서울대학교 글로벌교육협력

Master's Thesis

Teachers' Perception on Global Citizenship Education in ASEAN Countries
아세안 지역 교사의 세계시민교육 인식연구

2017년 2월
서울대학교 대학원
협동과정 글로벌교육협력 전공
정 빛 나 (Bitna Jeong)

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the study is to understand the perception teachers have of global citizenship education in ASEAN counties. As interlinkages between people and places have increased enormously in the global era, global challenges require
global solutions attained through global citizenship education. Hence the study focuses on the significance of the
perception of teachers of global citizenship education as a way to constitute global solutions through transformative
learning.The researcher reviews country reports and existing literature of ASEAN countries
and conducts in-depth interviews with select teachers in Cambodia, Singapore and Thailand.
The study finds that global citizenship education has already been reflected in the national basic education curricular of
most ASEAN countries. Core concepts of global citizenship education are embedded in basic courses such as
social studies, geography, history, and etc. Nevertheless, teachers have yet to acquire a clear understanding of
what global citizenship education is in ASEAN countries excluding Singapore. Moreover, each ASEAN country has a
different cultural and historical background and developmental status and thus, teachers from each
country have different perceptions on global citizenship education.
In particular, because Cambodia and Thailand have strong backgrounds in religion and humanity, moral values and
human rights values were deeply rooted in their education curricula. However, the interviews show that the perception
of teachers in Cambodia and Thailand is low due to the lack of a national education budget and
excessive workload of teachers. By contrast, the teachers in Singapore do not find much difficulty in accepting and
implementing global citizenship education; also, educational materials and information are fully supported from school and
government appropriately. Importantly, the study found that the perception of teachers on global citizenship education
in ASEAN countries is not only influenced by their national education policies and types of teacher practices,
but also other educational challenges such as lack of sufficiently qualified teachers, effective training, and
low national educational budget allocations. Due to the challenges, the integration of global citizenship education
in ASEAN countries is slow and tedious, aside from Singapore.

Keyword: Global citizenship education, ASEAN, Cambodia, Singapore, Thailand