Our support of and research into Critical Global Citizenship Education (CGCE) practice in Galicia (an Autonomous Community in the northwest region of Spain) has revealed several trends that reflect those found in other national contexts. One of these is that CGCE, when it takes place in schools, is usually found in non-academic school spaces (for example, after-school activities, festivals, and awareness-raising or fund-raising campaigns) or in subject areas that are less rigidly structured, content-based, and testing oriented – such as religion, citizenship education, or social studies (DePalma, 2019). Since teachers are expected to follow the state-mandated curriculum, helping them to find ways to achieve both CGCE and curricular objectives simultaneously reduces the possibility that the former may be abandoned when covering required content takes a priority (Bryan and Bracken, 2011).  A focus on the integration of CGCE into core curriculum areas is especially in countries like Spain, where the cores curriculum is highly focused on the acquisition of subject-area specific content and specific (often decontextualized) skills (Digón-Regueiro et. al, 2017). 

In our most recent project, Mapping Critical Global Citizenship Education in Spanish Schools (MAPESS), funded by the EERA-Gene Global Education Award, we explored ways to incorporate a CGCE perspective within and across subject areas that are generally considered to be devoid of social relevance: mathematics, science, and language. We have chosen these core subject areas because they tend to have a highly structured and content-oriented curriculum (Berglund & Reiss, 2021). These subjects also correspond to those examined in more than 80 countries worldwide by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as part of the  Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Mathematics and language in particular occupy a significant percentage of the Spanish school week, and focus on the acquisition of domain-specific conceptual and procedural knowledge. Research has shown an increased tendency to explore issues such as climate change in the science curriculum, but these tend to focus on technological responses and ignore cultural and global aspects of climate justice (Serantes-Pazos & Meira Cartea, 2016). 

Engaging CGCE with the core curriculum not only serves to extend its relevance and raise it status by linking it with high-prestige subject areas, but it also provides socially relevant contexts for content area instruction – potentially making science, math, and language more engaging for learners. Mathematical, scientific, and linguistic understandings are some of the most powerful tools for critically understanding and redressing global inequalities (Molfino & Ochoviet, 2019; Serantes Pazos et. al, 2021). From an educational perspective, global citizenship education enhances not only the curricular content but also teachers’ methodological approaches. Teaching and learning about CGCE can help to introduce a more interdisciplinary perspective where all the different areas are interconnected through common projects. The wider educational community benefits from initiatives that strive to overcome epistemological divides between theory and application, formal and informal learning, and humanistic and scientific endeavors (Bourne, 2015). 

Along with practicing primary teachers and NGO staff, we consulted with university instructors working in teacher training institutions who specialized in the teaching of these core subject areas. In this presentation, we will address the following research questions: 

1. How might we address core curriculum requirements for mathematics, science, and language using a CGCE perspective? 

2. How might this approach support or inhibit teaching strategies based on broader, project-based or cross-curricular strategies?

Bryan, A. & Bracken, M. (2011) Learning to Read the World? Teaching and learning about global citizenship and international development in post-primary schools. Dublin: Irish Aid. Available at www.ubuntu.ie/media/bryan-learning-to-read-the-world.pdf. Berglund, F. & Reiss, M. J. (2021) Biology. In: What Should Schools Teach? Disciplines, subjects and the pursuit of truth. Sehgal Cuthbert, A. & Standish, A. (Eds) UCL Press, London, pp. 189-201. Bourn, D (2015) From Development Education to Global Learning: Changing Agendas and Priorities. Policy and Practice: A Development Education Review, Vol. 20, Spring, pp. 18-36. DePalma, R. (2019). La educación para el desarrollo y la ciudadanía global. Una experiencia de investigación acción participativa. Barcelona: Graó. Digón-Regueiro, P., Méndez-García, R. M., DePalma, R.; Longueira Matos, S. (2017). A place for development education in the current Spanish and English curricula: Finding possibilities for practice. International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning 9(2), pp. 29-46. Serantes-Pazos, A., Digón-Regueiro, P., Cruz-López, L., DePalma, R., Méndez-García, R., & Barba Núñez, M. (2021). Por una educación para la ciudadanía global ¿desde un enfoque STEM? Didacticae: Revista de Investigación en Didácticas Específicas. Available at https://revistes.ub.edu/index.php/didacticae/article/view/36828/35811. Serantes-Pazos, A., & Meira Cartea, P. (2016). El cambio climático en los libros de texto de la Educación Secundaria Obligatoria o una crónica de las voces ausentes. Documentación Social: Revista de Estudios Sociales y de la Sociología Aplicada 183, pp. 153-170. Molfino, V., & Ochoviet, C. (2019). Enseñanza de la matemática para la justicia social en la formación de profesores en Uruguay. Educação: Teoria e Prática 29 (62), pp. 712-732.

Data analysis is ongoing, but initial results reveal that the subject area specialists in mathematics, science, and language were able to provide insights into how a CGCE perspective might be applied while still addressing the competencies required by the curriculum school curriculum, even though many of these participants were not specifically familiar with the approach. Specialists in social justice/critical pedagogy, many of whom teach in Social Education degree programs, identified ways in which a global perspective might be incorporated into these approaches, although these instructors as well as their students are less likely to work in classroom teaching. Most of these ideas were hypothetical, as few of these university-based educators had participated in school-based interventions, but they will be valuable in designing innovations that permit curricular applications of CGCE that also involve rethinking the way we teach these core subject areas. As one mathematics teaching specialist pointed out, the subject should be understood as a tool for social understanding and change, rather than an end in itself. Interviews with NGO representatives raised the question of how content or procedural knowledge, often acquired through memorization or formulaic application, might be applied to addressing global inequalities. These participants were more likely to describe current or past practices, which corroborated earlier evidence that these three subject areas do not figure prominently in CGCE initiatives. Overall, interviews revealed potential tensions between globalized, project-based approaches and those focused on addressing specific curricular areas.

Bryan, A. & Bracken, M. (2011) Learning to Read the World? Teaching and learning about global citizenship and international development in post-primary schools. Dublin: Irish Aid. Available at www.ubuntu.ie/media/bryan-learning-to-read-the-world.pdf. Berglund, F. & Reiss, M. J. (2021) Biology. In: What Should Schools Teach? Disciplines, subjects and the pursuit of truth. Sehgal Cuthbert, A. & Standish, A. (Eds) UCL Press, London, pp. 189-201. Bourn, D (2015) From Development Education to Global Learning: Changing Agendas and Priorities. Policy and Practice: A Development Education Review, Vol. 20, Spring, pp. 18-36. DePalma, R. (2019). La educación para el desarrollo y la ciudadanía global. Una experiencia de investigación acción participativa. Barcelona: Graó. Digón-Regueiro, P., Méndez-García, R. M., DePalma, R.; Longueira Matos, S. (2017). A place for development education in the current Spanish and English curricula: Finding possibilities for practice. International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning 9(2), pp. 29-46. Serantes-Pazos, A., Digón-Regueiro, P., Cruz-López, L., DePalma, R., Méndez-García, R., & Barba Núñez, M. (2021). Por una educación para la ciudadanía global ¿desde un enfoque STEM? Didacticae: Revista de Investigación en Didácticas Específicas. Available at https://revistes.ub.edu/index.php/didacticae/article/view/36828/35811. Serantes-Pazos, A., & Meira Cartea, P. (2016). El cambio climático en los libros de texto de la Educación Secundaria Obligatoria o una crónica de las voces ausentes. Documentación Social: Revista de Estudios Sociales y de la Sociología Aplicada 183, pp. 153-170. Molfino, V., & Ochoviet, C. (2019). Enseñanza de la matemática para la justicia social en la formación de profesores en Uruguay. Educação: Teoria e Prática 29 (62), pp. 712-732.