Pupils’ global thinking: a comparison of selected European countries

Abstract

There is currently a stress on the need to bring up the individuals able to look at global trends from various viewpoints, and tolerating and respecting people from other cultures, with different religions and worldviews as well. The study explores the way the task is fulfilled in the Netherlands, Finland, Germany, Czechia, Hungary and Serbia. A questionnaire survey has found out that students’ world-mindedness is situated roughly in the middle of the scale, between the national and global perspective. While the average value of the sample is primarily lowered by the students from Hungary and Czechia, those from Germany and Finland considerably exceed the value. Students in general show global tendencies in the Culture and attitudes to others and in the Education and learning. In the remaining topics, there is a more obvious manifestation of national tendencies (e.g. Economy and migration). Detailed analyses have proven the influence of gender, respondents’ interest in news, experience with stay abroad, etc.