This open access book takes a critical and international perspective to the mainstreaming of the Global Citizenship Concept and analyses the key issues regarding global citizenship education across the world. In that respect, it addresses a pressing need to provide further conceptual input and to open global citizenship agendas to diversity and indigeneity. Social and political changes brought by globalisation, migration and technological advances of the 21st century have generated a rise in the popularity of the utopian and philosophical idea of global citizenship. In response to the challenges of today’s globalised and interconnected world, such as inequality, human rights violations and poverty, global citizenship education has been invoked as a means of preparing youth for an inclusive and sustainable world. In recent years, the development of global citizenship education and the building of students’ global citizenship competencies have become a focal point in global agendas for education, international educational assessments and international organisations. However, the concept of global citizenship education still remains highly contested and subject to multiple interpretations, and its operationalisation in national educational policies proves to be challenging. This volume aims to contribute to the debate, question the relevancy of global citizenship education’s policy objectives and to enhance understanding of local perspectives, ideologies, conceptions and issues related to citizenship education on a local, national and global level. To this end, the book provides a comprehensive and geographically based overview of the challenges citizenship education faces in a rapidly changing global world through the lens of diversity and inclusiveness.

A major aim of Nation-Building, Identity and Citizenship Education: Cross-cultural Perspectives is to present a global overview of selected scholarly research on global and comparative trends in dominant discourses of identity politics, and nation-building in comparative education research. It provides an easily accessible, practical, yet scholarly source of information about the international concern in the field of nati- building, identity and citizenship education. Above all, the book offers the latest findings on discourses surrounding national identity, nation-building, and citizenship education in the global culture. It offers a timely overview of current issues affecting the formation of social identity and citizenship education in the global culture. More than ever before, there is a need to understand and analyse both the intended and the unintended effects of globalisation and the forces of globalisation on nations, organisations, communities, educational institutions and individuals around the world. This is particularly relevant to the evolving and constantly cha- ing notions of nation-states, national identity, and citizenship education globally. Current global and comparative research demonstrates a rapidly changing world where citizens are experiencing a growing sense of alienation, uncertainty, and loss of moral purpose. In this stimulating and important book, the authors focus on discourses surrou- ing three major dimensions affecting the national identity, nation-building, and ci- zenship education debate in education and society: ideology, democracy, and human rights. These are among the most critical and significant dimensions defining and contextualising the processes surrounding the nation-building and identity.

The ideas for this reader came out of a conference organized through the Centre for Global Citizenship Education and Research (CGCER) at the University of Alberta in 2013. With the high expansion of global citizenship education scholarship in the past 15 or so years, and with most of this scholarship produced in the west and mostly focused on the citizenship lives of people in the so-called developing world, or selectively attempting to explain the contexts of marginalized populations in the west, the need for multidirectional and decolonizing knowledge and research perspectives should be clear. Indeed, the discursive as well as the practical constructions of current global citizenship education research cannot fulfill the general promise of learning and teaching programs as social development platforms unless the voices of all concerned are heard and validated. With these realities, this reader is topically comprehensive and timely, and should constitute an important intervention in our efforts to create and sustain more inclusive and liberating platforms of knowledge and learning. “This collection of cutting-edge theoretical contributions examines citizenship and neo-liberal globalization and their impacts on the nexus of the local and global learning, production of knowledge, and movements of people and their rights. Case studies in the collection also provide in-depth analysis of lived experiences that challenge the constructed borders, which derive from colonial and imperial re-structuring of the contemporary world and nation-states. The contributors articulate agency in terms of both resistance and proactive engagement toward the construction of an alternative world, which acknowledges equality, justice and common humanity of all in symbiosis with the social and natural environment. It is a valuable reader for students, scholars, practitioners, and activists interested in the empowering possibilities of decolonized global citizenship education.” – N’Dr

This book examines dominant discourses in multiculturalism and cultural identity globally. It critiques dominant discourses and debates pertaining to multiculturalism and cultural identity, set against the current backdrop of growing social stratification and unequal access to quality education. It addresses current discourses concerning globalisation, ideologies and the state, as well as approaches to constructing national, ethnic and religious identities in the global culture. It explores the ambivalent and problematic connections between the state, globalisation, and the construction of cultural identity. The book also explores conceptual frameworks and methodological approaches applicable to research on the state, globalisation, multiculturalism and identity politics. Drawing on diverse paradigms, ranging from critical theory to globalisation, the book, by focusing on globalisation, ideology and cultural identity, critically examines recent research dealing with cultural diversity and its impact of identity politics. Given the need for a multiple perspective approach, the authors, who have diverse backgrounds and hail from different countries and regions, offer a wealth of insights, contributing to a more holistic understanding of the nexus between multiculturalism and national identity. With contributions from key scholars worldwide, the book should be required reading for a broad spectrum of users, including policy-makers, academics, graduate students, education policy researchers, administrators, and practitioners.

The Palgrave Handbook of Citizenship and Education provides an authoritative and comprehensive overview of the current field of citizenship and education. It draws on insights from a range of disciplines to explore historical, philosophical, theological, sociological and psychological ideas on how the two concepts intersect and is international in scope, authorship and readership. Five sections provide a clear outline of: Foundational thinkers on, and the theories of, citizenship and education; Citizenship and education in national and localised contexts; Citizenship and education in transnational contexts; Youth, advocacy, citizenship and education; Contemporary insights on citizenship and education; An essential resource for scholars interested in how theorizations of citizenship, civic identity and participatory democracy are, and could be, operationalized within educational theories, educational debates, educational curricular, and pedagogic practices.

A major aim of Nation-Building, Identity and Citizenship Education: Cross-cultural Perspectives is to present a global overview of selected scholarly research on global and comparative trends in dominant discourses of identity politics, and nation-building in comparative education research. It provides an easily accessible, practical, yet scholarly source of information about the international concern in the field of nati- building, identity and citizenship education. Above all, the book offers the latest findings on discourses surrounding national identity, nation-building, and citizenship education in the global culture. It offers a timely overview of current issues affecting the formation of social identity and citizenship education in the global culture. More than ever before, there is a need to understand and analyse both the intended and the unintended effects of globalisation and the forces of globalisation on nations, organisations, communities, educational institutions and individuals around the world. This is particularly relevant to the evolving and constantly cha- ing notions of nation-states, national identity, and citizenship education globally. Current global and comparative research demonstrates a rapidly changing world where citizens are experiencing a growing sense of alienation, uncertainty, and loss of moral purpose. In this stimulating and important book, the authors focus on discourses surrou- ing three major dimensions affecting the national identity, nation-building, and ci- zenship education debate in education and society: ideology, democracy, and human rights. These are among the most critical and significant dimensions defining and contextualising the processes surrounding the nation-building and identity.