THE IDEA OF GLOBAL EDUCATION IN TEACHER PREPARATION

Abstract

Education policies worldwide deal with the question of how to best prepare students for participation in a globalized society. Consequently, teacher education programs seek to equip pre-service teachers (PSTs) with suitable knowledge and pedagogical skills to prepare students to perform well in a changing world. The global education perspective was introduced as an appropriate orientation for this purpose; nevertheless, its implementation in teacher education is still a work in progress. The research objectives are to identify the factors included in PSTs' perception of global education and the factors that motivate them to be trained to teach it. Integrating these factors in the design of teacher-training programs that focus on global education may yield effective results. Adopting the definition of Ferguson-Patrick, Macqueen & Reynolds (2014), the objectives of global education as perceived in the current study are to develop young people's ability to appreciate cultural diversity, pursue social justice, build a sustainable future, and develop global relationships while inculcating open-mindedness and a sense of agency.Relying on the study of Wang, Lin, Spaling, Odell & Klecka (2011), Ferguson-Patrick and colleagues (2014) argued that there are two main approaches to global education that should be promoted in teacher education: (a) a skills-based approach (i.e., focusing on 21st-century skills associated with STEM and intercultural communication); and (b) a critical approach (i.e., focusing on developing citizens committed to the principles of social justice and human rights).A total of 105 PSTs in their freshman year completed a survey pertaining to their:(1) demographics; (2) knowledge of global issues; (3) information sources regarding global issues (4) perceptions of global education; and (5) motivation to be trained in a global education perspective. The constructs that emerged from the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) indicated that PSTs perceive the global education perspective to be based on two main approaches: (1) the social justice approach; and (2) the knowledge, skills, and multi-cultural approach. motivational factors for training according to the global education perspective: (1) instrumental-competitive motivation; (2) didactic-multicultural motivation; and (3) social justice motivation. One-way repeated-measures ANOVA demonstrated that among the three, the didactic-multicultural approach was the most prevalent factor.Consequently, programs intended to train teachers according to the global education perspective should combine knowledge of both global contents (especially as related to social justice) and global pedagogy. Furthermore, a focus on didactic strategies will give teachers a practical way to construct their professional identity as social justice agents.