Global education in teacher education programs: views from pre-service teachers

National government education policies in Australia and elsewhere are concerned with preparing citizens who can engage with a global economy and be internationally competitive. For example, the preamble to The Melbourne Declaration (Ministerial Council on Education Employment Training & Youth Affairs [MCEETYA], 2008) focuses on the need for young Australians in the 21st century to consider the global implications of their education. Topics relevant to global education have long been established in social studies syllabi, but the current context provides a strong argument for their inclusion more broadly throughout school curricula. For this to occur, teachers must be adequately prepared, have a good understanding of what global education (GE) is, and how to teach it effectively. A group of teacher educators at one University integrate global perspectives into various teacher education courses in order to raise the profile of global education with pre-service teachers. Research through surveys shows that students’ preferred learning directions are not always aligned with GE principles, but awareness of pre-service teacher views on global education has provided direction needed to create better prepared teachers of GE.