Educating the glocalised citizen: fusing Islamic values with Global Citizenship in an international school in Qatar

ABSTRACT

This paper explores how Global citizenship supported by SDG Target 4.7 and the overlapping IB concept of international mindedness interact with the Islamic traditions in an international school in Qatar, where the majority of students are locals. The paper discusses how the studied school attempts to fuse Sustainable Development Target 4.7 and the International Baccalaureate’s concept of international mindedness with Islamic values. The paper deploys Basil Bernstein’s sociological work to analyse the dynamics and ways the school navigates its local and global objectives. The studied institution aims to forge Qatari students who can internalise the Islamic values and Global Citizenship commitments espoused by the UN’s sustainable development Goals. The paper will be divided into two main sections. The first will be theoretical and analyse the extent of convergence and divergence between Islamic values and SDG Target 4.7, accentuating the importance of Global Citizenship Education. Additionally, the study will elaborate on the IB concept of international mindedness and its similarity and differences to Global Citizenship, which is underpinned by SDGs. The second section will offer an ethnographic account of the school’s rituals in which GCE and Islamic values are conflated.

KEYWORDS:

• Global citizenship education
• Islamic education
• international baccalaureate
• international schools
• Basil Bernstein
• education in Qatar

Disclosure statement

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