How will a conceptualized GCE curriculum function within Chinese secondary schools?

Abstract

Global citizenship education (GCE) advocates global interdependency and interconnectedness, encouraging students to actively defend social justice, equity, and sustainable development at both local and global levels. When putting GCE into use, educators need specifications to transform it from normative ideals into knowledge suitable for conceptual learning. This case study explores Chinese educators’ views on GCE regarding operationalized intents, practices, and preparation for implementation in a curriculum. It aims to understand how the conceptualization of GCE functions as a curriculum innovation at secondary school level. Principals (n = 6) and teachers (n = 10) from six participating schools in an anonymous city in Jiangsu province were purposely sampled, providing data for the researcher in semistructured interviews. The study reveals a GCE curriculum prototype in which the intents were subject to Confucian values and Moral Education’s disciplines, whereas pedagogies and instructional approaches were planned to be consistent with constructivist teaching and delivered in an authentic learning context.