolitan capital among different groups of students. The article also extends understanding of how the institutional hierarchy of higher education provision positions students for the global economy unequally.     

学生全球公民素养培育的困境与策略--以历史教学为例

学生全球公民素养的培育关系到学生如何致力于未来生活和人类拥有怎样的未来,理应是历史价值观的要义所在。“全球意识、世界公民责任认同、世界和平与人类未来可持续发展理念”是全球公民素养培育的核心内容。全球公民素养培育要重视培养学生民族情怀和世界意识,弘扬时代精神,培养批判和理性思维,关注现实世界,让学生在历史与现实的对话中增强现代公民责任意识,关注全球利益和人类未来。     

Global citizens or global workers? Comparing university programmes for global citizenship education in Japan and the UK

Abstract

The implementation of global citizenship programmes at universities has been taking place against a backdrop of growing internationalisation and marketisation in higher education, leading some to conclude that universities are cultivating global workers rather than global citizens. This small-scale exploratory study aimed to investigate these claims through the comparison of global citizenship education (GCE) programmes in two contrasting contexts – the UK and Japan. Through a combination of quantitative and qualitative content analysis, our findings suggest that the universities in both the UK and Japanese contexts demonstrate examples of adaptation and localisation of GCE to fit with institutional commitments, and both universities have significant elements of employability agendas infused into their programmes. We argue that while different in many respects, the two programmes both demonstrate an adaptation of GCE to fit within broader internationalisation strategies aimed at maximising global competitiveness and an alignment with the neoliberal trends shaping the global higher education sector.     

Fostering Global Citizenship Education for Teachers Through Online Research

Abstract

This article is based on a study involving 126 International Baccalaureate (IB) teachers in more than 30 countries who, through the use of asynchronous online discussion forums, shared how they teach and simultaneously reflected upon how they conceptualize global citizenship. Data analysis revealed that participants developed new understandings about open-mindedness, interconnectedness, and cross-cultural learning experiences. Online data collection in educational research offers great opportunity for furthering professional development in global citizenship education.     

全球公民教育思潮的兴起与发展

自20世纪80年代尤其是90年代以来,随着全球化趋势的增强以及全球相互依存理论的兴起,原有的以民族国家为背景的现代公民教育理论不断受到挑战。全球公民教育思想在这样的背景下受到了广泛的关注。这一思想在发达国家的教育实践中已经有所体现,许多学者投入对其研究中,从而逐渐形成一股思潮。全球公民教育思潮的确立,并非一蹴而就,而是由最初的世界公民教育的思想因子逐渐地萌发和成长,经历了萌芽、确立和发展三个时期。     

全球公民教育的理念与实践

随着全球化趋势的增强,相互依存度的增加,全球性问题的出现及解决,均需要具有全球意识并为之行动的全球公民,由此在原有民族国家公民教育的基础上衍生出了全球公民教育,且对这一教育产生了一定的共识。当今发达国家的学者对全球公民教育的理念进行了较为深入的探讨并在其教育教学实践中有所体现。尽管对此教育的理念还存在争议,且实现这一理念的教育实践不尽一致,但其精神实质则是趋于相同的。     

全球化背景下世界公民教育的理念与实践

全球化时代要求未来公民不仅要具有国际视野与全球意识,而且需要他们发展从社区到全球所有层次公民参与的能力。而世界公民教育就旨在将儿童塑造成具有全球思维且能负责任参与的世界公民。探讨全球化背景下世界公民教育的理念内涵、实践中的具体实施策略及其未来发展取向,希望为推进我国世界公民教育的开展提供参考与借鉴。     

A tale of two countries: comparing civic education in the Philippines and Singapore

This article provides a comparative analysis of citizenship education in the Philippines and Singapore. Through an analysis of historical contexts, citizenship education policy and curriculum, it examines Makabayan in the Philippines and National Education in Singapore. It identifies particular policy and curriculum trajectories as responses to national and global imperatives to demonstrate how countries are redefining the kinds of knowledge, skills and values deemed necessary for national citizenship in global contexts. This comparative case study illustrates some of the tensions and contradictions facing citizenship education in new global contexts and highlights the different ways countries try to manage these tensions through citizenship education policies and curricula. Findings point to different factors that shape and constrain the implementation of citizenship education programmes in both countries.     

Global field and global imagining: Bourdieu and worldwide higher education

This paper maps the global dimension of higher education and associated research, including the differentiation of national systems and institutions, while reflecting critically on theoretical tools for working this terrain. Arguably the most sustained theorisation of higher education is by Bourdieu: the paper explores the relevance and limits of Bourdieu’s notions of field of power, agency, positioned and position‐taking; drawing on Gramsci’s notion of hegemony in explaining the dominant role played by universities from the United States. Noting there is greater ontological openness in global than national educational settings, and that Bourdieu’s reading of structure/agency becomes trapped on the structure side, the paper discusses Sen on self‐determining identity and Appadurai on global imagining, flows and ‘scapes’. The dynamics of Bourdieu’s competitive field of higher education continue to play out globally, but located within a larger and more disjunctive relational setting, and a setting that is less closed, than he suggests.     

全球社会中的公民教育

公民是有知觉的道德主体,每个社会都要求有公民教育,而公民道德教育又是其重要的方面。教学者总是希望公民的教与学成为课程的一部分,对学生来说,就要求他们在实践中运用说教、经验、反思这三个方法。如果要形成某种意义上的全球公民的概念,那么教育的作用是至关重要的。要使全球公民成为现实,就需要有合作和相互依存的心态,超越国家界限和传统的束缚,这也将寄希望于未来的一代。     

The Shaping of Citizenship Education in a Chinese Context

The global flow of citizenship education in China has spurred much discussion in Chinese academic circles. This study explores the interaction between citizenship education and China’s the existing political-ideological education and moral education as a space is negotiated a space in the current “ideoscape.” A qualitative approach is adopted to synthesize the literature coming from China on citizenship education from an interpretive and critical perspective. The research findings suggest: (a) The territory of orthodox political-ideological education is being narrowed down as its relationship with citizenship education is configured; (b) citizenship education and moral education are represented using different images to delineate their distinctions; and (c) the introduction of “global citizenship education” includes many new topics and competencies that expands the current ideoscape. This study argues that the ongoing debates on citizenship education are deeply rooted in China’s structural transformation, in which society tends to be separated from state. In negotiating its own territory, citizenship education reshapes China’s ideoscape in the education field. The paper concludes by suggesting that citizenship education should make a unique contribution to facilitating young citizens in a reexamination of the values imbedded in political-ideological education and moral education with a new social consensus being reached through the communication of ideas.     

Global citizenship education in context: teacher perceptions at an international school and a local Israeli school

We apply semi-structured interviews to conceptualise perceptions of global citizenship among teachers at an international school and teachers at a local public school in Israel, revealing discrepancies between theory and practice in global citizenship education (GCE). We find that teachers perceive global citizenship differently along three major axes: boundaries of global citizenship, practical aspects of GCE, and through the effect of Israel’s context. This study offers a comparative perspective that discerns the differing impacts of school context and student background on teacher perceptions at different kinds of schools and highlights the importance of teacher agency in GCE.     

Taming cosmopolitanism: the limits of national and neoliberal civic education in two global cities

ABSTRACT

This paper analyzes global education policy and curricular documents in Singapore and Hong Kong. Using a discursive approach, we characterize curricular aims through various cosmopolitan perspectives. We posit that although touted as Asian global cities, Singapore and Hong Kong are cases where neoliberal and nation-centric educational agendas have effectively rebranded cosmopolitanism and tamed its transformative potential. To develop this argument, we review theories and critiques of cosmopolitan forms of global citizenship education deemed necessary to prepare young people for complex global social conditions. We discuss cosmopolitan principles on identity, values, and deliberation and draw on critical cosmopolitanism and Asian forms of cosmopolitanism to provide a discursive framework for analyzing curricular intentions in the two cases.     

Global citizenship education,technology, and being

ABSTRACT

Despite the widespread promotion of the global school, it remains unclear as to how citizenship education (global citizenship education, GCE) is developed. Educational bodies such as UNESCO, Oxfam, and the International Baccalaureate are in the full throws of developing models for GCE yet questions remain as to how such a sweeping notion might take effect. Educational frameworks replete with theoretical, political, pedagogical, and methodological conundrums permeate much global education discourse. Modes of GCE thinking range from post-colonial perspective, critical perspectives, postmodernism as well as an oratory utopianism. This article presents an alternate model of GCE promoting both technology and art as complicit in the exacting of a multifaceted GCE. The balancing of art and technology, as demonstrated, presents an ontological stance that acts as a foundation for the Proto-Global Citizen or ‘Weltburger’. This article aims to support educators seeking a further means of conceptualising GCE embodying diversification while embracing a GCE consciousness. Furthermore, the development of GCE through art and technology creates an opportunity for educators to realign disciplinary focus in light of the increasing incentive for schools to ‘go global’.     

Education the Handmaid of Philosophy

Abstract

This article addresses how we might teach for global citizenship in world history classrooms. Despite the name, secondary world history courses in the United States have not consistently focused on global interconnections, multiple perspectives, and inquiry into global issues. We explore why this might be, as well as suggest specific learning activities and curricular topics in world history that could help meet global citizenship goals.     

可欲且可行的全球公民教育实践路径:苏格兰“全球故事情节法”探析

研究发现,全球公民教育的热度不高与其实践层面的三重困境有关。"全球故事情节法"之所以成为苏格兰实施全球公民教育的最有效路径,正是源自于其对实践困境的有效回应:其一,政府对全球公民教育的倡导营造了相对宽松的政策环境,"全球故事情节法"与现有课程体系相融合获得了灵活的实践空间,实现了安全的课程地位。其二,通过对"故事情节法"和教育戏剧的运用,使全球社会和全球议题通俗化,实现了学生的体验式学习,弥合了学生认知能力和认知需求间的矛盾。其三,西苏格兰发展教育中心通过职业培训传播了理论知识和实践能力,构建了围绕全球公民教育的共同体,为教师提供了教学支持。     

Global citizenship education: mainstreaming the curriculum?

There has been a resurgence of interest in global education in the UK as global issues are included within the requirements of citizenship education in national curricula. This paper examines the significance attached to global citizenship through Citizenship as a statutory subject at Key Stages 3 and 4 within the National Curriculum for England. Drawing on a web‐based project funded by the UK Department for International Development, the paper analyses a number of secondary school texts designed to support teachers and students in incorporating global perspectives into citizenship education. It seeks to answer the question: in what ways is global citizenship being mainstreamed? It suggests that NGOs and commercial publishers have different but complementary approaches to resources for global citizenship and that there is a strong case for greater collaboration between the two sectors.     

Global Citizenship: Implications for Guidance and Counselling Innovations in Developing Nations

This paper examines global citizenship as a way of thinking and behaving with understanding of the need to tackle injustice and inequality as a foundation for international peace and development. The conceptualized model was based on reality perspectives and eclectic counselling orientations for building global citizens in developing nations. Guidance and counselling as a crucial service for developing global citizenship, with a focus on Nigeria, is examined. Constraints and prospects for developing global citizens are analyzed. The paper concludes that integration of guidance and counselling as an educational innovation in developing countries would enrich global curriculum and instruction and contribute towards the enhancement of global citizenship.     

Cultivating critical global citizens through secondary EFL education: a case study of mainland China

This paper examines the enactment of critical literacy pedagogy in secondary English language teaching in the face of globalisation. This qualitative case study signals that global citizenship education (GCE) and English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching can converge through offering equitable and globally contextualised learning opportunities. The overarching themes presented here challenge the dominance of instrumentalist orientations of EFL education in mainland China today while mobilising pedagogical choices that affirm students' local and lived experiences in relation to international socio-political issues. Findings provide EFL educators nuanced insights into how critical global literacies are extended through critical understandings of literacies, interconnections from a personal to a global level, and opportunities for social actions on multicultural issues, thus fostering globally competent and bilingual learners who critically engage with the contested terrain of an increasingly globalised world.