Cosmopolitanism, Education, and Technology
Whenever the term “cosmopolitanism” is used, it’s important to define what it means. I think many believe the word cosmopolitan to be synonymous with sophisticated. Mental imagery evoked is of a well-traveled, good-looking, knowledgeable person. Here, however, I’m referring to cosmopolitanism the ideology. A cosmopolitan ideology refers to the thinking that all human beings are part of a single community. Cosmopolitanism does not mean open acceptance of all things global while banishing the local, though. As Hansen (2011) states “cosmopolitanism constitutes an orientation in which people learn to balance reflective openness to the new with reflective loyalty to the known. The orientation positions people to learn from rather than merely tolerate others, even while retaining the integrity and continuity of their distinctive ways of being” (p. 1). Cosmopolitanism encourages us to see the unknown in all its potential while still holding onto what we know and keeping these two things in a productive tension.
Cosmopolitan thinking requires work, and it requires teachers to encourage us on this journey. It requires one to be open to new ideas while not blindly accepting everything that is novel. It requires one to hold onto who one is with integrity while also allowing one’s beliefs to be reconfigured upon additional evidence. A teacher is instrumental in such a journey. Someone who embraces such a mindset can serve as a guide for another who is just beginning their journey. A teacher creates a safe space, lends a listening ear, offers words to invigorate.
Technology is also a helpful tool to be utilized on this journey. When using technology with a cosmopolitan mindset, it is once again easy to immediately conjure up what it is not. For example, using the internet to learn more about different cultures is valuable, but this isn’t necessarily cosmopolitanism in action. Using the internet to better understand another culture and critically examining one’s views as a result (or vice-versa) is potentially more productive. At the same time, it is important not to reduce the experiences of others to well-known large-scale events, stereotypes, etc. This is hardly useful. Rather, by seeing the day-to-day work, celebration, joy, and tragedy, we will see that while our values may differ (perhaps greatly) we are united by a humanity. This may be a humanity that is still in need of critical examination, but cosmopolitanism encourages us onward in this examination.
Hansen, D.T. (2011). The Teacher and the World: A Study of Cosmopolitanism as Education. Routledge: New York.