Teaching towards ‘Cosmopolitan Learning?’

1. Teaching towards ‘Cosmopolitan Learning?’ International students and culturally-aware initiatives in an Australian university Jeannie Daniels - Curriculum, Teaching & Learning Centre La Trobe University, Melbourne.

2. La Trobe University –Faculty of Business, Economics & Law (FBEL) Large numbers of international students • 35% of FBEL students are international; • 72% of university’s international student population

3. Most of our university students used to look like this

4. Our students look more like this And this And often like this 

5. ‘[International students are] not accustomed to having to participate in the Australian manner and a lack of language competence and self- confidence further affects their capacity to do so’ (Novera, 2008, p.477)

6. Challenges • Language • 40 different countries • Educational practices/cultures • Learning styles; academic requirements; engagement

7. Facing the challenges • Voluntary workshops for first year skills acquisition • academic skills • information literacy; writing; and numeracy • Cultural ‘norms’ • of university; of ‘western-style’ learning

8. Cultural preparation workshops • Design informed by literature and research in which educators identified: • English language; academic terminology; referencing issues; also • Behaviours – silences; expectations of being ‘given’ knowledge; not asking for clarification

9. What culture? • Whose culture? • And whose education? • Western education? • Or ….. ..… education that acknowledges the intercultural and transnational nature of the economic, political and social?

10. Cosmopolitanism • Not a new concept, many definitions • Kant (1960): moral theory • Nussbaum (1996) : political philosophy • Rizvi (2009): cultural disposition • social, economic and political practices that respond to contemporary conditions of globalisation • have one thing in common…

11. The importance they attach to education: Cosmopolitan learning ‘a different perspective on knowing and interacting with others’ (Rizvi 2008, p.111)

12. Cosmopolitan learners • Empirical understanding of global transformations • Ethical orientation towards them Elements: • Social identities • Cultural trajectories • Connectivity

13. The workshops- double purpose • How things are ‘done’ here • Western academic cultural ‘norms’ • Prepare for active learning through • Knowing own culture • Examining their intercultural experiences • Recognizing difference • Considering the ways these differences impact on them

14. The workshops – process • Pilot workshops poorly attended • Insufficient students for evaluation • Will persevere • Won’t overcome the language issues we face • BUT …

15. Potential to better prepare students for • WHAT and HOW • Also WHY: • Whythings are ‘done’ this way, and • (learning to ask) why as a basis for developing an active and critical approach to learning • A basis for Cosmopolitan Learning?

16. References • Kant, I. 1960/1795. Perpetual peace. In LW Beck (ed.) On history (pp.3-13) , New York; MacMillan • Ly Thi Tran, 2008, ‘Unpacking academic requirements: international students in Management and Education disciplines’, Higher Education Research & Development, vol.23, no.3, pp.245-256. • Novera, IsvetAmri, 2004, ‘Indonesian postgraduate students studying in Australia: an examination of their academic, social and cultural experiences’, International Education Journal, vol.5, no.4, 475-487. • Nussbaum, M. 1996. Patriotism and cosmopolitanism. In M.Nussbaum & J. Cohen (eds.) For the love of country: debating the limits of patriotism (pp.1-14). Cambridge, MA; Beacon Press. • Rizvi, Fazal, 2009, ‘Towards cosmopolitan learning’, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, vol.30, no.3, pp.253-268. • Rizvi, Fazal, 2008, ‘Education and its cosmopolitan possibilities’ in B. Lingard, J. Nixon & S . Ranson (eds.) Transforming learning in schools and communities: the remaking of education for a cosmopolitan society. London & New York; Continuum.