Global competence development in EFL teacher training – An interview study on the global content in EFL teacher trainers' courses in Hungary

Abstract

In today's world, education needs to empower students to become active global citizens who are prepared for 21st century challenges and who can solve local and global problems, thus, who are globally competent. To affect lasting change in our education systems, it seems urgent to incorporate the global perspective as early as in initial teacher training, and nurture globally competent teacher trainees. As essentially teachers decide on what and how they teach, it is worth examining how they develop the knowledge dimension of global competence, i.e., what content they teach for global competence development (GCD). The main aim of this study, involving five university tutors involved in EFL teacher training in Hungary, is to inquire into what topics they deal with for GCD, what attitudes they have towards dealing with these topics, and how they decide on the content in their first-year language development courses. Findings suggest that they deal with a variety of global and intercultural issues in their lessons; however, they tend to avoid certain local ones. Overall, they have a reasonably positive attitude towards these issues. Finally, the participants predominantly consider the connection to the syllabus, students' language level, and personal and student interest important when deciding on what topics to deal with in class.