The paper presents findings from a three-years research project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, addressing the question of how student beliefs on global issues are dealt with in lower-secondary schools. Whereas this paper will focus on recurring belief patterns that emerged in focus group discussions with students, Fabio Schmid will submit a second paper looking at teachers’ practices and motivations.

“Global issues“ can be defined as challenges of global relevance which affect “a large number of people on different sides of national boundaries”, are “of significant concern, directly or indirectly, to all or most of the countries of the world”, and have “implications that require a global regulatory approach”, whereby “no one government has the power or the authority to impose a solution, and market forces alone will not solve” the problem (Bhargava, 2006, p. 1). Global issues are linked with environmental and sustainability concerns in myriad ways. This is exemplified by the United Nations framework Education 2030, which combines Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship Education. While such educational concepts addressing societal challenges have been critiqued in the past as  “instrumentalist” (Marshall, 2011, p. 418) and too action-oriented (Kürsteiner & Rinaldi, 2019; Pais & Costa, 2020; Wettstädt & Asbrand, 2016), it is almost uncontested that global issues need to be addressed in formal schooling.

Global issues are complex, controversial, and dynamic. This presents several challenges for teachers. On the one hand, the complexity of global issues and the speed with which they develop requires teachers to constantly work on their (pedagogical) content knowledge – and to accept that their own knowledge will never be complete. On the other hand, due to the controversiality of the issues, teachers must engage with their own beliefs and, potentially, with how they might or might not be reconciled with their mandate as a teacher, and the beliefs of their students (e.g. Rinaldi, 2017). Consequently, being aware of student beliefs, which are considered to be part of teachers‘ pedagogical content knowledge (Shulman, 1986), is important for pedagogical practice.

Student beliefs about global issues have been addressed in various contexts and forms. A number of studies has focused on concepts such as politics and democracy (for a collection of methods and empirical studies cf. Lange & Fischer, 2011), sustainability (Holfelder, 2018), globalisation (Fischer et al, 2015; Uphues, 2007) and world views (Krogull, 2018). Student beliefs on specific topical issues, including climate change (e.g. Chang & Pascua, 2016) and migration (e.g. Budke & Hoogen, 2017) have also been studied. What is missing so far is a study that focuses on global issues more broadly. Against this background, the study addresses the following research question: Which beliefs do lower secondary students in Switzerland have about global issues? It is divided into the following sub-questions.

• Q1: How do they conceptualise global issues specially (locally, nationally, regionally, globally) and temporally (past, present and future-related)
• Q2: How do they link global issues with human rights and child rights?
• Q3: In how far do they feel affected by global issues? Which emotions do global issues cause? In how far are they prepared to act themselves?
• Q4: Which conceptions do they have of political processes and their own agency (self-efficacy) when dealing with global issues?

The study aims to develop a typology of beliefs across different global issues.

The study presented is part of a bigger research project which uses a multiple methods design, combining semi-structured interviews with teachers, classroom observations and focus group discussions with students in lower secondary classes in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. The research question outlined above will be addressed using focus group discussions. 40 discussions were conducted with groups of 3-4 participants each. The discussions focused on one of five topics each: climate change, war/peace, migration/flight, poverty/wealth, and equality. In a first part, students were asked to sketch their own conceptualisations of the topic at three different levels (local, national, global), as well as the emotions they link to the topic. In a second part, the students participated in a semi-structured focus group discussion, in which they first presented and then discussed the sketches as well as additional questions (e.g. link to human/child rights, political processes, agency). Focus group discussions were chosen instead of individual interviews so as to encourage debate among peers and to create a more natural environment for the participants. The sketches were added to the setting after extensive testing, which showed that some students found it difficult to start discussing without any preliminary time for individual reflection. Also, the combination of different methods (sketching, discussion) was intended to accommodate different personalities. The entire design, grounded in qualitative methodology, was expected to bring forward various aspects of and potentially conflicting beliefs about global issues. The data is documented as follows: sketches, video-/audiotapes (transcribed), and post-scripts. All data is analysed using thematic and type-building qualitative text analysis (Rädiker & Kuckartz, 2020). The software MAXQDA is used. In a first step, summaries and memos are written for each case (group) individually. These memos serve as a basis for the category system, which will be developed in the second step. The main categories will be developed deductively. Two coders will code the available material (consensual coding). All text passages coded within the same main category as well as the memos written in the first phase will be used to create sub-categories inductively. The entire data set will then be coded again (second-cycle coding). Once all the material is systematised, further analysis will be done using cross-category analysis and type-building. This process aims to fulfil criteria of both openness and structured approach. Selected parts of the data, the category system, and findings are discussed with various experts on several occasions.

The study expected to contribute to the debate about how teachers can be strengthened in their capacity to address global issues in their classrooms. Although it focuses on lower secondary students in the German-speaking part of Switzerland and student beliefs generally vary between contexts, the results are expected to be of relevance to other contexts both in Europe and beyond, as teachers across the world face the challenge of how to deal with global issues in their classrooms. With regards to broader social impact, the study will hopefully contribute to the ongoing debates about educational concepts dealing with societal challenges, and inform teacher training in the area of globally competent teaching. The analysis focuses on cross-thematic student beliefs. It will, however, also provide insights into the five chosen topics. Recurrent beliefs that have emerged so far, to name but a few, binary conceptualisations of „North-South relations“, a romanticisation of the state of affairs in Switzerland and its position in international affairs, a deep sense for (social) justice, and a high degree of personal affect combined with a low degree of perceived self-efficacy and empowerment to participate in political processes.

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