Introduction: the world and the teacher -- prospects and challenges for teacher education in the age of globalization from a cosmopolitan perspective

In: Ethics & global politics, Band 5, Heft 4, S. 187-192

Abstract

In the age of globalization, policy texts in, inter alia, the European Union emphasize the value and importance of enabling human beings to render themselves not merely flexible, movable, employable, and competitive as citizens on the market in knowledge-based societies, but also loyal and morally committed to European Union citizenship through education. It has also become common to stress -- for example, in policy texts issued by the United Nation and OECD -- the importance of enabling human beings to cultivate their creative capacity through education in order to promote economic growth in the world. However, these policy texts do not necessarily emphasize the need and value of enabling students to become cosmopolitan citizens in, inter alia, moral educational terms. On the contrary, there is a lack of focus on responding responsibly to the challenges we face in terms of globalization from a cosmopolitan perspective. The response to globalization in policy texts is, or at least seems to be, to educate people chiefly for the job market, promoting economic growth and creating the conditions for education, including teacher education, so that students render themselves efficacious, flexible, movable and creative on the job market within policy defined territories. However, how students should be educated as cosmopolitan beings on earth in imaginative, reflective, critical and moral terms in societies at large is not clear. Adapted from the source document.