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Facing the Challenge: Obstacles to Global and Global Citizenship Education in US Schools

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Nation-Building and History Education in a Global Culture

Part of the book series: Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research ((GCEP,volume 13))

Abstract

Regardless of how positively or negatively globalization is seen by theorists, all scholars agree that globalization has a profound effect on world economy, politics, culture, human lives, and behaviors. Debates about globalization involve an increasing number of people, institutions, local, state, and international agencies. However, schools in the United States, despite a slow progress, are still largely outside of these debates. Studies demonstrate, on the one hand, a growing interest among education practitioners in various aspects of global education but, on the other hand, very limited knowledge about global processes or motivation to introduce and integrate the ideas of global citizenship in classroom instructions. This chapter describes some challenges that global and global citizenship education face in US schools. Among those challenges are lasting traditions of isolationism and noncritical patriotism in the society, terminological vagueness and ambiguity, curricular instability of global and global citizenship education, and lack of administrative support. Specifically, the author argues that correctly organized curricular pressure through the inclusion of global education concepts into curricular documents, particularly academic standards, will bring the attention of teacher community to those important aspects of the contemporary world.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

    Anatoli Rapoport

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  1. Anatoli Rapoport
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Correspondence to Anatoli Rapoport .

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  1. Australian Catholic University, East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Joseph Zajda

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Rapoport, A. (2015). Facing the Challenge: Obstacles to Global and Global Citizenship Education in US Schools. In: Zajda, J. (eds) Nation-Building and History Education in a Global Culture. Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research, vol 13. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9729-0_10

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