In this paper I provide a wider theoretical framing with regard to two questions. The first question is what it means to engage with global challenges in an educational way. Here I propose a framework to think about the purposes of education, arguing that education always functions in relation to three domains of purpose: qualification (knowledge and skills), socialisation (engagement with traditions) and subjectification (emancipation from traditions towards responsible individual and collective action) (Biesta 2010). I show, through the example of education for democratic (global) citizenship, how this framework is useful for gaining clarity in discussions about what education can do and ought to do in relation to global issues and challenges (Biesta, De Bie & Wildemeersch, 2013). In the second part I focus on the role and position of the teacher in this, drawing on collaborative work conducted that focused on teacher agency, that is, the ways in which teachers can be active agents of educational practice in light of curriculum initiatives and policies. I will particularly focused on the theoretical framework utilised in this research in order to highlight and identify important dimensions that can enable teacher agency (Priestley, Biesta & Robinson 2015).

Biesta, G.J.J. (2010). Good education in an age of measurement: Ethics, politics, democracy. Boulder, Co: Paradigm Publishers. Biesta, G.J.J., De Bie, M. & Wildemeersch, D. (Eds)(2013). Civic learning, democratic citizenship and the public sphere. Dordrecht/Boston: Springer Science+Business Media. Priestley, M., Biesta, G.J.J. & Robinson, S. (2015). Teacher agency: An ecological approach. London: Bloomsbury.