An international survey of higher education student's perceptions of world-mindedness and global citizenship
There is growing interest internationally in the dispositions and skills needed by teachers in order to prepare children to be world-minded and global citizens. This chapter describes the results from the Citizenship and World-Mindedness Survey to assess the extent to which prospective teachers are prepared to prepare children for a future that requires international understandings and collaboration. A team of teacher education researchers from a dozen major universities in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and the United Kingdom collaborated in the development and validation of the survey that was administered to approximately 1,200 students at the start of their degree study. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed five dimensions of global-mindedness-social responsibility, skilled dispositions and open-mindedness, personal efficacy, ethnocentrism and nationalism, and global kinship. Teacher education students scored significantly higher on global-mindedness than students majoring in other disciplines. Three entry predispositions and experiences were also related to global-minded ness, including interpersonal skills, ways of thinking, and participation in community work. We discuss the implications of our findings for planning teacher education program components to prepare teachers who have the potential to prepare children to be globally-minded.