The data collection instrument was a questionnaire, which was administered online. As there was no previous research with the same focus and thus no instrument already created to examine these matters, the questionnaire was developed on the basis of the issues that came up in the relevant literature and in the interviews. Also, the questionnaire from one of my previous research projects inquiring into teachers’ views on dealing with controversial issues (Divéki, 2018) served as a starting point, and the lessons learnt from that pilot study helped me design the questionnaires for the two main studies. The first section of the questionnaire aimed to find out to what extent teachers would bring certain global, local, and intercultural issues into their classes. The participants were asked to rate their answers on a 6-point Likert scale (they had to assess the likelihood of their dealing with the given issue in class with a score between 1 and 5 and they had to mark six in case they had already dealt with the issues in class). The global issues listed were the ones that appear on the United Nations’ website as the most pressing global issues (United Nations, n.d.). For the list of local issues, I brainstormed some topics that often appear in the news and also relied on brainstorming sessions I usually have with groups of university students about what they find the most pressing issues in Hungary. The list of intercultural issues was also the result of brainstorming. The next three sections of the questionnaire (which enquired into teacher’s preferences, the frequency of the inclusion of global content and the importance of dealing with global, local, and intercultural issues) is based on the pilot study mentioned above (Divéki, 2018); the question types and the scales were borrowed from that study. The fifth section of the questionnaire, which enquired into the aspects influencing the inclusion of global issues in the EFL class was based on the studies presented in Sections 2.2.1 and 2.2.3 of the literature review.

 

 

In the first round of the pilot, this scale consisted of 23 items, and it was created based on the emerging themes from the literature. However, during the analysis stage, I had to realise that it would have been expedient to work with constructs and come up with an almost equal number of items for each of them. Having learnt from this mistake, for the main study seven constructs were created for the secondary school context and eight for the university context to find out to what extent these variables influence teachers’ decision to deal with complex issues in class, which can be seen in Table 3.6.

1. The possibility of inclusion of global, local, and intercultural issues (5 questions, 54 items) Sample item: How likely are you to bring these global issues into your classes with 16–18-year-old-students? Africa. Please mark your answers on the following scale. 1 = I am not at all likely; 2 = I am not really likely; 3 = I am partly likely and partly not; 4 = I am likely; 5 = I am very likely. If you have already dealt with this topic in class, please mark 6.

2. The frequency of the inclusion of global, local, and intercultural topics in the EFL class (5 questions) Sample item: How often do you deal with global issues in class? Please mark your answer on the following scale: 1 = never; 2 = once or twice a year; 3 = once or twice a month; 4 = once a week; 5 = multiple times a week

3. The importance of dealing with global, local and intercultural issues (5 questions)

Sample item: How important is it to deal with global issues in class? Please mark your answer on the scale.

4. Teacher preferences (6 questions)

Sample item: How much do you like dealing with global issues if you bring the topic into class? Please mark your answer on the scale:

5. Aspects influencing the inclusion of global, local, and intercultural issues in class (1 question, 30 items)

Sample item: To what extent are the following statements true for you? I only discuss global, local, and intercultural issues in class with my groups if the topic appears in the texts or questions of the coursebook. Please mark your answer on the following scale: 1 = not at all true; 2 = not really true; 3 = partly true, partly not; 4 = quite true; 5 = absolutely true

6. Global competence development (10 questions)

Sample item: To what extent do you consider yourself a global citizen? Please mark your answer on the following scale: 1 = Not at all, 2 = Not really, 3 = Partly, 4 = Quite, 5 = Absolutely

7. Biodata (Secondary school questionnaire: 12 questions; University questionnaire: 5 questions)

 

With the help of these questions, background variables, such as age, gender, place of residence, school type/university, type of settlement were collected.