Description
Book SynopsisEngendering Cosmopolitanism Through the Local presents a critique of multicultural education, which tends to focus on multiculturalism at the expense of a truly international curriculum. While lessons in multiculturalism are oftentimes well intentioned, this book begins with the premise that we do a disservice by imparting lessons in international culture and history through multiculturalism, which can perpetuate insularity even as it claims to promote global coverage. The book offers background on World Literature, a term used for one hundred years to refer to a global literary tradition; reviews the numerous challenges of reading cross culturally; and provides an overview of cosmopolitanism, a two-thousand-year-old concept referring to our ability to appreciate cultures and nations different from our own. The book also shares the stories of three teachers who engaged their students with international literature by connecting texts topically or thematically with the students
Trade Review
“«Engendering Cosmopolitanism Through the Local» by Jacquelyn Chappel is a timely book that engages with the complexities of cosmopolitanizing the teaching of literature through the use of international literature. The book usefully distinguishes between multicultural and global education as well as world literature and international literature while acknowledging the overlaps among these terms. A key strength of the book is the examples of cosmopolitanism-on-the-ground through rich and nuanced examples of the ways teachers attempt to introduce international literature and the challenges that occur as teachers attempted to connect foreign culture with students' lived experiences. The book provides an original and important contribution to the ever-growing field of cos-mopolitan studies in English education.” Suzanne Choo, Assistant Dean and Assistant Professor, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University
“This book invites teachers to engage with the potentials of cosmopolitanism for transforming their teaching of World Literature by providing practical examples of how these theories play out in sec-ondary classrooms. These classroom examples demonstrate how supporting students in critically connecting to their own cultural values provides a context within which they can become more criti-cally open to values that differ from their own—connecting the local with the global. This book chal-lenges educators to move beyond the Euro-centered approaches that continue to dominate World Lit-erature, despite good intentions, and instead engage readers in critical dialogue about international literature.” Kathy Short, Professor, University of Arizona; Director, Worlds of Words
Table of Contents
List of Figures and Tables – Acknowledgments – Introduction – My Own Experience Teaching World Literature – Engendering Cosmopolitanism Through Shared Personal Experience: The Case of University Laboratory School – Reading the Bhagavad Gita at a Buddhist School: Engendering Cosmopolitanism Through Shared Religious Ideas – Engaging Student Ethnic Identity at a Hawaiian School: Engendering Cosmopolitanism through Culture-Based Values – Conclusion – Modern Chinese Literature Curriculum (with Yun Peng) – Contributor Biography – Index.
