Possibilities and Challenges for Global Education as a Curriculum Innovation

• In Event: Roundtable Session 27
  In Roundtable Session: Curriculum Practice and Student Experiences

Abstract

Drawing on an in-depth, ethnographic study, the proposed paper further analyzes the case of one public high school that undertook an innovation process to integrate global education into its mainstream curriculum. Particular attention is given to motivations, enabling factors, and challenges to implementation, with the purpose of informing future reform efforts. Emergent themes from qualitative data analysis suggest that the integration of global education poses a challenge for schools because of the competing rationales of economic competition and global citizenship. What is at stake is not only the ability of schools to fully prepare students for life in the 21st century, but also their essential mission to cultivate empathy, cross-cultural understanding, and civic responsibility in a globalized world.

Authors

• Marzia Cozzolino DiCicco, University of Pittsburgh

• John P. Myers, Florida State University