ABSTRACT This study aims to map global trends in peace education research using a bibliometric analysis approach. Using data from 381 articles in the Scopus database (2015–2024), this study analyzed publication trends, author contributions, institutions, as well as the distribution of research themes. Bibliometric methods enable an understanding of publication distribution, citation patterns, and collaboration networks. The results show significant growth in the number of publications, with the United States as the most productive country (102 publications), followed by the United Kingdom (56 publications). The University of Cambridge was the institution with the most contributions (13 publications), while Zembylas, M. was the leading author with 12 publications and 142 citations. The Journal of Peace Education dominates with 109 publications. Research themes include clusters such as critical education, decolonization, post-conflict peace, and global citizenship education. The findings provide a comprehensive overview of the dynamics of peace education, reveal the contributions of important authors and institutions, and identify research gaps. The study highlights the relevance of peace education in dealing with global conflicts and promoting tolerance through integrating various critical and pedagogical approaches. As such, it encourages cross-disciplinary collaboration to strengthen comprehensive peace education efforts.

Introduction to special issue: education for sustainable development and global citizenship in the Gulf Corporation Council

ABSTRACT This conceptual paper critically examines the evolving interplay between global citizenship and nationalism in Hong Kong's global citizenship education. Drawing on critical analysis of existing literature and recent socio‐political and educational changes in Hong Kong, it traces the shift from a Western‐oriented global citizenship—characterised by neoliberalism, global competitiveness and limited national affiliation—to a form of global citizenship aligned with Chinese characteristics, foregrounding national identity, Chinese cultural heritage and the interests of the Chinese government. This transformation, accelerated since 2020 under the National Security Law, raises critical questions about the marginalisation of local voices and the potential instrumentalization of global citizenship to justify nationalism. The analysis indicates that while Hong Kong's education system increasingly prioritises national over global perspectives, genuine global citizenship with Hong Kong's unique characteristics remains elusive. The paper recommends greater balance in curriculum design, teacher development, assessment and stakeholder engagement to support a more inclusive and context‐sensitive vision of global citizenship education in Hong Kong.

This paper explores the critical realist approach to global citizenship education (GCED) by reviewing con-temporary discussions of GCED, primarily addressing the most relevant concepts of global citizenship from post-colonial/critical perspectives. In particular, this paper aims to discuss the distinctiveness of critical re-alist GCED in comparison with the preceding approach. While critical GCED has advanced important im-plications towards theory and practice in the field, and it is one of the most intensively accepted among the most recent scholarly discussions, it still encounters challenges such as a binary standpoint, a lack of deeper ontological consideration, and a failure to involve generative mechanisms to judge and achieve social justice. This necessitates a new or an alternative conceptualization of GCED. In response to the arguments, this paper suggests ‘after-critical’ global citizenship education that offers theoretical and methodological im-plications in developing a balanced analysis of the complex globalization and education. Calling for trans-formative praxis and reflexivity, it promotes relational engagement with concerns that situate oneself within and beyond a mode of being as global citizen. It envisages reconfiguring and responding the possibility of self and collective ontology, grounded in a deeper recognition of our essential totality in the social world in globalized community.

The Impact of PBL based Global Citizenship Education Program on Interpersonal Relationship Skills and Global Citizenship among University Students

ABSTRACT This article introduces two concepts from contemporary social-theory to Global Citizenship Education (GCED) to offer ways of thinking about teaching and learning in the face of anti-democratic politics. The first part discusses such politics in relation to GCED which, in its critical and liberal modes, seeks to instil confidence in democratic ideals. The second part delineates Wendy Brown’s critique of ‘nihilism’ and Jeffrey Alexander’s idea of ‘civic repair’ to establish, in the third part, how these concepts are generative for GCED’s ways of combating anti-democracy in the present and future. The paper argues that nihilism is a keen diagnosis of the current times and civil repair demonstrates precedents and lineages through which anti-democratic damage can be undone. As a piece of theoretical research, it shows how engaging with such thinking can help GCED’s advocates steel their resolve in cultivating civic engagement through critical reflection and political action.

Global citizenship education as an ethics of care

ABSTRACT This article explores how students at International Baccalaureate schools in southern China rearticulate ideals of global citizenship. Although global citizenship education is widely promoted within international agendas, it has been criticised for reflecting Western-centric and neoliberal biases. The International Baccalaureate's implementation of international education has attracted similar criticism. Taking a different approach, this study considers how students themselves understand, practise, and imagine their futures as global citizens. Drawing on interviews (n = 50) with International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme students at five international schools in Hong Kong, Macao, and Guangdong, three heuristic rearticulations are identified: ‘self-professed global citizens', ‘globally minded citizens', and ‘globally floating citizens'. The core argument is that academic critiques of global citizenship agendas need to be distinguished from the perspectives of these students, who are capable of offering alternative, critical, and varied conceptions of what it means to be a global citizen. Nevertheless, a persistent tension remains: these students’ conceptions of global citizenship can be viewed as part of an elite culture, deeply intertwined with their privileged educational backgrounds and opportunities.

Abstract This study critically examines the intersection of English language teaching (ELT) and global citizenship education (GCE) in higher education (HE) through data from state-funded universities in the Global South (Colombia, Iraq, Thailand, and Vietnam). It examines how students, educators, and administrators perceive and engage with global and intercultural citizenship through the medium of English. Data were collected through 126 semi-structured interviews and analysed using thematic and content analysis to identify cross-contextual patterns and context-specific interpretations. Participants described a two-fold experience in which English facilitated global academic, professional, and personal access and mobility, while generating concerns about the erasure of local identities and knowledge systems, framed by enduring forms of epistemic inequality, cultural hierarchy, and instrumental pressures reinforced by neoliberal frameworks. In response, many educators and learners challenged dominant Anglophone models by adopting decolonial pedagogies that emphasise ethical engagement, foster critical reflexivity, and reflect locally rooted practices. The study calls for reconfiguring GCE and ELT as interconnected domains of transformation that support inclusive, context-responsive, and socially engaged models of global citizenship within Southern HE settings.

The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) and digital media is reshaping contemporary civic identity and challenging existing models of citizenship education. Although global citizenship education frameworks increasingly emphasize technological competence, they often lack grounding in local ethical and cultural values, particularly within elementary education where civic identity is first formed. Addressing this gap, this study synthesizes global citizenship theories and digital innovation research to propose an integrated pedagogical framework for Indonesian elementary schools grounded in Pancasila. Following PRISMA 2020 guidelines, this systematic literature review analyzed peer-reviewed studies published between 2017 and 2025 in the Scopus and Web of Science databases. The analysis focused on AI integration in education, digital literacy inequalities, and the role of Pancasila-based ethics in civic learning. The findings indicate that liberal and global citizenship models, when detached from shared moral foundations, risk weakening civic engagement. In Indonesia, structural disparities in AI adoption further highlight the need for an ethical and equitable approach to digital citizenship education. The review identifies Pancasila as a normative ethical framework capable of guiding responsible digital behavior and supporting Sustainable Development Goals 4, 10, and 16. To operationalize these values in elementary classrooms, Project-Based Learning supported by interactive digital modules emerges as an effective strategy for translating abstract civic principles into meaningful digital action. Developing ethically grounded digital citizens therefore requires sustained teacher capacity-building and the systematic integration of Pancasila-oriented, project-based pedagogies.

ABSTRACT This article presents findings from a study exploring factors shaping in-service teachers’ enactment of Global Citizenship Education (GCE) in school settings. Addressing gap in research focused predominantly on pre-service teachers, this qualitative study explores how GCE is experienced by in-service teachers in Poland and Portugal, considering contextual similarities and differences. Grounded in a critical GCE perspective that emphasises global social justice and advocates for systemic change (Pashby, K., M. da Costa, S. Stein, and V. Andreotti. 2020. “A Meta-review of Typologies of Global Citizenship Education.” Comparative Education 56 (2): 144–164), data were collected through focus group interviews with 37 teachers and analysed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis (Braun, V., and V. Clarke. 2019. “Reflecting on Reflexive Thematic Analysis.” Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health 11 (4): 589–597). Findings reveal the influence of national policy, local communities, peers, and teachers’ personal values on GCE practice. Rather than placing responsibility on individual teachers, the study advocates a systemic view of the GCE landscape. Using the metaphor of GCE as a garden, the study illustrates how interconnected elements – such as national context (climate), schools (sun), external partners (rain), social actors (plants), resources (fertilisers), educational system (soil) collectively support or hinder implementation. It concludes that nurturing all aspects of this ecosystem is essential to support teachers effectively. Additionally, it proposes different garden types to illustrate different GCE models: neoliberal (analogous to French gardens), liberal (English gardens), and critical (permaculture gardens).

This study investigates the integration of Global Citizenship Education (GCE) themes within a university-level English as a Second Language (ESL) course to foster both global citizenship awareness and English proficiency. Grounded in transformative pedagogy and Kolb’s experiential learning cycle, the course engaged first-year undergraduates in GCE-themed modules and collaborative activities. Outcomes were assessed through pre- and post-course questionnaires, automated linguistic analysis (Coh-Metrix) of pre/post reflection video transcripts, supplemented by focus group interviews. While no statistically significant changes were observed in global citizenship awareness as measured by the questionnaire, qualitative feedback indicated positive shifts in students’ attitudes and behaviors, including increased ethical engagement. Coh-Metrix analysis revealed substantial improvements in syntactic complexity, textual cohesion, and the use of concrete vocabulary, alongside a shift toward a more objective, academic style in oral reflections. These results suggest that embedding GCE themes in ESL instruction fosters multidimensional language development and behavioral engagement, even when measurable gains in global citizenship awareness are modest.

ABSTRACT Recent scholarship on ‘young people’ and ‘future’ has recognised the need to investigate young people’s future mobility as a transitory node. Following a qualitative methodology, this paper analyses the global citizenship experiences of young Southern (Bangladeshi) students attending university in a culturally Northern (Australian) society to understand their thoughts and hopes for the future. It also examines how these young students see education for global citizenship shaping their future. The paper characterises young Bangladeshi students’ imagined future and identity as ‘internationally mobile’ based on their degrees of mobility, which appear to develop within the interplay of economic and moral aspects of lived experience in neoliberal Australian universities and society. It shows how young Southern students create ‘a mobile future’ through their lived experience in the North. This visualised future confirms the newly built mobile identity of individuals, which is based on economic desires and a flexible morality necessary for survival in the globalised market economy. Thus, it provides empirical evidence that encourages higher education providers and policymakers to reconsider their global citizenship education policies to develop young international students into competent, conscious, and critical participants in the labour market and as moral actors.

ABSTRACT Nordic exceptionalism conveys a perception of innocence whereby Nordic states are exemplary in regard to justice, as exemplary states, including a strong dedication in education to action competence around sustainable development. Yet, Nordic countries are embedded in, not outside, longstanding global power inequalities. This necessitates a critically reflective approach to global citizenship education (GCE). This paper explores corresponding tensions between action and reflexivity given researchers’ concerns about solutionism. The authors consider how neoliberalism shapes the demand for action-oriented GCE. They identify opportunities to rethink the concepts of action and individual solutionism, underscoring the need for collective approaches in a world where injustice and multiple crises can render young people passive and disengaged. They argue critical reflexivity is particularly needed given how right-wing populist parties currently influence politics, challenging the premise the Nordic countries are losing their role as global ‘good states’.

ABSTRACT Norway and Iceland, historically perceived as culturally homogeneous societies, are experiencing increasing diversity in upper-secondary schools due to global migration. Although both countries promote inclusive and democratic education policies, migrant and refugee students are often positioned through national, linguistic, and normative frameworks of inclusion. This paper examines how teachers can move beyond such frameworks by reimagining inclusion as a relational and ethical pedagogical process. Drawing on Hannah Arendt's concept of visiting and critical global citizenship education (GCE), the study explores the experiences of seven upper-secondary teachers in Iceland and Norway who participated in the research and development project Irregular Processes of Inclusion and Citizenship (I-PIC). In the project teachers cocreated visual and participatory pedagogical practices inspired by photovoice methods. Based on reflective interviews, the analysis shows how teachers navigated tensions between standardised educational demands and their commitments to inclusion. Students' photographs functioned as reflexive pedagogical tools that enabled teachers to position themselves as visitors in students' worlds, fostering trust and subjectification resulting in more relational and ethical approach to inclusion for migrant and refugee students.

Abstract This article aims to construct a paradigm of Dhammic Humanism grounded in the ten pāramīs (perfections) as a philosophical and pedagogical strategy for integrating them into Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and global citizenship. The author identifies and responds to the psychological, fragmented, competitive, individualistic, morally unmoored, and ecologically collapsed state of crisis, arguing that sustainable transformation requires an extreme shift from mere knowledge transmission to the formation of character and consciousness. Utilizing the teachings of Buddhism throughout the ages, South East Asian Buddhist Ethics, and Global Humanistic Theory, the author describes the pāramīs as sustainable virtues that develop ethically resilient and socio-emotionally responsible relational intelligence. This contribution positions the pāramī model in a positive interaction with the eudaimonist approaches of Damien Keown and Martha Nussbaum, and with UNESCO's transformative agenda for SDG 4.7. The author suggests that incorporating wisdom (paññā), compassion (karuṇā), and interdependence (paṭiccasamuppāda) into the construction of whole-person competencies to be fully functioning persons, ethical agents, and planetary stewards, pāramīs implement transformative ESD. The article discusses how contemplative pedagogy, community-engaged learning, value-oriented curriculum reform, and peace-building education can be applied institutionally across school, university, monastic education, and public policy settings. It suggests that the pāramī path offers both pragmatically and philosophically a way to reframe and revitalise education as a transformative process of an individual’s self-centeredness to the compassionate global citizenship. The study believes that a sustainable civilization must be constructed with both structural and inner transformations. It posits that humanity’s reliance on technological advancements for its future will be eclipsed by the development of virtue, universal (as opposed to national) responsibility, a civilizational outlook of compassion, and interdependence.

This study evaluates pre-service teachers’ knowledge, attitudes, and confidence regarding global citizenship education (GCE) at North Eastern Mindanao State University (NEMSU)-Tandag Campus. Using a mixed-methods approach, which included qualitative and quantitative research paradigms, the study assessed participants’ familiarity with GCE concepts, their perceptions of its importance, and their readiness to integrate global perspectives into classroom teaching. A survey method was employed to gather data, revealing that while some pre-service teachers were highly familiar with GCE, many reported varying levels of confidence in their ability to promote global issues and foster critical thinking. Key findings include a significant number of respondents feeling neutral about their preparedness and a need for more targeted professional development. The study contributes to understanding the gaps in current teacher training programs and emphasizes the necessity for integrating comprehensive GCE training. The results suggest that enhanced training and resources are crucial for improving pre-service teachers’ confidence and effectiveness in teaching from a global perspective. Future research should focus on developing and evaluating interventions to address these gaps and explore effective strategies for GCE integration in diverse educational contexts.

Global Citizenship Education (GCE) has been positioned by UNESCO as a central educational response to globalisation, social inequality, and sustainable development. Despite widespread policy endorsement, limited empirical research-particularly in Global South contexts-has examined how teachers philosophical commitments to GCE translate into classroom practice. Drawing on the Theory of Planned Behaviour and a values-belief-action framework, this study investigates (a) secondary school teachers philosophical commitments to GCE and (b) the extent to which these commitments predict classroom enactment of GCE practices in Punjab, Pakistan. Using a cross-sectional survey design, data were collected from 450 in-service secondary school teachers and analysed using descriptive statistics, correlation, and multiple regression techniques. Results indicate that teachers report strong philosophical commitment to GCE (M = 4.12), but only moderate classroom enactment (M = 3.27), revealing a belief practice gap. Philosophical commitment emerged as a strong predictor of enactment (B = .41, p < .001), with school type also exerting a significant effect. The findings advance GCE scholarship by empirically demonstrating how teacher belief structures shape pedagogical practice within constrained institutional contexts.Implications are discussed for teacher education, school leadership, and policy implementation aligned with SDG 4.7.

Bangladesh's madrasah education system plays a dual role in preserving core Islamic values while contributing to national development and human capital formation. However, a significant gap persists in integrating global competencies—such as critical thinking, collaboration, digital literacy, and global citizenship (as outlined in OECD and P21 frameworks)—into teacher training programs, particularly within the Bangladesh Madrasah Teachers' Training Institute (BMTTI) and broader madrasah curricula. This misalignment hinders madrasah graduates' readiness for 21st-century challenges and exacerbates educational dichotomies in the era of a competency-based national curriculum (NCTB, 2021 onward). This study proposes a culturally responsive teacher-training model, the IV-GC Harmony Model, that harmonizes Islamic ethical principles (e.g., Akhlaq, Adab, Tawhid-based worldview) with global competencies through blended, modular training. Employing a mixed-methods design, the research involved surveys and interviews with 150 madrasah teachers (Alia and Qawmi), analysis of BMTTI curricula, and a pilot implementation of the model in selected madrasahs. Preliminary findings indicate that the model significantly bridges perceived conflicts between traditional Islamic pedagogy and modern skills, improving teachers' self-efficacy in competency integration by approximately 32% (pre/post assessment) and enhancing perceived cultural congruence. Qualitative themes highlight increased willingness for reform amid resource constraints. The model offers actionable policy implications: alignment with the Madrasah Education Board reforms, the NCTB competency frameworks, and SDG 4.7 (global citizenship education). By fostering inclusive, values-grounded teacher development, this approach can enhance the relevance of madrasah education, promote equitable national development, and position Bangladesh as a model for culturally sensitive educational modernization in Muslim-majority contexts.

The twenty-first century is characterized by unprecedented global challenges, ranging from strategic competition among major powers, religious and ethnic conflicts, and territorial disputes to climate change, social inequality, pandemics, environmental degradation, and resource depletion. In this context, the demand for an educational paradigm that equips citizens with the knowledge, competencies, and values necessary to address global issues has become increasingly urgent, particularly in Vietnam. This study explores the opportunities and challenges of implementing Global Citizenship Education (GCED) as a strategic response to these pressing issues. Employing a qualitative research design that integrates analytical, synthetic, comparative, philosophical, and historical methods, the article examines both international frameworks and the Vietnamese context to identify areas of convergence and divergence. The findings suggest that while Vietnam has made significant progress in embedding global perspectives into its educational policies, there remain substantial gaps in curriculum design, teacher training, and assessment mechanisms. The article concludes by proposing fundamental solutions—such as curriculum innovation, pedagogical reform, and international cooperation—that can strengthen the effectiveness of GCED in Vietnam, thereby contributing to the attainment of sustainable development goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 4.7.