Strengthening global citizenship education in Sub-Saharan Africa: Lessons from curriculum reforms in Kenya

Abstract

Global Citizenship Education (GCE) is increasingly used to promote responsible participation in a more sustainable, equitable, and peaceful world. This article examines how curriculum reform in Kenya can strengthen GCE in Sub-Saharan Africa. The study was anchored in Critical Global Citizenship Education Theory. It applies a conceptual analysis of a purposively delimited and selected contemporary scholarship literature on GCE, competency-based education, values education, and curriculum implementation. Sixty-four records were screened, and eight articles for analysis were selected through a systematic source-identification process. Inclusion was limited to accessible peer-reviewed journal articles directly related to GCE, competency-based curriculum, values education, social studies, curriculum resources, or curriculum implementation. Non-peer-reviewed works, policy reports, books, theses, newspapers, inaccessible texts, duplicates, and unrelated records were excluded. The synthesis shows that Kenyan competency-based curriculum reform offers a strong ground base for GCE by emphasising competencies, values, learner agency, and local problem solving. GCE implementation is, however, undermined when aspirations for the curriculum are not grounded in teacher development, assessment formats, learning resources, and locally appropriate teaching and learning methods. The article proposes that GCE should be applied as a cross-curricular competence comprising civic knowledge, moral thinking, critical enquiry, working together across other disciplines in collaborative learning, cultural identity, and community action. It calls for explicit mapping of GCE competencies, teacher professional development, performance-based assessment, use of locally and globally relevant resources, and a school citizenship portfolio.