Evaluating the impact of global citizenship education programmes: A synthesis of the research

Abstract

Given the calls to reinforce the accountability of education programmes, this review evaluated studies that evaluated K-12 global citizenship education (GCED) programmes to assess the evidence that such programmes improved the students’ global learning. There are no current reviews assessing the impact of GCED programmes in the US. The authors conducted an electronic search in the educational databases to review the studies that addressed the impact of GCED programmes between 2000 and 2019. We reviewed the abstracts based on specific criteria: 33 studies met the inclusion criteria. Most of the studies were rejected because they did not provide the whole information about the programmes. The final 22 studies were selected because they provided the complete description about the evaluation programme of GCED. The review examined the components and the measures of the programmes, the approaches for collecting and analyzing data. The outcomes of the evaluated programmes support the claim that these programmes succeeded in improving students’ global learning. However, our analysis revealed flaws in the studies evaluating the impact of the GCED programmes.

Students’ and teachers’ voice on the outcomes of a citizenship education curriculum

“…Despite the reported challenges, overall, the program was rated as successful by the students and ticks points reported in the literature highlighting links to students' everyday lives. The curriculum focuses also on values, skills and knowledge, addressing the limitation of previous curricula as highlighted by Ahmed and Mohammed (2022) in their recent review. Given that contemporary citizenship education curriculums aim to talk to the issue of disengaged youth (Heggart et al, 2019), a curriculum that is enjoyed by students is highly relevant and important.…”

“…Citizenship education programs around the world have been evaluated in order to identify characteristics and guidelines for successful citizenship education curricula (see Ahmed and Mohammed, 2022 for a systematic review). Tibbitts and Torney-Purta (1999) identified as the main limitation of citizenship education programs in a Latin America report the lack of linking education to issues of concerns to the students.…”

“…Furthermore, the aspect of active participation is also complex, especially since teachers might lack the necessary skills to engage students in such activities. On the other hand, Ahmed and Mohammed (2022) in a systematic review of global citizenship education programs present positive findings linked to successful citizenship education programs: participation in such programs supports achievement of students from all backgrounds, supports students’ independence, personal development and respect towards the other. Extra-curricular activities as a way to enhance citizenship education learning have also been explored and report positive results (Campbell, 2005; Keser et al, 2011).…”

“…Nevertheless, despite the various studies in the field, a wholistic evaluation of a citizenship education program focusing on experiences of teachers and students is missing from the literature (Ahmed and Mohammed, 2022).…”

Mapping global citizenship: A Bibliometric analysis of the field of education for sustainable development

“…Since the approval of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the United Nations (UN) in 2015, GCE is increasingly capturing the attention of researchers and practitioners in the field of education from all parts of the world (Chiba et al, 2021). Additionally, other international organizations, agencies, and local governments are supporting the incorporation of GC into education systems through various projects and initiatives (Palaz, 2021;Ahmed and Mohammed, 2022). Therefore, it is not unreasonable to think that academic research on the subject has increased, and that is why this paper aims to examine the existing literature on GCE (up to 2021) in journals indexed in the Web of Science (WoS).…”