Chapter 5: Future Teachers as Global Citizens and Agents of Change

In our current climate and ecological emergency, it is increasingly important to acknowledge the centrality of global citizenship and interdependence in tackling the unpredictable problems faced across the world. Global Citizenship Education is widely understood as the “knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes that learners need to be able to contribute to a more inclusive, just, and peaceful world” (UNESCO, 2015, p. 15). While pre-service teacher education programmes support the development of instrumental dimensions of the profession, there is an opportunity for future teachers to develop a critical understanding of Global Citizenship Education and the related pedagogical content knowledge required to support future global citizens. This chapter explores how pre-service teacher education in Higher Education (HE) can be underpinned by global learning, a pedagogical approach which puts global citizens at the heart of learning supporting future teachers, themselves, as reflexive, critical and informed global citizens across their programme. It suggests how the pedagogical approach can empower future teachers as global citizens and agents of change within their professional practice.