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Cosmopolitanism: International Baccalaureate Program Teacher Shift. Caitlin P. Fuentes Interdisciplinary Educational Studies Program LIU Post June 24, 2013. Presentation Agenda. 1. Introduction: Statement of the Problem 2. Review of Literature
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Cosmopolitanism: International Baccalaureate Program Teacher Shift Caitlin P. Fuentes Interdisciplinary Educational Studies Program LIU Post June 24, 2013
Presentation Agenda 1. Introduction: Statement of the Problem 2. Review of Literature 3. Research Methods 4. Possible Findings 5. Conclusion 6. Questions / Discussion
Introduction: Statement of the Problem • The concept of cosmopolitanism has emerged from the beginnings of civilization (Appiah, 2006). • Hansen (2010) has defined this concept as “reflective loyalty to the known with reflective openness to the new” (Hansen, 2010).
Introduction: Statement of the Problem The unique set of global circumstances of interdependence and connection beginning in the 1990’s leading into the turn of the century has led to an interest for researchers and scholars to ask questions and study the interconnectedness of people around the world (Sanderson, 2008).
Purpose of the Study There is a need to hear the stories of the individuals teaching in the International Baccalaureate program to assess their levels of cosmopolitanism. The purpose of this qualitative narrative multi-case study is to understand if teaching in the IB program creates a shift to cosmopolitanism within the teacher.
Research Questions • The central research question of this study: • How is the level of cosmopolitanism within a teacher affected by teaching in the International Baccalaureate (IB) program? • Other research questions: • How does a teacher's upbringing affect their level of cosmopolitanism? • How does the length of time teaching in the IB program affect a teacher's level of cosmopolitanism? • Do certain personality traits relating to cosmopolitanism draw one to become a teacher in the IB program?
IB Program • Four programs for students aged 3 to 19 help develop the intellectual, personal, emotional and social skills to live, learn and work in a rapidly globalizing world. • There are more than 1,115,000 IB students at 3,619 schools in 145 countries. • Curriculum represents the best from many different countries rather than the exported national system of any one.
IB Program • Encourages international-mindedness in IB students. • IB believes that students must first develop an understanding of their own cultural and national identity. • All IB students learn a second language and the skills to live and work with others internationally—essential for life in the 21st century.
IB Learner Profile inquirers knowledgeable thinkers communicators principled open-minded caring risk-takers balanced reflective
Variables and Hypothesis • The key independent variable for this study is teaching in an International Baccalaureate (IB) program. • The key dependent variable is the level of cosmopolitanism within the teacher. • There will be other moderating variables, which this study will address as they are revealed.
Hypotheses Hypothesis 1 (H1): An individual teaching in the International Baccalaureate (IB) program experiences a greater level of cosmopolitanism than before teaching in the program. Hypothesis 2 (H2): A teacher's upbringing will affect the level of cosmopolitanism within the teacher. Hypothesis 3 (H3): A positive correlation will exist between length of time teaching in the IB program and level of cosmopolitanism. Hypothesis 4 (H4): Various personality traits related to cosmopolitanism drew individuals to teach in the IB program.
Review of Literature • Multiculturalism and Globalization vs. Cosmopolitanism • According to Hanson (2010), • Cosmopolitanism provides an appreciative lens on the moral impulses behind multiculturalism in particular and pluralism in general. • The idea takes seriously cultural integrity and preservation in a changing world. • Cosmopolitanism presupposes rather than replaces cultural diversity. • It recognizes the historic injustices of imperialism and colonialism that gave rise in the first place to the multicultural idea. (p.156) • Cosmopolitanism involves new habits of thought and global awareness, and could be characterized as a “globalization from within” (Strand, 2009, p. 234).
Multiculturalism and Globalization vs. Cosmopolitanism cont. “Cosmopolitanism is not a synonym for multiculturalism not only because of this reconfigured framing of culture but because its focus is not on cultural identity as such. Rather it is on cultural continuity and integrity, themselves entirely dependent on cultural creativity” (Hansen, 2011, p. 86).
Types of Cosmopolitanism The most prevalent types of cosmopolitanism termed have included: 1. political cosmopolitanism 2. moral cosmopolitanism 3. cultural cosmopolitanism 4. economic cosmopolitanism (Hansen, 2010, Kleingeld & Brown, 2006).
Cosmopolitanism and Education • A cosmopolitan-minded education has the capability of causing persons to form an awareness of these commonalities creating a reintroduced foundation for shared understanding and collaboration (Hansen, 2011). • For Hansen (2011), a cosmopolitan education cannot be rushed or forced (p. 12). The push to educate rapidly in order to compete with others leads to short-lived outcomes (Hansen, 2011).
Cosmopolitanism and Education • A cosmopolitan-minded education does not necessitate a major overhaul of the curriculum taught in schools from kindergarten through even college. • A cosmopolitan education develops within and in conjunction with the distinctive curriculum (Hansen, 2011).
Cosmopolitanism and Education • Working with the curriculum, cosmopolitan-minded education can create a shift on the emphasis of certain aspects or concepts, and may call of an introduction of new curricular elements (Hansen, 2011). • Through this shift in education, there is an invitation for the teacher to extract the ways in which curriculum content articulates the human pursuit for meaning (Hansen, 2011).
Cosmopolitanism and Education • The International Commission on Education for the Twenty-First Century (1996) stated that humanity’s survival is dependent upon overcoming the following tensions: • the tension between the global and the local, the tension between the universal and the individual, • the tension between tradition and modernity, the tension between long-term and short-term considerations, the tension between the spiritual and the material, the tension between the need for competition and the concern for equality of opportunity, • and the tension between the extraordinary expansion of knowledge and peoples’ capacity to assimilate it. (p. 17-18)
Cosmopolitanism and Education A cosmopolitan-minded education supports a shift from standardized testing methods that currently permeate our schools to an assessment approach that allows students to develop their inner humanness and risk-taking ability to gain a “reflective openness to the new while maintaining a reflective loyalty to the known” (Hansen, 2011).
Cosmopolitanism and Education • The current assessment practices encourage students to identify with the “ego.” The ego is an illusion of the human mind, as the outer role human beings play to relate to the external world (Tolle, 2008). • A shift to a cosmopolitan-minded education would create student self-awareness and purpose beyond that of identifies their ego has being “good” or “bad” at a particular skill.
Cosmopolitanism and Education In a cosmopolitan-minded education, the purpose is to have the student recognize their inner purpose as a human being through education, rather than become outwardly defined through education.
Cosmopolitanism and the Teacher Hansen (2011) recommended that teachers should experience a reflection of their own presence in the world (p. 46).
Cosmopolitanism and the Teacher • According to Hansen (2011), “The term asks the teacher: • How are you inhabiting the word? • How are you in habiting your school or classroom? • How do you carry or conduct yourself? • How do you encourage your students to engage in ethical work – to carry themselves in ways that draw out their aesthetic, moral and intellectual capability?” (p. 46). • These essential questions create a cosmopolitan awareness and reveal how cosmopolitan-minded education broadens the significance of an education.
More Research to be Done • Teachers of the IB program research • IB program and globally minded students • IB and cosmopolitanism link
Research Methods This study will be a qualitative narrative multi-case study inquiry into the levels of cosmopolitanism among teachers of the IB program. Participants The participants will be five selected individuals who have taught in the International Baccalaureate program throughout various countries around the world. The participants will include males and females aging in range from 29 to 55.
Data Collection The experiment will utilize confidential: 1. Structured and semi-structured interviews 2. Open-ended surveys 3. Background and historical context data gathering
Validity • This study has ethical validation because the researcher will question her moral assumptions, and political and ethical implications. • This study has substantive validation because the researcher understands her own thoughts on cosmopolitanism that are derived from other sources and will discuss them in this study.
Credibility, Authenticity, & Criticality and Integrity • The participants all work as IB teachers, and they have nothing to gain or lose from participating in this study (credibility). • The interviews and surveys will be confidential (authenticity). • Different voices will be heard, and the results will be an accurate interpretation of the participants’ meaning because the researcher will be able to clarify answers with the participants (criticality and integrity).
Reliability This study will be reliable because of the standardized questioning. All participants in this multi-case study will be asked the same open-ended questions.
Limitations The limitations of this study involve a lack of randomized sampling. The participants will be chosen by the researcher.
Possible Findings • Link between IB program teaching and level of cosmopolitanism of teacher • Upbringing and past experiences affecting cosmopolitanism of teacher • Certain personal traits lead one to become a teacher of the IB; thus affecting cosmopolitanism • Length of teaching in IB program affects level of cosmopolitanism
Conclusion • The concept of cosmopolitanism will perhaps be consistently contested and critiqued (Gallie, 1956). • The concept is often misunderstood and the lack of a uniform and agreed upon definition creates a platform for criticism and questioning. • Hansen (2010) stated, “To me the unsettled quality of the concept cosmopolitanism feels invitational and true to life. It proves the non-ideological precision that Aristotle long ago advocated with respect to concepts and their relation to the objects of inquiry” (p. 152). • There is a need to hear the stories of the teachers of the IB program to gain an understanding of the cosmopolitan shift in education.
References Appiah, K.A. (2006). Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a world of strangers. Norton & Co. Gallie, W.B. (1956). Essentially contested concepts. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 56, 167-198. Hansen, D. (2010). Chasing butterflies without a net: Interpreting cosmopolitanism. Studies in Philosophy and Education: 29, 151–166. doi:10.1007/s11217-009-9166-y Hansen, D. (2011). The teacher and the world: A study of cosmopolitanism as education. New York, NY: Routledge. International Commission on Education for the Twenty-First Century. (1996). Learning: The treasure within—report to UNESCO of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-First Century. Paris: UNESCO. Kleingeld, P. & Brown, E. (2006). Cosmopolitanism. Retrieved March 5, 2013, from http://plato.standford.edu/entries/cosmopolitanism/ Sanderson, G. (2008). A Foundation for the Internationalization of the Academic Self. Journal of Studies in International Education. 12, 276-307. Strand, T. (2010). The making of a new cosmopolitanism. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 29(2), 229-242. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11217-009-9161-3 Tolle, E. (2008). A new earth: Awakening your life’s purpose. Penquin Group, New York, NY.
Thank You I welcome any questions or discussions at this time.