Pre-service teachers’ world history discussions: Distancing global citizenship, justice, and identity

Abstract

In this qualitative multi-case study, we illustrate how three pre-service teachers from varying programs and social positions framed discussions in world history classrooms, and we discuss the broader narratives about the world their discussions communicated. Using critical theories of global citizenship education (GCE) and the Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity (DSMRI), three primary data sources inform our analysis: observations of participants’ discussions, decision memos written while reflecting on their discussion facilitation, and semi-structured interviews. The three participants prioritized making discussion content relevant to their students. However, their facilitation practice ultimately contradicted such aims by favoring dominant and distancing global narratives, though this tendency went unacknowledged in interviews and while writing reflective memos. Our DSMRI cross-case analysis reveals how candidates’ role identities manifested in classroom discourse, with ontological and epistemological beliefs reliant on dominant global narratives. Despite varied personal experiences offering potential strengths for critical GCE teaching, participants’ self-perceived limited world history content knowledge appeared to condition their distanced and power-neutral facilitation approaches. By unconsciously relying on dominant narratives, teachers’ discussion facilitation positioned global issues firmly in the past and distant from students’ lived experiences and agency.