A scoping review of research on school-age youth activism in global citizenship education

Global citizenship education (GCE) has become a key topic in educational discourse, especially since its inclusion in the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This scoping literature review analyses 43 articles published between 2012 and 2023 on school-age youth activism within GCE literature. Articles were sourced from the EBSCO, ERIC, and WoS databases, using keywords related to youth, activism, and GCE. The review finds that research on GCE programmes focused on promoting forms of activism found them to be resource-intensive and predominantly based in affluent schools in the Global North. Programmes featured in the studies often emphasise social sciences and promote student activism in topics such as climate change and human rights. Activism depicted in these studies largely excludes the epistemological questioning necessary for Global North–South cooperation, being confined to specific subjects and contexts. The review calls for more research on school-age youth activism within the GCE framework and for the development of new programmes addressing activism in various contexts and in more nuanced ways.