Global citizenship education curriculum through the lens of Indigenous knowledge systems: Perspectives from Ghana

This article explores, through semi-structured interviews with selected doctoral students and lecturers, clues for the incorporation of Indigenous knowledge systems into the curriculum of proposed academic programs in Development Education at a university in Ghana. We have used Freire’s pedagogy of hope as a theoretical lens to examine how Global Citizenship Education (GCE) curriculum inspired by Indigenous knowledges could offer hope to the world through the development of desired global citizens. We have argued that although GCE is ingrained in Western ideology, it should strive to embrace multiple [Indigenous] knowledges to enhance its contextual relevance. The findings show the nuanced and textured conceptualizations of global citizenship and GCE and demonstrate the bases for the inclusion of specific Ghanaian Indigenous knowledges in the GCE curriculum. The findings also highlight the opportunities and challenges of incorporating Indigenous themes in the curriculum. Based on the findings, we discuss some implications for GCE curriculum.