The 'preferred' spellings are sometimes rejected by the English as well as by Americans or Australians, etc.

Recognize is the spelling used in the Oxford English Dictionary, but most English, including university graduates from what used to be called, disparagingly, 'red brick' institutions by Oxbridgers, use recognise.
There are other cases where the average Englishman departs from OED usage.
Recognize is used by Americans.

This has been gone over in several threads at Mudcat.