ABSTRACT
After thirty years of conflict in Northern Ireland, the stars aligned to allow for the introduction of a new citizenship education curriculum. At the same time as larger social and political movements were pressing for peace and reconciliation and politicians were signing the Good Friday Agreement, a new Department of Education was formed, ample government funding became available, and support and interest from policymakers and educators surged. Hopes were high for the success of this new education project. Yet, well over a decade since implementation began in 2007, the impact and future of the curriculum are uncertain. This chapter uses Fullan's model of curriculum change (2013) as a guide to analyze the structural, political, and bureaucratic realities that have hindered its implementation. Prominent among these are the marginalization of the curriculum by politicians and policymakers and the ways in which the power-sharing government has given education policymakers less flexibility and room for risk. While these factors have hindered the implementation of Local and Global Citizenship (LGC), there are three innovative aspects of LGC that future reformers can build upon: the emphasis on teachers, flexible pedagogical materials, and the transcendence of traditional disciplines.
