The role of curriculum in teachers’ understanding of Global Citizenship Education in one public school in Akmola region, Kazakhstan

Abstract

Today Global Citizenship Education is becoming a popular in school system. This new aspect has not widely discussed Kazakhstani schools and it is important to find out what is the situation of the schools toward GCE. The purpose of this qualitative case-study is to explore the understanding of global citizenship education among 10 teachers at a public school in Akmola region (Grades 7-11). Through semi-structured interviews, non-participant classroom observations, document analysis the study investigated how “global citizenship education” is integrated into academic subjects such as Physical education, History, Geography, Languages, Physics, Maths, English included in the curriculum. Purposeful sampling was used to select the participants of the study. Data was collected through document analysis of the academic subjects included in the curriculum, non-participant classroom observations, and semi-structured interviews. Semi-structured interviews were held to examine teachers’ perceptions towards “global citizenship education” and how teachers define their role or responsibilities in preparing students for “global citizenship education”. The findings showed the importance of integrating global awareness into the different subjects of the curriculum; the need of professional development for teachers; the importance of administrative leadership in teaching GCE. There is a discussion of recommendations and conclusions which may help in promoting GCE at school.