Language Education, Identities and Citizenship: Developing Cosmopolitan Perspectives

Abstract

This paper argues that there is often tension between language learning policies that promote intercultural communication and persistent traditions of language teaching that identify languages with national cultures. Interviews with teachers confirm these tensions, revealing that the mindset of teachers may privilege a bicultural nationalist paradigm. Even where teachers have a clear commitment to intercultural perspectives, the implications of this may not be in tune with the teaching materials they find. The paper suggests that a dialogue with teachers of citizenship and multicultural education could help to provide a clearer perspective. In particular the concept of cosmopolitan citizenship, linking the local, the national and the global, may help teachers to progress from dominant nationalist paradigms.