Leveraging international experts’ perspectives to reframe citizenship in Social Studies Curriculum during the globalisation era: shifting to a global citizenship education

ABSTRACT

In the context of modern globalising forces, this study attempts to reframe the concept of citizenship education within the social studies curriculum. Utilising a qualitative study approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted to generate nine international experts’ perspectives on this issue, revealing two major themes of global citizenship education: (1) characteristics and (2) the best teaching practices (via learning dimensions). The first theme illustrates two characteristics of citizenship that should be reflected in the curriculum during this global era: First, there should be a broader focus that not only discusses the national level but also the regional and global levels, and secondly, there should be a deeper emphasis on the digital, social, economic, and cultural aspects rather than merely focusing on moral and political components. In the second theme, involving how to best educate students about global citizenship, three dimensions should be developed: cognitive, socioemotional, and behavioural. Teaching global citizenship should advance students’ civic knowledge, develop their feelings toward and social interactions with their global community, and help them to act and serve globally.

KEYWORDS:

• Global citizenship
• cognitive dimension
• socio-emotional dimension
• behavioural dimension
• Social Studies Education
• Citizenship

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).