A Decolonial Analysis of Curriculum Intentions for Global Citizenship Education in two Asian Societies

• In Event: Democracy Needs Education: Civic Learning Across Global Contexts in Troubling Times

Abstract

1. Objectives
Scholarship on global citizenship education (GCE), reveals a consensus to educate youth for responsive action to interconnected global issues so that citizens may work towards more just, peaceful, and sustainable futures (UNESCO, 2014). Yet anti-democratic climates and policies threaten GCE’s transformative aspirations. Increasingly, scholars call for curricula that critically consider the historical roots of hierarchies across societies. This paper explored the complexities that arise from intersections and contradictions between national curriculum intentions and broader possibilities for GCE in the Philippines and Singapore. By examining two democratic, multicultural nation-states with similar colonial histories, we aim to contribute to studies of curriculum that enable young people to understand and address global problems impacting communities everywhere.

2. Theoretical framework(s)
We drew on critiques of dominant western, colonialist, and capitalist traditions (Busey & Dowie-Chin, 2021; Sabzalian, 2019) that prevent people of Color, women, immigrants, and Indigenous communities from participating in democratic deliberations over public issues. Specifically, concepts forwarded by critical theorist Kwan-Hsing Chen (2010) inspired our inquiry. Inter-referencing calls for Asian societies to become their own reference points instead of referencing the West. Multiplying frames of reference necessitates widening sources of knowledge to include traditional, Indigenous, and alternative perspectives when considering GCE; whereas, critical syncretism advocates using these perspectives as cultural resources to decolonize societies and identities.

3. Modes of inquiry
Based on decolonizing concepts, we developed an inquiry approach to enable educators’ reflections on the nature of GCE (Authors, 2022). The framework features seven dimensions: identity, issues, interconnection, inequality, interlocution, indigeneity, and intention. These dimensions and guiding questions for analysis are featured in Table 1.

4. Data sources
Our inquiry centered on the Philippines’ Araling Panlipunan (social studies) curriculum (Department of Education, 2024) and Singapore’s Social Studies Education Framework (Ministry of Education, 2023). Additionally, we drew on recent literature and studies of civic education in Asia to sketch the context of GCE in both settings.

5. Results
Analysis revealed the visibility of global citizenship in the Philippines’ and Singapore’s social studies curriculum, showing that increasingly, states recognize the ways nations and people are interconnected and share responsibilities to address global issues. We also found a common emphasis on the primacy of national identity formation, foregrounded as a foundation for learning about and understanding national and global issues, cultural diversity and social cohesion, and interconnection to fellow citizens and the world. While there is growing recognition of Indigenous perspectives in educational practice, these are confined to the study of history and deemed less relevant to contemporary problems.

6. Scholarly significance
Since dialogic and deliberative approaches to civic education often tend to reflect dominant narratives and power relations to reproduce existing inequalities, there is a need to engage in counternarration (Gibson, 2020), a process that recognizes often-overlooked stories, perspectives, and epistemologies to upend entrenched understandings of the world. Our examination of GCE in the two Asian societies reveal that interlocution is necessary to illuminate counternarrative paths, especially in strengthening young citizens’ solidarity with the global community and preparing them to confront common issues.

Authors

• Theresa Alviar Martin, Kennesaw State University

• Mark C. Baildon, Indiana University