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During the 2016 to 2017 school year, the Québec Ministry of Education announced the rollout of a new course, Financial Education, that would take effect the following September. This sparked a curriculum debate over its potential impact on another Grade 11 course, Contemporary World. Tasked with preparing educators to teach both courses, the Social Sciences pedagogical consultant prepared instructional resources, organized professional learning communities, coordinated professional development training workshops, and arranged meetings with the principal, vice-principals, and board level administrators. This hypothetical case presents issues and challenges that may arise for educational leaders during the development and implementation of a new course.

This fictional case presents the challenges school districts face when developing a new curriculum. After the school board voted to create a global studies program at Northern High School, the social studies supervisor had the responsibility of designing and implementing the curriculum. With only a few months to implement the curriculum, the supervisor embraced an ambitious whole-school approach. This included bringing teachers together from different disciplines to draft a curriculum; investing in professional development; and encouraging participation of students, the school, and the community. This case presents issues and questions that may arise during the curriculum design and development process.

As globalization has grown, the concept of “global citizenship” has also evolved. The drive to expand citizenship beyond national borders spurred a nascent discipline known as global citizenship education (GCE). This article examines the continuum from globalization, to global citizenship, to a global pandemic (Covid-19)—and how the lessons from this growing age of globalism can serve as a blueprint for a new form of global citizenship following the pandemic, defined as “post-pandemic citizenship”. The first part chronicles the drive toward globalization since the second half of the 20th century. The second part details the defining traits of global citizenship. The third part calls for a new form of global citizenship that should become part of GCE and be included in global-studies-related secondary-school courses and curricula in the wake of Covid-19—a so-called post-pandemic citizenship education (PPCE)—that emphasizes public health, empathy and compassion, self-sacrifice, and cooperative spirit.