The Impact of the Canadian Context on Global Citizenship Education

• In Event: 29.019 - Internationalization, Immigration, and Global Citizenship Education: Toward Equal Educational Opportunity in Canada

Abstract

This paper examines how the historical, geographical, and socio-political Canadian context shapes how global citizenship is framed in this location. The idea of global citizenship quickly became part of informal and formal education in Canada since about 2000. It has been an unsettled idea and how and where it shifted in the last 15 years is significant in that it reflects wider patterns of colonialism and settlerism, racism and social stratification, liberal and neoliberal multiculturalism, and efforts to build a cohesive society. The paper is an analysis of policies of multiculturalism, the Charter of Rights and Freedom (a law protecting minority rights), the Indian Act and the more recent Truth and Reconciliation Commission Findings documents.

Author

• Lynette Anne Shultz, University of Alberta