Pre-service English Teachers’ Professional Development in Global Citizenship Education

In global citizenship education (GCE), teachers are to create an environment to raise productive, ethical, and responsible citizens; thus, building their capacity to provide such education has become a top priority. The relevancy and appropriateness of language classes for GCE are prevalent. However, GCE studies conducted with foreign language teachers are limited in number, mostly indicating teachers’ insufficient levels of knowledge, skill, and attitude. Therefore, teacher education programs become increasingly significant. Preparing candidate teachers for successful GCE implementations has been highlighted as a difficulty. To that end, in the present study, a professional development (PD) program was designed according to a framework around three components: “(i) knowledge and understanding, (ii) skills, and (iii) values and attitudes.” The treatment lasted 12 weeks and organized around the GCE-related topics such as sustainable development, identity, diversity, social justice, equity, and activism. A total of 50 pre-service teachers (PTs) of English studying at a state university participated in the study. In order to determine the effects of the PD program on PTs’ levels and understandings of GC, a scale and semi-structured interviews were administered before and after the treatment. The results revealed that the PD resulted in a paradigm shift for the understanding of GC―from a neoliberal and elitist view to a more liberal and inclusive view.

Cite this article as: Bayram, D., & Atay, D. (2026). Pre-service English teachers’ professional development in global citizenship education. HAYEF: Journal of Education, 23, 0074, doi:10.5152/hayef.2026.25074.