Supporting the Growth of Global Citizenship Educators

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a study, which was a part of a broader project to develop and pilot test a global citizenship education (GCE) teaching kit. This study involved examining a group of typical teachers' perceptions, attitudes and beliefs about becoming global citizen educators. The study posed the question, "Can providing teachers with global citizenship education resources and supporting them in the implementation of these resources improve their capacity to be effective global educators?" We can infer from our study that there is mainstream appeal amongst social studies teachers for GCE. However, there are a number of limitations and barriers that prevent even those committed to global citizenship education from implementing GCE in their classrooms. Therefore, we argue that it is critically important to provide teachers with sustainable supports such as curriculum aligned teaching materials and professional development opportunities to become global citizenship educators.