Education, values, and valuing in cosmopolitan perspective

Abstract

In this article we describe a cosmopolitan orientation toward the place of values in human life. We argue that a cosmopolitan outlook can assist people in engaging the challenges of being thrown together with others whose roots, traditions, and inheritances differ. We show that cosmopolitanism implies neither an elite nor an aloof posture toward human affairs. On the contrary, the concept illuminates how people everywhere can retain individual and cultural integrity while also keeping themselves open to the larger world. A cosmopolitan outlook positions people to consider not just the specific values they subscribe to, but also their ways of holding and enacting them. This move provides people valuable distance from values although not a break with them. It helps people consider the value of valuing as well as the value of reflecting upon values. We examine three arts, or artful methods, that can fuel this orientation. They are hope, memory, and dialogue: three familiar concepts that we accent in a distinctive way in light of the idea of cosmopolitanism. We show how these arts can be cultivated continuously through education. © 2009 by The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto.