Any small change ? : Teacher education , compassion , understandings and perspectives on global development education

Increased migration of people(s), goods, ideas and ideologies necessitate global understanding, empathies and responses on the part of teachers and their students. This paper investigates the effects on 100 primary pre-service teachers’ understandings of and attitudes toward a semester-long course exploring, inter alia, global development. The research was undertaken in Sydney, Australia. Near-identical surveys were administered at the course’s beginning and end, for comparison. Additionally, four students volunteered to participate in a focus group for further discussion. Students’ understandings, including misunderstandings, are examined in the context of their future professional responsibilities and of the related literature. While attitudes to those in underdeveloped countries appeared generally  empathetic, this was premised on relatively limited or inaccurate ‘knowledge’. The paper questions the adequacy of compassion as a motivating factor in global development education and action, and related subject shortcomings. Moreover, it examines the contribution of compassion as an enabler or impediment to global equities and justices, and considers other approaches. The paper also explores implications for teacher education and accordingly posits some recommendations.


Introduction
The quality of mercy is not strain'd, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
William Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, 1598 Preparing teachers to work in a globalized context and in increasingly multicultural classrooms is imperative for effective education in the third millennium.Yet, teaching global education presents challenges, with teacher education programmes becoming increasingly crowded and global education resistant to fitting neatly into any particular curricular box (Ferguson Patrick et al., 2014).Consequently, pre-service teachers may not view global education as a major priority when they begin their teaching careers (McCormack and O'Flaherty, 2010).when teachers themselves are not adequately prepared or entertain certain assumptions.
Teachers' unpreparedness to teach for diversity and inclusiveness can stem from or be compounded by a lack of ability or knowledge on the part of teacher education staff to prepare teachers in multicultural and development education (Merryfield, 2000).The role of teacher educators is central in preparing teachers for diversity, equity and global interconnectedness.Merryfield (2000: 441) discusses the need to examine the experiences of teacher educators in Western countries and argues that the field of education needs to look more closely at the 'congruence of goals in preparing teachers for diversity and equity and the experiences and knowledge of their faculty'.
In investigating the experiences, interactions and perspectives of teacher educators, Merryfield (2000) notes that middle-class educators may not have experienced marginalization themselves.As well, pre-service teachers, particularly in developed countries, may not have experience working with minority groups and might bring 'little experience or knowledge of such issues with them in the courses … even sometimes viewing diversity as a problem ' (McCormack andO'Flaherty, 2010: 1334).A more diverse teacher education population may not, per se, address the problem.As Merryfield (2000: 441) points out, 'Not all educators who have experienced the margins embrace global education'.As well, global development education operates in the context of contextually normed societal discourses.
Research on pre-service teachers and global development education is not extensive.For example, Holden and Hicks (2007) examined the knowledge and understandings of British primary and secondary pre-service teachers on global development issues.They found that while trainee teachers appear well motivated to teach about development issues and concerns, there existed differences in attitudes with secondary trainees, who were more confident in their knowledge about global development matters than their primary counterparts.Subject specialization of secondary pre-service teachers was influential in terms of their knowledge, experience and differences in attitudes.
An Irish study examined primary pre-service teachers' attitudes towards inclusion of development education in post-primary schools (McCormack and Flaherty, 2010).Development education was integrated through themed methodology workshops in an education module and teaching practice placement in a secondary school.The pre-service teachers were asked about the extent to which they included development education during their in-school teaching practicum, as well as their attitudes towards including such issues in the future.Despite a positive disposition towards the inclusion of development education in post-primary education, the pre-service teachers in the study did not attempt to integrate development education issues into their teaching while on teaching practice.The authors attribute this unwillingness to include development education to pre-service teachers' low level of knowledge and confidence, narrow perceptions of development education as subject-specific (e.g.geography), or as an 'add-on' topic, rather than a priority area, due to curriculum and time constraints.
Some studies have examined how classroom teachers make meaning of development education in the classroom and how this affects their pedagogy and actions with students in teaching development education topics (Pike, 2000;Merryfield, 1998).Mangram and Watson (2011) describe how three secondary school social studies teachers adopted micro-and macro-scale utilitarian language (largely driven by Western discourses and assumptions) when describing development education and issues to their students.Education and Global Learning 9 (1) 2017 The study that has been reported on here set out to ascertain the extent and nature of changes in the knowledge, understanding and attitudes of a cohort of Australian pre-service primary (K-6) teachers, through a one-semester module in social and environmental education.It attempts to deconstruct the contribution of 'enhanced' knowledge, understanding and empathy towards addressing global inequities, including possible associated impediments, and explores what more might be needed.

The course
The pre-service student teachers (PSTs) surveyed were in their third year of a four-year Bachelor of Education and were all undertaking a core class in social and environmental education.In the module in which the students were enrolled at the time, Social and Environmental Education 2, global development and global responsibilities feature in the following segments/activities (among others): (1) viewing and discussion of a BBC documentary dealing with those making a living from rubbish recycling, Slumming It (Bunce and Simpson, 2010); (2) a guest speaker from World Vision Australia, who explored issues of social justice with students; (3) discussion of asylum seekers; and (4) viewing part of a feature film Paper Clips (Berlin and Fab, 2003), recounting one school's Holocaust study.Teachers and students in class routinely discuss current affairs, such as natural disasters.One assignment is titled 'Beyond the Classroom' and requires students to devise a series of lessons and/or an event that will have an impact beyond the classroom walls.Recent examples of international humanitarian gestures deriving from this assignment have included fundraising for those affected by the 2015 Nepal earthquakes and for the people of Darfur.A statement of the outcomes related to this subject includes the following: Successful completion of this subject will depend on students' demonstrated well-developed understandings of: 1.The dynamics, devices, language and biases of the mass media; 2. Several local, national and global 'issues of the day' and their deconstruction; 3. The imperative for social justice, and democratic means of establishing and safeguarding this; 4. Social justice issues in the K-6 classroom, and the devising of appropriate teaching/learning sequences, especially for years 3-6.
(University of Technology Sydney, 2015) It is to be noted here that development awareness and education is but one outcome of the course.

Data collection
The study involved the administration of virtually identical before-and-after surveys (Appendix 1) to a cohort of 100 pre-service education students in the first semester of their third year (of four) of a Bachelor of Education (Primary) degree.The surveys, which were administered in the first and final (ninth) week of the subject, posed questions such as whether Australia should provide global development aid, how important it is for Australia to do so, definitions of effective aid, and the like (see Findings, below).Supplementing the survey information, as part of the second survey, students were invited to take part in an interview or focus group to explore the issues and questions further.Survey questions were informed by the literature, and by the aims of the subject and the funding body.Focus group questions were informed by the survey responses.Regrettably, only one student volunteered to take part in a focus group.As a result, students who had attained a high grade in the subject were contacted and invited to take part.This elicited responses from a further three students.Three of the four students were able to take part in a focus group at a negotiated time.The fourth student took part in an interview, which was conducted by email, at a later date.
All aspects complied with the university's Human Research Ethics Committee's protocols to conduct the research.Participants were provided with information explaining the nature and purpose of the research, and consent forms.Pseudonyms are used for focus group members.

Data analysis
Numeric and other data from the surveys were analysed and compared, for indications of change or similarity in the two responses.Means were calculated for some numeric data, and open-ended data were subjected to content analysis, to identify scatter and clusters in responses.Digital recordings of the focus group were transcribed, and then codified according to the themes that emerged.Themes were derived from content analysis of all open-ended responses (Vaismoradi et al., 2013).We then applied axial coding (Strauss and Corbin, 1990) to identify connections among the themes and data sources.

Limitations
The focus group/interview cohort is small, self-selecting and from a non-random subgroup (those who attained higher grades in the subject).This considerably limits the confidence with which their responses can be generalized.The focus group responses generally displayed a more sophisticated understanding than the overall cohort responses from the surveys.This could be partly, though, because of the anonymous nature of the surveys, and because of the opportunity for extended responses and discourse from and among the respondents.It may be that further focus groups would elicit responses similar to those of the one that was conducted, but inconsistent with the survey results.
The course is coordinated by the chief investigator, who also taught one of the four classes.Future research could incorporate in-class observations and/or interviews with teaching staff, to elicit additional perspectives, and confirm or otherwise some of the findings herein.

Findings and discussion
The first questionnaire generated 79 responses from students consenting to have their data included.The second survey generated 63 such responses.All tables are organized in order according to the second survey, which was adopted as the organizer.
Students were asked whether Australia should provide global development aid.Response rates were as shown in Table 1.The main reasons (in the first survey) given by PSTs for providing aid were: 'It's a duty for Australia, since we are a wealthy country' (16 responses, 20.3 per cent); 'it is a moral or God-given responsibility' (7 responses, 9.9 per cent).In the second survey, clustered responses were as follows: 'a duty as a wealthy country' (17 responses, 27 per cent); 'obligation to help others' (11 responses, 17 per cent)'; to improve the quality of life in developing countries' (4 responses, 6 per cent).At semester's end, then, at least 50 per cent of the students responded at a level of obligation.It can be observed that charity-and compassion-related motives led the reasons for providing development aid.These could be further sub-divided into motivation from the needs of less developed countries and from Australia's capacity to give.Thematic analysis helped to identify three or four broad, hierarchical categories of response: sense of obligation, human rights, and countering (the dynamics which lead to) poverty and inequality (see Andreotti, 2014b).
Specific need-related comments included: other countries are not as privileged as Australia; it is important to give to those who do not have the same opportunities we have; we need to support countries that cannot support themselves; and who else will help them?These responses also indicate a sense of obligation and an attempt to counter (the dynamics of) poverty and inequality.
A sense of obligation was also evident where participants felt Australia had the capacity to give.These included: we can afford to; Australia is a developed and affluent country, and should help where they can; we have a duty as a developed, rich country; the small amount of aid we give does not hugely impact on our society as a whole.As one student put it, 'Australia has been blessed with land and resources that make us money -we haven't done anything to deserve it.Therefore we should share it'.Some comments implied both motives above, capacity and need, and appealed to social justice: to make our world more equal; well-developed countries such as Australia should/have the potential to contribute to the success of global equality; we are part of a global community; and because we are one world, not just one country.
Linked to the social justice theme, development aid as a human right also emerged in some responses.One student indicated that Australia needs to help other countries attain 'the necessary resources to support basic human rights'.Other responses included 'every person has the right to basic human needs (shelter, food)'; and the effort to 'allow for better access to education, health services etc.'.
Some students referred to the capacity of development aid in facilitating future autonomy.One student observed, 'it would help the developing countries expand and be able to sustain themselves in the long term'.There are also pragmatic positives for Australia.Comments included, 'it'll increase our trade links, global security, benefit us later economically', and that it can help 'to create positive relationships internationally'.
From the findings above, it can be observed that no responses demonstrated an understanding of (real or imagined) causes or dynamics underlying wealth inequalities.Nevertheless, some of the latter responses above acknowledged the existence of such imbalances, and a desire to redress them.The mean figure increased slightly by the end of semester, from 7.4 to 8.1.When clustered, the figures provide a more demonstrably positive view of providing development aid, as shown in Table 3.The participants were also asked to indicate their highest priorities for global development aid.Results are shown in Table 4.Note that percentages may not total to 100 where individual respondents gave multiple answers or gave no answer.Perhaps curiously, medical responses usurped water in both surveys.Water and food may have been positioned as part of a health-related response by some students, however.The importance given to 'food' appeared to increase significantly by the semester's end.Some students nominated 'food/water' in the second survey, in which it was categorized under 'food' (rather than including it under both categories).Even so, the total of 'food' and 'water' responses increased considerably, from about 21 per cent, to almost 27 per cent.'Shelter' and 'natural disaster relief' also featured prominently in the second survey.The students were asked to indicate their likelihood of taking certain actions on global development aid.The options offered were mediated in part by the initiatives offered by the funding body.The responses in Table 5 are based on numbers of students who replied 'certainly'.The second survey documented an increased willingness to undertake certain actions.The proportion of students considering human rights issues to be very important, for example, rose from 53 to 59 per cent.The respondents were asked to provide a personal definition or understanding of global citizenship.Responses are presented in Table 7.It emerged in the open-ended responses that the question 'what does the term "global citizenship" mean to you?' is arguably ambiguous.It did not specify whether it sought a personal response, for the student as a global citizen, or more generally, for all global citizens.Some respondents largely paraphrased the question in their answers, using terms such as 'being a citizen of the world' and the like.
The biggest difference between the first and second survey concerned awareness of rights and responsibilities.Other increases occurred in awareness of being active citizens, from 8 per cent to 17 per cent, and fairness, from 4 per cent to 10 per cent.This is heartening, in that global citizenship is a central theme of the course.
Some key themes and illustrative responses follow.The responses are organized along an (arguably subjective) continuum from (at one end) knowledge and understanding, through action and acknowledgement of rights and responsibilities, to (at the other end) partnerships and equality.
The rationale for placement on this hierarchy attempts to capture progressive sophistication in the responses corresponding to: (1) Awareness of the problem of inequality (e.g.informed about global issues; being aware and concerned).
(2) The need for a response to symptoms or superficial manifestations (e.g.being active to initiate change; taking action to speak, act and change, individually/ cooperatively; involvement in issues that affect the planet as a whole).
(3) Rights and responsibilities (e.g.feeling a sense of responsibility for our fellow human beings; entitlement to basic human rights).(4) Partnerships and collaboration made possible by a feeling of community belonging and connection (e.g.all human beings are connected to one another and to the earth; being part of a global society).(5) Eradication of inequality (by tackling its causes) (e.g.people are equal and should be treated as such).
It can be observed that responses 'cluster' around the action/response level, and decline in number at the higher levels.The above responses are all derived from the second survey.In general, responses here were more nuanced and sophisticated than in the first survey, though the latter nonetheless yielded a few insightful responses.
Finally, the PSTs responded on whether their views had changed during the semester, and on the reasons for these changes.Responses are presented in Tables 8 and 9. Almost 60 per cent of the students indicated that their views had changed during the semester.Eighteen students (29.5 per cent) nominated one or more specific components of the course as contributors.While some students indicated that the change had not been great, they clarified this by adding that, in the words of one, 'I've always been quite interested in social justice and education'.
One student commented: 'in particular, my views about refugees and immigration have changed -I feel as though I have developed a more educated view on this subject'.Other responses in regard to this question included, 'deeper understanding of how to confront issues from a wider perspective'; 'I did not know the full extent of some issues'.
The video inputs and the ensuing discussion that followed appear to have had considerable impact for the students.Assignments have contributed to students' understanding and appreciation of global development.Comments included, 'the video and assignment topics give me opportunities to do more research', and 'the assignments pushed me to research and expand my knowledge further'.Students expressed hope that the videos and ensuing discussions are something they could do with their students ('I hope that as a more experienced teacher and as I learn more that I would love to come up with something like that with the kids and have them feel that they have a voice').
The purpose of the focus group was to probe further into some of the issues raised in the survey, including reasons for giving support to those in need and any changes experienced in recent times.Some indicated an increased awareness of the issues, while other informants came to the course already convinced of the importance of global development aid.Some respondents felt the course and being exposed to education might have shaped their views about priorities for development (for instance, 'if we were doing an environmental degree we might have a different opinion').The group felt that even if there are strategic and pragmatic reasons, such as regional security, for Australia to provide development aid, the overriding motivation should be compassion; that support should come from a stance, or a place, of compassion.
The respondents here could be placed along a cognitive and affective convergent continuum, tentatively proposed here, ranging from ignorance and/or indifference, to working with global partners as equals rather than in a donor-recipient relationship: (Cognitive): Ignorance -awareness \ -engagement -partnership -equality (Affective): Indifference -compassion / Inherent in 'equality' here is seeing through and beyond the 'symptoms of difference' to an acknowledgement of some of the dynamics that lead to such differences.The above continuum might be placed alongside Andreotti's (2014b) as another measure of responses to global imbalances.
To summarize, most of the students progressed, or began to progress, beyond ignorance and indifference.Quite a few of the responses, and more so those at the end of the semester, demonstrated engagement.Some responses, and particularly those from the focus group, demonstrated a readiness for partnership, at least a partnership in terms of shared and negotiated understandings and goals.It may be that the focus group served a pedagogical purpose, a further consideration for future teaching.For at least some students, the changes applied or will apply to their own teaching.For example, 'I do have more of an interest in global development … I would definitely be more willing to teach these topics to students' and 'It has motivated me to be more proactive in passing on positive messages and teachings to my students'.Nevertheless, few students appeared to construct associated responses as partnerships with equals, and responses typically failed to identify underlying causes of inequalities.

Conclusions and recommendations
According to the World Bank (2013) much has been achieved in reducing world poverty, but much work remains to be done.It appears that significant numbers of these students have a 'heart and mind' for global development education and what it can achieve, and intend to imbue their teaching accordingly.For some, their schooling has contributed to this mindset and disposition.Nevertheless, a large proportion of students did not respond to the school-related question, or indicated that they could recall nothing specific.Moreover, it appears that various aspects of this subject, such as the guest speaker, video input, class discussions and assessment tasks, have enhanced the students' understandings of global development aid.The students typically demonstrated advances in both affective and cognitive responses to issues of global development education.But these are inadequate, and perhaps even misdirected, as explored below.
Shakespeare, via Portia, argued that merciful gestures such as development aid 'bless' or benefit both donor and recipient.Arguably, the enlightenment deriving from an enhanced understanding of the circumstances of recipients, and the dynamics that position them, constitutes a richer blessing for the donor, than the resulting funds or goods donated do for recipients.With all its goodwill and mercy, an affectively driven impetus is inadequate for global change and equity, and may well be an impediment.Sustained dedication to global development (education) needs to transcend mere compassion.It demands a cognitively driven will, deriving from ethical foundations (Maxwell et al., 2016), as part of a critically founded global awareness, passion and action.Teachers should critically 're-examine their own positions of privilege and cultural superiority' or 'question how they constructed their identity in their lives' (Mangram and Watson, 2011: 97).Mangram and Watson (2011: 96) emphasize understanding humanities teachers' perspectives and their analysis of 'larger societal discourse which informed and shaped these perspectives … in order to promote novel ways for teachers to engage in this field of study'.
A compassion-or pity-driven motivation for global action can inadvertently lead to the normalizing of 'northern' cultural assumptions, thereby serving to perpetuate the marginalization of non-northern ways of doing, seeing and being.We recognize, though, that these are convenient, 'armchair' arguments, and perhaps cover stories, from people of privilege such as ourselves; arguments that are deaf and blind to people at risk of death from hunger, thirst or diseases that have been consigned to history in the north.O'Connor and Zeichner (2011: 535) suggest that teachers should seek and critically examine resources that 'share the multiple and sometime conflicting perspectives of culturally specific groups and challenge the monolithic representation of the "rest" by the "West"'.Teachers will also need to consider deconstructing their own discourse formations and ideologies, in order to use disruptive knowledge in their pedagogical approaches to increase students' capacity to engage in dialogue with the world (Mangram and Watson, 2011).
There are also implications for teaching here.The subject appears to have resonated with students at the level of knowledge and conation, or action (see Table 9).It does not appear to have imbued the students with a greater understanding of underlying causes and how to counter them, or, as Andreotti (2014b: 22) puts it, addressing the 'economic and cultural roots of inequalities of power and wealth/ labour distribution in a global complex and uncertain system', resisting and seeking alternatives to the normalizing tendencies and processes inherent in this.The aims of the subject outline may need to be adjusted or made more explicit accordingly.Videos such as Slumming It clearly have the capacity to capture attention and remind the viewer of privilege; but they do not, of themselves, offer solutions, and explicit attention to this may need to follow the viewing.Nor is it sufficient to blame only the north.Local phenomena, such as the remnant caste system in India, contribute to such circumstances.
Development aid is a matter of equality of opportunity; that is, of human rights and social justice.As Gardner (2008) points out, individuals avail themselves of human rights simply by virtue of being human.The status of such rights is universal, needing no further justification.As Nelson Mandela (BBC News, 2015) put it: 'Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity.It is an act of justice.It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life.While poverty persists, there is no true freedom.' Given that global development aid concerns human rights, it also of necessity concerns human responsibilities.Mandela (BBC News, 2015) went on to say, Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great.You can be that great generation.Let your greatness blossom.Of course the task will not be easy.But not to do this would be a crime against humanity, against which I ask all humanity now to rise up.(Nelson Mandela, quoted in BBC News, 2015: n.p.) On human rights and education, Burridge and colleagues (2014: 34) observe, 'while it is valid and reasonable to ask what learners will know and be able to do at the end of a course of study, a nobler question to ask is: what kind of person do we want a learner be as a result of their studies, and what are their shared experiences with us, their educators?'(Burridge et al., 2014: 34) If students do not become more compassionate, and more aware of social injustices and how to redress them, their education is arguably a waste of public funds.
A critical, transformative (O'Connor and Zeichner, 2011) global development is an investment in human capital, one that is likely to pay dividends.A related education will enable learners to 'reflect critically on their own and others' perspectives' (Bentall et al., 2014: 625).As part of its futures-orientation, education and social action on development aid is justice-oriented, investment-oriented and peace-oriented.Its global dimension recognizes our one humanity and solidarity.
Martha Nussbaum (2016: n.p.) ponders the following question: What is it about human life that makes it so hard to sustain egalitarian democratic institutions, and so easy to lapse into hierarchies of various types -or worse, projects of violent group animosity?Whatever these forces are, it is ultimately against them that true education for human development must fight.
Nussbaum (2016: n.p.) calls on us to practise what she refers to as narrative imagination, which she describes as: the ability to think what it might be like to be in the shoes of a person different from oneself, to be an intelligent reader of that person's story, and to understand the emotions and wishes and desires that someone so placed might have.
The above arguments are compelling, but may serve to perpetuate inequalities.There is a long tradition in education, including in the work of Dewey (Boydston, 1978), Freire (1970) and Vygotsky (1978), of pathways towards independence and autonomy for the learner, or the oppressed.
We contend here that one quest of the teacher, as of the donor, is to make oneself redundant, by minimizing global inequalities and by maximizing opportunities whereby those who are oppressed might become authors of their own liberation.Arguably, one thing that the privileged and the oppressed have in common is the need for a sense of agency and efficacy -their capacity to do something significant and worthwhile.Educators (etymological 'leaders-out'), in their role as enablers, may be among the best people to assume leadership, and accordingly to recruit and equip allies.

Notes on the contributors
Meera Varadharajan is a research associate in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney.Her research interests are in teacher education, career-change teachers, global education, educational philosophy and teacher quality.
John Buchanan is an associate professor in education at the University of Technology Sydney, where he coordinates international and engagement initiatives in the School of Education.His research interests include civics education, social and environmental education, and intercultural education, including transitions.
Any small change?43 International Journal of Development Educationand Global Learning 9 (1) 2017

Table 1 :
Should Australia provide global development aid?

Table 2 :
Any small change?39InternationalJournal of Development Educationand Global Learning 9 (1) 2017Next, participants were asked to indicate the importance of providing global development aid on a scale of 1 to 10. Results are shown in Table2.How important is it to give global aid (scale of 1-10)?

Table 3 :
Importance of giving aid, clustered responses

Table 4 :
Highest priorities for global development aid (according to first response)

Table 5 :
Action in response to knowledge about global development aid

Table 6 :
The item generating the biggest increase is buying Fair Trade products (43 to 65 per cent).It is difficult to map our respondents' tick-box responses here to a framework such as Andreotti's (2014b) concept of soft/critical global citizenship education.It might depend on the nature and outcome of, for example, talking with family and friends.This could be a focus for further research.The participants also indicated their level of interest in various global rightsrelated issues.Responses are presented in Table6.PSTs' level of interest by issue (respondents indicating 'very interested')

Table 7 :
What does global citizenship mean to you?
International Journal of DevelopmentEducation and Global Learning 9 (1) 2017

Table 8 :
Have your views changed during the semester?
10. How interested are you in the following?I am willing for this information to be used, without identifying me, in research publications. (If this box is unticked, answers will only be used for teaching evaluations.)13.Do you believe your views about global development have changed during this semester?Yes  No  If yes, can you identify any reasons (course content -be specific if possible), current affairs etc. __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 14.If you are willing to be in a focus group to discuss this further, please write your first name and phone number below.Or you can email.__________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________