Perpetuating student inequality? The discrepancy and disparity of global citizenship education in Chinese rural & urban schools

Abstract

Global citizenship education (GCE) has been implemented in schools as an approach to address growing global issues and increase the internationalization of education. From critical discourse, however, the implementation of GCE seems to be thwarted by neoliberal practices that deepen societal inequality and gaps, and only benefit members of elite groups. This study aims to analyze teachers' perceptions and the school-based concrete implementation of context-specific GCE in China, unveiling not only the co-existence of neoliberal and moral perspective in teachers' conceptual framework, but the key role that teachers and schools play in the implementation. It argues that sampled teachers follow inclusive understandings of global citizenship, their definitional frameworks were profoundly shaped by the multiple interplays between global forces, official discourses, and moral tradition. Given that a central characteristic of GCE is working as an "axis" to group the cross-cutting themes or initiatives of global dimensions within a range of courses and across school ethos, extra-curricular activity and international program in particular. The discrepancies and disparities in GCE development seen between rural and urban schools extend education inequality from local to the global sphere, in which underprivileged students have heightened risks of being marginalized in the global world.

Scrutiny of Global Citizenship in Chinese Elementary School English Textbooks and Teachers’ Practices during COVID-19 Pandemic

“…However, notwithstanding the concept of global citizenship has been incorporated into Chinese government policy, there is still no specific definition of GCE from the relevant policy on the national curriculum (Li, 2021), nor any explanation of what GCE should look like and how it should be implemented in China. Moreover, since Han Chinese make up the vast majority of Chinese population, students may lack the opportunity to engage in consideration of complexities and realities of living in a multi-ethnic society (Mansilla & Wilson, 2020).…”

“…Since China's citizenship education is stateled, Chinese culture has always been an important part of China's citizenship education as well as a significant element of Chinese identity (Law, 2013). Moreover, Li (2021) carried out a case study to compare the implementation of GCE between Chinese rural and urban schools from teachers' perspectives, and the findings showed that teachers had a broad notion of GCE and disparities were identified between rural and urban schools. Woods and Kong (2020) explored the GCE in Chinese international schools and pointed out that GCE was more like an imagined ideal than a realistic template.…”