Global Citizenship Education (GCE) has turned into one of the three educational priorities of the UN in the context of the Global Education First Initiative (2012) and the post-2015 agenda (UNESCO, 2014). This global political direction has had significant implications for policy, curricula, teaching and learning, as well as educational research and GCE has recently become prominent in the discourse of governments, civil society and educational institutions  (Tarozzi & Torres, 2016; Andreotti & Souza, 2012), even though a global or international perspective in education can be traced much earlier (Banks, 2004; Peters, et al., 2008; Richardson & Blades 2006; O’Sullivan & Pashby 2008; Abdi & Shultz, 2009, 2011; Dower, 2003).

More recently, in the European context, GCE has became a manifold container, encompassing several topics such as: Development Education; Human Rights Education; Education for Sustainability; Education for Peace and Conflict Prevention and Intercultural Education. In Europe, the GCE perspective originates in 1997 with the Global Education Charter, adopted by the Council of Europe. Then, a framework for a European strategy on Global education has been elaborated in 2002 during the 1st European Congress on Global Education, with the so called Maastricht Declaration (Forghani-Arani, et al., 2013).

While analytical studies on GCE are recently proliferating, empirical research on educational polices is lacking with few exceptions, mostly related to national case studies (Hartmeyer, Wegimont, 2016). In particular, there are very few comparative policy analysis at European level on the implementation of GCE polices. This is not surprisingly, since there is a number of possible definitions of ‘implementation’ and scholars do not agree upon set of terms or methods to study policy implementation (Hill & Hupe, 2002), and in particular EU policy implementation (Löfgren, 2015). In fact, to systematically describe the implementation process of educational policies, one cannot just observe the mere political top-down action of governments. Many actors are involved and a broad viewpoint is required, that emphasizes contextualization: i.e., according to Hill & Hupe a perspective “multidisciplinary, multi-level and multi-focus (…)looking at a multiplicity of actors, loci and layers” (2002, p. 16) is needed. A policy implementation cannot be seen in a simple and linear technical way and polity processes are always interactive and multi-layered (Rizvi & Lingard, 2010).

The broad study from which comes this presentation aimed at analyse existing educational policies, strategies, school curricula in 10 EU countries to ascertain whether, to what extent and how GCE is integrated in the primary school curriculum. A second part of the same three years project (not reported here) is studying teacher education practices in 4 EU countries to highlight which policies these practices implement or are related to.

This paper  is specifically focused on the implementation processes of educational policies in some European countries for the promotion of GCE in primary schools from a comparative perspective, by highlighting the role of several political actors and some methodological challenges that researchers should face in collecting and analysing data in the field of EU studies (Lynggaard, Manners & Löfgren, 2016). Due to the space limit and the scope of the EERA network, I will narrow my presentation on the political role of non governmental political actors and the bargaining process between them and the governmental ones in implementing a global policy. This topic discloses some current methodological challenges related to an actor-centred analytical approach instead of a structural one. In the multilevel polity of the EU the plurality of powerful political agents – national, local governments, different ministries, role of NGOs and school authorities – demands to re-think classical implementation studies, overcoming the study of pure legal transposition of EU directives (Löfgren, 2016).

Abdi, A. and Shultz, L. (eds) (2009), Educating for Human Rights and Global Citizenship. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Abdi, A. and Shultz, L. (eds) (2011), Global Citizenship Education in Post-Secondary Institutions: Theories, practices, policies. New York: Peter Lang. Andreotti, V. and de Souza, L. M. T. M. (eds) (2012), Postcolonial Perspectives on Global Citizenship Education. New York: Routledge. Bacchi, C. (2009), Analysing Policy: What’s the Problem Represented to Be? Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Education, Australia Banks, J. A. (Ed.) (2004), Diversity and Citizenship Education: Global perspectives (The Jossey-Bass education series). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3, 2, 77-101. Charmaz, K. (2014). Constructing grounded theory: A practical guide through qualitative analysis. II ed. London: Sage Publications. Dower, N. (2003). An Introduction to Global Citizenship. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Forghani-Arani, N., Hartmeyer, H., O’Loughlin, E. & Wegimont, L. (2013), Global Education in Europe: Policy, practice and theoretical challenges. Münster: Waxmann Verlag. Hartmeyer, H. & Wegimont, L. (2016). Global education in Europe revisited. Münster: Waxmann Hill, M. J., & Hupe, P. L. (2002). Implementing public policy: Governance in theory and practice. London: Sage. Löfgren, K. (2015). Implementation studies: Beyond a legalistic approach. In Lynggaard, Manners & Löfgren (eds.) Research methods in EU studies. (pp.154-167). Basingstoke: Palgrave. Lynggaard, K., Manners, I., & Löfgren, K. (eds.) (2015). Research methods in EU studies. Basingstoke: Palgrave O’Sullivan, M. & Pashby, K. (eds) (2008), Citizenship Education in the Era of Globalization: Canadian perspectives. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. Peters, M. A., Britton, A. & Blee, H. (eds) (2008), Global Citizenship Education: Philosophy, theory and pedagogy. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. Richardson, G. H. and Blades, D. (eds) (2006), Troubling the Canon of Citizenship Education. New York: Peter Lang. Rizvi, F., & Lingard, B. (2010). Globalizing education policy. London: Routledge. Tarozzi M. & Inguaggiato C. (Eds.) (2016). GCE in EU primary schools: a comparative study on education policies in EU 10 countries. Main results from Global Schools' research. Research deliverable issued within the European DEAR program. Trento: Provincia Autonoma di Trento. Retrived 01/16 2017 at http://www.globalschools.education/Activities/GCE-in-Europe Tarozzi, M. (2015). Che cos’è la grounded theory. V ed. Roma: Carocci Tarozzi, M. & Torres, C.A. (2016) Global citizenship education and the crises of multiculturalism. London: Bloomsbury. UNESCO (2014), Global Citizenship Education. Preparing learners for the challenges of the 21st century. Paris: UNESCO.