Global Justice and Primary Education: The Case of Mathematics, Science and Languages

Abstract

Understanding the school as an engine of change requires putting the world and people at the center of the educational processe. The Global Citizenship Education (GCE) approach helps us understand existing issues and participate in social transformation. Based on semi-structured interviews with people from Non-Governmental Organizations for Development (NGODs), primary school teachers and university teachers, and through coding, sequential interpretation, comparative analysis and categorization of the data, the current situation, opportunities and challenges, of the integration of the global dimension in the Primary Education curriculum, specifically in the areas of mathematics, science and languages, is investigated. The results point to the need to move towards a globalized approach, placing the GCE as the axis that gives meaning to all school knowledge, overcoming a merely instrumental and literacy-based perspective on mathematics and languages, and questioning and expanding the work of ecosocial issues in the field of science. The education of critical citizens, capable of responding to the challenges of the current society should begin in the early educational stages and be approached from any area of knowledge.