The Possibility of Cosmopolitan Learning: Reflecting on Future Directions for Diversity Teacher Education in Australia

Source: Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, Volume 40, Issue 1, 2012 , pages 15-29.

This article is situated in the re-visioning ethos that has been part of the genealogy of multicultural education.
In the context of teacher education, the authors ask: where to now?

In this article, the authors reflect on their design and delivery of a new undergraduate unit offered by the School of Education, University of Western Sydney.
The unit attempted to work through ideas of ‘cosmopolitanism’ as a way of rethinking diversity education for the twenty-first century.

The paper offers a critical review of multiculturalism in teacher education and examines theories associated with cosmopolitanism in the education context.

The authors examine the ways in which a ‘cosmopolitan imagination’ might have relevance in contemporary contexts of diversity in Australia, and particularly in the western and south-western Sydney region in which they teach.