How Do Elementary Teachers’ Perceive Teaching Global Issues in the Context of Lahore Pakistan?
Abstract
The purpose of the study was to explore elementary teachers’ (geography) perceptions about teaching global issues. Employing random sampling technique, a total of 110 public elementary school geography teachers (60 male and 50 female) were selected from Lahore as a sample of the study. A self-tailored questionnaire, developed on five-point Likert Scale, was self-administered for data collection purpose. Both descriptive (Mean, SD, frequency, and percentage) and inferential (independent sample t-test) statistical techniques were employed using SPSS(Version 24).The results revealed that teachers prioritize education and literacy, terrorism, war, conflict, health, poverty, and human rights issues as the most important global issues. Majority of the teachers agreed that global issues have multiple effects. The teachers also had contradictory perceptions about global issues as they perceived that global issues would be resolved in the future and would get worse in future. They also perceived that global issues are mostly caused by human activities as well as by natural process. They identified curriculum, assessment, test, time, lack of resources and school climate as some of the factors hindering teaching global issues. Both male and female teachers’ perceptions with reference to their concerns about global issues were not significantly different, but their perceptions about teaching global issues found significantly different. The researchers recommend introducing more issues-based education at elementary level.
References
Guo, L. (2014). Preparing teachers to educate for 21st century global citizenship: Envisioning and enacting. Journal of Global Citizenship & Equity Education, 4(1), 1-23.
Yakovchuk, N. (2004). Global issues and values in foreign language education: Selection and awareness-raising. ELTED, 8, 27-47.
Davidson, D. &Freudenburg, W. (1996). Gender and environmental risk concerns: A review of available research. Environment and Behavior, 28, 302-339.
Tuncer, G., Ertepınar, H., Tekkaya, C., &Sungur, S. (2005). Environmental attitudes of young people in Turkey: Effects of school type and gender. Environmental Education Research, 11(2), 215-223.
Hes-Quinbita, G. & Pavel, M. (1996). Assessing an environmental attitude development model: Factors influencing the environmental attitudes of college students. retrived from ERICDocument Reproduction Service No. ED 394438
Eagles, P.F.J.&Demare, R. (1999). Factor’s influencing children’s environmental attitudes. Journal of Environmental Education, 30(4).
Merryfield, M. M., & White, C. S. (1996). Issues centered global education. In R. W. Evans & D. W. Saxe (Eds.), Handbook on teaching social studies: NCSS bulletin 93 (pp. 177-187). Washington, DC: National Council for the Social Studies.
Ozsoy, S. (2012). A survey of Turkish pre-service science teachers’ attitudes toward the environment. EgitimArastirmaları-Eurasian Journal of Educational Research, (46), 121-140.
Ersoy, A. F. (2013). Global Citizenship Education in Social Studies: Experiences of Turkish Teachers and Students in International Conflict and War. Journal of Qualitative Research in Education, 1(1), 7-30. doi:10.14689/issn.2148-2624.1.1s1m
Yamashita, H. (2006). Global citizenship education and war: the needs of teachers and learners. Educational Review, 58(1), 27-39.
Guo, L. (2014). Preparing teachers to educate for 21st century global citizenship: Envisioning and enacting. Journal of Global Citizenship & Equity Education, 4(1), 1-23.
Tıkka, P. M., Kuıtunen, M. T., &Tynys, S. M. (2000). Effects of educational background on students’ attitudes, activity levels and knowledge concerning environment. Journal of Environmental Education, 31, 12-19.
Loughland, T., Reid, A., Walker, K., &Petocz, P. (2003). Factors influencing young people’s conceptions of environment. Environmental Education
Research, 9(1), 3-20.
Yilmaz, O., Boone, W. J., & Andersen, H. O. (2004). Views of elementary and middle school Turkish students toward environmental issues. International Journal of Science Education, 26 (12), 1527-1546.
Tuncer, G., Sungur, S., Tekkaya, C., & Ertepınar, H. (2005). Young attitude on sustainable development: A case study. H.U. Journal of Education, 29, 187-193.
Ozden, M. (2008). Environmental awareness and attitudes of student teachers: An emprical research. International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 17(1), 40-55.
Unal, N. (2008). Pre-service teachers' perceptions toward global versus local environmental issues (Online Unpublished master's thesis). Middle East Technical University, Ankara, AK.
Kasai, M. (2007). Global education practice: A case study of one Japanese high school (Online Unpublished doctoral dissertation). The Ohio State University, Ohio, OH.
Kapoor, D. (2012). Human Rights as Paradox and Equivocation in Contexts of Adivasi (original dweller) Dispossession in India.Journal of Asian and African Studies, 47(4), 404–420.
Pike, G., & Selby, D. (2000). In the global classroom 2.Toronto, Canada: Pippin Publishing Corporation.
Full Text: PDF
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.