Dissolving Boundaries in a Divided World: Elementary Teachers’ Engagement with Global Citizenship Education in California

• In Event: Diversity and international education

Proposal

Introduction
Global Citizenship Education (GCE) is often described as an “umbrella term” encompassing broader agendas such as peace education, human rights education, multicultural education, and education for sustainable development (Goren & Yemini, 2017; Mannion et al., 2011). Rather than functioning as a discrete subject, UNESCO (2025) defines GCE as a “framework” integrated into existing subjects. This framework informs classroom instruction, community learning, and policymaking to address complex local and global challenges. Many countries, including the U.S., the U.K., Canada, France, and South Korea, have adopted GCE-related content to foster inclusion and global awareness in schools.
In fact, GCE goes beyond a “framework” and serves as a “bridge” for connecting the “divided world,” by helping learners reflect on the socio-political, economic, and cultural inequalities and injustice. Furthermore, GCE, stressing peace, justice, and sustainability, encourages learners to reduce divisions and consider themselves powerful agents of change to build a more inclusive and harmonious world.
To promote GCE in public education, California offers a particularly important case. Global California 2030, launched by the state in 2019, aims to equip students with multilingual and intercultural competencies. However, when implementing GCE in classroom settings, teachers still face structural pressure, such as overloaded curricula and limited knowledge, constraining how policy ideals are realized in classrooms (Davies, 2006; Merryfield, 2000; Goren & Yemini, 2017; Gills & Niens, 2014). Meanwhile, teachers also exercise agency in adapting GCE to their local contexts, creating spaces for student engagement, empathy, and critical thinking, while little research has examined how teachers, particularly at the elementary level, understand, interpret, and enact GCE in practice. So, this study addresses that gap by exploring California public school elementary teachers’ perspectives and instructional approaches to GCE.
Research Questions
What pedagogical skills do California public primary school teachers have in GCE?
What are California public primary teachers’ attitudes toward employing GCE?
What are California public primary teachers’ motivations and barriers in implementing GCE?
Target Population and Sampling Frame
The target population of this study is public primary school teachers in California, across all subject areas, grade levels, and school districts. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (2022), California has 977 school districts and approximately 319,000 public school teachers. To capture diversity across contexts, a quota sampling approach will be used, ensuring representation from urban, suburban, and rural districts as well as variation in teaching experience and subject area. The study aims to recruit 200–250 participants, a sample size sufficient for both descriptive and inferential statistical analysis while maintaining feasibility. Recruitment will be facilitated through the California Global Education Project (CGEP), the Jacobs Institute for Innovation in Education at UC San Diego, and professional networks. Additional outreach will occur via email, phone calls to past CGEP participants, and social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc. Only teachers currently employed in California public primary schools will be eligible.
Data Collection
Data is collected through a Qualtrics-administered survey consisting of two components: (1) Likert-scale items measuring teachers’ knowledge, attitudes, and skills related to GCE, and (2) open-ended questions that allow teachers to elaborate on challenges, supports, and interpretations of GCE in practice. Quantitative data will be analyzed using descriptive and correlational statistics, while qualitative responses will undergo thematic coding to identify recurring patterns and unique perspectives.
Theoretical Framework
This study is guided by Ajzen’s (1991) Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), which posits that human action is driven by three key determinants: attitudes toward the behavior, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. TPB provides a useful lens for examining how teachers’ beliefs, perceived support systems, and sense of efficacy shape their intentions and practices in implementing Global Citizenship Education within California’s elementary schools.
Conceptualization of Constructs
Teachers’ Pedagogical Skills Related to GCE (RQ1): This construct captures teachers’ pedagogical knowledge of GCE and corresponds to teachers’ perceived behavioral control. Drawing on UNESCO (2015), pedagogical skills encompass three dimensions: cognitive, teaching knowledge on human rights, sustainability, and social justice; socio-emotional, fostering empathy, solidarity, and respect for diversity; and behavioral, promoting critical thinking, problem-solving, and civic engagement. Teachers who perceive themselves as competent in these areas are more likely to enact GCE in their classrooms.
Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Employing GCE (RQ2): This construct reflects teachers’ attitudes toward the behavior as outlined in TPB. Attitudes are shaped by beliefs about the usefulness of GCE and its ease of implementation within the curriculum.
Teachers’ Motivations and Barriers in Engaging with GCE: This construct highlights the influence of subjective norms on teachers' willingness to engage with GCE. Supportive environments (e.g., professional development) serve as motivators, while unsupportive contexts (e.g., limited resources) act as barriers.
Preliminary Findings
Teachers are expected to demonstrate uneven confidence across the three GCE domains. For example, some teachers may feel more confident teaching cognitive knowledge (e.g., human rights, sustainability) but less confident in facilitating behavioral dimensions such as promoting civic engagement. Overall, teachers are likely to hold positive attitudes toward the value of GCE, recognizing its importance for student development in California. Yet they still perceive significant challenges in implementation, such as time within overloaded curricula, insufficient training resources, and competing policy priorities. In general, preliminary evidence suggests that while the Global California 2030 initiative articulates ambitious goals, alignment between policy aspirations and classroom realities may be partial. Teachers may endorse the goals of multilingual and intercultural competence, but their implementation will likely vary depending on district resources, training opportunities, and individual confidence.
Significance
This study makes three key contributions: First, it provides an evidence-based analysis of how the Global California 2030 initiative has been enacted at the classroom level, offering insights into the alignment between policy goals and instructional realities. Second, it sheds light on the challenges and supports that shape teachers’ engagement with GCE, such as curricular constraints, professional development opportunities, and institutional support structures. Furthermore, it expands the largely underdeveloped body of literature on GCE in U.S. primary schools, contributing to comparative and international discussions on how global citizenship is conceptualized and practiced in diverse educational contexts.

Authors

• Kathy Li, UCLA

• jiaao liu, University of California Los Angeles