A Pedagogical Framework for Critical Cosmopolitan Literacies

ABSTRACT

Understanding global perspectives and international cultures is important because of increasing global mobility, digital connections, and national chauvinism. As students engage with diverse others in schools and online, they need global, critical, and ethical understandings of language, literacy, and culture. From a critical cosmopolitan lens, language and literacy educators guide students to develop a cosmopolitan worldview; dismantle hierarchies through reading, writing, and thinking; and take action for justice worldwide. The purpose of this article is to converge cosmopolitanism, critical pedagogy, and teacher perceptions to construct a framework for teaching critical cosmopolitan literacies. The findings suggest five dimensions of critical cosmopolitan literacies: proximal stance, reflexive stance, reciprocal stance, responsive stance, and praxis. Overall, participants held positive views of infusing cosmopolitan dispositions and global perspectives in their classrooms and reported success with integrating global literature, structuring discussions to promote empathy, and implementing inquiry to connect local and global issues.

KEYWORDS:

• Global literacy
• global literacies
• cosmopolitanism
• cosmopolitan literacies
• world literature
• global literature
• teaching
• inquiry-based learning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Longview Foundation [Internationalizing Teacher Preparation].

Notes on contributors

Shea N. Kerkhoff

Shea Kerkhoff is an Assistant Professor of literacy and secondary education at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Dr. Kerkhoff utilizes mixed methods to investigate critical, digital, and global literacies. She taught high school English for seven years and currently serves as Going Global, Inc.'s Education Director.