Citizenship education, democracy and global shifts: Re-thinking Caribbean Social Studies

Abstract

This monograph examines the role and challenges of social studies in achieving citizenship education or cultivating democratic-minded citizens in the Caribbean, and offers a theoretical and conceptual framework of understanding the role of social studies in the Caribbean school curriculum. It also provides a discussion of the profound challenges posed by globalization and technological change for secondary schools and, in particular, for social studies teachers. It argues that these global shifts or imperatives require responses from social studies and other educators, which are characterized by a global perspective, inventiveness, industriousness, and a national sense of belonging. The main points of the monographs are summarized in a set of recommendations, which suggest that if social studies is to effectively achieve the critical goal of citizenship education in the Caribbean context, certain fundamental changes will need to be made to the way the subject is conceptualized, supported, financed, perceived, taught, and examined, among other things.