We wanted to contribute to develop and improve the training of future primary and secondary school teachers in global citizenship education (GCE). We also wanted to prepare them to tackle difficult subjects in the classroom, such as religion and migration. We also wanted to expose future teachers to different national perspectives on citizenship. For these reasons, we set up and tested a training scheme enabling students to participate in international interactions with peers from other countries, the aim being to get them to work on a theoretical level but also to enable them to develop their personal (such as openness to the world and tolerance of differences) and professional skills (e.g. putting themselves in the shoes of students from “minority” cultures, mastering different pedagogical practices to tackle culturally complex issues in front of a diverse audience of students). The aim is to enable trainee teachers, through peer exchange, to move away from the national conception of citizenship and consider new teaching practices.
Although there are common features to citizenship education in liberal countries (valuing individual freedoms, tolerance of other beliefs or values, in particular), each state tends to deal with sensitive issues, including those of a global scale, in a way that is culturally and politically specific to it. However, this approach is not always conducive to including students who, for a number of reasons (migration, stigmatization), may be considered minorities. Furthermore, it does not sufficiently prepare students for life in a globalized world, insofar as communication flows, whether commercial or cultural, go beyond national models in many respects. To foster pupils' sense of belonging at school and prepare them to work and live with people from all parts of the world and from many different cultures, it is crucial that they have access to an education that is open to the world, thanks to teachers trained to tackle sensitive subjects with a global approach that remains rooted in the cardinal values that characterize European societies, such as individual autonomy, fairness, dignity and tolerance.