Pedagogies of dialogue in global citizenship education: pre-service teachers navigate controversial issues across borders

In an era marked by intensifying global crises, rising nationalism, and contested understandings of citizenship, Global Citizenship Education (GCE) faces growing demands to move beyond depoliticized and procedural framings. This study examines the experiences of pre-service teachers from five countries in the Global North who participated in international online exchanges centered on controversial public issues as part of a cross-national teacher education initiative. Drawing on qualitative data from 37 recorded sessions and participants’ post-exchange reflections, we examine how these future educators navigated the tensions between technical-pedagogical training and the ethical, political, and emotional dimensions of justice-oriented GCE. Our analysis reveals that while participants drew on practice-based strategies, many also demonstrated a commitment to fostering dialogic, respectful, and critically reflective spaces attentive to questions of power and difference. This study offers a textured account of how pedagogical practice can become a site of both democratic struggle and transformative global learning.