Bridging ideals and realities: International schools and Global Citizenship Education

• In Event: Values, knowledge, and curriculum in Global Citizenship Education

Proposal

This presentation defines the construct of the international school by pointing out the somewhat contradictory nature of its ideological and administrative purpose. In analyzing the troublesome construct of the international school, emphasis is placed on the relationship such schools tend to have with their local communities, showing there is a gap between discourse and practice. This opens the debate on the construct of global citizenship and global citizenship education (GCE). The two tensions that run through all of these different notions (international school, global citizenship, GCE) are, on the one hand, tension between local and global affiliations and, on the other, tension between a human rights rhetoric dedicated to sustainability and privileged cosmopolitan elitism. The presentation concludes with examples and suggestions of international school curricular directions that have the potential to unify the local with the global, thereby reducing the distance between mission and reality.

Author

• Conrad Hughes, Private