Beyond Fact‑Focused Instruction: Advancing Classroom Practice in Global Citizenship Education

With a view to identifying exemplar practice in global citizenship education in schools, the exploration of a pedagogical approach promoting goals for global citizenship and intercultural understanding in the foreign language classroom merits consideration. A group of secondary school students in Germany and Ireland collaborated on an eight-month project following the ABCs of Cultural Understanding and Communication pedagogical approach to intercultural learning. The study sought to determine the impact of this intercultural experience, and its potential to enhance participants’ understanding of global citizenship issues. The study specifically investigated whether the participants went beyond simply learning about concepts of citizenship and other cultures and actually developed an awareness of multiple perspectives. It also explored how much the values, attitudes, and behaviours that support global citizenship were encouraged. The findings indicate that when the learners gained the necessary skills to engage in conversations and explore different perspectives, they developed a more nuanced understanding that both themselves and other cultures are influenced by socio-cultural factors. Teachers played a crucial role in helping students as they interacted and exchanged cultural information with their partners. This role included demonstrating inquiry-based approaches rather than emphasising the idea of the curriculum as a collection of factual knowledge.