Glocal citizenship education in lower secondary school. A case study in the canton of ticino (schwitzerland)

Resumen

Several countries have been expanding civic education beyond a national focus by incorporating a more global perspective at primary and secondary school levels. This trend is especially in Western democracies primarily due to the challenges related to multiculturalism, migration, and other issues associated with globalization. Thus, glocal citizenship education (CE) offers a situated, historical and critical perspective, essential to accompanying students as they become citizens committed to local, global, and translocal issues. This doctoral thesis is the result of educational research that starts from an interest in glocal CE in the context of Ticino with an emphasis on the perspectives of lower secondary school teachers to outline some critical elements for teacher professional development in glocal CE. In this qualitative study, among the main objectives, there is the identification of the attitudes, possibilities, and difficulties pictured by the teachers when implementing glocal CE. It also considers their knowledge of CE. The study also includes two additional levels, namely the regional context and the school of the teachers participating in the study. It allowed gaining a more complex understanding of teacher professional development needs and understanding of the visions of CE embedded in these contexts. This case study uses different methods of information gathering (documental revision, semi-structured interviews with teachers, and key informants). It also contains focus groups of discussion (FGD) and classroom observations with the teachers. In the interviews and FGD, specific art-based research methods are used, such as image-based inquiry and cartography. In addition, the doctoral thesis aimed to provide conceptual reflections on glocal CE and its components. The theoretical framework was fundamental for all the levels of analysis as the part dedicated to teachers’ voices as they play an essential role in research that intends to link theory to practice and social transformation. Resulting from this research, I observed the need to build a coherent discourse around glocal CE at a Cantonal, studied school, and teachers’ levels. Several contradicting visions of CE and its related aspects emerged. Lower secondary school teachers may need professional development to understand, problematize and apply glocal CE in their subject and in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary manners. It means offering a space for reflection and action in which they can rethink their roles and practices and collaborate in creating ways to implement glocal CE. Professional development linked with research could serve this purpose, and the use of research methods fostering critical learning opportunities for teachers, such as the art-based methods.