Andrew Peterson - Global Citizenship Education in Australian Schools: Leadership, Teacher and Student Perspectives

Andrew Peterson

Global Citizenship Education in Australian Schools

Leadership, Teacher and Student Perspectives

1st ed. 2020

For Tanya, Darren, Mitch and Tom

For Lyn and Jack

In gratitude for your much valued friendship

This introduction establishes the focus of the book on global citizenship and education in Australian secondary schools. It does so by, first, providing a brief context of global citizenship education both globally and in Australia in order to situate the analysis offered in the chapters that follow, arguing thatas with other countriesglobal citizenship education stands as an important general goal of education and schooling, but that this does not necessarily translate into widespread and effective practice in schools. The chapter then proceeds to set out key details of the empirical study on which the book is based setting out the aims, research questions, methods, sample and participants of a project investigating approaches to global citizenship education in 6 Australian secondary schools. The chapter also lays out the structure of the book, situating the books aims in the context of a still limited body of research literature on how school leaders, teachers and students understand, implement and experience global citizenship education.

Similar to its parent concept global citizenship , global citizenship education represents something of an enigma to the extent to which the term is now fairly ubiquitous within academic discourse yet defies clear, precise andperhaps more importantlyconsistent definition. Global citizenship education , for example, lacks clear disciplinary boundaries, and is permeated by themes such as peace education , human rights education , education for sustainable development , social justice education, education for cultural diversity and futures education. Not only do these terms fall within global citizenship education but some of them, such as peace education , human rights education and education for sustainable development , are identifiable and similarly contested fields in their own rights. In general terms, global citizenship education is posited as crucial for ensuring that students understand a wide range of global trends that impact upon themselves and upon others. These trends include technological developments, increased migration, food security/insecurity, the existence and prevalence of diseases (pandemic, or otherwise), transnational political organisations, multinational corporations, globalised financial systems and institutions, fair and free trade and international terrorism. Furthermore, central to most formulations of global citizenship education is the belief that students need to develop what has generally been termed a global consciousness , perceiving themselves as citizens of the world and learning the requisite capacities to participate actively in global(ised) communities. Furthermore, and as the discussion in Chap. examines, global citizenship education can be conceptualised from a range of theoretical positions and as serving various ends.