As detailed in Sections 3.4.2.1 and 4.2.2.6, the literature and the qualitative inquiries preceding the questionnaire study helped me compile the part of the questionnaire which enquired into the aspects which influence the inclusion of global content in secondary school teachers’ classes. Based on the interviews, time, teachers’ competence, students’ interest, the group, the topicality of the issues, and students’ language level emerged as important factors influencing the incorporation of such topics. This list was compared to variables emerging from the literature, and finally, for the questionnaire, items measuring seven underlying constructs were written: time, group, teachers’ competence, professional development, materials, students’ interest, and teachers’ attitude. Following the procedures described in 3.4.2.2, only 6 constructs remained and were subjected to analysis to explain how they influence teachers’ decision to incorporate global content in their lessons. The descriptive statistics of the remaining questionnaire constructs can be seen in Table 5.18.

 

 

As can be seen in Table 5.18, the teachers rated the items belonging to teacher competence the highest, so their capabilities to deal with emerging conflicts (M = 3.89; SD = .86), their well-informedness in global, local, and intercultural topics (M = 3.58; SD = .89) and their methodological repertoire (M = 3.45; SD = 1.03). The average of the materials scales came second, as they answered that they supplement the compulsory course materials with extra materials about global content (M = 4.13; SD = 1.01), they know some websites where they can find such materials (M = 3.40; SD = 1.22), even though they partly agreed that it is easy for them to access materials with which they could address global content (M = 3.19; SD = 1.20). In connection with time, the participants rather agreed that they have to prepare more for classes when they deal with global content (M = 3.44; SD = 1.30) and that they would need more time to prepare for these classes (M = 3.72; SD = 1.18) but they rather disagreed with the fact that they would only deal with such issues if there is time left for them (M = 2.54; SD = 1.19). The group was rated as a moderate influencing factor in the incorporation of global content into EFL classes, so the participants seem to attach less importance to their relationship with the group (M = 2.97; SD = 1.29), the group dynamics (M = 3.25; SD = 1.09), and the possible conflicts which may arise among group members (M = 2.35; SD = 1.25), but slightly more importance to whether there is a great atmosphere in class (M = 3.94; SD = .97) when deciding to incorporate global content in their classes. Contrary to what the literature led me to believe, the participants attached less importance to the coursebook, they do not avoid global content because they cannot link them to coursebook texts or activities (M = 2.26; SD = 1.30) or to coursebook topics (M = 2.84; SD = 1.26) or because these topics are not even present in the coursebooks (M = 2.76; SD = 1.26). From all the aspects, teachers rated professional development the lowest, mostly in connection with learning about dealing with global content during their university years (M = 1.68; SD = 1.09), and they mostly did not think that their university studies contributed to them becoming global citizens (M = 2.21; SD = 1.30). Some of them did and some of them did not learn about how to deal with global content in their classes during continuous professional development sessions, but overall, they also rated this item relatively low (M = 2.14; SD = 1.44).

 

In the correlation test, Pearson’s Correlation Coefficients were computed to assess the strength and the direction of the relationships between the constructs (Table 5.19). The correlation coefficients must vary between +1 and –1, and if the value is between .8 and 1, the correlation is very strong, between .6 and .8 the correlation is strong, between .4 and .6 it is moderate, between .2 and .4 it is weak, and between .0 and .2 there is no correlation. A moderate correlation was found between the teacher competence and materials variables (r = .56; p < .01), indicating a moderate relationship between how prepared tutors feel to deal with global content in their classes and whether they bring in materials (and know where to find materials) to deal with these topics. Also, the teacher competence and professional development variables moderately correlated with each other (r = .48; p < .01), which signals a moderate relationship between how prepared they feel to deal with global content in their classrooms and the professional development they went through in connection with teaching such topics. Finally, a negative moderate correlation was found between the materials and coursebook variables (r = –.46; p < 0.01), and the coursebook and teacher competence variables (r = –.41; p < 0.01), which presupposes a moderate relationship between these constructs, even if the direction of these variables is reverse.