Student-, parent-, and teacher-related intercultural attitudes and global competence: Comparative findings from six societies in PISA 2018

Despite the growing emphasis on global competence in the realm of education, comparative research examining students from both Global North and Global South contexts remains scarce. Grounded in Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory, this study comparatively investigated how student-, parent-, and teacher-related intercultural attitudes link to students’ global competence across six diverse societies, namely Hong Kong, South Korea, Croatia, Malta, Chile, and Panama. The participants were selected from the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), and the ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis was employed as a statistical approach. From the perspective of countries/economies, student-, parent-, and teacher-related intercultural attitudes had the strongest connection with students’ global competence in Hong Kong and South Korea, a moderate association with that in Chile and Panama, and the weakest correlation with that in Croatia and Malta. From the perspective of variables, student-related intercultural attitudes displayed the strongest connection with students’ global competence; teacher-related intercultural attitudes exerted a moderate association with students’ global competence; as well, parent-related intercultural attitudes showed the weakest correlation with students’ global competence. The empirical findings were discussed in relation to international comparative insights. Critically, the research conclusions reflected not only diverse stakeholder roles related to corresponding postcolonial legacies and nationalist landscapes but also the urgent need to decolonize global competence frameworks that risk perpetuating educational hegemonies under the guise of cosmopolitanism.