6.1.2.2.1 The Interview Study (Study 2). The participating language teachers believe that developing students’ global competence is their task because they are aware that they have the means and the freedom to do it properly in their classes, just as it was suggested by UNESCO-MGIEP (2017). As described in 5.1, they also accept the fact that nurturing healthy and conscious young people is part of their job, which is exactly the aim of global competence development. Concerning the research question, the participants think that it would be everyone’s task to develop students’ global competence; however, they see that they are in a favourable position, because they are quite free to bring almost any topic into a language class. The way they described global teachers is in line with the literature, as they listed many attributes that figure on Pike and Selby’s list (1988), such as authenticity, sharing decision-making with the students, and creating a positive classroom atmosphere. What they did not include here concerns being a community teacher. Being a community teacher means creating a bridge between the classroom and outside the classroom, the local community. It would be of utmost importance for teachers to embrace this aspect of global education as well, to encourage students to make use of whatever they learn in school and take action for the well-being of the community. Nonetheless, whether teachers are ready to take up the mantle of a global teacher comes down to different factors, mostly to bravery, preparedness, and time and money, which were also corroborated by Başarir’s (2017), Guo’s (2014), and Skinner’s (2012) studies.

 

6.1.2.2.2 The Questionnaire Study (Study 3). Similar to the tutors involved in teacher training, secondary school teachers were asked what characteristics globally competent teachers possess and to what extent they think they have these characteristics. Many teachers believed that above all, globally competent teachers and global citizens share the same features, as they marked their answers with “same as above”. From other answers, five categories were created referring to teachers’ overall competences, attitudes, skills, knowledge, and pedagogical content knowledge. It is important to note that even though there were characteristics mentioned by several participants, these numbers mostly remained under 10 mentions, except for the following characteristics: openness (n = 84), well-informedness (n = 42), tolerance (n = 36); acceptance (n = 36), empathy (n = 20) and curiosity (n = 19). Only a few teachers alluded to the fact that globally competent teachers should have specific pedagogical content knowledge (UNESCO, 2015). Nonetheless, even if it is a prerequisite (Andreotti, 2012), being a globally aware teacher takes more than becoming a global citizen: global teachers can actively model global competence for their students and they have a wide methodological repertoire with activities suitable to engage their students in dealing with global content (Longview Foundation, n.d.). Thus, it would be important to help teacher trainees acquire pedagogical content knowledge specific to GCED (Lányi & Kajner, 2018; Wiksten, 2020), and it would be useful to expand practising teachers’ methodological repertoire through continuous professional development opportunities (Cates, 2004) so that they could nurture their students’ global competence more effectively.

6.1.2.2.3 Conclusion and Implications. What emerged from all the four studies is that both university tutors involved in teacher training and secondary school EFL teachers believe that it is mostly their task to develop students’ global competence. Nevertheless, the findings of the interviews imply that EFL teachers think that they have an easier job as their subject has no fixed content, which has also been corroborated by UNESCO-MGIEP (2017). It would be interesting though to compare EFL teacher trainers and EFL teachers’ views with the views of teachers of other subjects to see whether EFL teachers are more likely to take on this task and if so, why.

 

In the respondents’ view, a global teacher is first and foremost globally and interculturally competent. They are well-informed individuals, who are up to date about the happenings around them. They are empathetic and sensitive, and they are committed to lifelong learning, so constantly developing themselves as individuals and as teachers as well. Moreover, they are curious about their students and the world around them, they are open-minded and open to people from different backgrounds, and they are tolerant. Concerning their pedagogical content knowledge, they know how to create the optimal conditions for their students in the classroom, how to make learning about global content relevant for their students, how to make them involved in their learning process and they can model global competence in action.