Session Information
19 SES 02, Parallel Paper Session
Paper Session
Contribution
Global citizenship education (GCE) is a highly contested term invested with multiple meanings and agendas. It has been described as a ‘nodal point’ bringing together diverse strands of development education, environmental education and citizenship education within policy discourses (Mannion et al 2011). The language of global citizenship is increasingly visible within the rhetoric and practice of primary and secondary schools in the UK taking a multitude of forms including curriculum topics, school linking partnerships, and off-timetable days. However, existing research points to a number of challenges associated with incorporating GCE into the formal school curriculum (Davies 2006), while others suggest that GCE may merely reproduce existing stereotypes about the self and other (Andreotti 2006).
This paper is based on my PhD research which is an in depth ethnographic study of GCE at one UK secondary school exploring the realities of GCE. It is guided by an open question: what does it mean for this school to be a global school in a local community? It explores the perceptions of teachers, students and parents using an ethnographic perspective in order to understand what global citizenship means to them. This sustained approach allows me to draw out some of the tensions and contradictions in the way in which GCE is understood and practiced at one school, particularly in relation to the concepts of ‘local-global’ and ‘global responsibility’. This analysis is inspired by Andreotti’s (2006) critical GCE and is influenced by postcolonial and post-development theoretical perspectives. Drawing on these perspectives, I have identified four related concepts – political and historical contextualisation, complicity, multiplicity, and responsible and ethical praxis – which allow me to comment on the overall potential and challenges associated with developing a critical GCE in school.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Andreotti, V. (2006) Soft vs. Critical Global Citizenship Education. Development Education Policy and Practice, 3, 83-98. Braun, V. and Clarke, V. (2006) Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology 3(2): 77-101 Bryan, A. & M. Bracken. 2011. Learning to Read the World? Teaching and Learning about Global Citizenship and International Development in Post-Primary Schools. Available from: http://www.tcd.ie/tidi/assets/doc/Development%20Research%20Week%202011/Presentations/Wednesday%209th%20November/Audrey%20BryanLearning%20to%20Read%20the%20World_FinalReport.pdf Davies, L. (2006) ‘Global Citizenship: Abstraction or Framework for Action?’ Educational Review 58 (1): 5-25 Mannion, G., G. Biesta, M. Priestley, H. Ross (2011) The global dimension in education and education for global citizenship: genealogy and critique. Globalisation, Societies and Education 9(3-4):443-456
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