Rethinking global education approaches and practices: A critical review of curriculum in action at secondary and higher secondary schools in Pakistan

Abstract

The traditional nation-specific approaches of education are being criticized for developing ethnocentric worldviews among students. In this context, there is a call for global education model as an alternative to the traditional nation-specific model of education for developing students’ worldmindedness. However, global education model is also criticized to be uncritical to issues of globalisation. This paper aims at critically exploring curriculum practices of global education in Pakistani schools. In this study, qualitative case study design was employed and 18 secondary and higher secondary school teachers were selected as participants employing purposive sampling techniques. The data was collected through document analysis, interviews and teachers’ classroom observations. The data were analyzed using qualitative data analysis method. The findings and results revealed that subject matter knowledge and pedagogies do not consider issues from multiple perspectives, attach less emphasis on knowledge of alternative choices and perspectives. The findings also revealed that subject matter knowledge and pedagogies reproduce colonial cultural knowledge, ignore economic dependencies and multiple forms of human rights violations in international human rights discourses. This study also proposes postcolonial theoretical framework for global education to make curriculum practices of global education more global-centric.