Critical Essay Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad © 2020 Brian Whalen & Michael Woolf The work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercialNoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Volume 32, Issue 3, pp. 72-98 DOI 10.36366/frontiers.v32i3.580
Cosmopolitanism: Rethinking the Agenda of Education Abroad Brian Whalen 1 & Michael Woolf 2
Abstract Cosmopolitanism is an ambiguous and inherently paradoxical notion. Because of the complexities it raises, it generates analyses and discourses that challenge simplistic assumptions embedded in theory and practice of education abroad. Global citizenship, comprehensive internationalization, cultural relativity, immersion, cross-cultural learning, and community engagement are some of the concepts deconstructed through the lens of cosmopolitan ideas and histories. Cosmopolitan philosophies are also of particular and special relevance to student experience in international education. In short, cosmopolitanism is not one idea but a field of meaning, a cluster of profound propositions that might collectively enrich the curriculum of education abroad.
Keywords: cosmopolitanism; history and philosophy; deconstructing the agenda; nationalism, cultural history
Introduction: What is Cosmopolitanism? What is it not? Cosmopolitanism... is a philosophy and ethical orientation that takes account of the dense enmeshment of human beings - the connections
1 CAPA: THE GLOBAL EDUCATION NETWORK, LONDON, UK 2 AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL RECRUITMENT COUNCIL (AIRC), BETHESDA, MD, USA
Corresponding author: Michael Woolf, CAPA: The Global Education Network, mwoolf@capa.org