Exploring Global Citizenship Education through Integrated Curricula

This article is informed by a qualitative case study of a primary school in England which developed an integrated school curriculum which focused on global citizenship education (GCE). The school followed a number of steps to create an integrated curriculum with the aim of inspiring its students to engage in global learning and active citizenship. If we are to prepare our students to be effective citizens, we must inspire them to engage with lifelong learning, and not to discard subjects when they have been completed school. Lifelong learning is essential to the aspirations of GCE which aims to equip students to be effective citizens in an ever changing global society (Banks, 2008; Merryfield and Duty, 2008; Banks, 2006; Davies et al., 2010). This article outlines a number of delivery models for curricula which range from the traditional fragmented model of delivery where subjects follow very distinctive divisions to pure student-led immersed models in which discipline lines fade and the student is enabled to choose the most effective themes and methods to explore topics (Fogarty, 1991; Kysilka, 1998). According to Kysilka (1998) and Drăghicescu et al. (2013) the main focus of effective integrated curricula is on forming connections between the school and the ‘real world’. Indeed, many researchers have found that students who have been exposed to integrated curricula experience both higher academic achievement and a deeper engagement with the topics explored (DeLuca et al., 2015; Anderson, 2013; Drăghicescu et al., 2013; Cervetti et al., 2012; Johnston, 2011; White, 2008; Schultz, 2007)