Relationship of Cultural Intelligence and Global Citizenship Levels of Preservice Teachers in the Philippines

Abstract

With the global developments, educational institutions play a vital role in fostering cultural intelligence and global citizenship among individuals, including preservice teachers. Despite the plethora of research on cultural intelligence and global citizenship in higher education abroad, little is known about these in the Philippines, let alone their correlation. Employing a quantitative descriptive correlational design, this study investigated the relationship between cultural intelligence and global citizenship levels of 316 Philippine preservice teachers using the Cultural Intelligence and Global Citizenship Scales. The results revealed that although their cognitive cultural intelligence necessitates further development, the preservice teachers are highly competent and confident in communicating and functioning effectively in multicultural contexts. However, they exhibit limited global citizenship attributes, particularly in social responsibility. Most ethnic groups they represented were also identified to have high cultural intelligence and average global citizenship levels. Additionally, while the preservice teachers’ specialization, year level, and overseas experience did not play significant roles in their cultural intelligence levels, the study found their year level to be the lone variable that affected their global citizenship levels substantially. Overall, a positive correlation between cultural intelligence and global citizenship was identified. Aside from implications for strengthening internationalization strategies, recommendations for further investigations were discussed.