The effects of the Many Global Cultures program upon students' global citizenship

Abstract

This dissertation utilizes qualitative and quantitative methods to examine the effects of one school's global education program on particular students' sense of global citizenship. The researcher interviewed, observed, and surveyed students in the Many Global Cultures Program (MGC) as well as those on the Many Global Cultures Waitlist. Morais and Ogden's "Global Citizenship Scale" (2010) was used for the pre and post surveys offered at the beginning and end of the academic year. Ordinary Least Squares Regression analyses revealed that students participating in the MGC program demonstrated statistically significant shifts over the school year in the measures of"global knowledge," global political voice," and glocal civic activism." Demographic controls such as gender and grade point average did predict students' shifts on some measures. Gender was a significant predictor of students' shifts in "global justice and disparities" as well as "global altruism and empathy." Also, gender and grade point average were demographic controls that were both significant predictors of a student's shift in "global interconnectedness and personal responsibility." Key qualitative findings include a difference in the way participants in the MGC program and students on the MGC Waitlist defined global citizenship as well as the unique sense of "community" students in the MGC program experienced. Many participants in the global education class tended to define global citizenship with terms such as "action" and "responsibility," while students on the MGC Waitlist often defined global citizenship as having knowledge about world events. Participants in the Many Global Cultures program also often referenced a feeling of community in their classrooms as a result of the multi-leveled structure of the classes. The dissertation concludes with implications and recommendations for future researchers, future educators, policy makers, and school administrators based on the literature presented in Chapter 1 and the findings from the interviews, observations, and surveys conducted in the study.