Global citizenship education and diversity (GCEDS): A measure of students’ attitudes related to social studies program in higher education

Abstract

Purpose: The aspects of global citizenship, education and diversity are framing a paradigm that encapsulates how education can develop the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes of learners needed for securing a world which is more just, peaceful, tolerant, inclusive, secure and sustainable. The determination of students’ attitudes toward global citizenship education and diversity is a phenomenal issue of the past several decades. This study aims to develop an attitude scale to quantify the attitudes of students, the content of courses and instructors toward global citizenship education and diversity. Design/methodology/approach: In this study, the factor structure and internal consistency of “Global Citizenship Education and Diversity Scale” (GCEDS) were analyzed, and validity and reliability of the scale were assessed. Two sample groups of participants were used in the assessment of the scale. The first sample group (exploratory factor analysis group) was composed of 147, and the second group (confirmatory factor analysis [CFA] group) was composed of 257 undergraduate students from three different large public universities in Turkey. Findings: CFA confirmed the structure that emerged in the explanatory factor analysis. In this context, “GCEDS” is a valid and reliable scale.