Global Citizenship

This article draws attention to the keyword "global citizenship" through an analysis of the ambiguity of expectations of teachers from the Ontario curriculum documents. Particular reference is drawn to the citizenship education framework, an addition to the 2013 revision of Ontario Curriculum: Social Studies, Grades 1 to 6; History, and Geography, Grades 7 and 8. Teachers are seemingly charged with teaching students to be global citizens, with little indication as to what it means to be a global citizen. The vague expectation in the framework is an example of the history of the discrepancy in interpreting global citizenship as the phrase "global citizenship" is made up of an adjective and a noun which individually indicate particular attributions that do not make sense when used together. Using the OED definition as a starting point, this article defines "citizen" and "citizenship, in the context of globalization and examines the historical shifts in the allocation of rights and responsibilities, attributes of the terms, and how they came to be recognized globally, and eventually in schools.