The respondents were also asked to enumerate two to four characteristics of a globally competent teacher, to make data analysis easier. These answers were subjected to content analysis, the results of which are reported in Table 4.3. The emerging themes can be found on the right, together with the number of participants who mentioned each in brackets, and my categorisation of the types of characteristics proposed by the respondents can be seen on the left. Based on the tutors’ answers, five main categories were created, referring to their overall competences, the attitudes, skills, and knowledge they need to be globally competent and the pedagogical content knowledge they need in their classrooms.

 

 

Even though it cannot be seen from Table 4.3, when asked what makes a globally competent teacher, some respondents mostly enumerated personality traits, and attitudes or wrote “the same as above”. Four respondents stated, in line with the literature (Andreotti, 2012 as cited in Bourn, 2015; Bourn et al., 2017), that globally competent teachers first need to become global citizens. Intercultural competence as a prerequisite was only mentioned by few participants. Among the skills, sensitivity was listed five times, in connection with students’ interests and with people from different backgrounds. Four tutors also hinted at the importance of global teachers’ desire to constantly improve themselves, thus lifelong learning was also mentioned as an important skill. In connection with the attitudes, 10 participants emphasised the considerable importance of being open-minded. Relating to knowledge, seven participants highlighted that global teachers have to be well-informed and three of them said that they should have wide knowledge about the world. However, they did not mention that they should have “knowledge and curiosity about the world’s history, geography, cultures, environmental and economic systems and current international issues” (Longview Foundation, n.d.). Few tutors referred to components of pedagogical content knowledge, nonetheless, three of them touched upon the fact that EFL teachers should be able to generate and moderate discussions and two of them stated that they should have the methodological skills to implement global education in their classes. The tutors did not comment on the importance of knowing about the international/global dimensions of their subject matter, or the pedagogical skills to teach their students to analyse different points of view and different primary sources. Only one participant pointed out the necessity to possess effective classroom management skills and to be ready to change and adopt new methods to accommodate their students’ interests.