Teacher Meets World: A Critical Conversation on Hansen’s Cosmopolitanism

Session Submission Type: Symposium

Abstract

In the newly-published The Teacher and the World (Routledge, 2011), David Hansen provides teachers with a way to reconstruct their philosophies of education in light of conditions of globalization, diversity and cultural change, Hansen builds his approach around cosmopolitanism, an ancient idea which he argues has 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. In this session, four philosophers of education who bring historical, political, spiritual, moral, cultural, aesthetic, curricular, affective and, of course, intellectual interests to the discussion will provide prepared analytic commentaries on Hansen’s argument, its adequacy and generativity -- preceded by a brief summary of The Teacher and the World sketched by the session chair and followed by Hansen’s prepared response to the commentaries.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Philosophical Studies in Education

Chair

• Barbara S. Stengel, Vanderbilt University

Papers

• Cosmpolitanism’s Warrants - Jim Garrison, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

• A Curricular View of the Teacher and the World: A Study of Cosmopolitanism as Education - Daniel Liston, University of Colorado; Ian Parker Renga, University of Colorado - Boulder

• On Refugees, Undocumented Students, and the Challenges of Educating for Cosmopolitan Moral Agency - Ann Chinnery, Simon Fraser University

• Aesthetic Play: Engendering the Terrain for a Cosmopolitan-Minded Education - Margaret A. Macintyre Latta, The University of British Columbia - Okanagan

Discussant

• David T. Hansen, Teachers College, Columbia University