Cosmopolitanism Outline Completed
Introduction:
Statement of Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to introduce the notion of cosmopolitanism and its practice within the institution of education. Arguments will be made against its oppositional force: nationalism, and its practice in education. Suggestions will also be offered on how schools and teachers can foster cosmopolitan rather than national ideologies in students.
Body:
1) Introduction/defnition
a) COSMO:
i) Definition/translation
Greek translation: “kosmopolitês” (citizen of the world) (Kleingeld & Brown, 2002).
Cosmopolitan:
Greek translation: “cosmos” (the world), “polis” (city or nation) (Luke, 2004; Wikipedia. 2006, b).
– cosmopolitanism is the establishment of one with the human family in one’s family, culture, community, world (Kriegman, 2003).
– COSMO - personal cultural identity within international education (an institution) (Gunesch, 2004) – thus, having identity of one culture, nation
ii) Beliefs, morals, arguments, philosophies
– idea - all of humanity belongs to a single moral community
– Promotes human diversity
– helps citizens understand each another and understand important historical events of one’s and other’s nations (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– especially important in democratic societies (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– contrasted with ideologies of patriotism and nationalism
– moral argument: one does no wrong to people of other nation-states
– driving forces of COSMO:
– multinationalism, multiculturalism, globalization (Wikipedia, 2006, a)
– Internationalism, multilingualism, (Gunesch, 2004).
– Breadth of perspectives from moral and socio-political philosophy
– Common to all perspectives:
– idea - all human beings, regardless of political ideology, belong to a single community and this community should be cultivated (Wikipedia, 2006, a)
– some envision this community in terms of political institution
– some envision this community in terms of moral norms
– some envision this community in terms of relationships
– some envision this community in terms of shared markets
– some envision this community in terms of cultural expression
– involves world government or . . .
– inclusive moral, economic, and/or political relationships between nations or individuals of different nations (Wikipedia, 2006, a)
– philosophical interest in cosmopolitanism:
its challenge to commonly recognized attachments all cultures, ethnic groups, and each other (Kleingeld & Brown, 2002).
– cosmopolitanism requires global citizenship and human agency (Kriegman, 2003).
– human agency is important factor in COSMO (Kriegman, 2003)
– role of cosmopolitanism: emerging social force within the establishment of individual identity and as international educational curriculum (Gunesch, 2004)
– COSMO – interested in survival of diverse cultural identities (Gunesch, 2004)
– Requirements for COSMO: (Gunesch, 2004)
– International travel/mobility
– Surrendering/reglinguishing of sole status and pride in one’s own culture (change terminology from “home” to “everywhere”
– Notion of multicultural respect:
– respecting others requires recognition of their cultural identity (McDonough, 1997)
– speaking in recognition of others’ unique identities (McDonough, 1997)
– speaking authentically with others (McDonough, 1997)
recognizing the unique way in which one individual’s identity is constituted by a specific group cultural identity (McDonough, 1997)
COSMO belief:
– Cannot understand and respect people from divergent cultures simply by learning about shared identities, norms, beliefs held by group (as NATIONAL believes) (McDonough, 1997)
o Instead, need to understand each individual (McDonough, 1997)
– Must remain skeptical and critical of one's cultural commitments, beliefs, practices
– Must find value and develop sense of pride in one's cultural commitments, beliefs, practices (McDonough, 1997)
– individual identity is a hodgepodge [*thesaurus **] of cultural fragments (rather than NATIONAL’s notion of cultural identity) (McDonough, 1997)
o individuals have chance to develop a unique and evolving cultural identity through their plethora of different fragments (McDonough, 1997)
NATIONAL’s conception of identity based on group can be disrespectful in a variety of ways (McDonough, 1997)
Cosmopolitan:
– Cosmopolitan view – core of COSMO
– Environment where all cultures from around the world coexist, or . . .
– Personal perspective that reflects exposure to many different cultures
– Related words: "worldly", "sophisticated", “citizen of the world”
– implies identification with a world community rather than with a particular state, country, culture, ethnic group, nation or people
– Cosmopolitan identity:
contextual and situated (e.g., while acting as a cosmopolitan in one situation, a person could act as a nationalist in another situation) (Wikipedia. 2006, b).
iii) Different societal institutions, including education
– COSMO (diversity)
– Share liberal perspective (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– Liberal perspective – purpose of education is to connect identity and autonomy; teach students to be open to a variety of identities along with their own (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– encourages students to contemplate their own identity and perhaps how to change it (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– The adolescent developmental stage of cosmopolitanism:
– a profound inner development and disposition to view people, oneself, events, ideas, and things in a cosmopolitan perspective
– human growth potential (not everyone succeeds this stage)
– similar to Abraham Maslow’s peak developmental stage of self-actualization (McEvoy, 1968)
– goal – transmission of common culture in schools (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– acquired through education focused on teaching individuals unbiased, non-judgemental, genuine accounts of different cultures and ethnic groups, and group shared identities (McDonough, 1997)
– not reinforced through impressing the dominant culture on students (McDonough, 1997)
b) NATIONAL: (opposition)
– NATIONAL (inspired by traditional religions)
– Oppose liberal perspective (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– Favor patriotism (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– Driving forces: ethnocentrism, patriotism (Gunesch, 2004)
– Impress a particular, partially shared identity on students (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– partially - allows for differences among students, differences that ought to be
understood, at least to some extent (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– teach a sincere history and political principles of one’s country (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– Critique and opposition of COSMO: (Gunesch, 2004; Wikipedia, 2006, a).
– Argue that national affiliations are important to persons' identities (Wikipedia, 2006, a).
– Argue that COSMO would remove an important component of social fulfillment and belonging from individuals (Wikipedia, 2006, a).
– argue that loyalty is a moral virtue (Wikipedia, 2006, a).
– moral argument: one's priority should be the people of one's own country
lack compelling arguments as to why people of one's own country are intrinsically more important than people from other countries (Wikipedia, 2006, a).
– less interested in diverse cultural identities – more interested in personal cultural identities (Gunesch, 2004)
NATIONAL
– Reinforces universal values of justice and right (Nussbaum, 1994)
– Influeces to people to identify themselves in hierarchal fashion (Nussbaum, 1994)
I am [“the dominant culture”] first and [“ancestral, inferior culture”] second (e.g: I am Canadian first and Indian second.) (Nussbaum, 1994)
i) Different societal institutions, including education
– NATIONAL – traditional paradigm in education (Luke, 2004).
– Nationalism – reflected in commodification in insititution of education (Luke, 2004).
– Nationalism – reflected in commodity of fetishism (Luke, 2004).
– Shift in educational paradigm from commodification (COMM) to cosmopolitanism (COSMO) (Luke, 2004).
2) Practice within the institution of education
a) COSMO
– How COSMO is transmitted in schools:
– Teach local variations of national curriculm (i.e., various cultures and sub-cultures) (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– Advantage – welcomes variety to individuals’ ideologies (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– globalized citizenship – term refers to enlarging students’ horizons through exploring diversity (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– teach history and culture of various local communities, including immigrant and refugees communities (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– focus: educate on wide scope of different cultures and ethnic groups and allow individuals to choose their own identity and their own perception of their identity (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– rather than teaching and impressing upon students the dominant cultural identity (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– schools should not concentrate on teaching a particular identity (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– schools should teach honest history of one’s country, particularly history of politics (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– teach true/accurate/unbiased account of all cultures (e.g: teach about Canada’s history of oppressing aboriginal populations and the more recent improvements in indigenous rights (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– follows the philosophy of harmony, cohesion, sharing, and respect across divergent cultures (Hirsch, 1992).
– belief that students will become cooperative, civilized adults who feel sense of belonging to larger society and world (Hirsch, 1992).
advocate pluralism, expression of admiration for diversity, and sympathy for values to be found in all cultures (Hirsch, 1992).
– COSMO competence or mastery – skill set, state of readiness, ability to connect with peoples from diverse cultures (by utilizing skill set of looking , listening, empathizing, reflecting, intuiting), thought of as developed (developmental) and continuum -–can be taught in schools (Gunesch, 2004)
– Examples of nationally funded education programs aimed at improving sudent’s sense of multiculturalism:
– bilingual and heritage language education programs
– reinforce and encourage flourishing of local languages
– not merely an attempt to help minority language children to assimilate into the larger English speaking public culture (McDonough, 1997)
– reconfigure curricula to represent cultural values, experiences and traditions of minority cultural groups (McDonough, 1997)
– “individuals typically make meaningful choices in a cultural context that is much more heterogeneous, open-ended and fragmented than something we can call "our own" cultural structure” (McDonough, 1997), ¶ 13).
– Equal respect involves:
o Teachers to recognize specific cultural identities (as in NATIONAL)
– COSMO requires more specific attention paid towards multicultural nature of each person’s identity and not to group identities (McDonough, 1997)
– challenge with this preferred paradigm of education: “many education systems and reforms are insufficiently focused on quality, or focus instead on a very narrow and self-referenced definition of quality” (Reimers, 2006).
– What makes preffered paradigm difficult: “dominant competing purposes at present are: educating for economic competitiveness, educating for the formation of national identity and educating for local relevance” (Reimers, 2006)
– Why is COSMO not followed currently?
– lack of political will from national governments (Reimers, 2006)
– insufficient development of a knowledge base to support effective citizenship and human rights education (Reimers, 2006)
– failure of implementation of educational change from international institutions (Reimers, 2006)
– Lacking strong institutions of global governance committed to this purpose (Reimers, 2006)
– approaches to citizenship education are contested and work in progress (Reimers, 2006)
– lack of clarity/insight on what citizenship education is:
– some believe it is about instilling patriotism, love for country and internalization of the institutions of the nation State
– others believe it is about recognizing basic rights of all persons, irrespective of their membership in particular States, it is an education for cosmopolitanism, for egalitarian cosmopolitanism (Reimers, 2006)
– Conclusion: (grim present)
“on a global scale schools are not adequately preparing children to be tolerant, to understand and accept to live with a commitment to the human rights of all people and to be global citizens, and that it is unlikely that they will do anything very different in the future. We still see intolerance, hatred, and global instability in rich and poor nations alike and the cultural conflicts that some have predicted will extend and escalate” [ *** NEED PARA NUMBER ***] (Reimers, 2006)
b) NATIONAL
How NATIONAL is transmitted in schools:
– NATIONAL
– teaching in a particular language(s) (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– days of the week that school takes place (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– role that parents are (or are not) expected to play (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– dress codes (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– lunch habits and food choices (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– teach society’s political institutions (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– teach history and literature of dominant country (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– nation-wide testing - enforce uniformity of curriculum - insisting that all students understand same things - encourage common culture (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– nationally monitored and certified textbooks, curriculum, and instruction (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– advantages:
– centralizes curriculum and instruction (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– provides structure and standardization for instruction, monitoring quality, and evaluation (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– limitations:
– deprives students of ability to consent freely to nation and dominant culture (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– undermines students of ability to examine nation and dominant culture critically (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– distorts processes of cultural formation and reformation (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– damages loyalties and attachments relevant to social justice, such as social class (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– present idealized, nearly perfect and flawless accounts of nation and dominant culture – does not present true account of history and social/political practices (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– national minority might lead people to believe that majority nation is oppressive and that any federal intervention into the minority is malevolent, reducing the probability of persons within minorities to exit their groups, even if they have good reason to do so and reduce their ability to seek outside assistance in case of need (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
Danger of imposing dominant culture in education of students from diverse cultures:
– Cross-cultural students may have negative experiences:
· Ambivalence – feeling belonging to infereior culture, but hate it at same time (McDonough, 1997)
· Failure – for being member of “failed” group (McDonough, 1997)
· Resentment – feeling that need to conform to dominant culture, when might not want to do it (McDonough, 1997)
· Cultural misrecognition – feel left out and pressure to conform (McDonough, 1997)
– Ignorant teachers may not realize that many students come from variety of different cultural backgrounds and fragments (both inherited and learned) (example – from globalization – many non-American cultures across the world subscribe to American values and beliefs) (McDonough, 1997)
– Limitations of COMM:
– Leads to movement of commodity fetishism (Luke, 2004) - effects:
– Reinforces structured, non-linear educational policy, practice of teaching, and expected student performance behavior
– Large-scale deskilling, deprofessionalization, and automation of generation upon generation of teachers.
– Reduces capacity for spontaneous, creative thought
– Reasserts definitions of teaching as craft and profession – both limiting in reactions/responses to modern changes in economic conditions, policies, persons having and expressing divergent ethnicity and cultures, formulations of youth, multiple and divergent identities, and forms of work
– Targets teachers and teaching profession
– Attempts to deal with modern diversities through further standardizing and strengthening existing programs
– Traditional/neoclassical – teachers and teaching embrace commodity fetishism
– Leads to deskilling and deprofessionalization of generation upon generation of teachers
– Teaching becomes more about following tradition/structure/mandate/standard rather than focusing on individual student and classroom needs – results in students being 3rd party rather than recipents of education Nationalism – reflected in commodification in insititution of education (Luke, 2004).
– teaches the benefits of nationalism and individual ethnic identity (Hirsch, 1992).
– Criques COSMO as leading to cultural imperalism and loss of identity (Hirsch, 1992)
– problem with traditional paradigm: “graduates that are, in fundamental ways, ill equipped to meet the contemporary demands of citizenship” [ *** need para number ***] (Reimers, 2006)
consequences: student disengagement/disconnection, dropout (Reimers, 2006)
3) Guidelines for promoting COSMO ideologies in students
– focus: “educate people to understand and appreciate cultural differences and to understand and accept human rights in a framework of global values that includes compassion and caring, concern for others, respect and reciprocity” [NEED PARA NUMBER (Reimers, 2006)
– Programming, funding, and lobbying attempts to deal with modern diversities (e.g: school psychology, behavior management, ESL, speech and language pathology) (Luke, 2004).
– Change definitions of teacher, student, and education in academia and real life (Luke, 2004):
– Teachers: Knowledgable, powerful agents of exchange between persons of different backgrounds
– Teachers: Interrelational with other societal institutions and government
– Education: From an objective, standard, science-based definition of education to humanistic, meaningful, subjective-based definition of education
– Teachers and students: world citizens, thinkers, intellectuals, and critics
– Change curricula:
– Transnational and COSMO focus (Luke, 2004)
– Move away from comprehensive, rigid, inflexible, standard, teacher-proof packages of textbook/student workbook/teacher guidebook materials that operate by writings of B.F Skinner and E.L. Thorndike (theorists from behavioral approach to psychology). Lead to COMM and commodity fetishism (Luke, 2004)
– Multinational products (as described above) (e.g., Phonics) exceptionally popular nowadays (Luke, 2004)
– Educate about transculturalism, transnationalism, cultural reconciliation, international cohesion, racial harmony, globalization, global intersubjectivity, social engagement, immigration, and geopolitical responsibility and ethics (Luke, 2004)
– Change practice/profession of teaching:
– Teachers that teach, communicate, exchange, and act as liasion across national and regional boundaries with students, parents, other teachers, school personall and administration, educational researchers, curriculm developers, teacher educators, and educational politicians (Luke, 2004)
– Change focus of education into one of development – develop individuals with a COSMO identity (Gunesch, 2004).
– (importance of educational institutions, international organizations, groups, and individuals to) support the education of tolerance, human rights and global civility in students and future citizens (Reimers, 2006).
– Requires teaching/internalizing global values: “effective citizenship includes the knowledge, ability and disposition to engage peacefully and constructively across cultural differences for purposes of addressing personal and collective needs and of achieving sustainable human-environmental interactions, this requires internalizing Global Values” (¶ 1) (Reimers, 2006).
– how to teach tolerance, citizenship, and human rights:
– cross-cultural and conflict resolution
– teach Universal Declaration of Human Rights (US), Charter of Rights and Freedoms (CAN): teach what they are, history of them, how to live them, to appreciate that all people have same rights
– teach history of rights, government, and social institutions: important in education of tolerance
– effective teaching of rights/ethics – requires not enforcing (i.e., thou shalt not . . .), but engaging students in discussions, debates about relevant topics appropriate to their age levels
– not just about fact knowing, but understanding the implications of that knowledge for the capacity and disposition for personal responsibility and action (Reimers, 2006)
– Go further than teaching about histories, traditions, customs, beliefs held from people of divergent backgrounds – teach about human condition – things shared by all people/human beings (Nussbaum, 1994)
– Motivate students to continually learn about themselves, be self-critical and skeptical – examine self from perspectives of others – thus, limiting existence of ignorance (Nussbaum, 1994)
– Teach value of international cooperation – working with people from around the world (Nussbaum, 1994)
– Clear, respectful, and honest interpersonal communication
o Learning other languages (bilingualism) (Nussbaum, 1994)
o Respect other’s traditions, commitments, and ways of living (Nussbaum, 1994)
o Respect human dignity (general) and opportunity for every person to pursue happiness (Nussbaum, 1994)
o Believe that all human beings are created equal and have rights to equal and fair treatment from others (Nussbaum, 1994)
o Self-awareness in one’s values, beliefs, biases, judgments, and the confidence in defending them when required – also, awareness of one’s personal boundaries (Nussbaum, 1994)
o Love for humanity (Nussbaum, 1994)
o Relinquish needs to defend one’s position and needs to be right (Nussbaum, 1994)
Conclusion
– COSMO and NATIONAL – compliment each other, cannot exist without each other (opposing forces) (Gunesch, 2004). Thus, we need both ideologies – cannot merely rid world of NATIONAL
– COSMO and NATIONAL can be combined – cosmopolitan patriot – being loyal to all levels of humanity: family, ethnic groups, cultures, sub-cultures, towns, cities, nation states, world (Gunesch, 2004).
References
Gunesch, K. (2004). Education for cosmopolitanism: Cosmopolitanism as a personal cultural identity model for and within international education. Journal of Research in International Education, 3 (3), 251-275.
Hirsch, E. (1992). Toward a centrist curriculum: Two kinds of multiculturalism in elementary school. Retrieved, November 17, 2006, from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2/content_storage_01/0000000b/80/22/d7/ba.pdf
Kriegman, O. (2003). Dawn of the cosmopolitan: The hope of a global citizens movement. Retrieved, November 21, 2006, from http://www.gtinitiative.org/default.asp?action=43
Luke, A. (2004). Teaching after the market: From commodity to cosmopolitanism. Teachers College Record, 106 (7), 1422-1443.
McDonough, K. (1997). Cultural recognition, cosmopolitanism andmulticultural education. Retrieved, November 22, 2006, fromhttp://www.ed.uiuc.edu/EPS/PES-yearbook/97_docs/mcdonough.html
McEvoy, T. (1968). Cosmopolitanism: An opportunity for higher education in a shrinking world. Journal of Higher Education, 39, (2), 84-91.
Reimers, F. (2006). Citizenship, identity and education: Examining the public purposes of schools in an age of globalization. Boston: Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Spinner-Halev, J. (2005). Teaching identity and autonomy. Retrieved November 17, 2006, from
http://0-web.ebscohost.com.darius.uleth.ca/ehost/pdf?vid=4&hid=119&sid=495c40af-6d28-4f6b-92ff-8ed654fa3f39%40sessionmgr106
Wikipedia. (2006, a). Cosmopolitanism. Retrieved, November 16, 2006, fromhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmopolitanism
Wikipedia. (2006, b). Cosmopolitan. Retrieved, November 16, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmopolitan
EDITING NOTE: There are 10 references in this paper.
Statement of Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to introduce the notion of cosmopolitanism and its practice within the institution of education. Arguments will be made against its oppositional force: nationalism, and its practice in education. Suggestions will also be offered on how schools and teachers can foster cosmopolitan rather than national ideologies in students.
Body:
1) Introduction/defnition
a) COSMO:
i) Definition/translation
Greek translation: “kosmopolitês” (citizen of the world) (Kleingeld & Brown, 2002).
Cosmopolitan:
Greek translation: “cosmos” (the world), “polis” (city or nation) (Luke, 2004; Wikipedia. 2006, b).
– cosmopolitanism is the establishment of one with the human family in one’s family, culture, community, world (Kriegman, 2003).
– COSMO - personal cultural identity within international education (an institution) (Gunesch, 2004) – thus, having identity of one culture, nation
ii) Beliefs, morals, arguments, philosophies
– idea - all of humanity belongs to a single moral community
– Promotes human diversity
– helps citizens understand each another and understand important historical events of one’s and other’s nations (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– especially important in democratic societies (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– contrasted with ideologies of patriotism and nationalism
– moral argument: one does no wrong to people of other nation-states
– driving forces of COSMO:
– multinationalism, multiculturalism, globalization (Wikipedia, 2006, a)
– Internationalism, multilingualism, (Gunesch, 2004).
– Breadth of perspectives from moral and socio-political philosophy
– Common to all perspectives:
– idea - all human beings, regardless of political ideology, belong to a single community and this community should be cultivated (Wikipedia, 2006, a)
– some envision this community in terms of political institution
– some envision this community in terms of moral norms
– some envision this community in terms of relationships
– some envision this community in terms of shared markets
– some envision this community in terms of cultural expression
– involves world government or . . .
– inclusive moral, economic, and/or political relationships between nations or individuals of different nations (Wikipedia, 2006, a)
– philosophical interest in cosmopolitanism:
its challenge to commonly recognized attachments all cultures, ethnic groups, and each other (Kleingeld & Brown, 2002).
– cosmopolitanism requires global citizenship and human agency (Kriegman, 2003).
– human agency is important factor in COSMO (Kriegman, 2003)
– role of cosmopolitanism: emerging social force within the establishment of individual identity and as international educational curriculum (Gunesch, 2004)
– COSMO – interested in survival of diverse cultural identities (Gunesch, 2004)
– Requirements for COSMO: (Gunesch, 2004)
– International travel/mobility
– Surrendering/reglinguishing of sole status and pride in one’s own culture (change terminology from “home” to “everywhere”
– Notion of multicultural respect:
– respecting others requires recognition of their cultural identity (McDonough, 1997)
– speaking in recognition of others’ unique identities (McDonough, 1997)
– speaking authentically with others (McDonough, 1997)
recognizing the unique way in which one individual’s identity is constituted by a specific group cultural identity (McDonough, 1997)
COSMO belief:
– Cannot understand and respect people from divergent cultures simply by learning about shared identities, norms, beliefs held by group (as NATIONAL believes) (McDonough, 1997)
o Instead, need to understand each individual (McDonough, 1997)
– Must remain skeptical and critical of one's cultural commitments, beliefs, practices
– Must find value and develop sense of pride in one's cultural commitments, beliefs, practices (McDonough, 1997)
– individual identity is a hodgepodge [*thesaurus **] of cultural fragments (rather than NATIONAL’s notion of cultural identity) (McDonough, 1997)
o individuals have chance to develop a unique and evolving cultural identity through their plethora of different fragments (McDonough, 1997)
NATIONAL’s conception of identity based on group can be disrespectful in a variety of ways (McDonough, 1997)
Cosmopolitan:
– Cosmopolitan view – core of COSMO
– Environment where all cultures from around the world coexist, or . . .
– Personal perspective that reflects exposure to many different cultures
– Related words: "worldly", "sophisticated", “citizen of the world”
– implies identification with a world community rather than with a particular state, country, culture, ethnic group, nation or people
– Cosmopolitan identity:
contextual and situated (e.g., while acting as a cosmopolitan in one situation, a person could act as a nationalist in another situation) (Wikipedia. 2006, b).
iii) Different societal institutions, including education
– COSMO (diversity)
– Share liberal perspective (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– Liberal perspective – purpose of education is to connect identity and autonomy; teach students to be open to a variety of identities along with their own (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– encourages students to contemplate their own identity and perhaps how to change it (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– The adolescent developmental stage of cosmopolitanism:
– a profound inner development and disposition to view people, oneself, events, ideas, and things in a cosmopolitan perspective
– human growth potential (not everyone succeeds this stage)
– similar to Abraham Maslow’s peak developmental stage of self-actualization (McEvoy, 1968)
– goal – transmission of common culture in schools (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– acquired through education focused on teaching individuals unbiased, non-judgemental, genuine accounts of different cultures and ethnic groups, and group shared identities (McDonough, 1997)
– not reinforced through impressing the dominant culture on students (McDonough, 1997)
b) NATIONAL: (opposition)
– NATIONAL (inspired by traditional religions)
– Oppose liberal perspective (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– Favor patriotism (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– Driving forces: ethnocentrism, patriotism (Gunesch, 2004)
– Impress a particular, partially shared identity on students (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– partially - allows for differences among students, differences that ought to be
understood, at least to some extent (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– teach a sincere history and political principles of one’s country (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– Critique and opposition of COSMO: (Gunesch, 2004; Wikipedia, 2006, a).
– Argue that national affiliations are important to persons' identities (Wikipedia, 2006, a).
– Argue that COSMO would remove an important component of social fulfillment and belonging from individuals (Wikipedia, 2006, a).
– argue that loyalty is a moral virtue (Wikipedia, 2006, a).
– moral argument: one's priority should be the people of one's own country
lack compelling arguments as to why people of one's own country are intrinsically more important than people from other countries (Wikipedia, 2006, a).
– less interested in diverse cultural identities – more interested in personal cultural identities (Gunesch, 2004)
NATIONAL
– Reinforces universal values of justice and right (Nussbaum, 1994)
– Influeces to people to identify themselves in hierarchal fashion (Nussbaum, 1994)
I am [“the dominant culture”] first and [“ancestral, inferior culture”] second (e.g: I am Canadian first and Indian second.) (Nussbaum, 1994)
i) Different societal institutions, including education
– NATIONAL – traditional paradigm in education (Luke, 2004).
– Nationalism – reflected in commodification in insititution of education (Luke, 2004).
– Nationalism – reflected in commodity of fetishism (Luke, 2004).
– Shift in educational paradigm from commodification (COMM) to cosmopolitanism (COSMO) (Luke, 2004).
2) Practice within the institution of education
a) COSMO
– How COSMO is transmitted in schools:
– Teach local variations of national curriculm (i.e., various cultures and sub-cultures) (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– Advantage – welcomes variety to individuals’ ideologies (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– globalized citizenship – term refers to enlarging students’ horizons through exploring diversity (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– teach history and culture of various local communities, including immigrant and refugees communities (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– focus: educate on wide scope of different cultures and ethnic groups and allow individuals to choose their own identity and their own perception of their identity (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– rather than teaching and impressing upon students the dominant cultural identity (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– schools should not concentrate on teaching a particular identity (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– schools should teach honest history of one’s country, particularly history of politics (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– teach true/accurate/unbiased account of all cultures (e.g: teach about Canada’s history of oppressing aboriginal populations and the more recent improvements in indigenous rights (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– follows the philosophy of harmony, cohesion, sharing, and respect across divergent cultures (Hirsch, 1992).
– belief that students will become cooperative, civilized adults who feel sense of belonging to larger society and world (Hirsch, 1992).
advocate pluralism, expression of admiration for diversity, and sympathy for values to be found in all cultures (Hirsch, 1992).
– COSMO competence or mastery – skill set, state of readiness, ability to connect with peoples from diverse cultures (by utilizing skill set of looking , listening, empathizing, reflecting, intuiting), thought of as developed (developmental) and continuum -–can be taught in schools (Gunesch, 2004)
– Examples of nationally funded education programs aimed at improving sudent’s sense of multiculturalism:
– bilingual and heritage language education programs
– reinforce and encourage flourishing of local languages
– not merely an attempt to help minority language children to assimilate into the larger English speaking public culture (McDonough, 1997)
– reconfigure curricula to represent cultural values, experiences and traditions of minority cultural groups (McDonough, 1997)
– “individuals typically make meaningful choices in a cultural context that is much more heterogeneous, open-ended and fragmented than something we can call "our own" cultural structure” (McDonough, 1997), ¶ 13).
– Equal respect involves:
o Teachers to recognize specific cultural identities (as in NATIONAL)
– COSMO requires more specific attention paid towards multicultural nature of each person’s identity and not to group identities (McDonough, 1997)
– challenge with this preferred paradigm of education: “many education systems and reforms are insufficiently focused on quality, or focus instead on a very narrow and self-referenced definition of quality” (Reimers, 2006).
– What makes preffered paradigm difficult: “dominant competing purposes at present are: educating for economic competitiveness, educating for the formation of national identity and educating for local relevance” (Reimers, 2006)
– Why is COSMO not followed currently?
– lack of political will from national governments (Reimers, 2006)
– insufficient development of a knowledge base to support effective citizenship and human rights education (Reimers, 2006)
– failure of implementation of educational change from international institutions (Reimers, 2006)
– Lacking strong institutions of global governance committed to this purpose (Reimers, 2006)
– approaches to citizenship education are contested and work in progress (Reimers, 2006)
– lack of clarity/insight on what citizenship education is:
– some believe it is about instilling patriotism, love for country and internalization of the institutions of the nation State
– others believe it is about recognizing basic rights of all persons, irrespective of their membership in particular States, it is an education for cosmopolitanism, for egalitarian cosmopolitanism (Reimers, 2006)
– Conclusion: (grim present)
“on a global scale schools are not adequately preparing children to be tolerant, to understand and accept to live with a commitment to the human rights of all people and to be global citizens, and that it is unlikely that they will do anything very different in the future. We still see intolerance, hatred, and global instability in rich and poor nations alike and the cultural conflicts that some have predicted will extend and escalate” [ *** NEED PARA NUMBER ***] (Reimers, 2006)
b) NATIONAL
How NATIONAL is transmitted in schools:
– NATIONAL
– teaching in a particular language(s) (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– days of the week that school takes place (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– role that parents are (or are not) expected to play (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– dress codes (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– lunch habits and food choices (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– teach society’s political institutions (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– teach history and literature of dominant country (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– nation-wide testing - enforce uniformity of curriculum - insisting that all students understand same things - encourage common culture (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– nationally monitored and certified textbooks, curriculum, and instruction (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– advantages:
– centralizes curriculum and instruction (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– provides structure and standardization for instruction, monitoring quality, and evaluation (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– limitations:
– deprives students of ability to consent freely to nation and dominant culture (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– undermines students of ability to examine nation and dominant culture critically (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– distorts processes of cultural formation and reformation (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– damages loyalties and attachments relevant to social justice, such as social class (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– present idealized, nearly perfect and flawless accounts of nation and dominant culture – does not present true account of history and social/political practices (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
– national minority might lead people to believe that majority nation is oppressive and that any federal intervention into the minority is malevolent, reducing the probability of persons within minorities to exit their groups, even if they have good reason to do so and reduce their ability to seek outside assistance in case of need (Spinner-Halev, 2005)
Danger of imposing dominant culture in education of students from diverse cultures:
– Cross-cultural students may have negative experiences:
· Ambivalence – feeling belonging to infereior culture, but hate it at same time (McDonough, 1997)
· Failure – for being member of “failed” group (McDonough, 1997)
· Resentment – feeling that need to conform to dominant culture, when might not want to do it (McDonough, 1997)
· Cultural misrecognition – feel left out and pressure to conform (McDonough, 1997)
– Ignorant teachers may not realize that many students come from variety of different cultural backgrounds and fragments (both inherited and learned) (example – from globalization – many non-American cultures across the world subscribe to American values and beliefs) (McDonough, 1997)
– Limitations of COMM:
– Leads to movement of commodity fetishism (Luke, 2004) - effects:
– Reinforces structured, non-linear educational policy, practice of teaching, and expected student performance behavior
– Large-scale deskilling, deprofessionalization, and automation of generation upon generation of teachers.
– Reduces capacity for spontaneous, creative thought
– Reasserts definitions of teaching as craft and profession – both limiting in reactions/responses to modern changes in economic conditions, policies, persons having and expressing divergent ethnicity and cultures, formulations of youth, multiple and divergent identities, and forms of work
– Targets teachers and teaching profession
– Attempts to deal with modern diversities through further standardizing and strengthening existing programs
– Traditional/neoclassical – teachers and teaching embrace commodity fetishism
– Leads to deskilling and deprofessionalization of generation upon generation of teachers
– Teaching becomes more about following tradition/structure/mandate/standard rather than focusing on individual student and classroom needs – results in students being 3rd party rather than recipents of education Nationalism – reflected in commodification in insititution of education (Luke, 2004).
– teaches the benefits of nationalism and individual ethnic identity (Hirsch, 1992).
– Criques COSMO as leading to cultural imperalism and loss of identity (Hirsch, 1992)
– problem with traditional paradigm: “graduates that are, in fundamental ways, ill equipped to meet the contemporary demands of citizenship” [ *** need para number ***] (Reimers, 2006)
consequences: student disengagement/disconnection, dropout (Reimers, 2006)
3) Guidelines for promoting COSMO ideologies in students
– focus: “educate people to understand and appreciate cultural differences and to understand and accept human rights in a framework of global values that includes compassion and caring, concern for others, respect and reciprocity” [NEED PARA NUMBER (Reimers, 2006)
– Programming, funding, and lobbying attempts to deal with modern diversities (e.g: school psychology, behavior management, ESL, speech and language pathology) (Luke, 2004).
– Change definitions of teacher, student, and education in academia and real life (Luke, 2004):
– Teachers: Knowledgable, powerful agents of exchange between persons of different backgrounds
– Teachers: Interrelational with other societal institutions and government
– Education: From an objective, standard, science-based definition of education to humanistic, meaningful, subjective-based definition of education
– Teachers and students: world citizens, thinkers, intellectuals, and critics
– Change curricula:
– Transnational and COSMO focus (Luke, 2004)
– Move away from comprehensive, rigid, inflexible, standard, teacher-proof packages of textbook/student workbook/teacher guidebook materials that operate by writings of B.F Skinner and E.L. Thorndike (theorists from behavioral approach to psychology). Lead to COMM and commodity fetishism (Luke, 2004)
– Multinational products (as described above) (e.g., Phonics) exceptionally popular nowadays (Luke, 2004)
– Educate about transculturalism, transnationalism, cultural reconciliation, international cohesion, racial harmony, globalization, global intersubjectivity, social engagement, immigration, and geopolitical responsibility and ethics (Luke, 2004)
– Change practice/profession of teaching:
– Teachers that teach, communicate, exchange, and act as liasion across national and regional boundaries with students, parents, other teachers, school personall and administration, educational researchers, curriculm developers, teacher educators, and educational politicians (Luke, 2004)
– Change focus of education into one of development – develop individuals with a COSMO identity (Gunesch, 2004).
– (importance of educational institutions, international organizations, groups, and individuals to) support the education of tolerance, human rights and global civility in students and future citizens (Reimers, 2006).
– Requires teaching/internalizing global values: “effective citizenship includes the knowledge, ability and disposition to engage peacefully and constructively across cultural differences for purposes of addressing personal and collective needs and of achieving sustainable human-environmental interactions, this requires internalizing Global Values” (¶ 1) (Reimers, 2006).
– how to teach tolerance, citizenship, and human rights:
– cross-cultural and conflict resolution
– teach Universal Declaration of Human Rights (US), Charter of Rights and Freedoms (CAN): teach what they are, history of them, how to live them, to appreciate that all people have same rights
– teach history of rights, government, and social institutions: important in education of tolerance
– effective teaching of rights/ethics – requires not enforcing (i.e., thou shalt not . . .), but engaging students in discussions, debates about relevant topics appropriate to their age levels
– not just about fact knowing, but understanding the implications of that knowledge for the capacity and disposition for personal responsibility and action (Reimers, 2006)
– Go further than teaching about histories, traditions, customs, beliefs held from people of divergent backgrounds – teach about human condition – things shared by all people/human beings (Nussbaum, 1994)
– Motivate students to continually learn about themselves, be self-critical and skeptical – examine self from perspectives of others – thus, limiting existence of ignorance (Nussbaum, 1994)
– Teach value of international cooperation – working with people from around the world (Nussbaum, 1994)
– Clear, respectful, and honest interpersonal communication
o Learning other languages (bilingualism) (Nussbaum, 1994)
o Respect other’s traditions, commitments, and ways of living (Nussbaum, 1994)
o Respect human dignity (general) and opportunity for every person to pursue happiness (Nussbaum, 1994)
o Believe that all human beings are created equal and have rights to equal and fair treatment from others (Nussbaum, 1994)
o Self-awareness in one’s values, beliefs, biases, judgments, and the confidence in defending them when required – also, awareness of one’s personal boundaries (Nussbaum, 1994)
o Love for humanity (Nussbaum, 1994)
o Relinquish needs to defend one’s position and needs to be right (Nussbaum, 1994)
Conclusion
– COSMO and NATIONAL – compliment each other, cannot exist without each other (opposing forces) (Gunesch, 2004). Thus, we need both ideologies – cannot merely rid world of NATIONAL
– COSMO and NATIONAL can be combined – cosmopolitan patriot – being loyal to all levels of humanity: family, ethnic groups, cultures, sub-cultures, towns, cities, nation states, world (Gunesch, 2004).
References
Gunesch, K. (2004). Education for cosmopolitanism: Cosmopolitanism as a personal cultural identity model for and within international education. Journal of Research in International Education, 3 (3), 251-275.
Hirsch, E. (1992). Toward a centrist curriculum: Two kinds of multiculturalism in elementary school. Retrieved, November 17, 2006, from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2/content_storage_01/0000000b/80/22/d7/ba.pdf
Kriegman, O. (2003). Dawn of the cosmopolitan: The hope of a global citizens movement. Retrieved, November 21, 2006, from http://www.gtinitiative.org/default.asp?action=43
Luke, A. (2004). Teaching after the market: From commodity to cosmopolitanism. Teachers College Record, 106 (7), 1422-1443.
McDonough, K. (1997). Cultural recognition, cosmopolitanism andmulticultural education. Retrieved, November 22, 2006, fromhttp://www.ed.uiuc.edu/EPS/PES-yearbook/97_docs/mcdonough.html
McEvoy, T. (1968). Cosmopolitanism: An opportunity for higher education in a shrinking world. Journal of Higher Education, 39, (2), 84-91.
Reimers, F. (2006). Citizenship, identity and education: Examining the public purposes of schools in an age of globalization. Boston: Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Spinner-Halev, J. (2005). Teaching identity and autonomy. Retrieved November 17, 2006, from
http://0-web.ebscohost.com.darius.uleth.ca/ehost/pdf?vid=4&hid=119&sid=495c40af-6d28-4f6b-92ff-8ed654fa3f39%40sessionmgr106
Wikipedia. (2006, a). Cosmopolitanism. Retrieved, November 16, 2006, fromhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmopolitanism
Wikipedia. (2006, b). Cosmopolitan. Retrieved, November 16, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmopolitan
EDITING NOTE: There are 10 references in this paper.
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