Global Citizenship Education and the Development of Globally Competent Teacher Candidates

Abstract

This manuscript presents findings from a reflective inquiry of one global educator’s attempt to develop globally competent teacher candidates in an elective general education course for teacher candidates.  The course, entitled Issues in Global Education, was offered to 23 undergraduate teacher candidates in the spring of 2016. One goal of this manuscript is to make the tacit and elusive elements of global education more explicit for practitioners. Discussed within are two frameworks, Global Citizenship Education (UNESCO, 2015) and a Globally Competent Teaching Continuum (2014), which informed the design and enactment of opportunities for teacher candidates to participate in critical inquiry and cross-cultural experiential learning. A second goal is to demonstrate the extent to which teacher candidates learned and developed global competencies as a consequence of participation in the course. Data were collected from teacher candidates’ reflective journals at five different intervals during the 15-week course and analyzed thematically. Findings from this inquiry demonstrate the efficacy of global citizenship education practices and the power of collaboration as resources from the campus and community were leveraged to create a transformative educational experience for all involved. At a time when our classrooms and communities are more diverse and globally connected, this research contributes to a growing body of literature for preparing globally competent teacher candidates and offers several implications for global education practitioners.