A comparative review of policy and practice for education for sustainable development/education for global citizenship (ESD/GC) in teacher education across the four nations of the UK

Abstract

The early 21st century has seen a period of extreme turbulence in education at all levels in the UK. Although education policy was administrated on a territorial basis before 1999, the 1998–1999 devolution settlement has amplified the complexity of education policy and practice across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Through a comparative review of teacher education across the four nations, this article will highlight aspects of divergence and convergence of policy and practice with a particular focus on education for sustainable development/education for global citizenship (ESD/GC). The implications for ESD/GC will be considered in relation to statutory teaching standards/competencies, values and ideologies, curriculum and pedagogy, and the role of the third sector. This discussion will identify opportunities and challenges facing ESD/GC in teacher education across the four nations.

Terminological “Communities”: A Conceptual Mapping of Scholarship Identified With Education’s “Global Turn”

“…UNESCO’s recent integration of GCE into its 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) bound the concepts of sustainable development and GCE together in a more meaningful way. However, these notions, our analysis shows, have already been referred to in tandem in the literature long before this (see Bamber et al, 2016). The centrality of these topics in the network is not surprising, as UNESCO’s SDGs have now become a driving force and central rationale in much of the GCE scholarship.…”

“…The third community in the GCE network points to a very distinct strand in the GCE scholarship devoted to the definitions and conceptions promoted by UNESCO, which until recently centered heavily on environmental education and education for sustainable development but now also encompass peace education under the umbrella of GCE (Bamber et al, 2016; Bamber, Lewin, & White, 2018; Mochizuki, 2016). The uniqueness of this community shows that these topics are often presented in a way that does not necessarily engage with other forms of GCE in any meaningful manner and is somewhat disconnected from the concrete skills, dispositions, and structures found in the other communities (Mochizuki, 2016).…”

The quest for better teaching

“…In Australia, such reforms include the development of standards for teacher education programs, extended placement in schools, literacy and numeracy tests prior to graduation, and capstone assessment of 'classroom readiness' (Craven et al, 2014;Gonski et al, 2018). Sweeping changes have certainly characterised teacher education in the United States (Bales, 2018) and the United Kingdom (Bamber et al, 2016;Beauchamp et al, 2015;Donaldson, 2010;Furlong, 2015). As just one example, the diversification and multiplication of pathways into teacher education in England is unprecedented (Furlong, 2013;Whitty, 2014), with programs such as Teach First (Teach First, 2020) and Troops to Teachers (Department of Education, 2020) added to a host of other university and schoolbased options.…”

Global human resources or critical global citizens? An inquiry into the perspectives of Japanese university educators on global citizenship education

“…The last two decades have seen a number of countries starting to implement GCE in both schools and universities with the intention of producing more globally oriented students [See Ho ( 2018 ), for Japan; Moon and Koo ( 2011 ), for South Korea; O’Connor and Faas ( 2012 ), for England/France/Ireland; Rapoport ( 2010 ), for the United States; Schweiswurth ( 2006 ), for Canada; Tarozzi and Inguaggiato ( 2018 ), for Italy/Austria/Ireland/Czech Republic]. These initiatives have numerous manifestations and may be implemented via formal national policies (Bamber et al 2016 ) or various local initiatives (Gaudelli 2016 ) or introduced by a single academic (Goren and Yemini 2017 ). This has led several Japanese higher education institutions (HEIs) (e.g., University of Tokyo, Sophia University, and Waseda University) to include terms like global education , global citizenship, and global citizen either in their mission statements or specific programs and module outlines.…”