The teacher and the world : a study of cosmopolitanism as education / David T. Hansen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hansen, David.

Series:

Teacher quality and school development series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Education and globalization.

Cosmopolitanism.

Critical pedagogy.

Education--Sociological aspects.

Education.

Physical Description:

xv, 153 pages ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Routledge, 2011.

Summary:

Teachers the world over are seeking creative ways to respond to the problems and possibilities generated by globalization. Many of them work with children and youth from increasingly varied backgrounds, with diverse needs and capabilities. Others work with homogeneous populations and yet are aware that their students will encounter many cultural changes in their lifetimes. All struggle with the contemporary conditions of teaching: endless top-down measures to manipulate what they do, rapid economic turns and inequality in supportive resources that affect their lives and those of their students, a torrent of media stimuli that distract educational focus, and growth as well as shifts in population.

In The Teacher and the World, David Hansen provides teachers with a way to reconstruct their philosophies of education in light of these conditions. He describes an orientation toward education that can help them to address both the challenges and opportunities thrown their way by a globalized world. Hansen builds his approach around cosmopolitanism, an ancient idea with an ever-present and ever-beautiful meaning for educators. The idea pivots around educating for what the author calls reflective openness to new people and new ideas, and reflective loyalty toward local values, interests, and commitments.

The book shows how this orientation applies to teachers at all levels of the system, from primary through to university. Hansen deploys many examples to illustrate how its core value, a balance of reflective openness to the new and reflective loyalty to the known, can be cultivated while teaching different subjects in different kinds of settings. The author draws widely on the work of educators, scholars in the humanities and social sciences, novelists, artists, travelers and others from both the present and past, as well as from around the world. These diverse figures illuminate the promise in a cosmopolitan outlook on education in our time.

In this pioneering book, Hansen has provided teachers, heads of school, teacher educators, researchers, and policy-makers a generative way to respond creatively to the pressure and the promise of a globalizing world. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 A Perspective on Teaching and Education for Our Time 1

Introduction 1

Background Notes on the History of Cosmopolitanism 6

The Current Research Landscape 8

On Patience, Truth, and Justice in Teaching 12

Remarks on Method 14

Overview of the Book 17

2 Becoming a Teacher in and of the World 21

A Cosmopolitan Lineage 22

The Art of Living as an Educational Outlook 32

Educational Arts of and for Living 40

Conclusion: On Inhabiting the World 45

3 On the Human Condition and its Educational Challenge 47

Life is Change: Cultivating a Sense of Stability 48

On Human Diversity: Not Foreign but Unfathomable 51

Dwelling in an Uncertain World 54

Tensions between Home and Movement 56

The Teacher in the World, and the World in the Teacher 59

4 Cultural Crossroads and Creativity 62

Has Diversity Been Eclipsed in Our Time? 62

Precursors to Contemporary Research on Cosmopolitan Practices 66

Cosmopolitanism on the Ground Today 73

Learning with Others 85

5 Curriculum and Teaching in and for the World 90

Responding to the World's Address 91

Inheritance and Pedagogy 99

Exercises of the Self for the Teacher in the World 108

Teaching, Curriculum, and the Cosmopolitan Prism 111.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN:

9780415783316

0415783313

9780415783323

0415783321

9780203803325

0203803329

OCLC:

756790572