761092

research-article2018
AEQXXX10.1177/0741713618761092Adult Education QuarterlyCoryell et al.

Article
Adult Education Quarterly
2018, Vol. 68(3) 179­–196
Adult Education Through © The Author(s) 2018
Reprints and permissions:
a Cosmopolitanism Lens: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0741713618761092
https://doi.org/10.1177/0741713618761092
A Review of the Research journals.sagepub.com/home/aeq

Literature

Joellen E. Coryell1, Oleksandra Sehin1, and Cindy Peña1

Abstract
This review of the literature offers an analysis of ways in which the theory and
pedagogical concepts of cosmopolitanism have been employed across research
in adult education contexts. Twenty-nine research articles and dissertations on
cosmopolitanism and adult education, conducted in various geographical locations
and adult education contexts, were selected for the analysis. The article presents
how researchers define and theorize cosmopolitanism, the purposes for using
cosmopolitanism tenets in the studies, and conclusions that the findings proffer
about cosmopolitanism for adult learning, teaching, and continuing and professional
development. The review concludes with implications for practice and future research.

Keywords
cosmopolitanism, literature review, international adult education, transnational,
cross-cultural, research

While not a new phenomenon, globalization in the current era is increasingly influ-
enced by cross-national commerce, technology, political instability, migrations, and
often human inequities. Gordon and English (2016), in their article on education in the
current era of globalization, contend that globalization plays

a significant role in the growing exposure of people to diverse histories, religions, and
cultures; it has also contributed to the marginalization of workers and the displacement of
many of our unifying principles such as neighborhoods and other local communities. . . .
These and other issues present us with new challenges to how we think about education.
(p. 977)

1Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, USA

Corresponding Author:
Joellen E. Coryell, Texas State University, 601 University Drive, ASBS 326, San Marcos, TX 78666, USA.
Email: coryell@txstate.edu
180 Adult Education Quarterly 68(3)

In response to this state of global interdependence, in which people around the world
encounter situations in which they must interact, solve problems, work, and live in
informed and culturally sensitive ways, adult education organizations across a wide
scope of contexts are incorporating internationalization and/or global perspectives
into their missions, visions, and standards. As a result, adult educators are tasked to
help their learners develop values, knowledge, and skills for collaboration and
socially responsible interaction practices that span from the local to the global com-
munity. Values, skills, and behaviors that address some of these interactional compe-
tencies for work and living in an era of globalization are not new to the discipline of
adult education philosophically or in practice. They have been addressed, at least in
part, in various forms of multicultural education, including intercultural, critical, and
comparative perspectives, across the adult education literature. However, we started
noticing that researchers in adult education contexts around the world had been spe-
cifically employing cosmopolitanism as a theoretical lens in their work. We also
observed that there were distinct aspects that cosmopolitanism offered these research-
ers that distinguished it conceptually from other forms of education and educational
theories attending to multicultural principles and practices (Donald, 2007). Finally,
we noted that there appeared to be some inconsistencies across the research literature
about what cosmopolitanism was and how it was being employed. As such, we
wanted to investigate further.
Cosmopolitanism has ancient origins and is discussed across the disciplines of eth-
ics, philosophy, education, sociology, and anthropology. While there are variations of
the term (Kleingeld & Brown, 2014), generally cosmopolitanism is rooted in the belief
in a shared global community, openness to different cultures and perspectives, and
recognition of universal values across cultures and peoples. Appiah (2006) clarifies,

We have obligations to others, obligations that stretch beyond those to whom we are
related by the ties of kith and kin, or even the more formal ties of a shared citizenship. . . .
We [also must] take seriously the value not just of human life but of particular human
lives, which means taking an interest in the practices and beliefs that lend them
significance. . . . There’s a sense in which cosmopolitanism is the name not of the solution
but of the challenge. (p. xv)

Our curiosities about cosmopolitanism led us to search for the ways in which the the-
ory and pedagogical concepts of cosmopolitanism were conceived in adult education
research studies. To do so, we engaged in a review of the literature that we imagined
could inform adult educators and researchers about cosmopolitan teaching, learning,
and research trends from the past 10 years. The research questions guiding our review
were as follows: In what contexts and for what purposes have educational researchers
utilized cosmopolitanism tenets in their studies on adult learning, teaching, and con-
tinuing and professional development? What are the ways in which researchers define
and theorize cosmopolitanism in their studies? What conclusions about cosmopolitan-
ism and adult learning, teaching, and continuing and professional development have
been drawn based on their research?
Coryell et al. 181

Method
We began by searching Education Source (EBSCO), dissertations and theses
(ProQuest), and Google Scholar databases for research studies published from 2007 to
2017 with the broad yet focused key words cosmopolitan, education, and adult. We
chose these initial terms to identify research studies in which cosmopolitanism was
identified as a concept, theory, or approach and in which the researchers specifically
designated the term, adult, when describing participants, educational programs, or
instructional strategies. We chose not to include search terms such as multicultural or
intercultural education because while these approaches and philosophies may some-
times be included in cosmopolitan research, they are not necessarily conceptualized
nor theorized in the same ways as cosmopolitanism (Donald, 2007). Our initial search
identified 102 articles and nine dissertations. In reviewing those texts, we narrowed
the search to include only empirical studies that outlined their quantitative, qualitative,
or mixed-method designs in the following educational contexts: adult higher educa-
tion, professional or vocational education/learning, adult citizenship education, adult
basic and adult secondary education, adult language learning, lifelong education, and
education policy related to adults. We decided to exclude K-12 educational research in
this review as that literature has the aim of investigating/developing childhood educa-
tion and often draws on contexts, theories, and bodies of research that are distinct from
that of adult education literature. Within these criteria, we identified 29 texts consist-
ing of 22 research articles in 19 different journals and seven doctoral dissertations. Our
analysis focused on the contexts of the research, including who (setting and partici-
pants), what (what they were studying), why (research problem), and how (research
methodology). We then identified and analyzed the definitions of cosmopolitanism
articulated in each article and the conclusions drawn about cosmopolitanism and adult
learning, teaching, and development. Finally, we examined any additional relevant
information that would assist us further in answering our research questions. We
employed constant-comparison and thematic analysis processes (Bogdan & Biklen,
2003) to analyze the data and organize our findings.

Findings
Defining and Theorizing Cosmopolitanism
In theorizing cosmopolitanism in current research, we begin by considering the philo-
sophical underpinnings of its major forms used today. Most forms include the concept
of belonging to a community that spans geographic, political, economic, and cultural
borders; a focus on inclusivity while valuing diversity in a society of equals without
discrimination; and an understanding that cosmopolitanism is an ideal, or identity, to
be developed (Kleingeld & Brown, 2014; Papastephanou, 2007; Trujillo, 2015).
Kleingeld and Brown (2014) provide important philosophical considerations for
understanding different types of cosmopolitanism. They contend that the most com-
mon form of cosmopolitanism is one embedded in morality and is either strict or
182 Adult Education Quarterly 68(3)

moderate in perspective. Moral cosmopolitans have a duty to respect and value basic
human rights for all humanity. Strict moral cosmopolitans are philosophically bound
to assist others in need, which is not affected by whether those who are suffering are
local, or not. Moderate moral cosmopolitans, on the other hand, “acknowledge the
cosmopolitan scope of a duty to provide aid, but insist that we also have special duties
to compatriots” (para. 37). Political cosmopolitanism is linked with moral cosmopoli-
tanism, but its focus is on a centralized, international political state or institution whose
purview attends to global concerns that include poverty, war crimes, and environmen-
tal issues. Within this form, attention is on individual and social institution justice
worldwide and the methods of achieving such justice. The position of cultural cosmo-
politanism is one that “rejects exclusive attachments to a particular culture . . . encour-
ages cultural diversity and appreciates a multicultural mélange . . . [and] rejects a
strong nationalism” (para. 40). Cultural cosmopolitans can recognize the importance
of individual cultural attachments but refuse a singular, homogeneous identity (Appiah,
2006; Kleingeld & Brown, 2014). Conversely, an economic cosmopolitan philosophy
asserts the importance of promoting “a single global economic market with free trade
and minimal political involvement” (Kleingeld & Brown, 2014, para. 41). This
approach is characterized as neoliberal and is endorsed more by economists and some
politicians rather than by most philosophers. Indeed, many name neoliberal policies as
valuing capitalism above all with “governance according to market criteria” (Brown,
2006, p. 690).
Research in the current review adds to this discussion in varying ways. Many of
the researchers proposed forms of moderate moral cosmopolitanism and ways of
operationalizing how cosmopolitanism is developed or enacted. They defined cos-
mopolitanism as a personal perspective that entails ethical and philosophical orien-
tations to include worldviews, dispositions, or identity (Bakkabulindi & Ssempebwa,
2011; Bilecen, 2013; Coryell, Spencer, & Sehin, 2014; Guardado, 2010; McNiff,
2013; Williams, 2013). Characteristics of cosmopolitanism include an individual’s
openness (Froese, Jommersbach, & Klautzsch, 2013; Schein, 2008), commitment
to multicultural sensitivity (Anderson, 2011; Cloete, Dinesh, Hazou, & Matchett,
2015; Guardado, 2010; Starkey, 2007; Szelényi & Rhoads, 2013), awareness of dif-
ference (Bamber, 2015; Sidhu & Dalla’Alba, 2012), development of cultural com-
petence (Nilep, 2009; Ye & Kelly, 2011), adaptability (Coryell et al., 2014;
Guardado, 2010), utilization of intellectual devices (Cloete et al., 2015; Sobré,
2009), and employment of appropriate discourse tools (Amadasi & Holliday, 2017)
These attributes were suggested as helping individuals interact sensitively and
effectively across different cultures, linguistic settings, and political economies.
Others posited that cosmopolitanism articulates a sense of belonging in multiple
communities (Gu & Schweisfurth, 2015; Khandekar, 2010), while Saito (2017)
described cosmopolitanism as imagining a situation where world citizens belong to
one community (through the common language of English). The emphasis for many
researchers was on interactional experiences and commitment to a shared global
community with a sense of “the vulnerabilities and commonalities that bind people
together” (Sidhu & Dalla’Alba, 2012, p. 414).
Coryell et al. 183

Others further argued for critical tenets of moral cosmopolitanism. These research-
ers asserted that cosmopolitanism requires a critical stance and personal cultural
reflexology (Amadasi & Holliday, 2017; Bamber, 2015; Cloete et al., 2015; Schein,
2008). While Bamber’s (2015) understanding of cosmopolitanism calls for recogni-
tion of all people’s equal moral worth and agency, Schein (2008) clarified that cosmo-
politanism in the United States necessitates “an openness to the world that is itself an
affirmation of a rooted, immutable, and deeply raced, gendered, and classed national
character” (p. 101).
There was some disagreement about the need for homogenization of cultures within
a cultural cosmopolitan perspective. Lingard, Sellar, and Baroutsis (2015) called on
concepts in Bourdieu’s work describing habitus (social norms that guide thinking and
actions) as embodied practice, asserting that a cosmopolitan sensibility emphasizes a
convergence of cultures and homogenization. Likewise, Sobré (2009) posited that cos-
mopolitanism should be used as “a tool to move beyond essentializing us/them dichot-
omies . . . [and] used as a theoretical framework through which to understand
postmodern transition processes in an increasingly globalized world” (p. 116).
However, Cloete et al. (2015) and Amadasi and Holliday (2017) referred to Stuart
Hall’s work to suggest that cosmopolitanism does not indeed lead to a homogenized
society lacking culture but instead leads to one that provides influences of many cul-
tural systems of which individuals can choose selectively from a diversity of discur-
sive meaning.
Other researchers (Anderson, 2011; Gonzales, 2012; McNiff, 2013; Rhoades,
Kiyama, McCormick, & Quiroz, 2008; Szelényi & Rhoads, 2013) offered understand-
ings of cosmopolitan tenets that utilize dichotomous personal orientations as either
cosmopolitan or local. For example, all of these studies, with the exception of McNiff’s
(2013), employed Gouldner’s (1957, 1958) analysis of latent and social roles in orga-
nizations. Gouldner (1957) tested three variables for analyzing workplace identities:
“loyalty to the organization; commitment to professional skills and values; and refer-
ence group orientations” (p. 281). He posited that cosmopolitans are those who indi-
cate a low loyalty to the organization, maintain a high commitment to specialized role
skills, and have an outer reference group orientation (p. 290). Locals, alternatively, are
individuals who are highly loyal to the organization, have a low commitment to spe-
cialized role skills, and are likely to orient toward inner reference groups. Researchers
used Gouldner’s theory to investigate university faculty members’, administrators’,
and professionals’ orientations toward their work in higher education (Gonzales, 2012;
Szelényi & Rhoads, 2013) and to study community college chief academic officers’
dispositions toward administration (Anderson, 2011). Finally, while McNiff (2013)
did not cite Gouldner’s work specifically, she employed a somewhat more simplistic
understanding of cosmopolitan versus local orientations. She suggested,

Cosmopolitans . . . are those who develop outgoing perspectives and relationships with
others, usually through engaging with other people’s cultures and forms of thinking,
while locals are those who maintain a stay-at-home mentality, more comfortable in their
own cultures and systems. (p. 502)
184 Adult Education Quarterly 68(3)

Within these nuanced understandings of the concept of cosmopolitanism, numer-

ous researchers offered additional variants that helped theoretically frame their stud-
ies. For example, Nilep (2009), Schein (2008), and Starkey (2007) all discussed
cosmopolitan citizenship, a sense of self that connects with complex, multiple identi-
ties (Starkey, 2007) and with individuals of a global community that are “knowledge-
able and competent to interact with others across the borders of the nation state”
(Nilep, 2009, p. 231). Similarly, Coete et al. (2015) and Gu and Schweisfurth (2015)
concentrated on the development of transnational cultural citizenship. Coete et al.
(2015) argued that this kind of citizenship requires a cosmopolitan lens shaped by an
intellectual and aesthetic openness toward diverse cultural experiences. Gu and
Schweisfurth (2015) further asserted that transnationalism is a particular type of sub-
jectivity in which individuals can embrace both the “here” and the “there” (p. 950) and
possess levels of cosmopolitan competence for interacting effectively with cultural
diversity. Here, we can see cosmopolitan citizens intentionally learn about other cul-
tures to move and interact easily among them.
Indeed, mobility surfaced as an underlying theme for the development of cosmo-
politan mind-sets. Kirkpatrick (2015) added to these discussions by addressing cosmo-
politanism as universal hospitality, which acknowledges responsibility to and the
rights of strangers to be treated with respect. And, Sobré (2009) suggested that a trav-
eler identity is a component of cosmopolitanism that includes “a willingness to live
outside of one’s comfort zone, learn about new cultures, to study abroad, etc.” (p. 124).
Correspondingly, Kadiwal and Rind (2013) explained the nuances of the concept of
selective cosmopolitans as

individuals who, in order to advantageously position themselves in the contemporary

globalized world, negotiate between different cultural influences pragmatically, while
simultaneously experiencing ambivalence and tensions in terms of their sense of identity.
These individuals are inherently reflexive regarding the unavoidable complexity of their
situation. (p. 690)

Additionally, Khandekar (2010) offered two very specific variations on the cosmo-
politanism present in high-tech Indian workers who migrate to the United States. He
asserted that differential cosmopolitanism includes the “reflections and practices of
global belonging that are oriented by conceptions of difference rooted in particular
understandings of Indianness” (p. 221), while global Indian cosmopolitanism is char-
acterized by “a discourse that allows Indian technomigrants to simultaneously main-
tain a strong cultural-national Indian identity while also distancing themselves from
the Indian state machinery, as well as carving a distinct, culturally isolated social space
for themselves in the United States” (p. xiii).
Finally, six of the studies (Boni, MacDonald, & Peris, 2012; Cloete et al., 2015;
Coryell et al., 2014; Herrera, 2008; Williams, 2013; Zepke, 2009) centered their atten-
tion on cosmopolitan education/pedagogy. These cosmopolitan educational approaches
honor and respect nation and family learning/knowing while developing empathy with
humanity more globally in a way that expands one’s thinking through local, national,
Coryell et al. 185

and global dimensions (Coryell et al., 2014; Herrera, 2008). Generally, these research-
ers seem to concur with Williams’s (2013) explanation of cosmopolitan education
from his investigation of academic and off-campus experiences that impact adult
learners’ worldviews and develop a sense of responsibility toward others. He sug-
gested that cosmopolitan education “needs to be empirically informed by globaliza-
tion and normatively rooted with an ethical perspective and understanding of the new
ways in which people and communities are converging and reimagining themselves”
(p. 261). Likewise, Zepke (2009) contended that cosmopolitan pedagogy requires
learning interactions in which “learners engage with the ‘other,’ ask critical questions,
discover and construct knowledge and understandings, tap the power in quality learn-
ing and achieve desired and valued outcomes [so that] a more cosmopolitan pedagogy
can emerge” (p. 755).
This review of the definitions and features of cosmopolitanism across the literature
indicates varying notions and understanding of the concept. The differences exist
largely based on philosophical underpinnings that are either morally, politically, cul-
turally, or economically motivated (Kleingeld & Brown, 2014). While the basis for
most researchers is a commitment to a shared sense of community across nations,
cultures, and difference, there exists a debate, or at least a conversation, about notions
of citizenship, loyalty to the local, and homogenous or multicultural system commu-
nity orientations.

Contexts and Purposes of the Reviewed Literature

Research on cosmopolitanism spans different educational settings, geographic con-
texts, and aims/objectives. We identified three overarching categories through the
analysis of the contexts and purposes of the research texts that we reviewed. We orga-
nize this section starting with those studies that reported research on cosmopolitanism
in education policies and philosophy. Second, we review the applications and out-
comes of cosmopolitanism in the postsecondary institution. Third, we discuss research
on cosmopolitanism in professions and organizations.

Education philosophy and policy.  Six studies analyzed cosmopolitanism within the con-
text of education philosophy, policy, or both. Herrera (2008), by conducting life his-
tory research with an Egyptian Muslim violin music educator, researched a humanistic
philosophical pedagogy that led to the cultivation of a cosmopolitan polity in the Mid-
dle East during periods of political and economic conflict. Correspondingly, Sidhu and
Dalla’Alba (2012) critically examined practices and philosophical representations that
comprise international education by analyzing the marketing, branding, and academic
discourse of the three main education-exporting brokers in the United Kingdom, the
United States, and Australia and how these countries’ national self-images foster par-
ticular kinds of geopolitical identities.
Regarding philosophical influences on educational policy, Starkey (2007)
researched the tensions inherent in the procedures and practices of an intercultural
approach to language teaching that stem from frustrations with materials, courses, and
186 Adult Education Quarterly 68(3)

syllabi that were initially constructed on a bicultural, national model that “derives
from an earlier age of constructed imagined cultural homogeneity” (p. 69). Also
regarding language policy and education, Saito (2017) analyzed 32 Japanese study
abroad students’ essays about a recent English-only language policy in higher educa-
tion versus a national action plan to spread and enhance understanding of cultural heri-
tage among non-Japanese. Saito utilized discursive psychological analyses to
investigate the linkages among students’ attitudes, discourse, performativity, and
agency with regard to cosmopolitan and national identity constructions. Zepke (2009)
studied the likely future of adult lifelong education policy in New Zealand and whether
it would be neoliberal or cosmopolitan. He did so by examining post–compulsory
education policy over the previous 30 years. Finally, Lingard et al. (2015) explored
how a shared habitus of global policy actors contributed to the creation of the global
education policy field.

Applications and outcomes of cosmopolitanism in the postsecondary institution.  We found

that the majority of the research reviewed was set within formal adult higher education
settings. Seven studies investigated adult learning in undergraduate programs. Of
these, Boni et al. (2012) and Froese et al. (2013) researched curriculum and cosmo-
politan learning outcomes. Boni et al. (2012) explored the potential of a curriculum
designed in upper-level engineering curricula to develop cosmopolitan abilities
through an elective course on development aid. The methodology was a pre–post
questionnaire to 80 students analyzed with qualitative discourse analysis. Froese et al.
(2013) investigated the antecedents of cosmopolitanism and willingness to expatriate
as a final outcome for young adults in business schools in Germany and Korea. They
conducted a mixed-method study, including analyses of survey data and follow-up
focus group interviews. Two studies offered findings about learning experiences in
international, cross-cultural collaboration programs. Cloete et al. (2015) investigated
the experiences and learning outcomes of young adults as they engaged in transna-
tional conversations in applied theater and performance classrooms in India, New Zea-
land, and South Africa. They described applied theater as “encompass[ing] political
and aesthetic interventions that engage issues of social justice with the potential of
fostering community engagement, social belonging, and cultural citizenship” (p. 472).
Additionally, Sobré (2009) analyzed 45 interviews and listserv communication data
collected from a social support group for international students. She aimed to identify
tenets of a cosmopolitan third culture, defined as a “collectively determined commu-
nicative space that is created when individuals of different cultural backgrounds come
together and form a relationship within a different cultural context” (p. iii).
Others researched learning and cosmopolitan development in undergraduate study
abroad programs. Williams (2013) investigated cosmopolitanism and citizenship
development of young adult students, namely millennials (born between 1980 and
2000), who were studying political science, international relations, or public affairs.
He researched the comparisons between study abroad and service-learning, volunteer-
ing, and internship experiences from pre- and posttest focus group interviews with 117
participants to examine their social communities and responsibilities as global citizens.
Coryell et al. 187

Also focused on service-learning, Bamber (2015) analyzed interviews and focus

groups with 27 students to identify transformative learning and becoming “other-
wise” through nurturing cosmopolitanism in international service-learning programs
in resource-poor countries (p. 26). Focused on the impact of studying abroad, Gu and
Schweisfurth (2015) were interested in analyzing the experiences of 652 Chinese par-
ticipants, aged between 20 and 66 years, who studied abroad and returned to China
over the previous 25+ years. In their mixed-method design, they aimed to “make sense
of the lives of this vast group of individuals who play an integral role in shaping the
identity of the present and future workforce” in China (p. 948).
Other scholars concentrated their research in postgraduate contexts employing
qualitative interview data analyses in international student mobility contexts. Amadasi
and Holliday’s (2017) study examined the ways two newly arrived postgraduate stu-
dents who were studying abroad discussed their experiences of living in the new cul-
ture. They also analyzed their own interventionist agenda as researchers acknowledging
the requirement of caution and reflexivity necessary to engage in and analyze what are
sometimes “competing narratives and discourses of culture” present in such inter-
views (p. 256). Likewise, Coryell et al. (2014) investigated the global citizenship
development of 16 participants enrolled in a European itinerant graduate professional
degree program designed with a cosmopolitan pedagogical approach. In an offshore
postgraduate certificate program, Kadiwal and Rind (2013) analyzed ethnographic
interviews and focus group data of 15 tutors and students about the influences affect-
ing their cross-cultural interactions. And, Bilecen (2013) interviewed 35 international
doctoral students to characterize their cosmopolitan identities through their perspec-
tives on difference.
There were also postgraduate studies that did not include international mobility
experiences. Rhoades et al. (2008) conducted a narrative inquiry of lower income
Latino doctoral students’ professional choices, critical agency, and race-related service
using a conceptual framework that categorized participants’ approaches as cosmopoli-
tans or locals. Additionally, Bakkabulindi and Ssempebwa (2011) surveyed 85 mas-
ter’s degree students to identify the relationship between cosmopolitanism and
readiness to adopt information and communication technologies in their education.
Finally, four studies investigated cosmopolitan tenets among higher education pro-
fessionals. Gonzales (2012) utilized a mixed-method design that included an online
survey (N = 440) and follow-up interviews (N = 26). They studied how tenure-line
faculty members, involved in complex institutional change toward Tier I research sta-
tus, engaged in either cosmopolitan or local approaches to agency in their teaching,
research, and service at the university. Szelényi and Rhoads (2013) also researched
faculty orientations by utilizing multicase analysis of semistructured interviews with 46
faculty members at two universities. They examined cosmopolitan professional identity
in faculty life by studying academic culture and citizenship in China and Hungary, both
of which the authors suggest are transitioning from communist to market-driven social
and economic national structures. Also within change processes, McNiff (2013) studied
cosmopolitan orientations during university internationalization initiatives in Qatar and
the Gulf States. In this action research, she examined critical reflective commentaries
188 Adult Education Quarterly 68(3)

(accounts of teaching, learning, and interaction/communicative experiences), written

documents, interviews, evaluations, meeting minutes, emails, and video data of over
150 educators, managers, and higher education administrators. In addition, Anderson
(2011) conducted quantitative survey research with community college chief academic
officers (N = 275). She analyzed cosmopolitan and local orientations, participants’ sub-
sequent job satisfaction, intentions to leave the position, and desires to pursue a com-
munity college presidency.

Cosmopolitanism in professions and organizations.  Six studies were situated within

professions and organizations. Ye and Kelly (2011) endeavored to identify the ways
in which practices of cosmopolitanism were evident in the workplace of Singa-
pore’s financial sector. In this qualitative study, researchers conducted semistruc-
tured interviews with 25 Chinese financial sector professionals. In her research on
U.S. Peace Corp workers, Schein (2008) examined the cultural practices and global
citizenship development of volunteers in a document analysis of published mem-
oirs, autobiographical fiction, and compilations of travel narratives, personal
essays, and short stories. And, set within an Indian expatriate professional commu-
nity in the United States, Khandekar’s (2010) dissertation research utilized ethno-
graphic interviews to examine cosmopolitanism in technomigration. He investigated
the experiences, perceptions, and structural conditions that shaped the mobility of
30 Indian engineers and professional engineering students based in various parts of
the United States.
Last, researchers investigated cosmopolitanism within organizations. Within a
transnational organization (The Hippo Family Club), Nilep (2009) conducted ethno-
graphic field work over 4 years in several sites in Japan and the United States. He
examined cosmopolitan citizenship as a form of personal identity that engages in
community language and culture education. Likewise, Guardado (2010) researched
Spanish language and culture maintenance also within a community education orga-
nization. He analyzed semistructured interviews to discern the relationship between
heritage language development and the fostering of a cosmopolitan worldview in
three Hispanic Canadian families. Finally, Kirkpatrick (2015) investigated the narra-
tives of four elders’ experiences living in a Catholic assisted living facility. She exam-
ined their understandings and stories of hospitality, power, and agency through a
blended conceptual framework that included cosmopolitanism, Catholic social teach-
ing, and life cycle theory.

Research Findings About Cosmopolitanism Across the Literature

An analysis of the research findings across the reviewed studies provides insights into
cosmopolitanism and adult education within two overarching categories: methods for
developing adult learners’ cosmopolitan values and skills and the ways in which adult
educators’, researchers’, workers’, and students’ cosmopolitan orientations are mani-
fested in work and learning.
Coryell et al. 189

Developing cosmopolitan values and skills.  The findings and implications for adult edu-
cation that researchers reported in the development of cosmopolitan orientations, abil-
ities, and perspectives offered insight for adult higher education, professional
education, and language learning settings. First, research provides implications for
mobility experiences such as international degree programs or study abroad in which
learners are engaging with international peoples. Bamber (2015), Coryell et al. (2014),
Gu and Schweisfurth (2015), Sobré (2009), and Williams (2013) all assert that learn-
ing through international mobility programs offers opportunities for learners to
develop cosmopolitan perspectives because “it is only through others that a cosmo-
politan disposition can be cultivated” (Bamber, 2015, p. 31). Sobré (2009) stated that
“when members of multiple cultures come together in a group and engage in social
support, cultural learning, adaptation, and third-culture building, they emerge with a
cosmopolitan perspective, which they can then reapply to their future lives beyond the
group” (p. 118). Williams’s (2013) findings about study abroad and service-learning
added that his young adult student participants

position their loyalties somewhere along a continuum between self and humanity at large,
in a series of concentric circles . . . with the self at the core of the circles . . . [and]
returning study abroad participants demonstrate their allegiances indeed gravitate further
from the local and closer to the global. (pp. 276-277)

Similarly, Gu and Schweisfurth (2015) found that individuals who returned from
studying abroad as either undergraduate or graduate students from 6 months to 27
years prior to participating in their research have what they term a “diaspora con-
sciousness” with both a strong identity connection of being Chinese and “an emer-
gent self-consciously international outlook” (p. 958). These adults, once back home
and in the workforce, practiced what the authors term an “everyday transnationalism”
embedded in a variety of networks that helped them develop cosmopolitan compe-
tence characterized by a broadened worldview; international awareness and skills of
looking at, interacting, and communicating in the world; self-confidence; and inter-
cultural empathy (p. 951).
Within adult higher education and professional learning settings, Rhoades et al.
(2008) also advocated that graduate student learning programs offer “alternative
paths” for cosmopolitan development (p. 233). These paths include international and
domestic mobility programs for developing a more balanced combination of local and
cosmopolitan characteristics and values “that can encourage commitment and connec-
tion to local communities, and that enrich the professions and extend their benefits and
influences beyond current boundaries” (p. 233). Researchers also asserted that gradu-
ate and professional program learners need opportunities to build diverse relationships
that require cross-cultural problem solving, collaboration, self-reflection, and “per-
sonal identification negotiation” (Bilecen, 2013, p. 683) to develop cosmopolitan val-
ues and skills (Bilecen, 2013; Boni et al., 2012; Coryell et al., 2014; Kadiwal & Rind,
2013). And, Schein (2008) in her research on the Peace Corps, promoted learning
experiences that develop “robust affective, experiential, identificatory affiliations
190 Adult Education Quarterly 68(3)

beyond the nation, but which nonetheless remain accountable to the present realities
of American power” (p. 234). She asserted that these are key characteristics of an
American cosmopolitanism and suggested teaching strategies for deep, self-conscious
reflection to help achieve this kind of perspective. Herrera (2008) similarly empha-
sized that in cosmopolitan education learners need to “confront polarizing ‘us-versus-
them’ cultural politics evident around the globe” (p. 354) and to develop compassion
and humanistic leadership.
Four studies provided implications for cosmopolitan development specifically
for adult language learning settings that further our understandings about critical
reflection and attending to both global and local perspectives. Cloete et al. (2015)
contended that instructors must commit to continual and rigorous conversations
about how language is used and understood when working across nations, cultures,
and native languages. They championed the “importance of a critically self-reflex-
ive framework that encourages ongoing reflection and debate about language, mean-
ing-making, knowledge and power as constructed in and through the processes of
[transnational pedagogical approaches and collaborative] projects” (p. 480). They
also cautioned that the use of technology for student communications across differ-
ent nations and cultures in various geopolitical locations, while having potential for
cross-cultural learning and cosmopolitan development, often involves inequitable
access and availability of resources. Guardado (2010) added that cosmopolitan
stances may be necessary to maintain minority languages and cultures because indi-
viduals need to view themselves as citizens of a larger community, maintain strong
affiliations with their nations or cultural groups, and enact more fluid, dynamic, and
flexible cultural associations as cosmopolitan individuals. Starkey (2007) recom-
mended the inclusion of cosmopolitanism to language education policy and prac-
tices to break out of a bicultural and nationalist paradigm of language learning. A
shift to move the focus “from the primacy of the nation to a cosmopolitan perspec-
tive” is one based on human rights as universal principles, embraces the national and
the patriotic, and uses “communication to make connections and comparisons
between cultures and communities” (p. 69). Additionally, Saito’s (2017) findings
lead to caution regarding national language policies that do not invite target popula-
tions into the dialogue to understand the intentions and implications of such policies.
Saito asserted that “issues of global concern not only are interconnected across
boundaries but also transform the ontological status of the social and the political
within nation-state societies” (p. 283).

Cosmopolitan orientations in practice.  Many studies provide insight about cosmopoli-

tan orientations in practice for work and life. Four studies offer findings of competing
discourses between cosmopolitan and local/native orientations within higher educa-
tion. Gonzales (2012) found that faculty members who were more cosmopolitan were
willing to decontextualize their work/research and to break away from their univer-
sity’s regional teaching and student-centered mission and history. They were “unwill-
ing to see or explore the local context, culture, history . . . and consequences that
might follow should [their university] take on the image of the prototypical research
Coryell et al. 191

university” (p. 349). These cosmopolitan faculty members were characterized as

seeking prestige and drawing boundaries between self and university and self and
students. However, unlike Gonzales’s conclusions, Szelényi and Rhoads (2013)
found that cosmopolitan faculty in China and Hungary actively used global influ-
ences in their approaches to their rights and responsibilities. As well, “although glob-
ally informed individualism was present among some faculty, many discussed the
strong relevance of globally informed collectivism” (p. 436). The researchers empha-
sized that “globally engaged universities in transitional societies thus offer strong
potential to give rise to the kinds of citizen engagement among faculty members that
foreground the greater good, contributing to social and economic development” (p.
436).
McNiff (2013) added to these discussions by concluding that cultural cosmopoli-
tanism may be developed in educators, regardless of global or local orientations,
through intercultural dialogue. McNiff asserted,

Achieving a dialogical commitment to recognising the validity of the other’s point of

view and their right to hold that view depends largely on one’s own capacity to
acknowledge and respect the cultural and historical situatedness of all participants in the
encounter, including oneself. (p. 502)

Similarly, Amadasi and Holliday (2017) suggested that a researcher’s critical cosmo-
politan disposition can influence data gathering processes and adult learning through
“intercultural creativity [in an interview as] a discursive co-construction in which the
researchers and the students are active in the production and reproduction of narra-
tives” (p. 255). They posited that globalization impels explicitly intercultural interac-
tions between people leading to new possibilities for cultural narrative blending and
employment. They further asserted that researchers ultimately must reflect on their
own responsibilities with regard to how they contribute ideas about the intercultural in
their research and teaching practices.
Scholars who presented findings connected with individuals’ cosmopolitanism
enacted in practice suggested that cosmopolitan orientations are played out as social
identities and can be used as a coping mechanism for expatriates (Khandekar, 2010),
but the meaning of cosmopolitan citizenship may be “reshaped by each member in
each setting” (Nilep, 2009, p. 29). Cosmopolitanism was positively related with readi-
ness for the use of information and communication technologies in master’s students
in Uganda (Bakkabulindi & Ssempebwa, 2011), and it was found to be a predictor of
expatriation willingness in professional education business contexts in Germany and
Korea (Froese et al., 2013). Kirkpatrick’s (2015) findings add that cosmopolitanism is
a dimension of hospitality in the Catholic assisted living environment she studied,
which helped mitigate community building and engagement, relationships between
staff and residents, boundary setting, and diversity among residents.
However, researchers were critical when identifying forms of economic cosmo-
politanism at play in their studies. Ye and Kelly (2011) concluded in their assessment
of the practice of cosmopolitanism in Singapore’s financial district that
192 Adult Education Quarterly 68(3)

cosmopolitanism is demanded of employees, it is in fact an economically grounded

cosmopolitanism that has more to do with a narrow but generic global business culture
than it does with acceptance of diversity. The effect, ironically, is one of exclusion rather
than inclusion—a requirement to conform to a narrow set of linguistic, ethnic, and bodily
norms. (p. 704)

Similarly, Zepke (2009), Lingard et al. (2015), and Sidhu and Dalla’Alba (2012) call
for concern in their conclusions about cosmopolitanism as practiced by policy actors
in neoliberal economies. Zepke (2009) asserted that postcompulsory education policy
in New Zealand indicates that “cosmopolitanism will not necessarily thrive in [the]
future as work place democracy; questioning, dialogue and critique are more likely to
focus on technological and economic developments than on issues of wider social
justice” (p. 759). He suggested that “from a cosmopolitan perspective the future seems
bleak” (p. 759). Sidhu and Dalla’Alba (2012) found that through the British Council’s
Education Counselling Service, the U.S.-based Institute of International Education,
and Australia’s IDP (International Development Program) Education practices of
branding, “education-exporting nations seek to entrench corporate cosmopolitanism
and institutionalise an attitude towards education by student and educator that creates
the conditions for neoliberal globalisation” (p. 428) and “limits the space for more
emancipatory expressions of cosmopolitanism” (p. 415). Similarly, Lingard et al.
(2015) reported in their research on high level policy actors that alignment and shared
epistemological characteristics, presuppositions, and (economic) cosmopolitan styles
underpin the logics of practice in the global policy education field. They contend that
this alignment can homogenize global culture for the purposes of “commensuration
and comparison” (p. 35), regardless of individual differences, nationality/nation, and
positions of the participants they interviewed. The analysis of these findings offer the
field much food for thought for future adult education research and practice.

Discussion
As we consider the multifarious conceptions, uses, and implications of cosmopolitan-
ism across the review of literature, we can discern that the variances are based in
individual versus larger contexts of adult education/learning settings and philosophi-
cal orientations regarding a local versus global stance for serving adults, organiza-
tions, schools, communities, the workplace, and the global economy. On one hand, the
majority of researchers employed the concept of cosmopolitanism as an important set
of dispositions, worldviews, and interpersonal abilities necessary for coexistent living
and working in today’s diverse world. Some of these researchers, though, cautioned
that cosmopolitanism can be manipulated into economic and political forms that serve
a neoliberal agenda in ways that are actually antithetical to the goals of cosmopolitan-
ism, and adult education, that value “human dignity and globally relevant ethics”
(Sidhu & Dalla’Alba, 2012, p. 428). A few also debated whether a global orientation
can be beneficial or detrimental to organizational coherence and progress. Indeed, ele-
ments of moral, political, cultural, and economic cosmopolitanisms were found across
Coryell et al. 193

the review. The differing views and political contestations involved with the term
compel researchers and adult educators to consider these differences when reading
about cosmopolitanism. The findings of this review also compel us to urge deep reflec-
tion on personal philosophical beliefs when conducting cosmopolitan research and
implementing cosmopolitan educational practices with adults.
Discussion points include the implications for practice of developing cosmopoli-
tanism in adult learner populations. Of the studies that examined the ways cosmopoli-
tan orientations can be developed, research indicated that international mobility
experiences, cross-cultural interactions (at home and abroad), collaboration and prob-
lem solving with diverse perspectives and backgrounds, and deep self-reflection on
one’s local, regional, national, and global loyalties and viewpoints were imperative.
Future research is necessary as we continue to understand the nuances among the
varying definitions and extensions of cosmopolitanism, the balance between local and
cosmopolitan stances (if they indeed are different ways of being), and how we as edu-
cators can provide more access to experiences across diverse formal, nonformal, com-
munity, and workplace learning settings. We also hope that researchers will engage in
new studies to investigate how education policy might be updated to incorporate cos-
mopolitan learning outcomes. These should focus on policies that support inclusive,
equitable input and access across the scope of adult, professional, higher, and com-
munity education.
We can see that conceptions of cosmopolitanism have progressed over time, and
what appears to have occurred is the inclusion of the local into what was once consid-
ered a primarily globally focused orientation. This conclusion invites researchers and
practitioners into the reflections and discussions of what may be the optimal inclusion
of the two in different contexts and learning outcomes. Further examinations of the
continuum of local and global orientations and what the benefits and detriments to
adult lives these orientations may have are warranted. Finally, further comparative
studies of cosmopolitan approaches in both research and practice are necessary. We
recommend that research in the field continue to gain an understanding of how, where,
and why cosmopolitan tenets are being employed across international adult educa-
tional milieus. We also suggest an investigation across studies comparing multicul-
tural, intercultural, and cosmopolitan approaches to adult education and research.
Ultimately, it is clear that there is still much that can be learned about the concept
and variant theoretical principles of cosmopolitanism. As such, we suggest that adult
education scholars will find it a rich and viable area of research and theory building
that will greatly benefit the field of adult education in practice.

Authors’ Note
Previous presentation/conference proceedings paper on preliminary study (review from 2004 to
2014): Coryell, J. E., & Sehin, O. (2014). Cosmopolitanism and adult education: A review of the
research literature. Proceedings of the Commission of International Adult Education Pre
Conference of the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education (pp. 32-44),
Charleston, SC.
194 Adult Education Quarterly 68(3)

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship,
and/or publication of this article.

Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of
this article.

References
Amadasi, S., & Holliday, A. (2017). Block and thread intercultural narratives and position-
ing: Conversations with newly arrived postgraduate students. Language and Intercultural
Communication, 17, 254-269. doi:10.1080/14708477.2016.1276583
Anderson, M. (2011). Cosmopolitans or locals: Who will lead the next generation of commu-
nity colleges? (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses
Database. (Accession No. 3449400)
Appiah, K. (2006). Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a world of strangers. New York, NY: W. W.
Norton.
Bakkabulindi, F., & Ssempebwa, J. (2011). Readiness for knowledge creation and sharing in the
university of the future by masters students in two schools in Makerere University. Journal
of Educational Review, 4, 521-529.
Bamber, P. (2015). Becoming other-wise: Transforming international service-learning
through nurturing cosmopolitanism. Journal of Transformative Education, 13, 26-45.
doi:10.1177/1541344614551636
Bilecen, B. (2013). Negotiating differences: Cosmopolitan experiences of international doctoral
students. Compare, 43, 667-688. doi:10.1080/03057925.2013.821329
Bogdan, R., & Biklen, S. (2003). Data analysis and interpretation of qualitative research for
education (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Boni, A., MacDonald, P., & Peris, J. (2012). Cultivating engineers’ humanity: Fostering cosmo-
politanism in a technical university. International Journal of Educational Development, 32,
179-186. doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2011.07.001
Brown, W. (2006). American nightmare: Neoliberalism, neoconservatism, and de-democratiza-
tion. Political Theory, 34, 690-714. doi:10.1177/0090591706293016
Cloete, N., Dinesh, N., Hazou, R., & Matchett, S. (2015). E(Lab)orating performance:
Transnationalism and blended learning in the theatre classroom. Research in Drama
Education, 20, 470-482. doi:10.1080/13569783.2015.1065723
Coryell, J., Spencer, B., & Sehin, O. (2014). Cosmopolitan adult education and global citizen-
ship: Perceptions from a European itinerant graduate professional study abroad program.
Adult Education Quarterly, 64, 145-164. doi:10.1177/0741713613515067
Donald, J. (2007). Internationalisation, diversity and the humanities curriculum: Cosmopolitanism
and multiculturalism revisited. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 41, 289-308.
Froese, F. J, Jommersbach, S., & Klautzsch, E. (2013). Cosmopolitan career choices: A cross-
cultural study of job candidates’ expatriation willingness. International Journal of Human
Resource Management, 24, 3247-3261. doi:10.1080/09585192.2013.770782
Gonzales, L. (2012). Responding to mission creep: Faculty members as cosmopolitan agents.
Higher Education, 64, 337-353. doi:10.1007/s10734-011-9497-9
Coryell et al. 195

Gordon, M., & English, A. R. (2016). John Dewey’s democracy and education in an era of
globalization. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 48, 977-980. doi:10.1080/00131857.2
016.1204742
Gouldner, A. W. (1957). Cosmopolitans and locals: Toward an analysis of latent social roles.
Administrative Science Quarterly, 2, 281-306.
Gouldner, A. W. (1958). Cosmopolitans and locals: Toward an analysis of latent social roles—
II. Administrative Science Quarterly, 2, 444-481.
Gu, Q., & Schweisfurth, M. (2015). Transnational connections, competences, and identities:
Experiences of Chinese international students after their return home. British Educational
Research Journal, 41, 947-970. doi:10.1002/berj.3175
Guardado, M. (2010). Heritage language development: Preserving a mythic past or envisioning
the future of Canadian identity? Journal of Language, Identity and Education, 9, 329-346.
doi:10.1080/15348458.2010.517699
Herrera, L. (2008). A song for humanistic education: Pedagogy and politics in the Middle East.
Teachers College Record, 110, 352-376.
Kadiwal, L., & Rind, I. (2013). Selective cosmopolitans: Tutors’ and students’ experience of
offshore higher education in Dubai. Compare, 43, 689-711. doi:10.1080/03057925.2013.
821338
Khandekar, A. (2010). Engineering the global Indian: Skills, cosmopolitanism, and families in
circuits of high-tech migrations between India and the United States (Doctoral dissertation).
Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Database. (Accession No. 3435855)
Kirkpatrick, L. (2015). Elders in assisted living: Excavating hospitality from within (Doctoral
dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Database. (Accession No.
3725337)
Kleingeld, P., & Brown, E. (2014). Cosmopolitanism. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford ency-
clopedia of philosophy. Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2014/entries/
cosmopolitanism/
Lingard, B., Sellar, S., & Baroutsis, A. (2015). Researching the habitus of global policy
actors in education. Cambridge Journal of Education, 45, 25-42. doi:10.1080/03057
64X.2014.988686
McNiff, J. (2013). Becoming cosmopolitan and other dilemmas of internationalisation:
Reflections from the Gulf States. Cambridge Journal of Education, 43, 501-515. doi:10.1
080/0305764X.2013.831033
Nilep, C. (2009). Articulating a transnational family: “Hippo family” language learners in
Japan and the USA (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations and
Theses Database. (Accession No. 3387544)
Papastephanou, M. (2007). The vision of a future Europe: Infectious or infected? The position
of education. Journal of Social Science Education, 6(1), 4-14.
Rhoades, G., Kiyama, J., McCormick, R., & Quiroz, M. (2008). Local cosmopolitans and
cosmopolitan locals: New models of professionals in the academy. Review of Higher
Education, 31, 209-235. doi:10.1353/rhe.2007.0079
Saito, A. (2017). Going cosmopolitan, staying national: Identity construction in popular dis-
courses on English as a lingua franca. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 27,
263-285. doi:10.1111/ijal.12130
Schein, R. (2008). Landscape for a good citizen: The Peace Corps and the cultural logics of
American cosmopolitanism (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations
and Theses Database. (Accession No. 3317408)
196 Adult Education Quarterly 68(3)

Sidhu, R., & Dalla’Alba, G. (2012). International education and (dis)embodied cosmo-
politanisms. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 44, 413-431. doi:10.1111/j.1469-
5812.2010.00722.x
Sobré, M. (2009). More than the sum of its parts: The story of a cosmopolitan third culture
social support group (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations and
Theses Database. (Accession No. 3371238)
Starkey, H. (2007). Language education, identities and citizenship: Developing cosmopolitan
perspectives. Language and Intercultural Communication, 7, 56-71.
Szelényi, K., & Rhoads, R. (2013). Academic culture and citizenship in transitional societ-
ies: Case studies from China and Hungary. Higher Education, 66, 425-438. doi:10.1007/
s10734-013-9614-z
Trujillo, I. (2015). Cosmopolitanism and human rights. In L. C. Sanahuja & F. Ghia (Eds.),
Cosmopolitanism: Between ideals and reality (pp. 10-34). Cambridge, England: Cambridge
Scholars. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com
Williams, R. (2013). Experiencing citizenship in a globalizing world: The impact of off-cam-
pus programs (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses
Database. (Accession No. 3561508)
Ye, J., & Kelly, P. (2011). Cosmopolitanism at work: Labour market exclusion in Singapore’s
financial sector. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 37, 691-707. doi:10.1080/1369
183X.2011.559713
Zepke, N. (2009). A future for adult lifelong education in Aotearoa New Zealand:
Neoliberal or cosmopolitan? International Journal of Lifelong Education, 28, 751-761.
doi:10.1080/02601370903293211

Author Biographies
Joellen E. Coryell is Associate Professor and Director of the PhD program in Adult,
Professional, and Community Education at Texas State University. She earned her PhD in edu-
cational human resource development with a concentration in adult education at Texas A&M
University, and she holds an MA in curriculum and instruction (Texas State University) and a
BA in international economics (University of Illinois). She researches and teaches courses on
international, cross-cultural adult higher education including global perspectives on adult edu-
cation, cross-national studies in higher education faculty development, learning and pedagogy
in adult study abroad, and internationalization of higher education.
Oleksandra Sehin is the international affairs coordinator at Texas State University. Her
research interests include international education, students’ mobility and cross-cultural experi-
ences, international development projects, and program evaluation.
Cindy Peña is currently a PhD student in the Adult Professional and Community Education
Program at Texas State University. Her research interests are Latinx and immigrant issues in
adult education in southern Texas and Latinas in higher education.
Copyright of Adult Education Quarterly is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its
content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the
copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email
articles for individual use.