English and global citizenship education: A critical examination of multilingual classrooms in the global south

Previous articleNext article No AccessEssay ReviewToward a Critical Global Citizenship Education Citizenship and the Challenge of Global Education by Audrey Osler and Kerry Vincent. Stoke‐on‐Trent: Trentham Books, 2002. 143 pp. $24.95 (paper). ISBN 1‐85856‐268‐6. Citizenship Education and the Curriculum edited by David Scott and Helen Lawson. Westport, Conn.: Ablex Publishing, 2002. 190 pp. $64.95 (cloth). ISBN 1‐56750‐651‐8. Learning Democracy and Citizenship: International Experiences edited by Michele Schweisfurth, Lynn Davies, and Clive Harbor. Oxford: Symposium Books, 2002. 304 pp. (Paper.) ISBN 1‐873927‐29‐0.Yvette V. LapayeseYvette V. Lapayese Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Comparative Education Review Volume 47, Number 4November 2003 Sponsored by the Comparative and International Education Society Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/379495 Views: 682Total views on this site Citations: 23Citations are reported from Crossref © 2003 by the Comparative and International Education Society. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Thashika Pillay, Carrie Karsgaard Global citizenship education as a project for decoloniality, Education, Citizenship and Social Justice 30 (Apr 2022): 174619792210806.https://doi.org/10.1177/17461979221080606Mikko Mäntyneva Curriculum-Supporting Global Competence-Related Learning Based on PISA 2018, (Jan 2022): 122–138.https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-9542-8.ch008Ayana Allen-Handy, Shawnna L. Thomas-EL, Kenzo K. Sung Urban Youth Scholars: Cultivating Critical Global Leadership Development through Youth-Led Justice-Oriented Research, The Urban Review 53, no.22 (Mar 2020): 264–294.https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-020-00568-wLisa J. Cary, Marc Pruyn Lived Citizenship and Democracy in Times of Retreat and Resistance, (Jul 2021): 27–45.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71423-9_2Abdeljalil Akkari, Kathrine Maleq Rethinking Global Citizenship Education: A Critical Perspective, (Aug 2020): 205–217.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44617-8_15Mehmet Aslan, Mark Van Ommen Advancing Diversity Through Global Citizenship Education and Interfaith Dialogue, (Aug 2020): 693–704.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67828-3_75Md Tariqul Islam (Re)Searching for the development of a conceptual model of education for citizenship in the context of young people’s globalised mobility in higher education, Globalisation, Societies and Education 17, no.22 (Feb 2019): 194–207.https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2019.1583093Mehmet Aslan, Mark Van Ommen Advancing Diversity Through Global Citizenship Education and Interfaith Dialogue, (Aug 2019): 1–13.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67905-1_75-1Jennifer R. Calhoun, Martin O’Neill, Alecia C. Douglas An Examination of Second Language Education Provision Among U.S. and European Hospitality and Tourism Management Schools, Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Education 7 (Mar 2018): 1–10.https://doi.org/10.1080/10963758.2018.1438901Carla L. Peck, Karen Pashby Global Citizenship Education in North America, (Jan 2018): 51–65.https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59733-5_4Giang Thi Phi, Michelle Whitford, Dianne Dredge, Sacha Reid Educating tourists for global citizenship: a microfinance tourism providers’ perspective, Tourism Recreation Research 42, no.22 (Feb 2017): 235–247.https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2017.1290738Veronica Boix Mansilla, Flossie SG Chua Signature Pedagogies in Global Competence Education: Understanding Quality Teaching Practice, (Oct 2016): 93–115.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1673-8_5Jo-Anne Dillabough Gender, Social Justice and Citizenship in Education: Engaging Space, the Narrative Imagination, and Relationality, (Oct 2016): 49–71.https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-51507-0_3Karen Pashby Conflations, possibilities, and foreclosures: Global citizenship education in a multicultural context, Curriculum Inquiry 45, no.44 (Oct 2015): 345–366.https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2015.1064304David Zyngier, María Delia Traverso, Adriana Murriello ‘Democracy will not fall from the sky.’ A comparative study of teacher education students’ perceptions of democracy in two neo-liberal societies: Argentina and Australia, Research in Comparative and International Education 10, no.22 (Mar 2015): 275–299.https://doi.org/10.1177/1745499915571709Dr Mark Vicars and Dr Jon Austin, Lisa Cary, Marc Pruyn, Jon Austin Australian citizenship in interesting times, Qualitative Research Journal 15, no.22 (May 2015): 228–240.https://doi.org/10.1108/QRJ-01-2015-0014 강규원, Jeong Hun Oh Outcomes of global citizenship education for Korean students, SECONDARY EDUCATION RESEARCH 63, no.11 (Mar 2015): 1–32.https://doi.org/10.25152/ser.2015.63.1.1Gumiko Monobe, Eun Hye Son Using Children's Literature and Drama to Explore Children's Lives in the Context of Global Conflicts, The Social Studies 105, no.22 (Jan 2014): 69–74.https://doi.org/10.1080/00377996.2013.820164Laurie A. Henry, Clarisse O. Lima Promoting Global Citizenship through Intercultural Exchange Using Technology, (Jan 2014): 798–816.https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-4979-8.ch045Laura Oxley, Paul Morris Global Citizenship: A Typology for Distinguishing its Multiple Conceptions, British Journal of Educational Studies 61, no.33 (Jun 2013): 301–325.https://doi.org/10.1080/00071005.2013.798393Audrey Bryan Band-Aid Pedagogy, Celebrity Humanitarianism, and Cosmopolitan Provincialism, (Jan 2012): 262–286.https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-61350-332-4.ch017 Joan G. DeJaeghere Citizenship as Privilege and Power: Australian Educators’ Lived Experiences as Citizens DeJaeghere, Comparative Education Review 52, no.33 (Jul 2015): 357–380.https://doi.org/10.1086/588759Laurie A. Henry, Clarisse O. Lima Promoting Global Citizenship through Intercultural Exchange Using Technology, (): 100–119.https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-61350-077-4.ch008

<i>The Critical Global Educator: Global Citizenship Education as Sustainable Development</i> by Maureen Ellis. New York: Routledge, 2016. 246 pp. $163.00 (cloth). ISBN 978-1-138-88780-0.

Key claimed benefits of internationalizing higher education (HE) are increased intercultural interaction and awareness with internationally oriented universities aiming to produce graduates who are intercultural or global citizens. Yet, there have been few core strategies presented on how international HE programmes might realize such aims, and more research is needed. Furthermore, English language teaching (ELT) plays a central role in preparation and support for study abroad (SA) and internationalization in English medium education (EME), but has also been slow to incorporate intercultural education and intercultural citizenship. Hence, this study aimed to describe how Thai SA students developed a sense of intercultural citizenship during SA experiences with international HE programmes in Anglophone countries and identify roles ELT in facilitating the preparation for their subsequent SA programmes. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews (n = 14) conducted with students from three Thai universities who had experienced EME overseas education. From qualitative content analysis, findings revealed a range of understandings and responses to intercultural citizenship, English learning, language utilization, and the SA experiences. In addition, a mismatch was identified between ELT preparation and support efforts compared to the multilingual and multicultural reality of international HE.

Citizenship education has been transcending from traditional national boundaries to Global Citizenship Education (GCE) as an innovative educational response to ever-intensifying globalization. However, GCE remains an under-researched area in the field of English language teaching (ELT), and few efforts in China have been made to explore how primary school English teachers perceive GCE. To address the gap, a qualitative study was conducted to capture Chinese primary school English teachers’ perceptions of GCE and to explore their personal blockers and enablers of GCE in ELT. A qualitative content analysis of the data from semi-structured interviews was conducted with respect to three themes: teachers’ awareness of GCE in ELT, ELT implementation regarding GCE, and challenges in ELT regarding GCE, the findings of which revealed a broad range of blockers and enablers of GCE in ELT. The insufficient awareness of critical GCE among teachers and the dominance of soft GCE in ELT may be serious blockers to critical GCE. This study argues that teachers should re-think the value of GCE and facilitate their personal enablers by integrating critical GCE into ELT. The findings could provide some implications for educators to contribute to China’s context-specific GCE through English language education.

The expanding internationalisation of higher education (HE) has resulted in the inte rcultural dimensions becoming a core aim of many institutions. This is frequently represented though the concept of intercultural or global citizenship with students expected to engage with academic, professional and social communities across multiple scales from the local to the global. The language though which both the internationalisation of HE and intercultural citizenships is expected to take place is often English, or more precisely ELF, epically in English medium education (EME). Therefore, given this key role for English, English language teaching (ELT) provides an ideal setting for developing intercultural citizenship education. However, at present, this is an under-researched area. To address this gap, this collection of short papers provides a snap shot of current thinking and research form ELF perspectives. We include reports on the development of intercultural citizenship through study abroad for university students from China, Japan and Thailand; the role of intercultural citizenship in pre-service teacher education in Turkey; and a discussion of the relationship between intercultural citizenship, identity, symbolic power and language in the ELT and EMI classroom.

Global Citizenship Education (GCE) has become an essential aspect of international education. Although GCE has been emphasized to be applied by some nations around the world, a clear awareness of GCE and how to develop it and mainstream it into the national education system remains unclear in some developing countries like Tanzania. The issue of inadequate global citizenship skills among graduates from higher education is a serious concern to researchers and practitioners in awakening the current world realities. This study employs a literature review as a central method of studying the problem. For this purpose, the study reviewed the current literature on the concept of citizenship education and the practical and evidenced approaches that higher learning institutions should use to implement global citizenship education. Based on the standing points of the review, the study concludes that GCE is currently inadequate in most African countries and there is a need to create awareness by both governmental and non-governmental associations. Therefore, if higher education institutions in Tanzania wish to attain their interested goal of developing global citizens, every educator must support the appropriate pedagogy that is vital in promoting GCE in every country of this globalized world. Furthermore, every educational stakeholder is needed to dedicate effort, time and other educational resources to GCE. Moreover, to meet the intended goals of promoting GCE in Tanzania, active cooperation, coordination and networking among teachers, governmental and non-governmental organizations, colleges and universities is fundamental to engage effectively, as well as productively to provide support for collaboration on finding solutions to the national curriculum as well as on global issues. However, these suggestions need strong leadership that considers changes in the way that GCE is effectively implemented in Tanzanian higher education.

In recent years, global citizenship education (GCE) has been a trending concept used by national and international educational institutions, as well as researchers, to explain the increase in the internationalisation of education. The rise of GCE is set against globalisation and ever more diverse populations within nations, in the condition of super-diversity. GCE has emerged as a result of the shift from multiculturalism to post-multiculturalism. The implication of this shift is an emphasis on international education, where GCE is one of the key markers in schools’ responses to providing an internationally minded curriculum. This at times has resulted in schools incorporating GCE in their visions and mission statements, sometimes without a full understanding of the extent of this concept.This research study focuses on a comparative analysis of GCE in two primary schools, one international school in Singapore (Stamford International) and an independent school in Australia (Coastal College). The research focuses on how these two schools have engaged in the processes of internationalisation of their education through the adoption of international education models, utilising the International Primary Curriculum (IPC) or the International Baccalaureate Programme (IB) and other local curricula to generate hybrid internationally minded education programs.The study is located within the domains of “comparative education” and “international education,” areas of enhanced research interest as a result of the growth of international schools globally and the existence of state and independent schools that have adopted international curricula. An internationally minded curriculum is perceived to evoke notions of inter-culturalism, transnational connectivity, and global sensitivity in its design of curriculum, implicit pedagogical approaches, assessment practices and research knowledge and skills. It is believed that embedded within such a curriculum is a distinctive set of knowledge and skills, relevant to both the global and national schooling landscapes. However, in a more market driven competitive schooling environment, global citizenship education is also at times linked to branding and used by schools to position themselves advantageously in their specific school market contexts.Drawing on various theoretical resources on global education, global citizenship education, international education, as well as theories of post-multiculturalism, this research sought to investigate how each case study school responded to the concept of GCE through their curriculum. The broad overarching research question framing this study is: How have schools, with an internationally-minded focus, responded through the curriculum (IPC and IB respectively) to the impact of globalisation and the attempt to produce global citizens? The research specifically investigated firstly how each case study school has responded to the concept of GCE through their curriculum (IPC and IB). It also aimed to examine the factors that enabled the take-up of GCE through curricula in the two case study schools. Qualitative data from semi-structured interviews, document analysis, school website analysis, as well as field notes, were analysed both inductively and deductively, teasing out the key themes. Document analysis included school policy papers, curriculum materials, syllabuses, websites, newsletters and other forms of documents that shed light on the issues being researched.The research presented a number of important findings. The findings indicate that various factors within the specific contexts of schools, such as curriculum and resources, school culture, school leaders’ and teachers’ values, and the utilisation of human and financial resources play an equally important role in determining and moulding how schools engage with GCE in their quest towards internationalisation. This response was situated in multiple influential contexts, which include the national contexts of the schools, including the nature of each society, the geo-political positioning of the society, the provision of schooling, the nature of schools and the specific policies governing the schools, which have influenced their approaches towards GCE.Firstly, both schools saw a need to navigate the global-local dynamics to engage with an internationalisation that is context-specific. Stamford International’s key curriculum initiatives, predominantly the IPC, the Singapore Math and the Daily Mandarin curriculum, were results of this fusion. Coastal College’s hybridisation of International Baccalaureate Primary Year Programme (PYP) and the Australian curriculum, the adoption of languages such as Japanese, and cultural exchange programmes, were also attempts to link global and national elements in their approach. Despite the above commonality, the “non-government”/ independent status of the Singapore case study school provided greater autonomy for curriculum development, compared with the independent school in Australia, which still needed to adhere to the Australian curriculum requirements or approved alternatives. The above initiatives were also part of both schools’ marketing strategies to remain distinct and to attract potential students in their respective school markets.Secondly, the school leaders in both schools demonstrated cosmopolitan competencies and were hence able to respond to and adopt organisational practices that were aligned to the demands of the 21st century global society. However the Principals’ leadership styles and their management of GCE practices within the schools also affected the GCE take-up in the respective schools.Finally, the targeted utilisation of human and financial resources was also a significant enabler that further cemented both schools’ practices towards GCE. The human resources, which included the selection of staff, appointing teachers with diverse teaching CVs and international experience, value added to the organisation and moved the GCE agenda forward. In the area of financial resources, both schools had a targeted approach in their utilisation of funding for professional development and curriculum development resources aligned to GCE.A key overarching finding of the research relates to the tensions between critical democratic and educational domains and neo-liberal market rationales, which had affected the schools’ decisions in curricula and GCE enactment within both schools. Despite their commitment to GCE ideals, they were mindful about being distinctive and remaining competitive within their educational markets. The global focus was thus linked at one level to their overt branding and positioning in their respective school markets.Overall, this research study has contributed to the existing body of knowledge, particularly in respect of empirical research on GCE practices in schools. The findings of the study and the literature review have resulted in the design of an encompassing conceptual model that is able to capture the multi-faceted nature of GCE and provide a more critical understanding of the GCE concept. Most importantly, the comparative investigation of global citizenship education, which is very much lacking in current research, allowed for the exploration of two varying global and national contexts. Looking at two different contexts also facilitated a broader understanding of the global citizenship education policies, models and practices being studied, and enabled an interrogation of the interwoven local, national and global factors at play in the two research schools. The cross-national comparative perspective of GCE as policies and practices in schools also encourages global inter-culturalism and fosters intercultural exchanges of ideas that school leaders can use to effectively run their schools.

Araştırmada, küresel vatandaşlık eğitiminde var olan farklı yaklaşımlardan birisi olan UNESCO’nun küresel vatandaşlık eğitim paradigmasının ülkemizdeki 1998 sosyal bilgiler dersi öğretim programına göre hazırlanan sosyal bilgiler (4-5-6 ve 7.sınıf) ders kitaplarında yer alma durumu incelenmiştir. Ders kitaplarında küresel vatandaşlık eğitimi ile ilgili alanlar, UNESCO tarafından geliştirilen Global Citizenship Education (GCED, (Küresel Vatandaşlık Eğitim Paradigması) kılavuzluğunda belirlenmiştir. Araştırmacı tarafından bu paradigma kılavuzluğunda “Küresel Vatandaşlık Eğitimi İnceleme Formu” hazırlanmıştır. Ders kitaplarında küresel vatandaşlık eğitimi ile ilgili olan alanlar, hazırlanan bu form doğrultusunda doküman analizi yöntemi ile tespit edilmiştir. Elde edilen verilerin çözümlenmesinde ise içerik analizi tekniğinden faydalanılmıştır. Araştırmanın sonucunda, 1998 öğretim programına göre hazırlanmış olan sosyal bilgiler ders kitaplarının “küresel vatandaş”, “küresel vatandaşlık”, “küresel vatandaşlık eğitimi” kavramlarını doğrudan içermedikleri görülmüştür. Ayrica sosyal bilgiler ders kitaplarının, UNESCO’nun küresel vatandaşlık eğitimi anlayışının bilişsel ve sosyo-duygusal boyutlarını desteklediği ancak davranışsal boyutu yeterince desteklemediği tespit edilmiştir. Araştırmanın bir diğer önemli sonucu da sosyal bilgiler ders kitaplarında bireylerin eylemlerine yön veren bilgilerin, öğrencileri eleştirel bir düşünmeye sevk etmeden aktarılmasıdır. 21. Yüzyılın eşiğinde genelde eğitim sisteminin özelde de vatanaşlık eğitiminde önemli bir rolü olan sosyal bilgiler dersinin öğrencileri küreselleşen dünyaya hazırlaması beklenmektedir. 1998 öğretim programına göre hazırlanmış olan sosyal bilgiler ders kitaplarının bu amacı gerçekleştirmede yetersiz kaldığı görülmektedir. Dolayısıyla Türk Eğitim Sisteminde ilkokul ve ortaokulda sorumlu ve aktif vatandaş yetiştirme görevini üstlenmiş olan sosyal bilgiler dersinin ders kitaplarının küresel vatandaşlık eğitiminin tüm boyutlarını ele almasının faydalı olacağı düşünülmektedir

Global citizenship education is a type of civic learning in which students take part in projects that deal with social, political, economic, or environmental problems that affect the whole world. The goal of Global Citizenship Education (GCE) is to give people of all ages the tools they need to take part in building more peaceful, tolerant, inclusive, and safe societies, both locally and globally. As a basic need of citizens, global citizenship education is of paramount importance today. The purpose of the paper is to provide understanding related to global citizenship and global citizenship education. The data was collected using secondary sources such as journals, articles, web sources, etc. Researchers shed light on the major elements, dimensions, and themes of global citizenship education. The major themes of global citizenship education, such as peace education, human rights education, civic education, humanitarian norms, and the psychosocial dimensions of global citizenship, are discussed in this paper. In this paper, it is concluded that global citizenship education enables citizens to change the way they live and to adopt modern education for their betterment. Additionally, it changes their mentality towards different cultures of the world, bringing peace and harmony to the whole world. According to this study, teachers should be educated about global citizenship and provide global citizenship in all fields of education. The current government should provide facilities for Pakistani students in order for them to become global citizens.

In recent years, the idea of "global citizenship" has grown in scholarly circles and developed into a nascent discipline known as global citizenship education. As a general matter, global citizenship education strives to deepen cross-cultural understanding through the study of current transnational issues. This qualitative, interpretivist case study sought to examine and evaluate how students enrolled in a global studies curriculum at an urban New Jersey public high school view their roles and responsibilities in the world today. The study included interviews from an administrator, two global studies teachers, and six students enrolled in the second sequence of a two-year course in the global studies curriculum. The study also included observations and analysis of the course curriculum, syllabus, and student assignments. This study advances four primary findings. First, the need for continued curriculum development and design of global studies related courses and content. Second, the need for pre-service and in-service training for teachers of global studies related courses, including teacher education and professional development programs. Third, the importance of experiential learning, among other forms of pedagogy and instructional practices, in furthering the goals of global citizenship education. Fourth, the need for class projects, international education programs, and other experiential learning opportunities (such as fieldwork, service-learning, or community programs) to cultivate student interest in global citizenship education. Upon reflection, this study also highlights the need for global studies related courses to explore the connection between liberal democratic values and the goals of global citizenship. Through the above findings and literature, this study has proposed an elective course on global citizenship with ten units: 1) Introduction to Global Citizenship; 2) Sustainable Development; 3) Poverty and World Hunger; 4) Global Health Issues; 5) Child Mortality; 6) Peace and Conflict; 7) Human Rights and Gender Equality; 8) Universal Education; 9) Liberal Democratic Governance and Rights; 10) Global Citizenship Action Plan. This study also has underscored the need for more research on global citizenship, global citizenship education in the United States, global studies training and certification programs, experiential learning, and the connection between global citizenship and liberal democratic governance and values.

This study examines the landscape of Global Citizenship Education (GCE) studies in higher education through four key questions: (1) how GCE literature is distributed based on annual growth and geographical regions; (2) which publications, authors, and collaborations have the most influence; (3) what research themes are frequently studied; and (4) what specific topics dominate the field. These questions respond to the increasing importance of GCE in shaping teaching and learning in higher education. A quantitative bibliometric approach was used to analyze literature from the Scopus database, using keywords such as ‘global citizenship’, ‘education’, ‘teach’, ‘learn’, ‘higher education’, ‘university’, and ‘college’. Boolean operators and truncation were applied to refine search results. Inclusion criteria included articles published from 2004 to 2023, peer-reviewed, categorised under social sciences, and written in English. Parameters analyzed include productivity, impact, collaboration, and content using VOSviewer and Biblioshiny. The findings reveal a growing interest in GCE research, although citation rates have declined. Most influential works originate from the USA and UK, with significant global collaboration. Clustering analysis highlights current research directions and suggests potential theoretical frameworks. The study provides insight into the evolution of GCE in higher education and outlines areas for future research.

Global Citizenship (GC) has recently claimed its position as desired graduates’ attribute in many Higher Education (HE) institutions in different non-Western contexts. However, ambiguity and complexity still linger over what GC means contextually and how this understanding may shape educational outcomes. Taking cognizance of this, a study was carried out to investigate the understanding of GC among Vietnamese HE teachers as major agents in Global Citizenship Education (GCE), in order to discuss their implications for graduate attributes. This study adopted purposeful sampling strategy to conduct in-depth interviews among 14 teachers from 4 different faculties of a private university in Southern Vietnam. Emergent themes were then compared with GC conceptions theorized in the literature. Data analysis revealed a three-fold dimensions in teachers’ perception: (1) GC understanding was ambiguous and divergent and uniquely nuanced by personal and contextual factors, (2) triple helix of GC conceptions were intricately entwined in GCE rationales, and (3) GC notion was framed with juxtapositions of conceptions. The findings highlighted an implementation gap in GCE which might subvert the intended educational aim, especially in the context of unavailable official documents to guide GCE. In this way, the paper contributes to the ongoing discussion regarding GCE implementation, and indicates a need to have clearer instructional GCE-related policies and more comprehensive teacher trainings.

The paper aims to contribute to the understanding of the concept global citizenship education. Global citizenship education is defined as democratic and sustainable education that pursues to educate a global citizen who is able to perceive the processes of the modern society, to demonstrate a positive attitude and to adapt to the global environment.It is emphasised that global citizenship is a factor ensuring development of a global citizen and his/her functioning within the global context. The analysis of the European and Lithuanian documents revealed that global citizenship education has to be initiated at the pre-primary school because children aged 5- to 7-years are capable to form/construct new global skills. Thus, to have global citizenship education integrated into the pre-primary school education is a must, but still gaps and obstacles exist.The objectives of the research are to investigate how the parents of pre-primary school aged children perceive the concept global citizenship. Data for this research were collected using the qualitative method - an interview. A major advantage of an interview is that this method allows to investigate parents' individual perception of global citizenship education.The most interesting aspect of the data gathered is that parents do not demonstrate complete understanding of global citizenship education and majority of them are not completely familiar with this phenomenon. They relate global citizenship education to travelling and living abroad, to knowledge of other countries/cultures and specific social issues such as pollution, discrimination, poverty. Taking into consideration the complexity of this process the parents’ perception is insufficient. Therefore, further study has to be initiated regarding teachers’ attitude to initiation and implementation of global citizenship education into the curriculum of the pre-primary school.

Purpose English is the language of global communication, worldwide mobility, job progress, and access to new information and research. Given the numerous roles that English plays in today's society, higher education institutes (HEIs) all over the world are pursuing English-medium education. For Pakistan, however, English-medium education is a colonial legacy rather than a deliberate choice. Research suggests that English-medium education is not devoid of controversy in higher education in Pakistan; nonetheless, students have to seek English-medium education in universities to compete with the world. In fact, being committed to SDG 4.7 Education for sustainable development and global citizenship, Pakistan is supposed to educate its citizens to become global citizens, for which English-medium education is essential. Given the fact that each of the five provinces of Pakistan has a distinct culture and sub-cultures, it is important to see how Pakistani students’ attitudes to English-medium education to become global citizens are different based on their cultural identities. Therefore, the present study aims to analyze undergraduates’ attitudes toward English-medium education based on their cultural identities to become global citizens. Design/methodology/approach Under the quantitative research paradigm, the present research adopted a comparative design. One hundred and fifty undergraduates participated in the study. The data were collected using a 15-item questionnaire on a 5-point Likert scale, and it was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 27.0. Findings The results of the study revealed that participants regardless of their cultural identities have positive attitudes towards English-medium education as they believe it to be a source of career development, and improvement of their language, communication, and interpersonal skills. The participants also did not see English-medium education posing any threat to traditional culture and local languages. The findings of the present study also revealed that there is no statistical difference across the different categories of cultural identity. Practical implications The findings of the present study regarding students’ attitudes toward English-medium education will have implications for policymakers and university administration. Since cultural identity does not hinder acceptance of English-medium education, students’ positive attitudes can help policymakers promote multilingualism and English-medium education for career development. However, high-quality English language programs are crucial for maximizing the benefits. Likewise, positive attitudes of students towards English-medium education in Pakistan suggest students’ openness to intercultural dialogue. Therefore, university administration can further enhance student exchange programs for transnational research and development. Likewise, the study implies that cultural identity may not hinder English-medium education implementation in developing countries provided that practical benefits like career advancement and communication skill are emphasized. Originality/value The study is unique in the sense that it analyses undergraduates’ attitudes towards English-medium education concerning students’ cultural identities and global citizenship which have not been studied previously.

Problems associated with globalisation have been exacerbated with the COVID-19 pandemic, which made us more aware of the interconnected nature of the world. Global pandemic requires global solutions, and the educational system should look beyond the confines of national borders to advocate for Global Citizenship Education (GCE) to provide such solutions. However, it is still underexplored that to what extent Chinese elementary school English textbooks reflect the notion of GCE and how they guide teachers’ practices particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. To address the gap, a mixed-method study was conducted to scrutinize two versions of Chinese elementary school English textbooks and explore teachers’ practices, so as to contribute to China’s context-specific GCE endeavours through English language teaching (ELT). The findings demonstrate that the themes of GCE are embedded in two versions of textbooks to varying degrees and with unbalanced distribution. Some elements that do not comply with the proposition of GCE and the excluded themes may impede the full realisation of global citizenship values. Interview results show that teacher training is urgently needed to integrate GCE into interdisciplinary subjects and raise teachers’ critical awareness to challenge the prevailing routines in ELT. The findings could also provide some pedagogical enlightenment for teachers’ practices during the COVID-19 pandemic.