Education for sustainable development and global citizenship education in the GCC: a systematic literature review

Countries in the Gulf Corporation Council (GCC) are undergoing tremendous social and economic change in a bid to transform their societies into thriving knowledge-based economies embedded within the global system. Education is at the heart of the agenda. This has led to sweeping, mainly neo-liberal educational reforms. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and, to a lesser extent global citizenship education (GCED), is a vital part of this shift to achieve post-carbon economies and economic diversification. This paper is a systematic literature review of ESD and GCED in the GCC. It aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of the art and identify common themes, issues, and challenges in implementing ESD and GCED in the region. One important finding is that the vast majority of current studies focus on the multiple dimensions inside educational institutes, such as their students, faculty and curricula. New lines of research might explore alternative means for education and shaping people’s worldviews outside traditional educational settings. The second significant finding is that despite Gulf-specific trends, the broad overarching challenges, bottlenecks, and recommendations are strikingly similar to other countries, particularly Europe. This indicates a deeper structural and epistemological crisis within modern education systems itself.