Pre-Service Social Studies Teachers' Perception of Global Citizenship

Abstract

Due to contuniuing developments in science, technology, and communication, definition of citizenship and what is expected from a citizen as well as political, social and economical changes around the world. In order for students to adapt to the new developments and changes, educators need to provide students with various skills such as respecting differences, using multiple perspectives in discusions, being sensitive to the environmental problems, and being effective in decision making. Social studies teachers, as one of important components of educational system, play a key role to meet these expectations. Therefore it is crucial to for social studies teachers to improve their knowledge, skills, and values regarding global citizenship. This study aims to understand how pre-service social studies teachers perceives global citizenship, how they define the concept of global citizenship and related concepts, and how they explain to what extend global citizenship is employed in social studies education. The study employed phenomenology in order to gather the data. The data obtained as a result of the interviews were analysed through in NVivo 10 package program. Findings obtained as a result of this phenomenological study, only some of the pre-service social studies teachers made explanatory statements about the concept of global citizenship, whereas other participants emphasized on the characteristics that a global citizen should have instead of explaining purely the concept. Another finding was that the participants believed that being a global citizen was a necessity; however, one should have the some characteristics, in other words requirements to be considered as a global citizen and without meeting these requirements he/she cannot be counted as a global citizen. In addition, the findings also included that the pre-service teachers did not take any course directly related to global citizenship during their undergraduate education, it was partly mentioned only in two courses therefore they learned about global citizenship mostly through the media, social media, friends, and various non-governmental organizations rather than in-class.