Abstract
Important and challenging theoretical debates and questions arising from considerations of the role of citizenship education in the current “global era” are evident in academic literature. Ultimately, our scholarly work must also engage with what happens in our elementary, secondary, and post-secondary classrooms. Much important scholarly attention is being directed to debates about the nature of globalization, and about national and, increasingly, global concepts of citizenship, multiculturalism, and social movements of global resistance. However, much of this work is done outside of a direct engagement with teachers, students, and classroom practices and is consequently left at a level of abstraction that appears disconnected from the day-to-day work of public schooling. Indeed, when working through significant theoretical interjections and conversations that engage with the complexities and possibilities to which we are drawn, we can never forget that the “what” and “how” of teaching and learning, and the values that circulate within classrooms, reflect the global movements of contemporary history and are shaped by a sense that we must take-up global issues. We must, therefore, recognize what Pashby (this issue) refers to as the global imperative that exerts particular pressure on educational theory, practice, policy, and politics. To do this we must struggle with questions of theory that inform our scholarly and our practical work as educators, be that practice in faculties of education or in K to 12 classrooms. This special themed issue presents important questions, concerns, and possibilities that mark both theoretical discourses and classroom practice.
Highlights
Editorial citizenship education? have global, cultural, and democratic education had their run? While these questions are wide-reaching and intersect with and even challenge the delineation of local, regional, national, and global contexts; the contributors to this issue, writing within and often about the geopolitical context of contemporary Canada, weigh in on these complexities in a range of ways and from a range of perspectives
Much is demanded of citizenship and citizenship education. She argues for a new, flexible theory of citizenship and for giving consideration to what constitutes the essential elements of a program of global citizenship education as an educational response to the global imperative
In her treatment of and resistance to a notion of “global citizenship,” Wood offers a more politically charged version of the impact of a global imperative on democratic citizenship than does Pashby; both pieces reveal that much is at stake in positioning “citizenship” as central within discourses of globalization
Summary
Editorial citizenship education? have global, cultural, and democratic education had their run? While these questions are wide-reaching and intersect with and even challenge the delineation of local, regional, national, and global contexts; the contributors to this issue, writing within and often about the geopolitical context of contemporary Canada, weigh in on these complexities in a range of ways and from a range of perspectives. While she argues for more theoretical attention to how this imperative is taken up in scholarly work, she recognizes the real complexities that face teachers when they attempt to attend to “the global.” Her review of contemporary academic literature reveals particular tensions marking the reinforcing relationships between citizenship diversity and schooling.
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