The possibility of cosmopolitan learning: reflecting on future directions for diversity teacher education in Australia

Abstract

This paper 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 paper, they 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.