Abstract:

Globalization has brought the necessity of training global citizens who are aware of the world’s problems and who can produce solutions for these problems. Global citizenship consists of principles such as making decisions in social, economic, cultural and political areas at the national and international scale; promoting gender, racial, ethnic, national and religious equality; and making sacrifices for common interests. Oxfam (2006) defined global citizens as individuals who are aware of their own responsibilities as citizens of a broad world, value diversity and respect it, and react to social injustice. It is also stated that global citizens are individuals who take responsibility and act to make the world a fair and sustainable place. Training people who can take responsibility on a global scale and thus have a global perspective is only possible through effective global citizenship education. "Global citizenship education" requires training active and responsible individuals as world citizens. The Social Studies course plays an important role in training active citizens and is aimed at training individuals to be equipped with both national and global values (Kan, 2012). In this sense, revealing future teachers' perceptions related to global citizenship education is of great importance in terms of shaping the practices in the area. In particular, there is a need for revealing the views of elementary teachers who would teach at elementary schools as being a prominent part of improving the training of basic life skills. This study purposed to examine elementary teacher candidates' views on global citizenship in the Social Studies course. The following research questions were addressed based on this purpose: 1) What are elementary teacher candidates' views on global citizenship? 2) What are elementary teacher candidates' views on the function of the Social Studies course in global citizenship education? 3) What are elementary teacher candidates' suggestions related to global citizenship education in the Social Studies course?

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