Global citizenship education and teacher education in Oceania

An assessment as to the degree to which global citizenship education principles are incorporated within teacher education programs within Oceania is, in some ways, an elusive phenomenon. Consequently, in recognition of the influence of this colonial history on global citizenship education (GCED), this chapter looks at GCED in teacher education according to the phases of colonialism in Oceania. As ‘advanced, stable, leading democracies with well-developed systems of public education’, it is inevitable that their collective view of GCED is formed from this perspective of economic strength. However, there is a layer to this nuanced treatment of GCED in Oceania; that is, a difference between the longer-established modern democracies such as Australia and New Zealand and the more recently formed sovereign States, such as those in the Pacific Islands. Within Oceania, it is only in the relatively well-resourced countries such as Australia and New Zealand that GCED is seen as central to the national curriculum.