Educating citizens of ‘the global’: Mapping textual constructs of UNESCO’s global citizenship education 2012–2015

Abstract

In this article, I pose the question of what constructs of ‘global citizenship education’ are being mobilized by key international actors. I undertake a comparative analysis of three key United Nations (UN) and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) documents that have emerged in the past 5 years to frame the content and pedagogy of global citizenship education among member states and educational stakeholders. This comparison asks to what degree the documents’ discursive constructions of ‘the global’, ‘citizenship’ and ‘education’ are transformative, and what they might contribute to an ongoing conversation on the aims of education. I suggest that it is important to reflect constructively on the values, assumptions and strategies of key actors who aim to provide answers for fundamental questions about the nature, purpose and applications of education for a wide array of local educational contexts, needs and conditions.