Pre-service Teachers' Perceptions on Global Citizenship and Online Education in a Virtual Exchange Context

Abstract

As part of a virtual exchange program, this mixed-method research investigated the pre-service teachers’ initial attitudes and perceptions towards global citizenship and online education. In our initial findings,participants demonstrated a cautiously optimistic attitude that they believed online teaching could be effective, but more training isneeded for pre-service teachers. Moreover, the participants who had Virtual Exchange (VE) experience before had a more critical attitude toward online teaching and learning. In addition, most pre-service teachers showed limited familiarity with the concept of global citizenship education. Though they appreciate the importance of global citizenship education, they expressed concerns about cultural and language barriers to implementing it in their classrooms. These results provided a baseline of pre-service teachers and shed light on future design and implementation of VE in initial teacher education.