Just as in the case of university tutors, before inquiring into teachers’ perceptions of global competence directly, they were asked to enumerate what knowledge, skills and attitudes a student should have to succeed in the 21st century. The respondents enumerated several components, which can be seen in Table 5.1. The components mentioned multiple times by different respondents can be found in the first row (with the number of mentions in brackets) and the components mentioned by only one participant can be found in the second row.

 

 

21st-century skills have received much attention by educational policymakers, and there have been many attempts at defining and categorising these skills (Griffin & Care, 2015; Partnership for 21st Century Skills, n.d.; World Economic Forum, 2015); nevertheless, there has been much less written about the knowledge and attitudes young people need to succeed. This has become apparent from the interviewees’ answers as well. When asked the question (What knowledge, skills and attitude do you think students need to succeed in the 21st century?), they started talking about the skills, almost without exception, and only when asked again, did they start to tap into knowledge and attitudes. They almost unanimously said that students need language knowledge, however, apart from that, they found it hard to define what knowledge is needed. Two participants claimed that “no concrete knowledge is needed”, as students have their smartphones with them at all times, they can “just look up whatever they need in a minute” (T/SZ-5), so it might be more important to concentrate on skills such as life-long learning so that they want to look up the things they are interested in. Others thought that basic cultural knowledge (of history, literature, and different cultures) is of utmost importance to succeed. According to Emma, having basic lexical knowledge is a must, as without it, students “may lose prestige if they want to find a job” and “knowing things by heart, without using one’s phone can save people’s face” (T/E-5). Leó understood the knowledge dimension as complex knowledge about everything that surrounds us. Others attempted to grasp the practical aspects of this knowledge and phrased it as “knowledge of things that are necessary for our everyday lives” (T/I-4). When it came to the attitudes, many of them listed openness and curiosity and they equally emphasised the importance of assertiveness. Regarding the skills, the responses could be easily put into the sub-categories established by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills framework, and based on the interviews, it is fair to say that the interviewees were familiar with these categories.