Towards a critical global citizenship?: a comparative analysis of GC education discourses in Scotland and Alberta

Citation

Swanson DM & Pashby K (2016) Towards a critical global citizenship?: a comparative analysis of GC education discourses in Scotland and Alberta. Journal of Research in Curriculum and Instruction, 20 (3), pp. 184-195.

Abstract
Global citizenship has increasingly become common parlance in education curricula internationally. Yet, it can be argued that in many instances, especially in official curriculum documents, Global Citizenship Education (GCE) tends to ignore critical engagement with ethics and complexity that inform global inequities worldwide, and often fails to achieve the self-reflective political consciousness called forth by a critical GCE. In this paper, we compare conceptualizations of GCE in the Alberta Social Studies curriculum, Canada, and in the Scottish national curriculum, Curriculum for Excellence. We consider the extent to which these documents and attending discourses open up critical discursive spaces for complex, ethical understandings and calls to action related to global injustices and political responsibilities, or foreclose important opportunities.

Keywords
critical; Global Citizenship Education (GCE); Scottish Curriculum for Excellence; Alberta Social Studies; global justice; ethics

Journal
Journal of Research in Curriculum and Instruction: Volume 20, Issue 3