The Case Against Liberal Global Citizenship Education

Abstract Liberal global citizenship education (GCE) has emerged as a prominent conception of global education, aiming to cultivate universal liberal values in students worldwide. There are two versions: comprehensive GCE, which aims for liberal values in students’ private lives, and political GCE, which restricts education to students’ public lives as citizens. Generally, existing critiques take issue with the theory of liberalism. In this paper, I instead offer an internal objection which holds that liberalism itself does not support liberal GCE. I proceed by objecting to comprehensive and political GCE on the grounds of liberal toleration. I argue that comprehensive GCE is not legitimate, as its parochial values are intolerant of nonliberal comprehensive doctrines. Educating for comprehensive liberal values oversteps legitimate educational justifications. Political GCE, I argue, is intolerant when extended internationally to nonliberal societies. Liberalism must remain tolerant of nonliberal societies and political doctrines out of respect for reasonable alternative values. Liberal GCE, therefore, is not supported by liberalism and is not a candidate for a conception of global education.