Abstract
This chapter explores the intersection of race, culture, and language, so teachers can provide racially, linguistically, and culturally responsive teaching for diverse learners, as classrooms around the world are increasingly diverse. There has been an urgent call for teacher training to move beyond colorblindness to serve racially, linguistically, and culturally diverse learners in an equitable, antiracist, and socially-just climate. The purpose of this chapter is to present teaching materials framed by a cosmopolitan lens that help teachers examine who they are as a racial, linguistic, and cultural being to help super diverse learners in this global era.
TopIntroduction
What Does It Mean to Be at Home in the World?
To be “at home in the world” may seem like an oxymoron or even paradoxical. How can one be “at home” and “in the world” at the same time? Home is a place where one feels comfortable, feels a sense of belonging, and feels safe. “In the world” means new or other places, places that by definition are outside of one’s home. So how does that work? Being “at home in the world” means being okay with paradox, being comfortable with being uncomfortable. In other words, it means navigating places and spaces that are different from one’s home, and doing so without fear or judgment, but with a sense of open mindedness and equality. Educators of racially, culturally, and linguistically (RCL) diverse learners need to explore their “home” or local mindset toward their learners and develop their “world” or global mindset to connect to learners from around the world and learners to the world, so learners can be citizens of “home” and “world.”
Being at home in the world is called cosmopolitan or global citizen in education theory. Cosmopolitan is an ancient Greek word that roughly translates to citizen of the world. A cosmopolitan person has a global mindset and is open-minded. A cosmopolitan is open to new people, experiences, and ideas, both by being hospitable to new people and ideas in one’s home spaces and experiencing other cultures by journeying across borders. Borders can be political, like the lines that create counties, states, and nations. Borders can also be metaphorical, like differences in religion, race, or language. A cosmopolitan goes beyond their comfort zone and crosses borders to learn about different perspectives. A cosmopolitan person does not replace their local identity or national citizenship with global citizenship (e.g., inner circle), but rather adds a global identity to their sense of self (e.g., outer circle). They see themselves as a part of a global community in addition to their local and national affiliations (Kerkhoff, 2022; Kerkhoff & Cloud, 2020; Kerkhoff & Ming, 2022; Slapac, 2021).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Language: System of communication including reading, writing, speaking, and listening.
Culture: Values, beliefs, social norms, customs, and material traits of a group of people.
1.5 Generation: Students who are US residents or citizens but whose first or home language was not English, and who were not born in the U.S., although for some of these students, English does, in fact, function as the primary language.
Sociocultural Theories of Identity: The idea that identity is not inherent with a person but that it is shaped through relationship to other people.
Social Justice: Equality of treatment and equity of distribution of resources so that everyone in society is treated with fairness, humanity, and justice.
Colorblind: A perspective that race should not be seen, acknowledged, discussed, or considered.
Raciolinguistic Ideologies: Belief either that non-standardized language use conveys or does not convey stereotypical negative information about the speaker or the racial group to which the speaker belongs.
Intercultural Competence: Cultural competence, perspective-taking, and interpersonal skills across cultures.
Cultural Competence: Understanding of one’s own culture and valuing of diverse cultures.
Race: Grouping of people based on physical and social characteristics, which groups of people are classified as which race has changed over time and is socially not biologically determined.
Sociolinguistics: Study of language and social dimensions, such as gender, race, geographic region, and socioeconomic status.