Cultivating Citizenship in Global Education: Opportunities and Challenges of a Competence-Based Curriculum for China

• In Event: 35.053 - Democratic Citizenship Education Around the World: Learning From an International Perspective

Abstract

In a milieu of polarized opinions in globalization, this study uses China as a showcase to examine the dilemma of cultivating national versus cosmopolitan citizenship in global education. Based on text analysis of the new curriculum standards, policies, and syllabuses, we discuss how the newly-identified concept of Guoji Lijie suyang (global understanding competence) may create opportunities for a democratic citizenship curriculum that is local, multicultural, and cosmopolitan, and facilitate value cultivation and civic actions. We also discuss some conceptual and pragmatic challenges in incorporating global understanding into existing citizenship education initiatives. We further reflect on the challenges of implementing such a curriculum, drawing on the perspectives of a small sample of school principals and teachers in Shanghai and Zhengzhou.

Authors

• Tao Wang, East China Normal University

• Audrey Helen Osler, University College of Southeast Norway

• yunhuo Cui, East China Normal University