Second, Studies 7 and 8 enquired into how EFL teacher trainers and secondary school teachers create safe spaces for challenging discussions. Based on the results, it seems that university tutors tend to embrace conflict more, thus, they are more likely to create a brave space, while secondary school teachers are not particularly fond of tense moments, but they have a wide repertoire of techniques to dissolve conflict. Although the importance of creating ground rules to prepare the group for such discussions is heavily underscored in the literature (Griffin and Ouellett, 2007; Oxfam, 2018; Szesztay, 2020), it turned out to be a divisive issue among the participants. These results imply that it would be beneficial to develop teacher trainees’ understanding of controversy, and skills to create good group dynamics, and manage controversial discussions.

Third, the focus group studies intended to reveal what activity types EFL teacher trainers and EFL teachers use to develop students’ global competence. The studies have shown that they use a wide range of activities relying on their students’ active participation, such as debates, drama, presentations, and they supplement their coursebooks with interactive, appealing materials (e.g., videos, songs, interactive texts). Even though these activities are valuable, neither tutors nor teachers made references to using activities beyond the walls of the classroom, with the aim of creating a link between the classroom and the real world. Therefore, it would be beneficial to show trainees the use of experiential learning activities (e.g., ethnographic research, field trips, online collaboration with students from different backgrounds) and train them in bringing such activities revolving around global content into their classes.

Fourth, in the two classroom studies, 13 first-year university language practice groups and 12 secondary school EFL groups had the opportunity to try out activity sequences aimed at GCD and language skills development. Overall, the teachers had positive views on the worksheets created for the research project, they appreciated the ready-made and up-to-date materials and the varied activities. They had satisfying experiences with the sequences, even though it is worth mentioning that many of them did not do the experiential learning activities (the projects and service-learning activities) with their groups. Also, considering which worksheets they chose to try out, it must be mentioned that they opted for the safer topics (e.g., climate change, fake news, happiness) and avoided the highly controversial, sensitive ones (e.g., refugees, domestic violence) (for the possible reasons, see Section 6.2). One of the implications of these studies is that there is a need for teacher friendly, easy to use, free materials that cater to their students’ needs and realities. The other one is that it would be highly beneficial to train novice teachers on how to make use of experiential learning activities in their classes.

Finally, to explore students’ views on activities aimed at developing their GC, they were asked to give feedback on the lessons they participated in, and their teachers were asked about their general attitudes in the focus group interviews. The teachers reported on ever-changing attitudes from their students’ part, and tutors posited that their trainees are either open and welcoming or feel discomfort during such lessons. The studies have indicated that most students have positive views on activities aimed at GCD and they realise that these lessons can both improve their GC and their language skills. Given that the students tend to be enthusiastic about activities developing their global competence, it would be paramount to exploit these positive feelings and incorporate the global dimension into TEFL by actively involving students in activities based on modern and relevant materials.

One implication of these findings is that teacher trainers, teacher trainees and secondary school teachers alike should be familiarised with techniques and ready-to-use lesson plans or worksheets to develop their students’ global competence. Figure 6.2 was created with the aim of collecting good practices to help teachers involved in English as a foreign language teaching integrate the global perspective into their lessons, based on the results of the focus group studies and the review of the literature. It is much hoped that these findings will be transferable to other contexts as well, and teachers will be able to expand their methodological repertoire with the help of these tools.