This study aims to understand how Global Education Course in the social studies teacher education program in a university in Turkey shape pre-service teachers’ perception of other cultures and their understanding of global interconnectedness, perspective consciousness, cross-cultural awareness, knowledge of global dynamics, and awareness of human choices. Research focus on infusing global perspective into social studies classrooms and curriculum point out that integrating global perspective into classroom instruction can improve students’ understanding, engagement, and their level of interest regarding diverse cultures. Therefore the practice of infusing global perspective into curriculum helps students have better insight about different cultures as well as their own culture (Anderson, 1982; Howard, 2003; Kirkwood, 2002; Merryfield & Subedi, 2003). Merryfield and Subedi (2003) suggest five approaches to infusing global perspective in social studies classrooms. First, they recommend that global educators be aware of the lack of dialogue that takes place in schools about non-western cultures and that teachers should teach about stereotypes related to religion and cultures. Second, Merryfield and Subedi suggest that teachers ought to teach students on ways to examine multiple points of views through the study of literature, which can provide an “in-depth understanding of the complexity of human conflicts, cultures, changes, and issues” (p. 14). Third, they believe that without understanding the central role of culture in people’s lives, students cannot understand major conflicts, social and environmental issues that affect people’s lives. Therefore they suggest that students need to learn to understand an “insider” perspective to be able to see how diverse people interpret social issues. Fourth, Merryfield and Subedi recommend that global educators should provide diverse knowledge base to students so students can critically examine how power relations shape people’s values, worldviews, knowledge, and the language. Lastly, they believe that teachers should provide students with cross-cultural experiential learning, which refers to authentic learning activities with people from other cultures. In this study, the Global Education Course is designed in order to help pre-service social studies teachers gain key principles (i.e., global interconnectedness, perspective consciousness, cross-cultural awareness, knowledge of global dynamics, and awareness of human choices) of global perspective and learn how to integrate global perspective into social studies classrooms and curriculum.

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