ABSTRACT
In the late twentieth century, educational policy and curriculum reform documents around the world began to reference globalisation. Today, schools are expected to teach youth about globalisation and prepare them to face its threats and take advantage of its opportunities, as part of ‘global citizenship education’ or developing ‘twenty-first-century competencies’. In relation, UNESCO has emphasised ‘learning to live together’ as part of twenty-first-century education, while education for sustainable development is entering curricula as a way of responding to crises related to environmental destruction, resource scarcity, and climate change. This chapter examines globalisation as a historical concept, and different orientations toward it as they relate to education. It considers the extent to which various global orientations, such as neoliberalism and compassionate global citizenship, are emphasised as part of civic education, in light of the competing influence of nationally oriented aims. The chapter concludes that any strong messages of cosmopolitan global civic allegiance are unlikely to reach students, in contrast to more nationally oriented, neoliberal global citizenship themes.
