| Summary: | The purpose of this study was to determine how Canadian
social studies curriculum guides portray global education,
broadly defined as the study of foreign countries, cultures and
landscapes; universal or international issues; and connections
or comparisons of Canada/Canadians with other
countries/citizens. Forty-seven provincial and territorial
documents, current in 1988 for grades one through 12, were
analyzed around the following questions:
1. What rationales and goals are used to justify and
guide the pursuit of global education?
2. What is the recommended content (concepts, topics,
geographic coverage, global problems, extent of
global/local connections, disciplinary orientations,
and overall amount) of global education?
3. What characteristics of a global perspective are
advanced?
To pursue these questions, a 16 page analysis instrument was
developed in light of the varying definitions, rationales, and
concepts evident in the global education literature, and to
allow for a wide-ranging analysis of the nature and extent of
global education recommended in the curricula.
According to the analysis there is considerable space for the pursuit of global education within classrooms across Canada.
There is little indication of a lack of overall support for such
endeavours. If a teacher has the knowledge and inclination, a
significant amount of global studies could be pursued in the
classroom, as there are few constraints imposed by most
curricula. Overwhelmingly, positive rather than negative
characteristics of a global perspective are evident. However,
the rationales and goals used to justify and guide the pursuit
of global education, as well as the range of recommended
concepts, topics and geographic regions, differ considerably
across curricula. Current controversial topics are ignored in
general, and value reasoning, while identified as a goal by many
provinces, is not adequately supported with instructions or
examples.
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