This quantitative study was conducted at a large four year, high undergraduate, public university (for this article, called Midwest University) to compare and assess the perceived benefit of traditional study abroad and short-term, faculty-led study abroad on participants’ employability skills, cultural competency and global citizenship. Participants reported their education abroad experience enhanced their understanding of course content as well as their views about global citizenship. The survey collected data about participants’ perceptions about social responsibility, global competency, and global civic engagement. In addition, the survey collected data about career competency skills such as teamwork, interpersonal communication, networking ability, leadership, problem solving and foreign language skills. The study defined education abroad at Midwest University and determined how well the program delivered on the Midwest University promise of social and economic mobility. Given that the resources devoted to a short-term, faculty-led experience are significantly lower than in a traditional study abroad program, the authors argue that this type of experience is more accessible to the students and participants at Midwest University.
Although developing of the 21 st Century skills of Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking and Creativity or the 4Cs has been seen as an important foundation of 21 st century teaching and learning, there have been difficulties identified in 4Cs implementation in schools. Primarily, issues associated with an overcrowded and disjointed curriculum (Lamb, Maire, & Doecke, 2017); a continued focus on teacher centred teaching (Adarlo & Jackson, 2015); and lack of encouragement of independent student inquiry (Poon et al., 2017) have been identified. However, initial studies have identified Project Based Learning (PBL) in extracurricular activities as a promising approach to incorporating the 4Cs in an authentic and sustainable manner. This investigation of a Global PBL approach in Indonesia and an African country as part of the 2013 Indonesian curriculum, clarifies some key teaching focuses within the 4Cs teaching strategies to enhance teacher planning. Additionally, it identifies teacher and student perspectives on key functions of Global PBL in augmenting the 4Cs. Although working closely together in pursuing a successful Global PBL project, teachers and students had different views of their level of attainment of the skills of the 4Cs. However, it was evident that learner-centred, constructivist and reflective approaches to teaching and learning (Chi-Syan, Jung-Tsan, Kuo, & Chien-Tzu, 2015) did promote all the 4Cs in one project. An understanding of the challenges and opportunities based on the findings of this research can serve as a guide for educators who wish to transfer Global PBL activities to classroom activities.
This multi-case study investigated how teaching in an International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years Programme (MYP) Individuals and Societies (I & S) classroom influenced teachers’ global citizenship (GC) perceptions and pedagogy. Results demonstrate teachers were informed by their personal experiences and district expectations, utilizing a cosmopolitan global citizenship education (GCE) that aligned with the IB MYP philosophy. A disconnect sometimes existed as teachers’ rationales for global citizenship recognized the need for multiple perspectives and a critical view, but a passive or proactive approach influenced instruction. This research effort furthers the discussion on the role an international education framework can have on a teacher’s pedagogy, where global citizenship education is situated in the curriculum, and what influences a teacher’s thinking and pedagogy. This can be helpful to us in understanding the role curriculum context can have in shaping a teacher’s ideas about global citizenship and how they enact those ideas.
This mixed-methods study examines students’ perspectives on their high school social studies teachers’ views and pedagogy surrounding the issues of immigration, nationalism, and patriotism within the classroom. The article is based within the framework of critical pedagogy, particularly critical nationalism. The sample (N=58) comes from students enrolled in an introductory education course at a university in the American Southeast. The quantitative data revealed students believed their teachers tended towards more inclusive views towards immigration overall, but they were more exclusive towards undocumented immigration. They also tended to have high levels of patriotism and more moderate levels of nationalism. The qualitative data revealed a lack of discussion on immigration, which related to a larger fear of discussing contemporary issues of controversy within the classroom. This study has strong relevance for both educators and teachers educators in critically and thoroughly examining issues such as nationalism and immigration particularly in more conservative settings like the American Southeast where these topics are often given little more than a cursory overview.
This paper describes a mixed-methods investigation into whether an asynchronous, virtual collaboration with Japanese peers helped pre-service social studies teachers in the US demonstrate civic competence as it relates to international and global education. After the collaboration, most students described themselves as better-prepared world citizens; however, analysis of pre- and post-intervention surveys revealed only one statistically significant U-test result concerning participants’ pedagogical thinking. This investigation suggests education programs can better prepare novice teachers to think and act globally by providing international telecollaborative experiences and explicitly emphasizing classroom instruction (practice) informed by civic competence as it relates to international and global education (theory).
