Citizenship and the Challenge of Global Education

Book excerpt: Teachers have the challenge of teaching for equity, justice and solidarity in plural and fast-changing societies where their students are well aware of inequality and injustice. How much does government policy encourage understanding of global interdependence and skills for democratic participation? How can schools integrate issues of citizenship, human rights and multiculturalism and what support do they recieve? Drawing on case studies from England, Ireland, Denmark and the Netherlands, this text examines the institutional support provided in educating for global citizenship. It looks at the contradictions students and their teachers face when they compare what is learned in school with the messages from politicians and the media about refugees and asylum seekers, young poeple's rights, environmental issues and the impact of globalization.