The spatial subversions of global citizenship education: Negotiating imagined inclusions and everyday exclusions in international schools in China

Abstract

In recent years, schools around the world have started to adopt curriculums that attempt to transform students into “global” citizens. Global citizenship education is, however, a homogenising abstraction that has been criticised for reflecting and reproducing (neo)liberal Western values; as such, it can be undermined by its delivery and everyday applications in non-Western contexts. This problem is pronounced in international schools, and is especially pronounced in China. By exploring the spatial subversions of international schools in China, this paper offers a new way of understanding the problems associated with delivering global citizenship education, and constructing global citizens. It draws on 76 interviews and small group discussions with students, parents, teachers and administrators representing three international schools in the eastern city of Suzhou. Specifically, it considers how the spaces of the official school, the informal school and the non-school can enforce exclusionary attitudes and behaviours, which in turn can undermine the imagined inclusions of global citizenship.