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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Background
Although I have German ancestry and was born and raised in South Carolina, my
favorite subject in high school was Spanish. Being able to communicate in another
language felt like a hidden super power. Since that time, I earned undergraduate and
master’s degrees in Spanish language and cultures, and I have taught Spanish for 17 years
at secondary and post-secondary levels. Speaking Spanish has improved multiple aspects
of my life, including my intercultural interactions in both global and local settings.
As a result of my language studies and personal experiences, I am developing
cosmopolitan perspectives, believing that although people differ, there is much to learn
from our differences (Appiah, 2006). Theories of cosmopolitanism value global citizens
engaged in open, respectful, and reflexive dialogue across personal, geographic, and
identity boundaries to learn about themselves and the world (Appiah, 2006, De Costa,
2014; Delanty, 2006; Hansen, 2010; Hawkins, 2014; Hull & Stornaioulo, 2010;
Wahlström, 2014). Following Appiah (2005), Hull and Stornaioulo (2010) and Hawkins
(2014), also include responsibility to others as a crucial component of a cosmopolitan
perspective. Theories of cosmopolitanism are utilized to explore human interactions as
we engage locally and globally, as we engage across differences, and as we engage with
ourselves. This study situates its understanding of cosmopolitan perspectives in emergent,
everyday, pluralistic stances that operate in the day-to-day moments of understanding
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grounded in mutual respect for each other’s differences. By viewing the world through a
cosmopolitan lens, I continuously find joy in learning about, connecting with, and
exploring new cultures, communities, and my own perspectives and practices in a variety
of ways. In my career as a Spanish teacher, I have tried to impress upon my students the
joy that learning additional languages, engaging in intercultural interactions, and taking
up cosmopolitan perspectives might bring.
Taking a teaching as inquiry stance (McGlinn Manfra, 2019), I engaged in
teacher action research to improve my pedagogical content knowledge as well as to
reflect on my own practices (McGlinn Manfra, 2019). While much of teacher research
identifies a problem of practice found in educational contexts and then seeks to address
or improve that problem (Rust, 2009), I came to this study from a stance of cosmopolitan
openness and inquiry (Hawkins, 2014): As described in the next section, there are many
theories for exploring cultures in language-learning courses, but I was open to
discovering more about theories of cosmopolitanism. I wondered how theories of
cosmopolitanism might be implemented in additional-language classes and, as a result,
how students might develop cosmopolitan perspectives.
Why Utilize Theories of Cosmopolitanism in Additional-Language Classes?
Although I more fully describe my theoretical framework in Chapter Two of this
dissertation, theories of cosmopolitanism present possibilities for additional-language
classes because they move the field away from outdated understandings guiding global
interactions. Additionally, both cosmopolitan perspectives and additional-language
communicative and cultural competences appear to be developed in response to similar
experiences.
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There is no shortage of theories attempting to understand or guide the teaching
and learning of languages and their interconnected cultural practices and perspectives.
Researchers have proposed a vast range of terms such as intercultural competence
(Williams, 2009; Byram, 2000), multicultural competence, cross-cultural awareness, or
intercultural sensitivity (Fantini, 2009) to describe skills for learning about and engaging
with global others. These terms share a focus on effectively accomplishing one’s goals
during global encounters; however, they are not interchangeable. For example, Fantini
(2009) includes personal characteristics, such as a sense of humor and motivation, as
contributing to multicultural competence, cross-cultural awareness and intercultural
sensitivity. Byram (2000) includes critical cultural awareness when defining intercultural
competence. These theories, however, share a reliance on binaries and division.
‘Multicultural’ approaches usually reflect intra-national perspectives, emphasizing
learning about cultures within nation-states (Banks & McGee Banks, 2004). Furthermore,
the terms ‘intercultural’, ‘cross-cultural’ and ‘multicultural’ suggest boundaries between
a student’s cultural practices and the cultural practices being studied. Theories of
cosmopolitanism, however, provide new ways to appreciate similarities and differences
across international spaces and interactions (Appiah, 2006).
Starkey (2007) proposed cosmopolitan perspectives for language teachers who
were “frustrated” by language courses built on a “bicultural, national model” (p. 69) that
he described as “reductive” (p. 58). Rather than traditional inter- or multicultural
approaches, Starkey (2007) argued that cosmopolitan perspectives give space for
language students to emerge as global citizens who “use communication to make
connections and comparisons between cultures and communities,” (Starkey, 2007, p. 69).
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Darvin and Norton (2017) also suggested “replacing the discourse of multiculturalism,
which is circumscribed by national boundaries” with “a sense of global citizenship”
(p.96) espoused by cosmopolitan ideals.
Darvin and Norton (2017), however, cautioned against viewing cosmopolitanism
as a “romanticized multiculturalism,” (p. 97). Learning about and engaging with others’
practices and perspectives is rooted in the foundational cosmopolitan notion that
everyone matters (Appiah, 2006). Theories of cosmopolitanism extend beyond superficial
explorations of so-called exotic or elite cultures through “an assumption of human
equality, with a recognition of difference, and indeed a celebration of diversity” (Kaldor,
2003, p. 19) that includes and is enriched by minoritized and silenced cultures and
communities, as well (Johnson, 2014).
As students learn about global others, theories of cosmopolitanism extend beyond
theories of biculturalism, multiculturalism, or interculturalism to challenge students to
seize possibilities of learning more about themselves (Nussbaum, 2002), as well. For
example, Pegrum (2008) recognized the potential of theories of cosmopolitanism in
aiding language learners as they navigate complex intersections found in “the
connections between themselves, their native cultural practices, alternative cultural
practices, and the wider world,” (p. 145). Likewise, Darvin and Norton (2017) challenged
researchers and educators to utilize a critical cosmopolitan lens to explore similarly
complex intersections of languages, literacies, power and identities across international
and intercultural interactions. In this vein, we see that cosmopolitan perspectives not only
look outward to explore others but also attend to internal development and transformation
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through participating in self-reflexivity, self-problematization and self-pluralization
(Delanty, 2006).
Collectively, Starkey (2007), Darvin and Norton (2017), and Pegrum (2008)
suggest that theories of cosmopolitanism address the ways in which global identities and
global competences are embraced in the study of languages and cultures. They argued
that cosmopolitan stances foster openness and responsibility to others when language
students “recognize the value of different knowledges, cultures, modalities, and
languages” (Darvin & Norton, 2017, p. 98), and “cultivate a desire to contribute to a
more just society,” (Darvin & Norton, 2017, p. 99).
Additionally, there exists a distinct overlap between how researchers propose
cultivating participants’ cosmopolitan perspectives and how researchers of language
acquisition propose students learn or acquire additional languages. As I describe in more
detail in Chapter Three of this dissertation, theories of cosmopolitanism have been
utilized in educational contexts with a goal of developing participants’ cosmopolitan
perspectives or providing opportunities for them to demonstrate cosmopolitan
perspectives. Hansen (2014) theorized that cosmopolitan stances spring from wonder and
are triggered by substantive encounters with new experiences. Across the literature,
researchers of theories of cosmopolitanism suggest international sojourns (Boni &
Calabuig, 2017; Coryell, Spencer & Sehin, 2014; Gu & Schweisfurth, 2015; Moskal &
Schweisfurt, 2018; Oikonomidoy & Williams, 2013), cosmopolitan framings of curricula
(Boni, MacDonald, & Peris, 2012; Chappel, 2018; Cloete, Dinesh, Hazou, & Matchett,
2015; Crosbie, 2014; DeJaynes, 2015; Stornaioulo & Thomas, 2018; Su & Wood, 2016;
Vasudevan, 2014), and intercultural interactions intentionally embedded in a course or
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project (Collins & Delgado, 2019; Hawkins, 2014; Hull & Stornaioulo, 2014; Hull,
Storntaioulo, & Sahni, 2010; Sánchez & Ensor, 2020; Spires, Paul, Hymes, & Yuan,
2018; Wu & Li, 2019) to support development and/or demonstrations of cosmopolitan
perspectives.
Language-learning research also proposes international travel and intercultural
interactions to develop students’ communicative and cultural competences. The majority
of American undergraduates take classes to learn languages such as Spanish, French,
Italian, Mandarin and Portuguese—languages that are not geographically dominant in the
United States—as core requirements for graduation (Rios-Font, 2017). In these courses
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students focus on communicating in additional languages and learning about practices
and perspectives of those language communities. Researchers suggest that international
travel improves students’ language proficiency (Cubillos, Chieffo & Fan, 2008; Dewaele,
Comanaru & Faraco, 2015; Dewey, 2004; Huebner, 1995; Juan-Garau, Salazar-Noguera
& Prieto-Arranz; 2014), cultural competences (Cook 2006; DuFon 2006; Engle & Engle
1999; Kinginger 2011; McMeekin 2017), or both (Felix-Brasdefer & Hasler-Barker,
2015; McManus, Mitchell & Tracy-Ventura 2014; Mitchell 2015; Rasouli Khorshidi
2013; Ren 2013). Similarly, researchers describe how students’ communicative
competence (Lee & Révész, 2020; Williams, 2009), cultural competences (Anderson &
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Languages learned in these classes are referred to as foreign languages, world
languages, second languages, or additional languages. In keeping with the theories of
sociocultural literacies that frame this study, they shall be referred to as additional
languages to recognize that students may come to class with multiple linguistic
repertoires.
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Macleroy, 2017; Michelson, 2017) or both (Thorne, 2003; Ware, 2003) improved through
engagement in intentional intercultural interactions.
Therefore, theories of cosmopolitanism appear to support students in additional-
language courses through perspectives that move beyond superficial or romanticized
exploration of additional languages and the practices and perspectives of their language
communities. Furthermore, there exists a distinct overlap between how researchers
propose cultivating participants’ cosmopolitan perspectives and how researchers of
language acquisition propose students learn or acquire additional languages.
Assumptions
Henderson, Meier, Perry, and Strommel (2012) describe teacher researchers as
drawing on combinations of theory and teacher intuition, professional experience and
knowledge of students, and inquiry and reflection to develop relevant questions and
assumptions. Taking together my professional teaching experiences, my knowledge of
language-learning methodology and research, and my explorations of theories of
cosmopolitanism, I formed the following assumptions: students in language-learning
classes were likely already demonstrating cosmopolitan perspectives in response to
coursework because of the overlap between activities proposed to foster language
learning and cosmopolitan perspectives. Furthermore, because of that overlap, additional-
language classes especially position students to demonstrate and/or develop cosmopolitan
perspectives. My second assumption drove my desire to study theories of
cosmopolitanism in my Spanish-language classroom.
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Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study was to explore how SPAN 121 might be designed to
foster and support students’ development of cosmopolitan perspectives. Specifically, I
explored how English-speaking students might demonstrate cosmopolitan perspectives in
response to activities engaging them in Spanish with global Spanish speakers as part of
their undergraduate, intermediate Spanish-language class.
As a teacher-researcher, I engaged in action research through intentional and
systematic inquiry to gain insight into practices that may improve teaching and learning
(Henderson, Meier, Perry & Strommel, 2012). My study used qualitative methods to
clarify my understanding of a phenomenon (Merriam, 1998) through the contextualizing
benefits of multiple data sources and the flexibility of qualitative methods’ emergent
nature (Glesne, 2016; Dornyei, 2016).
I utilized case study (Stake 2013), selecting my SPAN 121 over the course of the
fall 2020 semester to explore how intermediate-level language classes might be more
oriented to cosmopolitan perspectives and how undergraduates enrolled in intermediate-
level language classes at a large university in the American South engaged with,
demonstrated, or rejected cosmopolitan perspectives and dispositions. Within this case, I
utilized data from three focal participants students. Intermediate-level language learners
can create with language, ask and answer simple questions about familiar topics, and
handle simple situations or transactions (ACTFL, 2015). For example, students at this
level can use Spanish to discuss themselves, their friends and family, their daily lives,
and their free time activities, and/or narrate an anecdote based an experience. The
majority of undergraduates in the United States are between 17-22 years old and are
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enrolled in college for the first time. Undergraduates often take intermediate-level
language courses during their first or second year of college because they required by
many universities. As such, this course often coincides with the beginning of students’
university experience (Falconer & Taylor, 2017). The intersection of college-age students
with a course that intentionally engaged them with global others provided important
insights into how students engaged with, demonstrated and sometimes rejected
cosmopolitan perspectives.
Johnson (2014) described the problematic nature of ‘measuring’ or analyzing
cosmopolitanism, noting that “it is the abstractions that complicate, rather than clarify,
pinning down its substance,” (p. 264) However, many researchers narrow their focus in
particular studies because, as I describe in more detail in Chapter Two, each
conceptualization of cosmopolitanism is comprised of multiple characteristics, traits,
qualities or dispositions and “no study can do everything,” (Glesne, 2016, p. 213). For
example, Moskal and Schweisfurth (2018) focused their study on cosmopolitan global
identities, Boni and Calabuig (2017) focused on the development of students’
cosmopolitan global awareness, and both Wahlström (2014) and Spires, Paul, Hymes,
and Yuan (2018) examined participants’ demonstrations of self-reflexivity, hospitality,
intercultural dialogue, and transactions of perspectives.
Like these researchers, I chose to focus my study on particular dispositions and
the markers participants used to demonstrate them. Because “measuring the invisible
contents of the mind has always been difficult,” (Cook, 2006, p. 132), I sought
participants’ demonstrations or descriptions of their markers of these dispositions. I
describe this process in more detail in Chapter Four, but these focal dispositions and their
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markers serve as an heuristic for making cosmopolitan perspectives more visible while
acknowledging that they do not encapsulate all dispositions contributing to cosmopolitan
stances. Following Starkey (2007), Darvin and Norton (2017), and Pegrum (2008), I
explored participants’ demonstrations of dispositions of global identity, global
competence, openness, and responsibility to others. I define each of these dispositions,
discuss them in greater detail, and connect them to cosmopolitan stances in Chapter Two.
Furthermore, following Vertovec (2009) who described cosmopolitan
perspectives as combinations of dispositions, characteristics, competences or behaviors, I
sought participants’ demonstrations or descriptions of combinations of markers of these
dispositions. In this study, cosmopolitan perspectives were reflected when participants
demonstrated two or more focal dispositions working in concert.
Research Questions
These questions guided my study:
1. What kinds of experiences can I embed into an undergraduate Spanish language
course with the goal of engaging students with cosmopolitan thinking?
Specifically, how might SPAN 121 students demonstrate cosmopolitan
perspectives in their responses when asked to reflect on to activities and
experiences embedded in their class designed to engage them with cosmopolitan
thinking?
2. What markers of focal dispositions of global identity, global competence,
openness, and responsibility to others might students demonstrate?
To address my first research question, I embedded activities and experiences that
overlap how researchers propose cultivating participants’ cosmopolitan perspectives and
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how researchers of language acquisition propose students learn or acquire additional
languages, following the literature. Specifically, I utilized a global cosmopolitan framing
(Boni, MacDonald, & Peris, 2012; Cloete, Dinesh, Hazou, & Matchett, 2015; Crosbie,
2014; DeJaynes, 2015; Stornaioulo & Thomas, 2018) of my SPAN 121 curricula through
the intentional introduction of cosmopolitan ideals and stances, references to these ideas
during in-class discussion and within the instructions to activities.
This global cosmopolitan framing was also evident in the specific activities I
chose to embed into SPAN 121. Researchers have suggested that direct, one-to-one
intercultural interactions (Collins & Delgado, 2019; Spires, Paul, Hymes, & Yuan, 2018;
Wu & Li, 2019) as well as intercultural interactions through social media (Hull,
Storntaioulo, & Sahni, 2010; Hull & Stornaioulo, 2010) may lead to the development or
demonstrations of cosmopolitan perspectives. My students engaged in direct, one-to-one
intercultural interactions via TalkAbroad conversations with global Spanish speakers as
well as intercultural interactions through social media via Opciones [Options] activities.
International travel is not a requirement of SPAN 121, it is impractical and exclusionary
to students with limited financial means, and it was rendered impossible because of
COVID-19. For these reasons, I did not include it in SPAN 121. I describe this process
and these activities in more detail in Chapter Four of this dissertation; examples of each
activity are found in Appendix A.
I analyzed interview transcripts, students’ diary entries, and students’ written
reflections, focusing on markers of dispositions of global identity, global competence,
openness, and responsibility to others. Because of COVID-19, I was not able to collect
data through any form of observation. In qualitative inquiry, observation is utilized to
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better understand the study’s setting, participants, and their behaviors (Glesne, 2016).
Following Swain (2009) who viewed cosmopolitanism as situated, embodied, performed
and also imagined, I believe that observations would have added contextual
understandings, “new vantage points with wider horizons [and] new ways of thinking
about some aspect of social interaction,” (Glesne, 2016, p. 68). As a result, my findings
are dependent upon students’ responses to my oral and written questions. Thus, students’
demonstrations of markers of dispositions are often taken from their reports of their
behaviors, although some demonstrations were noted during interviews.
To respond to my research questions, I sought instances when students displayed
or described displaying combinations of markers of focal dispositions contributing to
cosmopolitan perspectives in response to activities embedded in SPAN 121. For example,
Linda, one of my focal participants, often demonstrated cosmopolitan perspectives in
response to one-to-one conversations with global Spanish speakers. She demonstrated her
developing cosmopolitan stances through dispositions of global competence and
openness. Linda described being open to cultural practices and perspectives that differed
from her own and her propensity for finding commonalities across those differences.
Reflecting the value she ascribed to personal relationships, these conversations resonated
with Linda because they provided opportunities to have individualized interactions with
members of global Spanish-Speaking communities.
A Gap in the Literature
Researchers have explored theories of cosmopolitanism in language-learning
classes, but studies have been mostly restricted to English as a Second Language/English
for Speakers of Other Languages (ESL/ESOL) (Compton-Lilly & Hawkins, in
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preparation; Compton-Lilly, Kim, Quast, Tran, & Shedrow, 2019; Crosbie, 2014;
Guardado, 2010) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students and classes
(Canagarajah, 2013; Ramanathan, 2012; Roger, 2010). Scholars working with children
and youth argue that ESL/ESOL students bring international experiences and practices
that may already reflect emerging cosmopolitan dispositions (Campano & Ghiso, 2011;
Compton-Lilly & Hawkins, in preparation; Compton-Lilly, Kim, Quast, Tran, &
Shedrow, 2019). In studies of EFL classes, researchers often reference English as a
lingua franca or World Englishes (Kachru, 1997) and the linguistic and cultural capital
(Bourdieu, 1986, 1991) English entails. Ramanathan (2012) argues that for learners
where English is a foreign language, learning English fosters cosmopolitanism. Roger
(2010) indicates that learning English as a lingua franca (ELF) may position English-
language learners as global citizens. People learning ELF either share in communities of
Anglophone countries or in global communities comprised of ELF speakers.
ESL/ESOL and EFL studies in theories of cosmopolitanism may inform the work
of additional-language researchers and educators. However, distinctions among
ESL/ESOL, EFL, and additional-language learners are significant because cultivating
cosmopolitan perspectives is responsive to students, their experiences, and relevant
contexts (Hawkins, 2018; Oikonomidoy & Williams, 2013; Rizvi & Beech, 2017). This
study explores experiences of additional-language learners—specifically, English-
speaking students engaging in Spanish with global Spanish speakers. Unlike students in
ESL/ESOL classes, some participants brought significant international experiences—
such as speaking a language other than English regularly or having spent significant time
in another country--but the majority did not. Students without significant pre-existing
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global experiences may demonstrate cosmopolitan perspectives differently than
ESL/ESOL students.
Additional-language students may demonstrate cosmopolitan stances differently
than EFL students, as well, because English enjoys status as a global lingua franca.
Languages do more than convey information (Halliday, 1994); they are also value-laden
and perspective-taking, and they scaffold human affiliation in cultures, social groups and
institutions (Gee, 2001). A significant way in which cultures are manifested is through
language (Kramsch, 1996). Thus, EFL students may demonstrate cosmopolitan
perspectives because they anticipate membership in a global, English-speaking culture.
Students learning Spanish, and other languages without status as a lingua franca, might
demonstrate cosmopolitan perspectives differently than EFL students.
Significance of the study
This study is significant because it explored which activities might foster
demonstrations of cosmopolitan perspectives in additional-language students while also
accomplishing curricular goals in intermediate-level additional-language classes. My
findings align with studies that suggested students may develop or demonstrate
cosmopolitan stances in response to intercultural interactions with global others via social
media (Hull, Storntaioulo, & Sahni, 2010; Hull & Stornaioulo, 2014) or direct,
interpersonal communication (Collins & Delgado, 2019; Spires, Paul, Hymes, & Yuan,
2018; Wu & Li, 2019). The results from this study also follow research indicating that
developing or demonstrating cosmopolitan perspectives is responsive to students, their
experiences, and relevant contexts (Hawkins, 2018; Oikonomidoy & Williams, 2013;
Rizvi & Beech, 2017). For language educators, findings from my study may guide the
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types of activities they embed in classes as well as their understandings of what outcomes
they may encounter in students’ demonstrations of cosmopolitan dispositions.
Not 2020 Vision – the Completely Unforeseen
This study took place in fall of 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic,
demonstrations supporting Black Lives Matter and other social justice movements, and
political division caused by state and federal elections. To accommodate COVID-19
safety measures and social-distancing guidelines, I lost 67% of my face-to-face teaching
time and only ‘met’ with students virtually. My students experienced devastating illness
and death of loved ones from COVID-19. Many students struggled with new limitations
on previously-available resources, such as access to libraries, on-campus Wifi and
computer labs. Some students bore financial burdens associated with social distancing
and restrictions on public life. Others were committed to getting into good, necessary
trouble (Lewis, 2020) for righteous causes. My students also endured the emotional toll
of constantly engaging with a wholly unprecedented time and adjusting to the changes it
constantly necessitated.
I planned my study in early spring of 2020, anticipating a typical semester that
would allow providing ample opportunities to build relationships with students and
address complex topics. Even as I began the study, I could not have anticipated how
different the semester would be. However, my students displayed an inspiring level of
resilience and thoughtfulness. These unique circumstances fundamentally altered this
study’s implementation and likely affected its outcomes.
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Summary
In this study, I intentionally embedded experiences that engaged students with
global others in an intermediate-level Spanish-language classes. I did so to explore how
undergraduates learning an additional language might develop or display cosmopolitan
stances in response to class framed in cosmopolitan ideals. It addressed a gap in the
research attending to theories of cosmopolitanism in additional-language classes.
This dissertation is organized in eight chapters. In this chapter, I introduced my
study, describing its purpose and significance. In Chapter Two, I describe theories of
cosmopolitanism and how they framed my research. Chapter Three reviews the literature,
and in Chapter Four, I explain the methodology of my study. I explore my findings in
detail across chapters five, six and seven. Chapter Five describes activities and how
participants responded with cosmopolitan stances. Chapter Six describes focal
dispositions and how each participant demonstrated them. Chapter Seven looks across the
experiences of each focal participant for a deeper analysis of my findings. Finally, in
Chapter Eight, I discuss how my findings fit within current literature and extend beyond
it, I discuss future implications for language education and research, and I offer my
conclusions.
In the next chapter, I introduce and describe the theoretical framework which
guided this study. First, I explain the history of theories of cosmopolitanism, and then I
situate my study in theories of emergent, everyday, pluralistic cosmopolitanism. Then I
describe my focal dispositions of global identity, global competence, openness, and
responsibility to others that may contribute to the development of cosmopolitan
perspectives. Finally, I discuss the multi-faceted nature of theories of cosmopolitanism.
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CHAPTER 2
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The purpose of this study was to explore how SPAN 121 might be designed to
foster and support students’ development of cosmopolitan perspectives. Specifically, I
explored how English-speaking students might demonstrate cosmopolitan perspectives in
response to activities engaging them in Spanish with global Spanish speakers as part of
their undergraduate, intermediate Spanish-language class. Theories of cosmopolitanism
present possibilities for additional-language classes because they move the field away
from outdated understandings guiding global interactions. Additionally, both
cosmopolitan perspectives and additional-language communicative and cultural
competences appear to be developed in response to similar experiences.
The purpose of this chapter is to describe theories of cosmopolitanism as they
frame my work. I also describe each focal disposition—global identity, global
competence, openness, and responsibility to others—and explain how these dispositions
contribute to overarching cosmopolitan perspectives. Recognizing that theories of
cosmopolitanism are grounded in sociocultural theory, I first provide a brief description
of sociocultural theory and two related constructs. Then, I discuss theories of
cosmopolitanism as they frame my research.
Sociocultural Theory, Multiliteracies and Transnational Literacy Practices
Sociocultural theory addresses the intersection of social, cultural, historical,
physical, and political aspects of people’s sense-making, interaction and learning (Lewis,
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Enciso & Moje, 2007). As described by Gee (1999), the social turn (e.g., Barton, 1994;
Gee, 1996; Street, 1995) has informed research on literacies and language education.
Sociocultural theories shift the focus from individual behaviors and minds toward how
learning “is intimately bound up with particular sociocultural contexts, institutions, and
social relationships” (Lam, 2000, p. 458). This set of theories emphasizes the profound
influence culture has on our literacy practices and reconceptualized our understandings of
how literacy is learned.
The shared perspectives, practices and values of communities and cultures both
shape and are shaped by the languaging and literacy practices of its members (Moje &
Luke, 2009). Theories of multiliteracies (Cope & Kalantzis, 2000; Heath, 1983; New
London Group (NLG), 1996) recognize that literacy practices are not universally tied to
print and traditional notions of text. Theories of multiliteracies recognize and engage the
diversity of texts and literacy practices used around the world as people utilize literacy in
their daily lives (NLG, 1996). Multiliteracy approaches acknowledge diverse modes of
communicating—linguistic, visual, audio, gestural, spatial—and recognize that these
modes are often culturally and contextually specific (Skerrett, 2016). Literacy practices
are “processes by which the individual is socialized for group membership in specific
literate communities and, in turn, participates in shaping the social practices of these
communities,” (Lam, 2000, p. 459). Furthermore, while communicating and engaging in
global encounters, language students employ transnational literacy practices (Levitt,
2001; Portes, Gaurnizo & Landolt, 1999) reflecting the movement of ideas, goods, and
practices across borders. Language students engaging in sustained, cross-border literacy
practices amass a quiver of “transnational, multilingual, [and] multicultural” (Stewart,
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2014) literacy skills that position them as proficient in hybridized multilingual practices
(Garcia Canclini, 2001) and develop the flexibility to use and understand new literacy
practices (Garcia Canclini, 2001). In language-learning classes, students will engage with
a variety of texts and practices specific to cultures associated with the language of the
course.
Situated within sociocultural perspectives, multiliteracies and transnational
literacies acknowledge the bodies of cultural knowledge, languages, and literacy practices
that students bring to classrooms. Furthermore, these theories lay the foundation for
students to engage with new texts in new ways during intercultural dialogue, inviting
learners to navigate a wide variety of spaces and discourses. I refer to sociocultural,
multiliteracy, and transnational literacy theories to describe how my students engaged
with and learned from global others during my study of cosmopolitanism in a language-
learning classroom. In the following section, I introduce cosmopolitanism, situate my
study within an everyday, pluralistic conceptualization of cosmopolitanism, describe the
focal constructs of my study, and finally describe educational applications.
Cosmopolitanism
Theories of cosmopolitanism appear to support students in additional-language
courses through perspectives that move beyond superficial or romanticized exploration of
additional languages and the practices and perspectives of their language communities.
Specifically, they position students as globalized citizens engaged in open, respectful, and
reflective dialogue across personal, geographic, and identity boundaries to reimagine
themselves and the world (Appiah, 2006, De Costa, 2014; Delanty, 2006; Hansen, 2010;
Hawkins, 2014; Hull & Stornaioulo, 2010; Wahlström, 2014). Extending this work, Hull
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and Stornaioulo (2010) and Hawkins (2014) identify responsibility to others as a crucial
component of a cosmopolitan perspective. This understanding of cosmopolitanism is a
synthesis of many theories of cosmopolitanism that center global applications of “two
ideals--universal concern and respect for legitimate difference” (Appiah, 2006, p. xv).
Though it has become increasingly popular in recent years, cosmopolitanism is
not a new concept. Hull and Stornaioulo (2010) refer to it as “an old philosophy newly
conceived,” (p. 86). The term cosmopolitan originated with the Greek kosmopolites,
which means "citizen of the cosmos." Theories of cosmopolitanism travelled across
centuries and geography, were taken up and theorized by Cynics and Stoics, later by great
thinkers such as Kant, Wieland and Voltaire, and subsequently decried by both Hitler and
Stalin (Appiah, 2006; Hansen, 2008). Shared among these various conceptualizations of
cosmopolitanism are, as Appiah (2006) summarizes, “two strands that intertwine in the
notion of cosmopolitanism. One is the idea that we have obligations to others […] The
other is that we take seriously the value not just of human life, but of particular human
lives,” (p. xv). Contemporary conceptualizations take these strands as their core and
expand on them as they have come into contact with and intersected across various
disciplines and ways of thinking. Theories of cosmopolitanism are utilized to explore
human interactions as we engage locally and globally, as we engage across differences,
and as we engage with ourselves.
Engaging Locally and Globally
In his study of international journalists, Hannerz (2007) describes a common
understanding of cosmopolitanism as “world-wise travellers, familiar with many places,
connoisseurs of diversity. Here the emphasis is more cultural and experiential,” (Hannerz,
21
2007, p. 301). As he further explains, this understanding lacks necessary depth and omits
fundamental tenets of cosmopolitan thought. Furthermore, it is practically
indistinguishable from terms such as intercultural competence (Byram, 2000; Williams,
2009), multicultural competence, cross-cultural awareness, or intercultural sensitivity
(Fantini, 2009) that describe skills for learning about and engaging with global others. In
contrast, cosmopolitanism is a “philosophy for life” (Hansen, 2017, p. 212) and an
“orientation” that positions “people to respond to challenge and difficulty, as well as to
cultural possibility and opportunity, in richer and deeper rather than impoverished and
shallow ways,” (Hansen, 2017, p. 211). Cosmopolitanism, then, is “richer and deeper”
than a checklist of skills to acquire--as theories of intercultural, multicultural, and other
forms of ‘competences’ appear to present.
Especially in fields where human interrelations are paramount—such as
languages, history, politics, geography, tourism, or the arts—researchers seek ways to
“theorize our post-colonial, interconnected, and mediated world,” (Hull & Stornaioulo,
2014, p. 16). They utilize theories of cosmopolitanism to “refer to how humans encounter
each other within forces of globalization,” (Hawkins, 2014, p. 92). Starkey (2007)
proposed cosmopolitan perspectives for language teachers who were “frustrated” by
language courses built on a “bicultural, national model” (p. 69) that he described as
“reductive” (p. 58). Intercultural competence, multicultural competence, cross-cultural
awareness, or intercultural sensitivity are insufficient, because they share a reliance on
binaries and division. Furthermore, these approaches usually reflect intra-national
perspectives, emphasizing learning about cultures within nation-states (Banks & McGee
22
Banks, 2004) and reify boundaries between one’s own cultural practices and cultural
practices of global others.
Echoing the notion of a plural and post-universalistic cosmopolitanism (Delanty,
2006), Starkey (2007) argued that cosmopolitan perspectives give space for language
students to emerge as global citizens who “use communication to make connections and
comparisons between cultures and communities,” (Starkey, 2007, p. 69). Darvin and
Norton (2017) also suggested “replacing the discourse of multiculturalism, which is
circumscribed by national boundaries” with “a sense of global citizenship” (p.96)
espoused by cosmopolitan ideals. Although I describe this study’s understandings of a
global identity in more detail later in this chapter, a sense of globality “entails viewing
the world as consisting of relations and developing the capacity to engage these
relations,” (Sánchez & Ensor, 2021, p. 268). Theories of cosmopolitanism offer new
ways to foster local and global relationships because they are situated in deeper
understandings of what is local and what is global.
Globalizing forces have tightened physical distances (Sánchez & Ensor, 2021)
through rapid changes in communications and human movement such that Beck (2006)
describes local and global as increasingly interconnected and interpenetrating. Rather
than viewing each as physical locations, a cosmopolitan perspective views them in
dynamic relation with each other (Delanty, 2006). The relationship between global and
local ebbs and flows with how individuals take up opportunities for engagement, self-
reflection, and consideration of cultures and communities (Meredith, et al., 2001).
Hawkins (2014) describes how perspectives on globality are likely different among
members of differing groups. She contrasts globetrotters “who fly from place to place,
23
dropping in to sample the “local culture” and cuisine,” (p. 106), those—presumably with
greater resources—who travel and/or relocate for adventure, education or opportunity,
and those with fewer resources, such as immigrants who are forced to flee or relocate.
Each of these groups develop and engage global perspectives, having exchanged their old
local for a newer one. However, these understandings are co-constructed through
interactions (Sánchez & Ensor, 2021) with their new local community—where they are
now--and their new global communities—where they used to be. Each of these groups
will view locality and globality differently due to their lived experiences and the “socio-
spatial interplay” that is always “imbued in power relations” because, for example, “what
is prosperous for one [person or community] may be inseparably linked to conflict for
another,” (Sánchez & Ensor, 202, p. 267). Thus, the global emphasized in a cosmopolitan
perspective must also reflect richer and deeper (Hansen, 2017) understandings of systems
of power at play in the dynamic relationship with local. Theories of cosmopolitanism are
utilized to better understand and improve human interactions as we engage locally and
globally
Engaging across Differences
As people and communities interact across personal, identity, and geographic
boundaries, they learn more about each other and co-construct new relations. New
relations may entail “calls for change [that] feel threatening,” (Hansen, 2017, p. 208).
Especially for those who value traditionalism and preserving what they perceive as a
pristine state of valued practices and perspectives, encounters with difference may “feel
dissolving, undermining, and acidic,” (Hansen, 2017, p. 208). However, cosmopolitanism
does not always entail embracing new ideas, values and practices (Hansen, 2017), “but it
24
does mean giving them a reflective hearing since they emanate from fellow human beings
and matter to them” (Hansen, 2017, p. 209). Researchers see promise in the reflective
openness, care, and respect afforded to others through enactments of cosmopolitan
stances.
Theories of cosmopolitanism provide new ways to appreciate similarities and
differences across international spaces and interactions (Appiah, 2006), because they
“spotlight ways in which people can move beyond tolerance of difference, important as
that is, to reimagining, appreciating, and learning with it,” (Hansen, 2017, p. 1). The
“tolerance” of differences suggests the “dominance of a single center over the periphery”
(Delanty, 2006, p. 38) where those at the center of local cultures merely tolerate global
others along the periphery. Theories of cosmopolitanism extend beyond tolerance and
superficial explorations of so-called exotic or elite cultures. They do so through “an
assumption of human equality, with a recognition of difference, and indeed a celebration
of diversity” (Kaldor, 2003, p. 19) that includes and is enriched by intentional inclusion
of minoritized and silenced cultures and communities, as well (Johnson, 2014). Theories
of cosmopolitanism “search for, and delight in, the contrasts between societies rather than
a longing for superiority or for uniformity” (Szerszynski & Urry, 2002, p. 468). It eludes
the pitfall of deflating into a “romanticized multiculturalism,” (Darvin & Norton, 2017, p.
97). In cosmopolitanism, we learn about others not because everyone is interesting but
because learning about others is rooted in the foundational cosmopolitan notion that
everyone matters (Appiah, 2006).
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Engaging with One’s Self
As people learn about global others, they also encounter possibilities of learning
more about themselves (Nussbaum, 2002), as well. For example, Pegrum (2008)
recognized the potential of theories of cosmopolitanism in aiding language learners as
they navigate complex intersections found in “the connections between themselves, their
native cultural practices, alternative cultural practices, and the wider world,” (p. 145).
Likewise, Darvin and Norton (2017) challenged researchers and educators to utilize a
critical cosmopolitan lens to explore similarly complex intersections of languages,
literacies, power and identities across international and intercultural interactions. In this
vein, we see that cosmopolitan perspectives not only look outward to explore others but
also attend to internal development and transformation through participating in self-
reflexivity, self-problematization and self-pluralization (Delanty, 2006).
Hansen (2017) further suggests that a person who takes up cosmopolitan stances
might “come to grips with and hold his or her identity (or identities) in a kind of
generative or productive tension with those of other people,” (Hansen, 2017, p. 212).
Because, cosmopolitan perspectives target richer and deeper connections across
similarities and differences at our core—our identities—they create space for genuine and
long-lasting change in how people might “encounter difference, build relationships, and
collaboratively construct meanings among themselves and global others,” (Hawkins,
2014, p. 110).
Cosmopolitanism has been contemplated and theorized multiple times, resulting
in competing orientations that reflect contrasting stances and purposes. Although Robbins
(1998) warned that “situating cosmopolitanism means taking a risk”, it is important to
26
clarify and situate how cosmopolitan perspectives are understood and utilized in this
study. In the following section, I explore contrasts between static and emergent, between
elitist and everyday, and between universalist and pluralist understandings of
cosmopolitanism. Each choice I made as a researcher to narrow my understanding of
these theories reveals important information about my worldview as a researcher—
"framework of ideas and beliefs by which one interprets and interacts with the world,”
(Johnson, 2014, p. 265). The study described in this dissertation situates its understanding
of cosmopolitanism within emergent, everyday, and pluralist stances, reflecting my
constructivist ontology—that there are multiple realities (Cresswell & Plano-Clark,
2018)--and my constructivist axiology that acknowledges my inherently biased personal
values and interpretations (Cresswell & Plano-Clark, 2018).
Static versus Emergent Cosmopolitanism
Older conceptualizations of cosmopolitanism paint it as a fixed, achievable goal,
but recent understandings challenge this idea. Current research argues that cosmopolitan
perspectives are not static, one-dimensional or holistic (Oikonomidoy, 2018), but instead
are emergent--developed across time and experiences and constantly in flux (Campano &
Ghiso, 2011; Compton-Lilly & Hawkins, in preparation; Rizvi & Beech, 2017).
Developing cosmopolitan stances is not a defined outcome or singular characteristic but
an ever-changing disposition (Rizvi & Beech, 2017), and Skrbis and Woodward (2013)
argue that no “end point” in cosmopolitanism exists.
Oikonomidoy (2018) argued that the evolution of the term cosmopolitan from
noun into adjective alleviates the need to classify who or what is or is not cosmopolitan.
The adjective cosmopolitan is utilized to describe identities, characteristics, skills,
27
dispositions, and knowledges. However, it does not describe an achievable end-goal or
particular type of person. As Hansen (2008) noted, “the term does not operate like an
identity card” (p. 295), marking distinguished citizens who have attained such status. An
emergent understanding of cosmopolitan perspectives recognizes students’ growth and
changes across time and experiences.
Elitist versus Everyday Cosmopolitanism
Cosmopolitanism has historically been conceptualized as presenting elitist,
normative, and occasionally romantic notions (Ong, 2009) that entail hierarchies of social
groups according to class. In such a stance, common people were not seen as
cosmopolitan, and cosmopolitanism was considered a goal. This binary is reflected in
comparisons between locals and cosmopolitans, where cosmopolitans are positioned
above locals based on an assumed level of sophistication that comes with travel and other
global experiences (Hannerz, 1992). Even in recent scholarship, researchers have faced
criticism for reification among students considered cosmopolitan and students considered
“at-risk”, arguing that this use is binary and exclusionary (Popkewitz, 2008). For
example, McLeod (2012) described how the term was used to exclude Aboriginal
students in Australia. Popkewitz (2008) argued that such a discourse perpetuates societal
and educational status quos.
Theories of cosmopolitanism in my study, however, do not focus on some people
knowing more than others but on the willingness of people to learn more from others.
Cosmopolitanism is transforming in response to rightful critique of elitist, Western-
privileged points of view. Rather than classifying people in terms of elitist divisions,
cosmopolitan stances seek understanding and communication across difference (Hull,
28
Stornaioulo, & Sahni, 2010) by creating spaces for community through new forms of
engagement within and across communities (Appiah, 2005). A cosmopolitan stance
highlights "the cosmopolitan promise in so-called ordinary people," (Hansen, 2014, p. 7),
and emphasizes internal development (Delanty, 2006) focused on the embodied values
and acts that guide and manifest everyday cosmopolitanism (Hull, Stornaioulo, & Sahni,
2010). These everyday moments of interaction (Hull, Stornaioulo, & Sahni, 2010) have
been referred to as cosmopolitanism from below (Hall, 2006), cosmopolitanism from the
ground (Hansen, 2010), rooted cosmopolitanism, (Appiah, 2006), and elementary
cosmopolitanism (Kromidas, 2011). Everyday cosmopolitanism entails the perspectives
and actions that guide day-to-day life and that can be demonstrated by all people, not
only members of ‘elite’ communities.
In this study, I focus on everyday cosmopolitanism as a construct that maintains
that "humanity encompasses everyone--all humans in the full complexity and imbrication
of their experiences--and that tradition is understood as something that students create as
well as inherit" (Campano & Ghiso, 2011, p. 175). Furthermore, elitist cosmopolitanism
is inconsistent with sociocultural educational practices and the value they place on the
bodies of cultural knowledge, languages, and literacy practices that students bring to
classrooms (e.g., Barton, 1994; Gee, 1996; Lewis, Enciso & Moje, 2007; Street, 1995).
Everyday cosmopolitanism transforms day-to-day differences into moments for
introspection and reflection.
Universalist versus Pluralist Cosmopolitanism
Cosmopolitanism has been theorized as either universalist and pluralist. In a
universalist approach, people in positions of power traditionally established certain
29
values as universal, highlighting their own perspectives and beliefs. In this view, all
people should adopt these assumedly universal values, which would result in harmonious,
cosmopolitan solidarity (Hollinger, 2002). A universalist approach is problematic,
however, because “difference matters, and people are not prepared to sacrifice their
difference for inter-group solidarity” (Canagarajah, 2013, p. 195). More importantly,
though, in modern approaches to cosmopolitanism, people enacting cosmopolitan
perspectives “neither expect nor desire that every person or every society should
converge on a single mode of life” (Appiah, 2006, p. xv). They take this view because, by
definition, cosmopolitanism is an affirmation of differences and multiple voices. For this
reason, this study adopts a pluralistic approach to cosmopolitanism.
Pluralistic forms of cosmopolitanism reference “the search for, and delight in, the
contrasts between societies rather than a longing for superiority or for uniformity”
(Szerszynski & Urry, 2002, p. 468). Beck (2006) described cosmopolitanism as
embracing differences without reference to a dominant culture. Viewed as an escape from
positivism, pluralistic cosmopolitanism acknowledges that there are multiple worthwhile
values. Pluralistic forms of cosmopolitanism recognize that one cannot simultaneously
live by all worthwhile values, and that different societies will embody different values
(Appiah, 2006). Cosmopolitanism “acknowledges the differences between cultures and
identities while finding modes of social cohesion to accommodate the difference”
through developing the “the ability to align disparate values and features for common
goals,” (Canagarajah, 2013, p. 195). Drawing on a pluralistic approach, people enacting
cosmopolitan stances intentionally seek multiple perspectives and accept them all as
worthwhile and valid.
30
Pluralistic cosmopolitanism does not mandate a blanket acceptance of all values
associated with a particular culture, however. It is inevitable that students will encounter
practices or perspectives that contradict their own. In these cases, “conversation doesn’t
have to lead to consensus about anything, especially not values,” (Appiah, 2006, p. 85).
Cosmopolitan interactions are not designed to reach unity; they seek an alignment
grounded in respect for each other. After all, “the step from ‘what we don’t do’ to ‘what
we happen not to do’ can be a small one” (Appiah, 2006, p. 53). For students studying in
a Spanish language course, pluralistic perspectives invite them to find the joy in learning
about Spanish-speaking cultures without feeling as if they must sacrifice their own
beliefs, values, and cultures.
This study situates its understanding of cosmopolitan perspectives in emergent,
everyday, pluralistic stances that operate in the day-to-day moments of understanding
grounded in mutual respect for each other’s differences. As both an educator and a
researcher, I struggle with limiting this study to cosmopolitanism without adding a
critical lens to attend to global issues of status, power, and privilege (Delanty, 2006;
Hawkins, 2018). Unfortunately, there is not sufficient time in one language course to
address adequately inequalities and inequities without essentializing these cultures and
communities. It is my hope that courses framed by cosmopolitanism may plant seeds that
prepare students for critical work in their futures. Cosmopolitanism is a hopeful
perspective that develops dispositions of openness, inquiry, and care through encounters
with global others (Hawkins, 2018), and its focus on openness and responsibility to
others provides space to teachers and students to consider new points of view and engage
31
with others respectfully. In the next section, I describe focal dispositions that may
contribute to cosmopolitan stances and that guide my understandings and analyses.
Dispositions Contributing to Cosmopolitan Perspectives
Following Vertovec (2009), who suggested that a combination of attitudes,
practices, and competences comprise cosmopolitan ideas, I document four dispositions
common to language-learning classrooms that may contribute to cosmopolitan stances:
global identity, global competence, openness, and responsibility to others. Starkey
(2007), Darvin and Norton (2017), and Pegrum (2008) suggest that theories of
cosmopolitanism address the ways in which global identities and global competences are
embraced in the study of languages and cultures. They argued that cosmopolitan stances
foster openness and responsibility to others when language students “recognize the value
of different knowledges, cultures, modalities, and languages” (Darvin & Norton, 2017, p.
98), and “cultivate a desire to contribute to a more just society,” (Darvin & Norton, 2017,
p. 99). These dispositions align with this study’s focus on developing responsible, global
citizens engaged in open, respectful, and reflexive dialogue across personal, geographic,
and identity boundaries to learn about themselves and the world (Appiah, 2006, De
Costa, 2014; Hansen, 2010; Hawkins, 2014; Wahlström, 2014; Hull & Stornaioulo, 2010;
Delanty, 2006). Thus, I explore participants’ demonstrations of dispositions of global
identity, global competence, openness, and responsibility to others as dispositions
contributing to cosmopolitan stances. Developing these dispositions in language students
supports them during global interactions while perhaps also fostering the development of
cosmopolitan perspectives.
32
Johnson (2014) described the problematic nature of ‘measuring’ or analyzing
cosmopolitanism, noting that “it is the abstractions that complicate, rather than clarify,
pinning down its substance,” (p. 264) However, many researchers narrow their focus in
particular studies because, as I describe in more detail in Chapter Two, each
conceptualization of cosmopolitanism is comprised of multiple characteristics, traits,
qualities or dispositions and “no study can do everything,” (Glesne, 2016, p. 213). For
example, Moskal and Schweisfurth (2018) focused their study on cosmopolitan global
identities, Boni and Calabuig (2017) focused on the development of students’
cosmopolitan global awareness, and both Wahlström (2014) and Spires, Paul, Hymes,
and Yuan (2018) examined participants’ demonstrations of self-reflexivity, hospitality,
intercultural dialogue, and transactions of perspectives.
Like these researchers, I chose to focus my study on particular dispositions, and
they serve as an heuristic for making cosmopolitan perspectives more visible while
acknowledging that they do not encapsulate all dispositions contributing to cosmopolitan
stances. Although Robbins (1998) warned that “situating cosmopolitanism means taking
a risk”, it is important to clarify each choice I made as a researcher and what it reveals
about my worldview as a researcher—"framework of ideas and beliefs by which one
interprets and interacts with the world,” (Johnson, 2014, p. 265). Following Starkey
(2007), Darvin and Norton (2017), and Pegrum (2008), I explored participants’
demonstrations of dispositions of global identity, global competence, openness, and
responsibility to others, reflecting my constructivist axiology that acknowledges my
inherently biased personal values and interpretations (Cresswell & Plano-Clark, 2018).
33
In the following section, I describe each disposition and how it may contribute to
an overarching cosmopolitan perspective. Following these descriptions, I explain how
combinations of these dispositions contribute to cosmopolitan stances.
Global Identity
Referred to as global identity, global citizen, world citizen, or intercultural
identity, these terms share a vision of "a person engaged with a global world" (Hull &
Stornaioulo, 2010, p.94) who “communicate[s] in the context of global flows and
connectivities" (p. 359). People enacting global identities feel as though they belong to
the community of the world (Beck, 2002), and view themselves as part of a circle of
belonging that transcends political or geographical boundaries (Cheah, 2006). A
cosmopolitan disposition for embracing a global identity invites genuine consideration of
and participation in communities beyond one’s immediate own.
People with global identities practice local, national, and global levels of
citizenship that mark a cosmopolitan stance (Osler & Starkey, 2003, 2005; Osler &
Vincent, 2002), considering and responding to issues with opinions informed by each of
these levels of citizenship. “Embracing a global-minded perspective entails recognizing
that what is prosperous for one may be inseparably linked to conflict for another. This
means that understanding the co-construction process of person–person relations is
always imbued in power relations,” (Sánchez & Ensor, 2021, p. 267). In such a
disposition, for example, a person may consult local, national, and international news
agencies to assess local and global impact of proposed legislation when planning how to
vote in local elections. Enacting a cosmopolitan disposition of global identity does not
transform a person into a displaced, globetrotting wanderer and does not require giving
34
up local traditions or affiliations (Hansen, 2006; Hannerz, 2009; Nussbaum, 1996). In a
cosmopolitan perspective, people’s local identities and global identities exist and are
enacted simultaneously, influencing and informing each other.
Language learners may develop dispositions of global identities, a construct at the
core of cosmopolitanism (Beck, 1992; De Costa, 2014; Delanty, 2006; Hansen, 2010;
Norton, 2017). In particular, language education “may undermine narratives of
citizenship that promote monolithic, homogeneous national identities as the sole possible
sense of belonging,” (Starkey, 2007). Language education may disrupt previously held
notions of identities for students through their engagement with international and
intercultural flows of knowledge and resources. Intercultural interactions take many
forms--online or in person, interpersonal or through engagement with multiliteracies.
Each form and combination of forms allow students to recognize new spaces for global
communities and new forms of engagement within those spaces (Appiah, 2006). Because
students acquiring an additional language are positioned to engage in global interactions,
they may develop dispositions of increasingly global identities.
This study was situated on American undergraduates learning an additional-
language. If one’s understanding of globality is relative to one’s own understandings and
life experiences (Sánchez & Ensor, 2021), then this study’s understanding of globality is
primarily in line with the less critical—and arguably more superficial—notions of those
who travel by choice—for adventure, education, or career opportunities. This
understanding of globality affects both how global identities and global competence were
defined and analyzed in this study. In the next section, I define the disposition of
35
overarching global competence. Then I explain the contribution of communicative
competence and cultural competence to global competence.
Global Competence
I begin with the term global competence, a key dimension of cosmopolitan
perspectives relevant to language-learning classrooms. I define global competence as
competent communicative and cultural knowledge and behaviors utilized in interactions
with global others. Globally competent people are able to successfully navigate
interactions with people who are culturally different by communicating effectively and
demonstrating appropriate behaviors that reflect an understanding of cultural practices
and perspectives. As I described earlier, researchers have used a vast range of terms such
as intercultural competence (Williams, 2009; Byram, 2000), multicultural competence,
cross-cultural awareness, or intercultural sensitivity (Fantini, 2009) to describe skills for
engaging with global others. While similar in meaning, these terms are not adequate for
my current study due to their shared reliance on acquiring skills, superficiality, binaries
and division.
Moreover, dividing global competence across national or imagined cultural
borders ignores the reality of most classrooms today. Campano and Ghiso (2011)
reminded us that “many 21st century schools […] increasingly house students who
communicate in numerous languages, claim multiple identities, and often have ties which
extend beyond our nation's borders to diaspora communities" (p. 166). Additionally,
sociocultural theories of learning remind us that students bring different bodies of cultural
knowledge, languages, and literacy practices to classrooms (e.g., Barton, 1994; Gee,
1996; Lewis, Enciso & Moje, 2007; Street, 1995), acknowledging that even within the
36
same country, community or classroom, everyone is culturally different. It is not
necessary for students to travel to encounter someone who is culturally different; their
ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse classrooms and neighborhoods present
opportunities to develop and demonstrate global competence, as well. My study utilizes
the term global competence to eliminate divisive binaries and position students to interact
competently across the globe as well as within their own communities.
Finally, Fantini (2020) argued that researchers should not use the term global
competence, as no person can truly be competent in every culture around the world. I
contend, however, that the term global competence in a cosmopolitan perspective
approaches the impracticability of global competence as positive. In this view,
developing cosmopolitan perspectives is an ongoing process rather than a state, condition
or end-goal (Campano & Ghiso, 2011; Compton-Lilly & Hawkins, in preparation; Rizvi
& Beech, 2017). Thus, for people who take up its life-long commitment to learning more
about others, demonstrating global competence conveys an on-going pursuit of multiple
communicative and cultural competences.
I define global competence as the development and demonstration of competent
communicative and cultural knowledge and behaviors utilized in interactions with people
who are culturally different. Globally competent people demonstrate communicative
competence through successful communication with a variety of global others. Globally
competent people also understand various global cultural practices and demonstrate their
cultural knowledge through appropriate behaviors. In the sections below, I first describe
communicative competence followed by cultural competence in more detail.
37
Communicative Competence
Communicative competence can be a key factor in developing global competence.
Canale and Swain (1980) define communicative competence as “the underlying systems
of knowledge of vocabulary and skill in using the sociolinguistic conventions for a given
language,” (p.15)--underpinning the notion that communicative competence embraces
both skill and knowledge for successful interactions. Globally competent people
demonstrate communicative competence through successful communication with global
others. As people engage and communicate with one another, they utilize more resources
than traditional notions of spoken and written words. Languages include not only oral
speech and printed texts but also signing and all multimodal semiotic resources—moving
images, sound, gesture, performance—used to communicate meaning to another (Hodge
& Kress, 1988; Jewitt & Kress, 2003). A person improves their communicative
competence as they both actively and subconsciously employ the structural features they
have acquired from multiple languages (Li & Luo, 2017). Language learners
communicate by drawing on a wide array of multimodal and multilingual linguistic
resources, reflecting the values and perspectives of the cultures and communities of
which they are a member (Gonzalez, Moll & Amanti, 2005; Moll, Amanti, Neff &
Gonzalez, 1992).
My study explores students’ experiences developing communicative competence
as they acquire Spanish. Spanish and its dialects are spoken in over twenty countries
globally, not including the diaspora and online communities. Even for a language with as
wide a reach as Spanish, learning one additional language does not necessarily lead to
global communicative competence--though it may contribute to developing it. Some
38
students who acquire additional languages find acquiring subsequent languages to be
easier (De Angelis, 2007), and acquiring multiple languages can be a clear indication of
global communicative competence. Like emergent global competence, however, global
communicative competence is framed as a life-long pursuit and learning an additional
language is one of the first steps in that journey.
For students in language-learning classrooms specifically, communicative
competence in the focal language is a main objective of the course. A purely grammatical
perspective of communication, however, ignores the contextual nature of engaging with
others who may bring different cultures. Examples of communicative competence
include expressing formality or familiarity, giving and receiving compliments, and using
slang appropriately. A key tenet of communicative competence is adaptability—being
able to encounter the unknown and still choose resources from multiple communicative
repertoires to satisfy specific communicative needs (Canagarajah, 2013). Thus global
competence can be reflected in both the knowledge of languages and the successful
deployment of languages.
Developing communicative competence is an important aspect of developing
global competence. In the following section, I describe developing cultural competence,
another important aspect of global competence.
Cultural Competence
People who enact globally competent dispositions understand various global
cultural practices and demonstrate their cultural knowledge through appropriate
behaviors. Appiah (2006) explained that “there’s a great deal of everyday life that is
utterly, humanly familiar. People everywhere buy and sell, eat, read the papers, watch
39
movies, sleep, go to church or mosque, laugh, marry, make love, commit adultery, go to
funerals, die,” (Appiah, 2006, p. 94). Many of the examples presented by Appiah (2006)
are what Kramsch (2012) refers to as small “c” culture, or cultural practices embedded in
everyday life. Small “c” cultural practices are enacted in daily situations, such as eating
in a restaurant, using public transportation, or shopping at a market. Cultural competence
is reflected in knowing that how people perform activities varies across communities and
cultures (Appiah, 2006) and by demonstrating appropriate behaviors that reflect cultural
knowledge. While no person can be competent in all cultures, developing cultural and
global competence is a commitment to an emergent journey.
Cultural competence is developed by moving beyond basic acquisition of new
cultural knowledge toward creating new understandings in relation to one’s own cultural
practices (Pegrum, 2008). Cultural competence is applied in intercultural interactions by
utilizing all previously learned cultural knowledge as a resource for creating new cultural
understandings. For example, students learning about Taoist traditions of venerating
ancestors may not have a personal connection to this practice, but they may be able to
find similarities between it and Día de Muertos, another cultural practice that honors dead
loved ones. A commitment to learning and understanding more about global others
amasses a repertoire of related cultural practices to reference when considering new
cultural knowledge. In cosmopolitanism’s pursuit of what is shared and what is
legitimately different (Appiah, 2006), it is through shared experiences--both between the
person and the global other as well as among the cultural knowledges each bring to their
interactions--that people often find connections across geographic differences.
40
However, the transformative force of the Internet has diminished physical
distances and amplified the level of proximity to others in everyday life and at work:
people are now able to connect and engage with new communities and cultures over the
internet and through international travel in ways not previously possible. Within these
new proximities, “conversations across boundaries can be delightful, or just vexing: what
they mainly are, though, is inevitable,” (Appiah, 2006, p. xxi). In our interconnected
world, it is likely that we will encounter global others. Fostering the development of
communicative and cultural knowledge and behaviors to successfully navigate those
intercultural encounters is important in developing cosmopolitan stances.
In this section, I described cultural competence, communicative competence, and
how they contribute to an overall global competence. I also presented examples of how
those dispositions might be demonstrated. In the following section, I describe the
disposition of openness and how it may contribute to cosmopolitan stances for language
learners.
Openness
Because language-learning students will encounter unfamiliar communicative and
cultural practices, cultivating cosmopolitan openness is important. Cosmopolitan
openness is described as the positive recognition of other cultures and communities
(Wahlström, 2014) that presents a respect for difference and a respect for actual human
beings (Appiah, 2006). It is not the simple acknowledgement that practices are performed
differently by others elsewhere, but a positive perception either of the difference itself or
of the fact that differences exist. A commitment to cosmopolitanism “implies being open
reflectively to new persons, ideas, values, and practices," (Hansen, 2014, p. 11). A spirit
41
of openness presents students with possibilities to learn more about others and
themselves.
Openness, however, does not require passive personal malleability or forfeiture of
one's own opinion; “rather it entails engaging in dialogue and adopting generous
interpretive stances" (Hull & Stornaioulo, 2014, p. 92). An openness to an interest in
others involves being able to imagine having the beliefs of another culture and
recognizing the appeal of those beliefs, even if we do not share them (Appiah, 2006).
When considering cosmopolitan perspectives, openness is intimately related to
developing global competence by learning about global others. A cosmopolitan
disposition of openness positions students to create new understandings about differences
in cultural practices and perspectives; likewise, a cosmopolitan disposition for actively
learning about and considering others’ practices and perspectives increases a person’s
capacity for openness. The two dispositions are interrelated but are not the same.
Everyday moments of openness accumulate to form “cosmopolitan habits of mind
and heart,” (p. 349). A cosmopolitan mindframe invites students to engage in a
transaction of perspectives (Delanty, 2006), which may lead to the cultivation of open
and equitable relationships (Hawkins, 2018) and personal and societal transformations.
In this section, I described the disposition of openness and how it may be
demonstrated. In the next section, I describe responsibility to others, the fourth
disposition central to my conceptualization of cosmopolitanism in language students.
Responsibility For Others
Cosmopolitan openness often engenders the cosmopolitan disposition of
responsibility to others who are culturally different. “Every human being has obligations
42
to every other. Everybody matters: that is our central idea,” (Appiah, 2006, p. 144).
Appiah (2006) clarified that these obligations “stretch beyond those to whom we are
related by the ties of kith and kind, or even the more formal ties of shared citizenship” (p.
xv). It is our obligation as cosmopolitan citizens to treat others well and work toward an
equitable future for everyone. Responsibility to others is often demonstrated when
students see themselves as social actors with obligations towards others (Stevenson,
2003), including listening and responding respectfully and considerately (e.g., Appiah,
2006; Delanty, 2006; Hansen, 2010). In this study, responsibility to others is defined as
the careful consideration of what we communicate (Rubinstein, Moore, Esbert, &
Hawkins, 2020), as well as how we reflect on that communication (Sánchez & Ensor,
2017). Students in my study were guided to consider how they behaved while engaging
with Spanish speakers and how they shared about those experiences.
Responsibility to others is a foundational aspect of a cosmopolitan perspective
and must be addressed when fostering the emergence of cosmopolitan dispositions. It
may be demonstrated via change in perspectives, words, and actions. It is often present in
or a precursor to the development of other dispositions that contribute to cosmopolitan
perspectives, as well as in demonstrations of cosmopolitanism themselves.
In this study, I attend to dispositions of global identity, global competence,
openness, and responsibility to others as they contribute to an overall cosmopolitan
stance. In my definitions of these key dispositions, I explain that they are inter-
influencing and facets of each other that often overlap. For example, dispositions of
responsibility to others may be induced when students consider both global and local
perspectives as they participate in global communities. A disposition of openness may
43
influence how much a person is willing to learn about global others, and thus openness
may increase global competence. Exploring the emergence of these key constructs may
bring new understandings to the emergence of cosmopolitan stances as a whole.
In this section, I described the four dispositions I focus on to consider the
emergence and/or demonstration of cosmopolitan perspectives and practices specific to
additional-language classrooms in my study. I defined global identity, global
competence, openness, and responsibility to others as they were understood in my study.
In the following section, I explain how these dispositions contribute to developing
cosmopolitan stances.
A Cosmopolitan Disposition -- More than Parts and Pieces
A cosmopolitan disposition is more than the sum of its parts, and developing one
or more focal dispositions does not necessarily indicate development of cosmopolitan
perspectives. The shift from demonstrating a singular disposition to demonstrating
cosmopolitan stances requires something more. In descriptions of my focal dispositions,
there is a point where passive or superficial characteristics common in language students
transform and students demonstrate cosmopolitan stances. Enacting a global identity, for
example, requires more than claiming to possess a global identity. A cosmopolitan
disposition for embracing a global identity invites genuine consideration of and
participation in communities beyond one’s immediate own. For example, openness is not
demonstrated through simple acknowledgement that other people perform practices
differently in other places but through a positive opinion either of the difference itself or
of the fact that differences exist. Likewise, to transform from demonstrating an individual
disposition to demonstrating cosmopolitan perspectives, students need to demonstrate
44
combinations of these dispositions or otherwise reflect new perspectives or deeper
understandings through their actions or reflections.
Cosmopolitanism is not static, one-dimensional or holistic (Oikonomidoy, 2018).
A commitment to developing cosmopolitan stances necessitates that people “cultivate as
richly as possible their intellectual, moral, political, and aesthetic being,” (Hansen, 2010,
p.8). As such, those who endeavor to demonstrate cosmopolitan stances must engage in
self-improvement or self-transformation (Wahlström, 2014) across multiple dimensions.
To enact cosmopolitan stances, one must "perceive, discern, criticize, and appreciate"
(Hansen, 2010, p. 9) new understandings of self and others while developing dispositions.
In each of these definitions, we see that theories of cosmopolitanism are comprised of
multiple qualities, attributes, dispositions, or characteristics. Cosmopolitan perspectives,
then, are demonstrated through varying combinations of dispositions, and in this study
particularly, in combinations of focal dispositions.
In the following section, I explain how theories of cosmopolitanism may be
utilized in a curriculum that develops students’ cosmopolitan stances.
Cosmopolitan Curricula in Additional-Language Classes
Implementing a curriculum intentionally designed to support the development of
cosmopolitan stances is not designing the “acquisition of a fixed set of values and
dispositions” (Rizvi & Beech, 2017, p. 132). Caruana (2014) describes an ‘unconscious
cosmopolitanism’ as the process by which her participants—immigrants to the UK—
seemingly developed cosmopolitan perspectives unintentionally through daily
intercultural encounters. Most researchers of cosmopolitanism, however, argue that
enacting cosmopolitan stances is not automatic and, furthermore, it cannot be directly
45
taught. Fundamental to enacting a cosmopolitan curriculum is the understanding that
although developing cosmopolitan stances is an adventure, not all people will take on
cosmopolitan perspectives (Appiah, 2006). As Hannerz (2009) questions, “How, then, do
people some people, at least possibly arrive at such a stance?”
Researchers use terms like "foster cosmopolitanism" (Campano & Ghiso, 2011, p.
165) or "cultivate a cosmopolitan stance" (Campano & Ghiso, 2011, p. 167) to describe
the process by which cosmopolitan perspectives might develop for students. Though we
cannot guarantee development of cosmopolitan perspectives for all students, by crafting
an explicitly cosmopolitan curriculum we may engage students’ personal experiences in
ways that “contribute to more comprehensive knowledge about the world we share,
which may, in turn, inform local understandings and identities” (p. 167). As many
scholars argue, engaging cosmopolitan perspectives in educational contexts requires a
responsiveness to students and intentionality in its implementation.
Responsive to Students
Rizvi and Beech (2017) describe a cosmopolitan curriculum as an “agenda” that
starts with students’ everyday cosmopolitan experiences and leverages them for
continued discussions and ongoing cosmopolitan encounters. Cultivating cosmopolitan
perspectives is responsive to students, their experiences, and relevant contexts (Hawkins,
2018; Rizvi & Beech, 2017). Sociocultural theories of learning highlight that students
will make sense of their experiences differently even when encountering the same
activities or texts (Rosenblatt, 1994). Alluding to the contextualized nature of the
emergence of cosmopolitanism, Campano and Ghiso (2011) argue that this process will
“look different for everyone; it can't happen in a standardized class" (p. 172).
46
Cosmopolitan education and pedagogy, then, should value students’ unique knowledges
bring while expanding their local, national, and global thinking and developing their
empathy (Coryell, Sehin, & Peña, 2018).
Intentionality in Implementation
Hawkins (2014) believes developing cosmopolitan perspectives requires an
intentionality, both on the part of teachers and on the part of students. She argues that
“this work does not happen simply by creating structures within which contact and
engagement occurs” but requires educators to implement “thoughtful structuring and
skilled scaffolding and implementation,” (p. 109). Spires, Kerkhoff, and Fortune (2019)
advocate for educational cosmopolitanism that supports and develops students’ capacities
for hospitality, reflexivity, intercultural dialogue, and transactions of perspectives,
opinions, and beliefs with global others (Wahlström, 2014) paired with situated practice,
overt instruction, critical framing, and transformed practice (NLG, 1996). Ghiloni (2017)
suggests that “educative encounters with the new double as revisions of the known,” (p.
223), echoing Hawkins’ (2014) assertion that a cosmopolitan education should provide
opportunities in which students’ “everyday notions of familiar life events and institutions
are ruptured [and] differences become visible,” (p. 106). If theories of cosmopolitanism
are utilized to explore human interactions as we engage locally and globally, as we
engage across differences, and as we engage with ourselves, then intentional encounters
with the unfamiliar “can then be springboards for discussion and dialogue across
difference,” (Hawkins, 2014, p. 106). Across the literature, then, we see that educators
must structure and implement opportunities for students to develop cosmopolitan
perspectives.
47
However, developing cosmopolitan perspectives requires intentionality in
students, as well, as they engage in this work. Zepke (2009) argues that cosmopolitan
pedagogy includes opportunities for “learners [to] engage with the ‘other,’ ask critical
questions, discover and construct knowledge and understandings, tap the power in quality
learning and achieve desired and valued outcomes [so that] a more cosmopolitan
pedagogy can emerge,” (p. 755). Hannerz (2009) suggests “being an informed citizen”
and “having a similar range of experiences out there, of others and of oneself, as one has
closer at hand, in a local community or in a nation,” (p. 301), reminding us that
cosmopolitan perspectives are not exclusive to international interactions. Emphasizing
the relational aspects of cosmopolitanism, Hawkins (2014) suggests that the development
of cosmopolitan stances is work that “can only happen through building relationships of
respect and trust both within and across sites,” implying “the need for sustained
communications and engagement,” (Hawkins, 2014, p. 109). Developing cosmopolitan
perspectives, then, requires students to have a willingness to engage with others and build
relationships, to be reflective, and to come to new understandings about both themselves
and others.
A cosmopolitan curriculum, then, is responsive to students and intentional in its
implementation. As educators, we strive to create conditions in which students may
develop cosmopolitan stances. Cosmopolitan perspectives provide language educators
with new communicative and cultural understandings that “potentially provide a space
for learners to reflect on and develop new complex identities and articulate these with
their understandings of citizenship” (Starkey, 2007, p. 60). I created a curriculum for my
intermediate Spanish-language students that included opportunities for learning,
48
practicing, and reflecting on new communicative and cultural understandings in
personalized ways via coursework activities, conversations with global Spanish-speakers,
and social-media engagements. I describe this curriculum in greater detail in Chapter
Four. In the following section, I offer my summary of this chapter.
Summary
This study uses a framework informed by theories of cosmopolitanism, which are
supported by theories related to sociocultural, multiliteracies, and transnational literacies.
First, I situated cosmopolitanism as emergent, everyday, and pluralistic. For this study,
cosmopolitan perspectives entail dispositions of global identity, global competence,
openness and responsibility to others. A classroom framed by emergent, everyday,
pluralistic cosmopolitan perspectives focuses on cultivating stances that value day-to-day
actions and interactions between students and global others, acknowledging that different
societies will embody different yet worthwhile values.
Students were invited to demonstrate cosmopolitan perspectives and actions
through enactments of global identities by considering new forms of local and global
citizenship. Students displayed competent communicative and behavioral awareness as
they interacted with people who are globally and culturally different. Cosmopolitan
students were open to learning more about others while exercising a responsibility to/for
local and global communities. Using theories situated in emergent, everyday, pluralistic
cosmopolitanism and operationalized through constructs of global identity, global
competence, openness and responsibility to others, I explored the implementation of a
curriculum intentionally designed to support the development and demonstration of
cosmopolitan stances. These theories provide tools for understanding and documenting
49
experiences of undergraduate students in a Spanish language course framed in
cosmopolitan perspectives while acknowledging that they do not fully encompass all
cosmopolitan perspectives.
In this chapter, I described the theoretical framework that guides my study. The
purpose of this study was to explore how SPAN 121 might be designed to foster and
support students’ development of cosmopolitan perspectives. Specifically, I explored
how English-speaking students might demonstrate cosmopolitan perspectives in response
to activities engaging them in Spanish with global Spanish speakers as part of their
undergraduate, intermediate Spanish-language class. In the following chapter, I explore
current literature and describe how my study fills a gap left by current research.
50
CHAPTER 3
LITERATURE REVIEW
The purpose of this study was to explore how SPAN 121 might be designed to
foster and support students’ development of cosmopolitan perspectives. Specifically, I
explored how English-speaking students might demonstrate cosmopolitan perspectives in
response to activities engaging them in Spanish with global Spanish speakers as part of
their undergraduate, intermediate Spanish-language class.
Theories of cosmopolitanism present possibilities for additional-language classes
because cosmopolitan stances and language classes both emphasize dialogues across
boundaries and expanding global knowledge. In additional-language courses, students
learn about, connect with and explore new cultures and communities. In doing so, they
may develop and demonstrate dispositions of global identity, global competence,
openness, and responsibility to others, dispositions this study views as contributing to
cosmopolitan stances while acknowledging that they do not encompass all cosmopolitan
stances.
The purpose of this chapter is to establish existing trends and findings in studies
of theories of cosmopolitanism in educational contexts. The sections below provide an
overview of what activities and experiences researchers have utilized and suggest might
invite students to engage with, develop and demonstrate cosmopolitan ideals. This
literature review is primarily limited to research in educational environments. The
organization of this chapter addresses my first research question: What kinds of
51
experiences can I embed into an undergraduate Spanish language course with the goal of
engaging students with cosmopolitan thinking? I describe each type of activity and results
of these studies. Because my second research question asks “What markers of focal
dispositions of global identity, global competence, openness, and responsibility to others
might students demonstrate?”, I also highlight focal dispositions within the studies that
appeared to contribute to cosmopolitan perspectives demonstrated by my participants.
Embedded Activities that Might Develop Cosmopolitan Stances
The following studies documented students’ development and demonstration of
cosmopolitan perspectives and stances in response to a range of curricular interventions
educators might utilize to introduce cosmopolitan views and develop cosmopolitan
stances in students. These studies taken together describe possibilities for designing
curricula in additional-language courses. My study was designed to identify language-
learning activities that might provide opportunities for students to develop and/or
demonstrate cosmopolitan stances in an undergraduate intermediate Spanish-language
class.
Ghiloni (2017) suggests that “educative encounters with the new double as
revisions of the known,” (p. 223), echoing Hawkins’ (2014) assertion that a cosmopolitan
education should provide opportunities in which students’ “everyday notions of familiar
life events and institutions are ruptured [and] differences become visible,” (p. 106). If
theories of cosmopolitanism are utilized to explore human interactions as we engage
locally and globally, as we engage across differences, and as we engage with ourselves,
then intentional encounters with the unfamiliar “can then be springboards for discussion
and dialogue across difference,” (Hawkins, 2014, p. 106). In the follow section, I first
52
describe studies where cosmopolitan framings were implemented in classes or other
school-based activities without implementing other major curricular changes. Next I
explore studies of developing cosmopolitan stances with students through international
sojourns. Finally, I discuss studies with cosmopolitan framings that emphasized
interactions with international, global others.
Cosmopolitan Curricular Framings
Most additional-language classes do not require significant adjustments to current
curricula to accommodate open, respectful, and reflective dialogue across personal,
geographic, and identity boundaries for students to reimagine themselves and the world
(Appiah, 2006, De Costa, 2014; Hansen, 2010; Hawkins, 2014; Wahlström, 2014; Hull &
Stornaioulo, 2010; Delanty, 2006). Additional-language students benefit from
engagement in global encounters and transnational literacy practices reflecting the
movement of ideas, goods, and practices across borders (Levitt, 2001; Portes, Gaurnizo &
Landolt, 1999). An intentional cosmopolitan framing, however, may expand students’
ways of thinking about the world and reveal the affordances of learning additional
languages.
Researchers (Boni, MacDonald, & Peris, 2012; Chappel, 2018; Cloete, Dinesh,
Hazou, & Matchett, 2015; Crosbie, 2014; DeJaynes, 2015; Vasudevan, 2014; Stornaioulo
& Thomas, 2018) have envisioned similar outcomes in courses and educational projects
where they have framed curricula in cosmopolitan perspectives but have not implemented
notable changes to those courses or projects. Some educators (Chappel, 2018;
Vasudevan, 2014) crafted cosmopolitan curricula with a local focus. Cosmopolitan
framings with a local focus emphasize improving local educational contexts to benefit
53
more students. To do so, Su and Wood (2016) suggested framing everyday academic
practices in cosmopolitan perspectives to create “spaces and places” (Su & Wood, 2016,
p. 17) that nurture “community, openness to others, learner interaction, reflection,
inclusive practices and the knowledge and personal experiences each learner brings” (p.
24). Others educators (Cloete, Dinesh, Hazou, & Matchett, 2015; Stornaioulo & Thomas,
2018; DeJaynes, 2015; Crosbie, 2014; Boni, MacDonald, & Peris, 2012) implemented a
cosmopolitan framing with a global focus. A global focus utilizes educational contexts
“as a resource in promoting intercultural understanding and, in turn, developing graduates
as global citizens,” (Caruana, 2014, p. 86).With either focus, these researchers found that
students developed and demonstrated cosmopolitan stances without making significant
changes to previously-created curricula.
Cosmopolitan Framing -- Local Focus
Chappel (2018) and Vasudevan (2014) proposed cosmopolitan perspectives as a
lens through which students might view their coursework and each other, although
teachers in these studies made few curricular changes. Utilizing Wahlström’s (2014)
framework for conceptualizing “cosmopolitanism on the ground” (Chappel, 2018, p. 807)
in education, Chappel framed World Literature classes in a Hawaiian high school with
cosmopolitan perspectives. She focused on four ways students might demonstrate
cosmopolitan stances: self-reflexivity, hospitality, intercultural dialogue, and transactions
of perspectives. Part of a larger study of World Literature classes in Hawaii, teachers
involved in this study did not alter their previously created assignments. They framed a
particular academic unit in cosmopolitan perspectives and made connections to students’
personal experiences.
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Teachers in Chappel’s study (2018) reported students engaging in self-reflexivity,
intercultural dialogue, and transactional perspectives. For example, Ka’imi, a literature
teacher at the school, had students read commonly assigned literature, such as King Lear,
through a Hawaiian lens emphasizing Hawaiian cultural perspectives. Teachers reported
increased student engagement through utilizing cosmopolitan stances that reflect both
sameness and difference. Chappel (2018) suggested that this approach afforded students
ways to connect texts with their own experiences while valuing bodies of cultural
knowledge, languages, and literacy practices that students bring to classrooms (e.g.,
Barton, 1994; Gee, 1996; Lewis, Enciso & Moje, 2007; Street, 1995).
Similarly, Vasudevan (2014) documented student experiences in secondary
school theater projects framed by cosmopolitan ideals. Vasudevan (2014) utilized
cosmopolitan stances to highlight cosmopolitan promise in all students (also described by
Hansen, 2014). Vasudevan (2014) analyzed student experiences in a school theater
project as an alternative to in-school detention through the lens of everyday and
multimodal cosmopolitanism. Students who engaged in the theater project initially
described themselves as “immediately dissected, disapproved of, or dismissed” (p. 57) by
adults and peers in their school. In this project, however, they experienced belonging
through cosmopolitan openness and responsibility to others as framing their interactions.
Students learned to be open to each other’s experiences, values and beliefs in a trusting
environment fostered by participants’ obligations to each other. Participants described
feeling as though their voices were heard for the first time instead of being dismissed by
parents, teachers, and classmates as they had been before. Vasudevan (2014) found that
framing the theater project in cosmopolitan perspectives created spaces for these
55
secondary students to recognize each other’s humanity and to have their own humanity
recognized in return.
In studies by Chappel (2018) and Vasudevan (2014), educators framed pre-
existing curricula using cosmopolitan ideals to create “spaces and places” (Su & Wood,
2016, p. 17) that nurtured “community, openness to others, learner interaction, reflection,
inclusive practices and the knowledge and personal experiences each learner brings” (Su
& Wood, 2016, p. 24). Their cosmopolitan framing of pre-existing curricula emphasized
finding value within themselves and others. Cloete, Dinesh, Hazou, and Matchett’s
(2015), Stornaioulo and Thomas (2018), DeJaynes (2015), Crosbie (2014) and Boni,
MacDonald, and Peris (2012) utilized a global cosmopolitan frame focused on
“developing graduates as global citizens,” (Caruana, 2014, p. 86).
Cosmopolitan Framing -- Global Focus
Participants in Cloete, Dinesh, Hazou, and Matchett’s (2015) global theater
project enacted dispositions of global identity, global competence and responsibility to
others as they created and presented theater projects in a virtual project. Across the study,
students demonstrated dispositions that contributed to cosmopolitan perspectives in
response to organizers’ framing of the project in relation to openness to others and self-
reflection. For example, students from UWC Mahindra College in India demonstrated
global competence and responsibility to others when they adapted their performance to
address the “hegemony of English in an international learning environment” (p. 474) to
support classmates who struggled with English but who otherwise made valuable
contributions. The students at Massey University in New Zealand thoughtfully and
critically questioned the globality of a project that depended on technology that was not
56
available to all students. In doing so, they demonstrated global identities by considering
the project at local and global levels and in relation to their responsibility to others.
Participants in Cloete, Dinesh, Hazou, and Matchett’s (2015) studies utilized
theories of cosmopolitanism as a frame for students to “to recognize each other’s
humanity” (Vasudevan, 2014, p. 58). Stornaioulo and Thomas (2018) and DeJaynes
(2015) described similar outcomes when they explored students’ experiences in film-
making projects framed in cosmopolitan stances. Drawing specifically on critical
cosmopolitanism (Latour, 2004; Mignolo, 2000), which attends to issues of power,
privilege and status, in their study of two high school students’ film projects, Stornaioulo
and Thomas (2018) documented instances of students from a public high school
restorying personal narratives. Like students from UWC Mahindra College in India who
reworked a theater project to give voice to less-proficient classmates (Cloete, Dinesh,
Hazou, and Matchett, 2015), secondary students Sara and Gabriel recognized potential
global audiences and a cosmopolitan sense of responsibility to others in their local
communities (Cheah, 2006). These students, Sara and Gabriel, restructured personal
“narratives to reflect perspectives and experiences that have been routinely marginalized
or silenced” (Stornaioulo & Thomas, 2018, p.353). Sara and Gabriel could have created
videos focused singularly on their individual stories while demonstrating cosmopolitan
perspectives. Sara and Gabriel restoried their personal narratives to address resisting anti-
Black and anti-Muslim stereotypes. These students used their restoried film projects to
engage in intercultural interactions and create spaces for audiences’ reflection and
discovery (Appiah, 2006).
57
DeJaynes (2015) also employed student-produced films to engage students in
intercultural interactions. Situated in a year-long, required auto-ethnography course at a
public high school in New York City, DeJaynes (2015) examined her students’
experiences creating and sharing multimodal films that “embodied their identities” (p.
188). DeJaynes (2015) highlighted intercultural interactions that occurred within the
diverse student population in the class and credits those intercultural interactions with
fomenting cosmopolitan stances in her students. She found that students engaged in
cosmopolitan self-reflection while interviewing family members to learn about
immigration experiences in the course of crafting and presenting their “Where I’m From”
auto-ethnography multimodal films. Students also displayed thoughtful receptivity to
previously unfamiliar cultural perspectives and practices during classmates’ presentations
and subsequent whole-class discussions. Like Chappel (2018), who explored framing
World Literature classes in a Hawaiian high school in cosmopolitan perspectives to make
connections to students’ personal experiences, DeJaynes (2015) argues for a curriculum
of multimodal cosmopolitanism that might curate personally and culturally relevant
resources that honor “the ordinary lived experiences that make up their [students’]
diverse social and cultural identities” (p. 196).
Crosbie (2014) and Boni, MacDonald, and Peris (2012) documented courses
where cosmopolitan perspectives empowered participants to effect change beyond the
course or project. In Crosbie’s (2014) study of university of advanced-proficiency ESL
learners in Ireland, students worked in groups to create a presentation on a global social
justice issue and then presented it to their classmates. Students in this study demonstrated
responsibility to others through the marker of inquiry. They wanted to know more about
58
issues they discussed and how they could get involved to help. Students also
demonstrated responsibility to others through agentive action. Students in the class
reported changing practices contributing to global issues, such as only purchasing Free
Trade food items when possible.
Boni, MacDonald, and Peris (2012) conducted an exploratory study of
cosmpolitanism in a Spanish, university-level engineering course with the goal of
introducing humanities-style thinking to STEM coursework. Researchers conducted a
mixed-methods study through a pre- and post-course survey containing both
quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed responses. Lectures were complemented with
“case studies, moral dilemmas, role-play […] and small and whole group discussions” (p.
182) designed to encourage theoretical debate of course content. At the end of the study,
Boni, MacDonald, and Peris (2012) noted an increase in the “complexity, richness and
rigor” (p. 183) of students’ responses as well as increased references to considering
topics, such as sustainability, at local and global levels. Students were demonstrating
dispositions of global identities and competence in their responses. They also
demonstrated a new disposition of responsibility to others through their increased
awareness of effecting systemic changes through their work.
Utilizing cosmopolitan perspectives in educational settings creates space for
students to see cosmopolitan promise (Hansen, 2014) in themselves and make
connections across differences (Appiah, 2006). In such an atmosphere, Campano and
Ghiso (2011) argue that humanity may be “understood as something that students create
as well as inherit," (p. 175) without requiring cosmopolitan curricular accoutrement that
may prove to be prohibitive to teachers hoping to implement cosmopolitan perspectives.
59
Students in these studies demonstrated dispositions of responsibility to others, both
within the class or the project and beyond it. They demonstrated markers of openness and
global identities as they engaged with new ideas at global and local scales. These students
demonstrated capacities for “mutual evaluation of cultures or identities” (Wahlström,
2014, p. 118) with culturally diverse classmates, diverse global audiences, and potentially
in future global travel experiences. In the following section, I describe studies that
included students who participated in international sojourns.
International Sojourns
International travel is an ideal means to engage students in intercultural
interactions, and many university language programs offer and/or require sojourns for
students. Experiences such as study abroad provide students with opportunities to
develop global identities, improve global competence, increase their openness, and
recognize their responsibility to others. International travel, unfortunately, is not always a
possibility for students, teachers and researchers, and it was not part of SPAN 121.
Researchers (Bamber, 2015; Boni & Calabuig, 2017; Coryell, Spencer & Sehi, 2014; Gu
& Schweisfurth, 2015; Moskal & Schweisfurt, 2018; Oikonomidoy & Williams, 2013)
explored how sojourning in other countries may significantly impact students’
cosmopolitan perspectives, but outcomes varied in individual and contextualized ways.
Coryell, Spencer and Sehin (2014) and Gu and Schweisfurth (2015) described
international master’s-level students’ reported positive experiences during and after
international sojourns. Coryell, Spencer and Sehin (2014) explored students’ experiences
in a year-long program consisting of six sojourns lasting seven to ten days each meant to
foster professional, global citizens. Each sojourn involved physically visiting a different
60
location, including Italy, Spain, Greece and the United States. Students participated in
locally planned and led workshops. They demonstrated increased global competence as
they described the new awareness and knowledge acquired during these trips as well as
the “cross-cultural cooperation” (p. 155) skills they developed. These new competences
contributed to new dispositions of openness to other ways of thinking and global
“nontourist” (p. 158) identities, and they reported planning to continue learning about and
valuing others’ lives, cultures and experiences (Coryell, Spencer & Sehin, 2014).
Gu and Schweisfurth (2015) conducted a 20-month, mixed-methods study of
Chinese university students who returned home after international sojourns. These
students reported that their travels contributed to “new connections, competences, and
identities [that] enabled them to view and live life with a new sense of self” (p. 947).
Participants described valuing their global competence developed through skills,
knowledge and attitudes they acquired abroad. These students described developing
cosmopolitan perspectives through new views on global identities and competences that,
according to Gu and Schweisfurth (2015), appeared to be sustained over time with the
support of a “diverse network” (p. 948) of peers.
Students described by Coryell, Spencer and Sehin (2014) and Gu and
Schweisfurth (2015) reported positive experiences and influences on their global
competencies and global identities. However international travel does not ensure positive
experiences or effects on dispositions contributing to cosmopolitan stances. Moskal and
Schweisfurth (2018) and Oikonomidoy and Williams (2013) studied students
participating in international sojourns and how their identities fluctuated across their time
abroad.
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In the only included study of post-graduates’ experiences, Moskal and
Schweisfurth (2018) studied experiences of non-Western post-graduates who sojourned
in England, using cultural cosmopolitan competences as a framework for their discussion.
Oikonomidoy and Williams (2013) explored experiences of female Japanese students
who studied abroad in the United States. Drawing on a series of interviews, both Moskal
and Schweisfurth (2018) and Oikonomidoy and Williams (2013) found that students’
sense of global identities varied in relation to their linguistic and cultural competencies
and the communities in which they participated. Sam, a male student from Thailand,
described evolving into a global citizen as his linguistic competence improved across the
semester (Moskal & Schweisfurth, 2018). Likewise, the Japanese students reported an
increased “American-like” (p. 387) identity as their linguistic competence increased
(Oikonomidoy & Williams, 2013). Students from both studies also reported difficulties
establishing friendships with locals due to cultural differences in establishing and
maintaining friendships. As a result, they described feeling like cultural ‘others’ during
their sojourns, which diminished their identities as global citizens (Moskal &
Schweisfurth, 2018; Oikonomidoy & Williams, 2013). Alice reported that her global
identity was contextual: among her friends who had not sojourned abroad, she felt like a
global citizen. With coworkers, most of whom had sojourned abroad or were from other
countries, her global experience was treated as the norm, flattening her global identity
(Moskal & Schweisfurth, 2018). In line with notions of emergent cosmopolitan
perspectives, these students’ perceptions of cosmopolitan competences shifted across
place, time, and context.
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International sojourns can affect participants’ dispositions, however the effect—
whether positive or negative--are neither guaranteed nor permanent. They are contextual
and cosmopolitan stances especially, Bamber (2015) argues, must be nurtured for effects
to persist beyond the sojourn.
Bamber (2015) explored experiences of 27 university students from England who
participated in various international service-learning programs to “resource-poor
countries” (p. 26) in the global South, such as Malawi, Brazil and Sri Lanka. Bamber
(2015) found that nurturing cosmopolitan stances with students to foment transformative
learning experiences (Mezirow, 1991, 2000) was a dynamic process requiring careful
curation. Travel to other countries and participating with other cultures and communities
unfortunately may result in new stereotypes replacing old ones in students’ thinking. For
example, students still made references to people who were “poor but happy” (Bamber,
2015, p. 38) in program locations that felt to them like “going back in time” (Bamber,
2015, p. 38) These descriptions replaced negative preconceived notions of poor, unhappy
citizens but still centered Western, capitalist cultural perspectives. Bamber noted,
however, that affording students opportunities to critically reflect on their own
perspectives and to connect personally with local communities tended to alleviate
stereotyping among participants. Bamber (2015) indicated that “Just as students must
continuously remake the conditions for transformation, so must academics and
institutions” (p. 40). He suggested consistently nurturing cosmopolitan stances in students
and providing multiple opportunities for transformative experiences to maintain and
deepen new cultural understandings gained during sojourns.
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International travel enables transformative experiences for students and
opportunities to develop and demonstrate new understandings of their own identities,
competences, dispositions of openness and responsibility to others. However, studying
abroad is not always the most effective means of enabling these transformations.
In Boni and Calabuig’s (2017) study of Spanish university students, researchers
utilized Delanty’s (2006) critical cosmopolitanism to analyze learning spaces devoted to
international cooperation. They examined students’ participation in on-campus electives
courses centered around international projects, an on-campus student group promoting
international critical awareness, and a student program in an unnamed South American
country. Boni and Calabuig documented the emergence of increased global awareness in
all three learning spaces, but particularly in the on-campus student group. Boni and
Calabuig (2017) explained that group participation developed participants’ understanding
of citizenship or identity as rooted at a local level and flourishing at a global level (Osler
& Starkey, 2003, 2005; Osler & Vincent, 2002). International critical awareness
activities, such as a campaign addressing Fair Trade issues in food sourcing. The locally,
personally and globally relevant projects provided students opportunities to attend to
obligations to others in the world. Through their work in these projects and subsequent
new habits, students demonstrated cosmopolitan perspectives.
Looking across these studies, we see that although international travel may
significantly contribute to development of cosmopolitan stances in students (Coryell,
Spencer & Sehin, 2014; Gu & Schweisfurth, 2015), it is not always successful (Moskal &
Schweisfurt, 2018; Oikonomidoy & Williams, 2013), long-lasting (Bamber, 2015), nor a
particularly effective strategy (Boni & Calabuig, 2017). Participants in these studies
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described positive effects on their global competences through acquiring new skills.
While some students described increased dispositions of global identities, others reported
how their identities fluctuated according to context. In studies of language learners,
researchers noted similar fluctuations in students’ global identities, influenced by
students’ perceived linguistic and cultural competences (Moskal & Schweisfurt, 2018;
Oikonomidoy & Williams, 2013). In line with emergent theories of cosmopolitanism,
students must “nurture” (Bamber, 2015) their cosmopolitan stances through interactions
with “diverse networks” of peers (Gu & Schweisfurth, 2015, p. 948). However, because
these studies examined under-graduate, graduate, and post-graduates’ experiences, this
review does not include information about younger students’ international sojourns.
International travel would be ideal for additional-language learners because it
provides opportunities to practice linguistic competence and create new cultural
understandings through intercultural interactions. Unfortunately, it is impractical and
cost-prohibitive for students in a 100-level SPAN course. Fortunately, researchers have
explored several options for engaging students with intercultural interactions. In the next
section, I describe studies that explored teacher-facilitated, social-media, and one-on-one
global intercultural interactions.
Intercultural Interactions with Global Others
Dialogue with global others contributes significantly to enacting cosmopolitan
perspectives in education, (Delanty, 2006; Wahlström, 2014). Intercultural interactions
provide students opportunities to engage and make meaning with someone outside one’s
own self or in-group (Szerszynski & Urry, 2002, p. 462). Appiah (2006) framed
conversations across personal, geographic, and identity boundaries as sites for ongoing
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reflection and discovery about the self and the world that provide space for the
development of cosmopolitan stances.
Based on previous research, intercultural interactions with global others have
tended to fall into one of three categories. In some studies (Sánchez and Ensor, 2020;
Hawkins, 2014; Hull & Stornaioulo, 2014), interactions were teacher facilitated, with
teachers appearing to control the flow of communication among participants. A second
set of researchers (Hull & Stornaioulo, 2010; Hull, Storntaioulo, & Sahni, 2010) have
explored the influence of social media on global interactions. Finally, other researchers
(Collins & Delgado, 2019; Spires, Paul, Hymes, & Yuan, 2018; Wu & Li, 2019)
documented experiences of students engaged in one-to-one, partnered interactions. The
following studies include cosmopolitan framings of educational activities paired with
intercultural interactions with global others.
Teacher-Facilitated Intercultural Interactions
In the following studies, teachers controlled the flow of communication between
students and global others. For example, students participating in an international
dialogue between a U.S. elementary school and a Western European refugee facility
engaged in restorying. Sánchez and Ensor (2020) studied actions and interactions of
elementary students as they learned about and reflected on refugees’ lived experiences.
These elementary students mostly utilized English as a lingua franca, however they did
create handwritten, bilingual book inscriptions in Arabic to send, aided by their Arabic
teacher. Sánchez and Ensor (2020) found that students demonstrated stances of
cosmopolitan belonging (Sánchez & Ensor, 2020) as they restoried the experiences of
staff and women at the refugee center. Across this study, elementary students were
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intentional in crafting their descriptions of the refugees and restorying their narratives in
respectful ways. Students were careful with word and image choices, and thoughtfully
considered and selected what best represented refugees’ experiences. Students took their
responsibility a step further as they organized and executed a book drive and awareness
project to benefit the women. Through global conversations, students recognized
humanity in others and participated in ongoing reflection and discovery about the self and
the world (Appiah, 2006).
Students’ development and demonstration of dispositions of both cultural
knowledge and cosmopolitan openness were key in outcomes of Hawkins’ (2014) study
based on Stories Without Borders, a global video-exchange program. Students
(approximately 11-12 years old) from a Midwestern city in the United States and students
(also approximately 11-12 years old) from Uganda utilized English as a lingua franca to
explore each other’s daily practices and perspectives through student-produced videos. In
this study, Hawkins (2014) utilized critical cosmopolitanism to explore “transnational
interactions, relations, and learning in a globalized, technologized world,” (p. 55). For
example, students from the midwestern city in the United States included images of snow
in a video created for their partner group in Uganda. In the video, they explained the
ongoing transition to spring. The Ugandan group had no direct experiences with snow or
cultural knowledge of seasons beyond rainy and dry seasons. Rather than rejecting or
ignoring previously unfamiliar experiences with snow and winter, Ugandan students were
fascinated and asked questions to learn from Midwestern students. Through a “spirit of
openness and inquiry” (p. 72), they were able to make new meanings through the
exchange of videos and willingness to explore new ideas.
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Participants in Hull and Stornaioulo’s (2014) study of teenage girls from India
communicating online in English as a lingua franca with both male and female teenagers
from New York also made new meanings by exchanging videos and exploring new ideas.
Hull and Stornaioulo (2014) explored the construct of proper distance, or the appropriate
and respectful positioning of one’s audience while constructing a text. They found that
students developed cosmopolitan respect through locating themselves in relation to
others, considering themselves in relation to others, and engaging in dialogue with others
when creating videos to share with other students groups around the world (Hull &
Stornaioulo, 2014). In this study set in an online, Hull and Stornaioulo (2014) argued that
“balancing one’s position in the world with a consideration of others and our obligations
to them” (p. 91) was necessary for developing cosmopolitan dispositions. For example,
Emilio intentionally included excerpts from other groups’ videos to foster connections
with them. Participants combined global competence with responsibility to others by
adapting texts and communication to improve relationships with other groups.
Across these studies, we can see that teacher-facilitated intercultural interactions
facilitated dispositions of global competence, openness and responsibility to others for
participants and there were few instances of students demonstrating dispositions of global
identities. However, it is possible that the participants’ younger ages prevented them from
feeling geographically unbounded or belonging to the community of the world (Beck,
2002). The lack of demonstrations of global identities may also be related to the teachers’
roles as mediators impeding direct relationship building. Students in the following two
sections were able to directly contact global others.
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Intercultural Interactions through Social Media
Especially for undergraduates engaging in intercultural interactions during a time
of self-transformation, Williams (2013) explained that cosmopolitan education should
also attend to an “understanding of the new ways in which people and communities are
converging and reimagining themselves” (p. 261). In the era of global media, even those
who are relatively place-bound can interact with people from different cultures (Doti,
Skey, Boylan, & Ezell, 2003). New online spaces and practices, like Facebook, Twitter,
TikTok, Instagram, present opportunities for people to engage with other cultures and
participate in multiple communities. Researchers who draw on cosmopolitanism (Hull &
Stornaioulo, 2010; Hull, Storntaioulo, & Sahni, 2010) have engaged online spaces to
facilitate direct intercultural interactions with global others.
Hull, Storntaioulo, and Sahni (2010) created the online social networking site,
Space2Cre8. In their study high-school aged Indian girls engaged in English as a lingua
franca with other groups of students from around the world online in Space2Cre8, Hull,
Stornaioulo, and Sahni (2010) described small acts on the part of the girls that marked
their global competence. This study documented students’ identities and development of
global competence through multimodal communications. This sample of Indian girls is
representative of a population without frequent access to the internet and who rarely
engage with social media. Hull, Storntaioulo, and Sahni (2010) explored “cosmopolitan
habits of mind” (p. 361) occurring in “moments of everyday cosmopolitanism” (p. 361)
when students from different countries, cultures, and worldviews interacted via
Space2Cre8. Their global competence was marked by moments of hospitality during
which they posted welcoming messages and attempted to engage with other users. As
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online cultural practices were new to them, adeptly navigating and participating in the
social network demonstrated an global competence. Additionally, students engaged in
cosmopolitan openness during online discussions that involved sharing cultural
perspectives. Hull, Storntaioulo, and Sahni (2010) observed that open, everyday
cosmopolitanism jumpstarted “intercultural triggers” (p. 361)--moments that prompted
direct conversation about cultural differences framed by respect for others.
Another example of cosmopolitan stances developing through social media
interactions is seen in Hull and Stornaioulo’s (2010) study of students’ self-making via
interactions in English with global others on a social media network. Students
demonstrated cosmopolitan stances through combined dispositions of openness, global
identities, and global competence. In this study also utilizing the social media network,
Space2Cre8, Hull and Stornaioulo (2010) documented how De’Von and Monica, two
American students, enacted cosmopolitan perspectives by using multicultural images as
their avatars on the social media network. De’Von chose an image of rinkhals, a cobra
native to India, and Monica chose a Japanese anime character. They demonstrated global
identities both through participating in the online global community as well as by using
symbols from other counties to represent their identities online. De’Von and Monica
demonstrated openness through positive perceptions of symbols from other counties.
They also demonstrated cultural global competence through adept choices of images:
they understood what cultural perspectives those images reflected and purposefully chose
them as their representation.
Social media is quickly being recognized as a valid form of intercultural
communication (Doti, Skey, Boylan, & Ezell, 2003). This form of interaction, however,
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does not replace one-on-one connections created through pen-pal style projects. The
following studies linked students directly and fostered ongoing global relationships.
Partnered Intercultural Interactions
Spires, Paul, Hymes, and Yuan (2018) utilized educational cosmopolitanism
centering secondary students’ capacities for hospitality, reflexivity, intercultural dialogue,
and transactions of perspectives (Wahlström, 2014) paired with situated practice, overt
instruction, critical framing, and transformed practice (NLG, 1996). Spires, Paul, Hymes,
and Yuan (2018) studied a collaborative, cross-cultural, project-based learning activity on
water ecology completed by Chinese high-school students who partnered with high-
school students in the United States, utilizing English as a lingua franca. Because of
time-zone differences, the groups worked asynchronously on documents kept in shared
online folders and chatted via WeChat, a messaging app. Spires, Paul, Hymes, and Yuan
(2018) documented several demonstrations of dispositions contributing to cosmopolitan
perspectives: Both Chinese and American students demonstrated openness to hearing
each other’s ideas and contributions. Their openness and responsibility to others
contributed to dispositions of global identity as they created and participated in a shared
culture of inquiry. They also demonstrated global identities when, after the project,
students indicated that they wanted to experience different cultures by travelling abroad
or learning additional languages (Spires, Paul, Hymes, & Yuan, 2018).
Students demonstrated linguistic competence in Wu and Li’s (2019) study of an
online story exchange between Chinese and American university students. Students from
both universities utilized English as a lingua franca to share texts with their partners that
they believed reflected cultural importance that reflect their society’s values. Some
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Chinese participants chose popular Chinese folktales, and an American student shared the
Gettysburg Address. Students demonstrated multiple dispositions contributing to
cosmopolitan stances, such as global identities, responsibility to others, and global
competence. While discussing shared texts, students often referenced their other cultural
identities, such as their Greek heritage or Korean travel experiences, to substantiate their
statements or responses. Wu and Li (2019) noted that students did not initially reference
other cultural identities. However, they “performed these identities that emerged from the
dialogic interaction with global others” (p. 118).
Wu and Li (2019) also described how Chinese students demonstrated linguistic
global competence and responsibility to others through markers of text adaptation: they
translated traditional Chinese folk tales to English and added annotations containing
cultural information relevant to the story so American students could understand. These
Chinese students utilized multiple languages to address issues through what Wu and Li
(2019) referred to as translanguaging strategies (Canagarajah, 2013; Wei & García,
2017). Interestingly, these text adaptations seemingly produced “intercultural triggers”
(Hull, Storntaioulo, & Sahni , 2010, p. 361)--moments that prompted direct conversation
about cultural differences framed by respect for others. Although it is “natural for
participants in transnational encounters to essentialize the perceived differences as static
nation-based traits” (Wu & Li, 2019, p. 122), some American students believed all
Chinese folktales were “short,” “simple,” or even “childish” (Wu & Li, 2019, p. 122).
Students utilized these misunderstandings to discuss and later challenge and avoid
essentializing notions, demonstrating cultural global competence and responsibility to
others.
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In a study of emails exchanged between students at the University of Leeds and
the University of Guanajuato, Collins and Delgado (2019) explored how participants
enacted stances of critical cosmopolitanism while discussing personal lived experiences
via email. Utilizing English as a lingua franca, the exchange began with instructions for
Leeds students to share stories of critical incidents—“a puzzling or conflict-laden event
they had experienced” (Collins & Delgado, 2019, p. 544). Students from Guanajuato
responded with initial reactions and descriptions of their own critical incidents. From this
point, students directed content of the email conversations for the rest of the semester.
Collins and Delgado (2019) documented four significant ways students demonstrated
critical cosmopolitan stances during this engagement: struggling with notions of
essentialism when discussing cultural practices, articulating the notion of culture as
complex, fluid, and open-ended, their intercultural selves, and describing future concerns
about local and global issues (Collins & Delgado, 2019). For example, participants
Anastasia and Loana utilized statements that conveyed humor and bounding, such as “at
least, in my experience” (Collins & Delgado, 2019, p. 547) to avoid essentialist--or
stereotypical--descriptions discussing chaotic experiences with public bus drivers. Collins
and Delgado (2019) contended that open-ended dialogue was a valuable strategy for
developing critical cosmopolitan stances in students.
Students in these studies developed cosmopolitan perspectives in response to
global, intercultural engagements. They made new meanings by exchanging videos and
exploring new ideas (Hawkins, 2014), improved relationships with other groups (Hull &
Stornaioulo, 2014), engaging in direct conversation about cultural differences framed by
respect for others (Hull, Storntaioulo, & Sahni, 2010), and were intentional choices to
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treat others with respect (Collins & Delgado, 2019; Sánchez & Ensor, 2020) during their
intercultural interactions.
In this section, I explored current literature on curricular strategies for developing
students’ cosmopolitan stances that could also be useful in additional-language classes. I
began with studies that included cosmopolitan framings in educational environments, like
classrooms. Then I explored international sojourns and, finally, intercultural interactions
with global others. The above studies, however, do not address the importance of
languages in developing students’ cosmopolitan perspectives. With the exception of
Chinese students’ translanguaging strategies (Canagarajah, 2013; Wei & García, 2017)
in Wu and Li’s (2019) study, students’ language usage was not addressed as part of their
cosmopolitan dispositions. In the next section, I explore studies of cosmopolitan stances
in language learners.
Cosmopolitan Stances in Language Learners
As described in the introduction to this study, researchers have explored
cosmopolitan perspectives in language learners, but studies have been limited to English
as a Second Language/English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESL/ESOL) (Compton-
Lilly, Kim, Quast, Tran, & Shedrow, 2019; Crosbie, 2014; Guardado, 2010) and English
as a Foreign Language (EFL) students and classes (Canagarajah, 2013; Ramanathan,
2012; Roger, 2010).
English for Speakers of Other Languages/ English as a Second Language
Researchers (Campano & Ghiso, 2011; Compton-Lilly & Hawkins, in
preparation; Compton-Lilly, Kim, Quast, Tran, & Shedrow, 2019; Guardado, 2010) have
explored practices and perspectives of students whose pre-existing cosmopolitan stances
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are often overlooked. These studies reveal that ESL/ESOL students demonstrate
cosmopolitan perspectives, especially global identities and global competence.
Researchers have described students as having global understandings related to climate,
the world, and time. These students also brought global experiences—such as
immigration stories, transnational literacy practices, and competences in languages other
than English--to their language classes. ESL/ESOL students already participated in
international sojourns and various forms of intercultural interactions.
English as a Foreign Language
Many studies included in this review of the literature were either situated in EFL
(Crosbie, 2014; Gu & Schweisfurth, 2015; Moskal & Schweisfurth, 2018; Oikonomidoy
& Williams, 2013) classes or utilized English as a lingua franca (Cloete, Dinesh, Hazou,
& Matchett, 2015; Collins & Delgado, 2019; Coryell, Spencer & Sehi, 2014; Hawkins,
2014; Hull & Stornaioulo, 2010; Hull, Stornaioulo, & Sahni, 2010; Spires, Paul, Hymes,
& Yuan, 2018; Stornaioulo & Thomas, 2018; Wu & Li, 2019). Research on theories of
cosmopolitanism in EFL classes or when English is used as a lingua franca may
significantly contribute to research on theories of cosmopolitanism in additional-language
learners.
However, researchers (Canagarajah, 2013; Ramanathan, 2012; Roger, 2010)
acknowledge the globality of English as a cosmopolitan perspective that EFL learners
may potentially already demonstrate. For example, Roger (2010) indicates that learning
English as a lingua franca (ELF) may position English-language learners as global
citizens—either as participating in communities of Anglophone countries or in global
communities comprised of ELF speakers. Students in my study are learning Spanish as an
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additional language. Spanish is not required in their daily lives, and they may never travel
to a Spanish-speaking community or country where it might be necessary to utilize it.
Combined with traditional means of teaching and learning Spanish that focus on accuracy
in grammar and vocabulary, many students view learning Spanish as an additional
language as a wholly academic endeavor without actual application in their own lives. As
a result, while these studies are important, how additional-language students develop or
demonstrate cosmopolitan stances is likely to differ because EFL students begin with an
anticipated global, cosmopolitan end-point.
Summary
In this chapter, I reviewed scholarship on developing students’ development and
demonstration of cosmopolitan perspectives. I connected scholarship on framing
curricula in cosmopolitan stances, international sojourns, intercultural interactions, and
cosmopolitan stances in language-learning classes. I highlighted participants’
demonstrations of global identities, global competence, openness, and responsibility to
others as they contributed to their cosmopolitan stances—although I acknowledge that
they do not encompass all cosmopolitan stances. Separately, markers of these
dispositions may be inconspicuous. When considered together, they reflect responsible,
globalized citizens engaged in open, respectful, and reflective dialogue across personal,
geographic, and identity boundaries to reimagine themselves and the world (Appiah,
2006, De Costa, 2014; Delanty, 2006; Hansen, 2010; Hawkins, 2014; Wahlström, 2014;
Hull & Stornaioulo, 2010). Students demonstrated combinations of dispositions to reflect
new perspectives through their actions. When taken together, these bodies of scholarship
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support my study of an undergraduate Spanish course framed in cosmopolitan
perspectives.
In this chapter, I explored current literature and described how my study
addresses a gap left by current research. In the following chapter, I describe the
methodology I utilized in my teacher action research study.
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CHAPTER 4
METHODOLOGY
In language-learning courses, students learn about, connect with and explore new
cultures and communities. Theories of cosmopolitan perspectives present possibilities for
language-learning classes due to their shared focus on dialogues across boundaries and
expanding global knowledge while moving the field of language-acquisition research
away from outdated understandings. Additionally, both cosmopolitan perspectives and
additional-language communicative and cultural competences appear to be developed in
response to similar experiences. Researchers have explored cosmopolitanism in
language-learning classes, but studies have been mostly restricted to ESL/ESOL and EFL
students and classes. Studying cosmopolitanism in additional-language students may
create different understandings than studying ESL/ESOL and EFL students, who begin
with cosmopolitan perspectives (Compton-Lilly & Hawkins, in preparation; Compton-
Lilly, Kim, Quast, Tran, & Shedrow, 2019). The purpose of this study was to explore
how SPAN 121 might be designed to foster and support students’ development of
cosmopolitan perspectives. Specifically, I explored how English-speaking students might
demonstrate cosmopolitan perspectives in response to activities engaging them in Spanish
with global Spanish speakers as part of their undergraduate, intermediate Spanish-
language class.
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These questions guided my study:
1. What kinds of experiences can I embed into an undergraduate Spanish language
course with the goal of engaging students with cosmopolitan thinking?
Specifically, how might SPAN 121 students demonstrate cosmopolitan
perspectives in their responses when asked to reflect on to activities and
experiences embedded in their class designed to engage them with cosmopolitan
thinking?
2. What markers of focal dispositions of global identity, global competence,
openness, and responsibility to others might students demonstrate?
To address these questions, I framed a Spanish-language course in cosmopolitan
perspectives and embedded experiences intended to engage students with global others. I
collected data via students’ written reflections, language-learning diaries and semi-
structured interviews for the current study. I engaged in teacher research to gain insight
into practices that may improve teaching and learning (Henderson, Meier, Perry &
Strommel, 2012). My study used qualitative methods to clarify understanding of a
phenomenon (Merriam, 1998) through the contextualizing benefits of multiple data
sources and the flexibility of qualitative methods’ emergent nature (Dornyei, 2016;
Glesne, 2016). I utilized case study (Stake 2006), selecting my SPAN 121 over the course
of the fall 2020 semester to observe how primarily English-speaking students enrolled in
an intermediate Spanish-language class at a large university in the American South
engaged with, developed, or rejected cosmopolitan perspectives and dispositions. Within
this case, I utilized data from three focal participants.
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In this chapter I first describe the methodology and research design for my study,
including a brief overview of the study, setting and participants, data sources, and data
collection processes. Then I present and describe my analytic methods. Next, I discuss
trustworthiness, ethics, and researcher reflexivity. Finally, I offer my summary of this
chapter.
Research Methodology
The purpose of this study was to explore how SPAN 121 might be designed to
foster and support students’ development of cosmopolitan perspectives. Specifically, I
explored how English-speaking students might demonstrate cosmopolitan perspectives in
response to activities engaging them in Spanish with global Spanish speakers as part of
their undergraduate, intermediate Spanish-language class.
Developing cosmopolitan perspectives and its contributing dispositions is a
personal and contextual experience for students (Hawkins, 2018). Therefore, a qualitative
research design that frames participants as sources of knowledge and uses their
experiences to construct patterns, theories and interpretations (Cresswell & Plano Clark,
2018) is suitable. A qualitative design is used to describe and interpret patterns,
behaviors, and culture (Glesne, 2016), utilizing observations, interviews, and other
similar forms of data collection, always centering the human participant and their
experiences. As described in the literature review, researchers of cosmopolitanism often
employ qualitative methodologies like ethnographic studies (De Costa, 2014; Hawkins,
2014, 2018; Vasudevan, 2014) or interview studies (Boni & Calabuig, 2015; Moskal &
Schweisfurth, 2017). In doing so, they center their exploration around the voice and
experiences of the participants. In qualitative studies, it is the human being that is the key
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and constant source of data and who provides the most data (Lincoln & Guba, 1985).
This design aligns with constructivist worldview that recognizes multiple and
multifaceted realities (Cresswell & Plano Clark, 2018) reflecting the multiple and
multifaceted participants serving as data sources. This paradigm supports research of
theories of cosmopolitanism that challenge students to see the multiple, multifaceted
realities that exist globally (Appiah, 2006; Delanty, 2006).
Research Design
Teacher Action Research
To attend to my research questions, I engaged in action research through
intentional and systematic inquiry to gain insight into practices that may improve
teaching and learning (Henderson, Meier, Perry & Strommel, 2012). While much of
teacher research identifies a problem of practice found in educational contexts and then
seeks to address or improve that problem (Rust, 2009), I came to this study from a stance
of cosmopolitan openness and inquiry (Hawkins, 2014): As described in Chapter Two,
there are many theories for exploring cultures in language-learning courses, but I was
open to discovering more about theories of cosmopolitanism. I wondered how theories of
cosmopolitanism might be implemented in additional-language classes and, as a result,
how students might develop cosmopolitan perspectives. Taking a teaching as inquiry
stance (McGlinn Manfra, 2019), I engaged in teacher action research to improve my
pedagogical content knowledge as well as to reflect on my own practices (McGlinn
Manfra, 2019).
Teacher research is “a powerful form of inquiry for teachers examining the
effectiveness of various interventions” (Rust, 2009, p. 1883). Henderson, Meier, Perry,
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and Strommel (2012) describe teacher researchers as drawing on combinations of theory
and teacher intuition, professional experience and knowledge of students, and inquiry and
reflection to develop relevant questions and assumptions. Taking together my
professional teaching experiences, my knowledge of language-learning methodology and
research, and my explorations of theories of cosmopolitanism, I formed the following
assumptions: students in language-learning classes were likely already demonstrating
cosmopolitan perspectives in response to coursework because of the overlap between
activities proposed to foster language learning and cosmopolitan perspectives.
Furthermore, because of that overlap, additional-language classes especially position
students to demonstrate and/or develop cosmopolitan perspectives.
According to Lytle and Cochran-Smith (1992), “Almost by definition, teacher
research is case study—the unit of analysis is typically the individual child, the
classroom, or the school,” (p. 466). I selected my SPAN 121 course during the fall 2020
semester as my case to explore how intermediate-level language classes might be more
oriented to cosmopolitan perspectives and how undergraduates enrolled in intermediate-
level language classes at a large university in the American South engaged with,
demonstrated, or rejected cosmopolitan perspectives and dispositions. The limited, one-
semester timeframe and focus on cosmopolitan perspectives are what McKay (2006)
described as hallmarks of case study in language-acquisition research. Additionally, case-
study research in language education focuses on providing detailed descriptions of
learners or classes (Mackey & Gass, 2005). Within this case, I utilized data from three
focal participants students to gain a greater understanding of the kinds of activities that
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might cultivate students’ cosmopolitan perspectives as well as what markers of
cosmopolitanism students may demonstrate and how students might demonstrate them.
While the three focal participants were linked as they were all privileged white
women enrolled in my classes in the same semester, the variation in their backgrounds,
beliefs, and experiences during the class afforded a more compelling interpretation
(Merriam, 2009) of how and why students may or may not have demonstrated
cosmopolitan perspectives in response to an intentional cosmopolitan framing of SPAN
121. Each of these participants was fascinating on her own, but they also provided
opportunities to see how they related to and were different from each other. In this way,
they provided me with a greater understanding of how my own teaching practices
contributed to students’ demonstrations of cosmopolitan perspectives.
Research Process
My research project was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the
University of South Carolina during the summer of 2020. Recruitment began during the
last two weeks of August 2020. Data collection for my study began in September 2020
and ended the second week of December 2020, lasting approximately fifteen weeks. I
collected multiple forms of data, including semi-structured interviews with focal students,
students’ reflections, and students’ language-learning diary entries. The research process
is presented chronologically in Table 4.1 below.
Table 4.1 Data collection by week and participant grouping
Week
Study Activity
1
Classes begin; Study introduced; Focal participants sought.
2
3
1st round of interviews; focal participants begin submitting weekly language-
learning diary entries.
4
Unit 1 reflections submitted. Unit 1 Language-learning diaries retrieved.
5
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6
7
Unit 2 reflections submitted. Unit 2 Language-learning diaries retrieved.
8
Second round of interviews.
9
10
11
Unit 3 reflections submitted. Unit 3 Language-learning diaries retrieved.
12
13
14
Unit 4 reflections, Final Reflections submitted, Unit 4 Language-learning
diaries retrieved.
15
Classes end. Third/Final round of interviews.
Setting
My study took place during the Fall 2020 semester in two of my sections of an
intermediate-level Spanish course at a state’s flagship University. Students often take
SPAN 121 during the first or second year of college because it is a core requirement at
the university. Most SPAN 121 students are between 17-22 years old. ACTFL defines
intermediate-level language learners as those who can create with language, ask and
answer simple questions on familiar topics, and handle a simple situation or transaction
(ACTFL, 2015). For example, students at this level can discuss themselves and their
friends and family, describe their daily lives and free time activities, and/or narrate an
anecdote from a vacation. According to the syllabus, SPAN 121 covers grammar and
vocabulary necessary for fundamental communication skills; the course assumes prior
experience in Spanish.
In this particular semester, the course was set up differently than during a normal
semester. Because of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the course was moved to a
hybrid/online modality. The classes were split in half, with one half meeting virtually on
Mondays and the other half meeting virtually on Wednesdays; Fridays were wholly
asynchronous. In this semester, I only met with my students once each week for a total of
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14 class meetings. In a typical semester, I meet with SPAN 121 students three times each
week for a total of 42 class meetings.
Participants
In this section, I describe the participants from my case—my SPAN 121 classes—
and then I describe my focal participants in more detail. Students (N = 33) participated in
the study from two sections of SPAN 121 that were framed in cosmopolitanism.
Participants were between 17-21 years old and the majority was completing their first or
second year of an undergraduate degree program. Of the 33 participants, 26 (79%) were
perceived to be female and seven (21%) were perceived to be male. Also, 25 participants
(76%) were perceived to be white and eight (24%) were perceived to be Black or
Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC). Of the 33 students who participated in the study,
only six (18%) reported a having had a sustained global experience—such as routinely
speaking another language at home or having lived in another country. See Table 4.2 for
comparative percentages.
Table 4.2 Participant demographics by course section
Although I used homogenous, typical case sampling (Glesne, 2016) in the sense
that my students were generally representative of students enrolled in past sections of
SPAN 121, this particular sample is not particularly reflective of the university’s
undergraduate population: the official website for the university’s Office of Diversity and
Inclusion reports 27, 502 undergraduates, of which 53.5% is reported as female and
Female
Male
White
BIPOC
Global
Not Yet
Cosmo A -- 18
15
3
14
4
4
14
Cosmo B -- 15
11
4
11
4
2
13
Totals -- 33
26
7
25
8
6
27
percentage
79%
21%
76%
24%
18%
82%
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46.5% is reported as male. Furthermore, 63.9% of the undergraduate population is
reported as white, and 37% is reported as Black or Indigenous Person of Color
(www.sc.edu).
All students enrolled in my two sections of SPAN 121 were invited to participate
and to have their work included in the study. I made clear that they were not required to
participate, they were free to discontinue participation at any time, and I assured them
that I would use pseudonyms to protect their identities. Their participation or decision to
not participate did not affect their grade in the course. All students agreed to have their
work included, but I removed work from students who added the course after my original
request or dropped the course later in the semester. These students were not included in
the numbers listed in Table 4.2.
Focal Participants
Qualitative research acknowledges “that reality is not an objective entity; rather,
there are multiple interpretations of reality” (Merriam, 1998, p. 22). This premise
contributed to my decision to include multiple perspectives through purposive, or
purposeful, sampling (Glesne, 2016). Thus, I sought voluntary focal participants from
each course section and then used data collected from a class survey to select
information-rich cases from each course section.
At the beginning of the semester, all enrolled students took a general biographical
survey that addressed students’ cosmopolitan constructs and solicited biographical
details, such as age, their home country, and language(s) spoken, and I included a
question asking for volunteers for my study. Of the students who responded “Yes” to
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volunteering, I eliminated anyone who had since dropped the course or who was under
18-years-old.
I wanted to include students with a variety of communicative backgrounds and
opinions on cosmopolitan perspectives and actions to provide access to “information-rich
cases” from which “one can learn a great deal about issues of central importance to the
purpose of the research” (Patton, 2015, p. 53). I intentionally sought a variety of
perspectives. Out of eight invitations, four invitations were extended to students who
reported English-only or United States-only experiences, and four invitations were
extended to students who reported speaking another language and/or having lived in
another country. I also intentionally invited four male students and four female students.
Finally, I also sought cultural diversity in my focal participants. I invited all six self-
reported students of color who had responded ‘Yes’ on the survey to participate. Due to
the turbulent nature of the fall semester of 2020—such as extended illness and adjusting
to new hybrid schedules, only three participants who agreed to participate were able to
remain committed to the study; all are white females. I describe each of them in the
following section.
Linda, Steph and Lisa
In this section, I introduce each of my focal participants with a brief description.
Then I describe the personal values and experiences that appeared to affect how they
demonstrated the development of focal dispositions and cosmopolitan perspectives
across my study. I begin with Linda, then Steph, and finally Lisa.
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Linda
Linda is a white, female 18-year old undergraduate with blonde hair and a kind
demeanor. She was in her first year of college and struggled with adjusting to her new
life as a college student. She is from a small town within easy driving distance of the
University, and she reports that she often goes home because she is simply more
comfortable there. She has been out of the United States once on a mission trip to
Uganda, and that trip left a lasting impression on her. She is majoring in exercise science
and hopes to become a physical therapist upon graduation. She spends her free time
reading for pleasure, hiking or just being outdoors, and she enjoys spending time with her
family. Whenever I asked Linda about her identity or invited her to describe herself, she
unfailingly included references to kindness, trusting relationships, curiosity, and
Christianity. These ideas serve as pillars of Linda’s life and are visible across her
motivations, perspectives, actions, and life goals.
Personal Values and Experiences
Kindness
The aspect of Linda’s life that most informed how she engaged with cosmopolitan
stances is her commitment to kindness. Linda frequently referenced treating others with
kindness in her reflections, diaries, and during our conversations. Kindness often guided
her decision-making, and was borne out through her actions. Across my study, as we
discussed various questions about cultural differences, disagreements, and contradictions,
Linda repeatedly referenced kindness as a guiding force. Examples included:
▪ “I think that you should do everything with gentleness and respect.” (Interview
One)
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▪ “You treat them [others] with kindness, no matter what it is. I don't think that
you should ever treat people unfairly or wrongly in any way.” (Interview One)
▪ “I make it a priority to treat all people with kindness and respect (even though I
fail at this often).” (Reflection Three)
Linda repeatedly utilized the word “kindness” and its synonyms, including “gentleness”
and “respect”, as she described interacting with others, even when there were
disagreements. I will describe instances later in this chapter in more detail, but Linda
enacted her kindness and respect for others in many ways. For example, she often paused
to think through her ideas carefully before responding to my questions about global
others. These pauses afforded her time to construct insightful, measured responses
reflecting her attempts to respond kindly to others’ perspectives. When she disagreed,
Linda paused, thought, and explained why she disagreed while identifying any common
ground she might share. It was through these enactments of kindness that she
demonstrated her dispositions of global competence, openness and cosmopolitan stances.
Linda believed that treating others with kindness, gentleness and respect was
foundational in building good relationships with others, and relationships were incredibly
important to her.
Trusting Relationships
Linda sought genuine connections with others that are often created through
relationships, but she was specific in the types of relationships she desired. In our first
interview, she told me, “I really value relationships, but relationships that are, like,
deeper—not surface level. I don't trust a ton of people.” By connecting “deeper”
relationships with the few people she trusted, Linda demonstrated how notions of
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familiarity and confidence were bound together for her. She valued trust and intimacy in
relationships, preferring a handful of close friends over larger numbers of acquaintances.
It is through the lens of relationships that she often made sense of her experiences with
global others during the semester.
Curiosity
Another aspect of Linda’s personal values that affected how she developed and
demonstrated dispositions of cosmopolitan stances was her curiosity. Linda was almost
insatiably curious and seemed especially drawn to the humanities. In her writings and our
conversations, she frequently expressed interest in learning more about other cultures.
• “The period of time when the Roman empire was at its peak is fascinating to me.
Their way of life was very different from any other people group but they were
advanced way beyond their years in technology, paving the way for future
cultures.” (Diary One)
• “I mentioned I went to Uganda. I think just, like, the African—like, just the
whole continent. Like, that whole African, like, culture is so interesting.”
(Interview One)
• “I really enjoyed learning about the different architectural styles that originated
and are mainly found in Spain. I think that architecture is a fascinating topic to
study because it has drastically changed overtime.” (Diary Two)
• “I am interested to learn more about Chinese culture. I think their culture is very
complex and is just so intriguing.” (Interview Two)
Each time we spoke and when she submitted reflections and diary entries, Linda
referenced other communities or cultures that had piqued her interest. Her growing list
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reflected her on-going curiosity and desire to learn more about the world. Linda used
adjectives like “interesting”, “fascinating”, “complex”, and “intriguing” to express her
zeal. Although she responded thoughtfully to all prompts and questions in her reflections
and diaries, Linda was most enthusiastic when expressing curiosity about new cultural
practices.
Christianity
Linda placed great importance on her Christian faith. She referenced her faith
frequently to explain and support her personal views and stances on various topics. For
example, when asked about her identity, she responded “I am a firm Christian believer
and I stand strong in my faith” (Reflection Two). The reflection question was open-
ended--“¿Quién soy yo? Who am I?”—allowing Linda a wide range of responses. Linda
emphasized her Christian faith, marking its centrality in how she understands herself.
Linda credited her Christian faith with inspiring her to be kind to others, and--like her
kindness--she frequently credited her faith with guiding her motivations, perceptions and
interactions with the world.
For Linda, her Christian faith, her sincere curiosity about other cultures and
communities, and the significance she ascribed to relationships built on trust and
kindness informed how she demonstrated cosmopolitan perspectives.
Steph
Steph was a white female freshman. She was a self-described Army brat hailing
from many places, though her family eventually settled in a small town about half an
hour from the University. Her father and his family were from Portugal, and she had
many relatives still living there. They spoke Portuguese, but she did not. In several places
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where Steph lived in the past, she described seeing and hearing people communicating in
languages other than English. She had not yet been to Portugal, but she had been to
Canada, and she kept a list of countries she planned to visit. Steph was a chemistry and
business major, although she was unsure what she wanted to do upon graduation. Her
demeanor was engaging, kind, and polite. Her responses seemed measured, however, and
I suspected that she wanted to say more but feared revealing too much. This observation
aligned with how Steph described herself as quiet and reserved until she was
comfortable; then she was outgoing, friendly, and humorous. She enjoyed reading and
working out in her free time. Steph played sports in high school, but during the research
semester, she was involved in Greek life on campus.
Personal Values and Experiences
Wanderlust
One of the most important personal aspects that appeared to affect how Steph
demonstrated markers of cosmopolitan dispositions was her desire to experience the
world. Steph suffered from an acute case of wanderlust, and her participation in my study
stemmed from her aspiration to travel internationally. She explained:
I feel like I'm just so ready to go out and do the real world and branch out and
travel and do all these things. But obviously, like, right now I can't really do that.
I'm in school and everything. (Interview Two)
Steph was ready to explore the world and would leave at a moment’s notice were she not
enrolled in college. Her frustration with waiting to travel was obvious, and she seemed to
be biding her time before being able to escape. During our first interview, I asked each
participant if there were cultures that particularly interested them. Steph had a bulleted
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list in her mind that she shared instantly and included specific reasons for travelling to
each location. The immediacy of her detailed response showed me that Steph was
interested in learning more about the world, and she was ready to act.
Steph planned to utilize the University’s international study services to spend a
semester or more in another part of the world. Her planned semester abroad was
frequently referenced in her reflections and diaries. She used it to make connections with
the coursework. For example, she said:
I plan on studying abroad sometime through my college experience, so talking
about travel and tourist activities and new places [themes from Unit Two] always
gets me excited and interested. I was shocked when learning about the cavern in
Mexico that people scuba dive in and visit, because that seems like something
super interesting and I had never heard of it before. (Reflection Two)
Steph made personal connections between travel themes and her own plans for a semester
abroad. In this case, she contemplated Mexico’s cenotes, or caverns popular for
swimming, through the lens of whether she would add this experience to her own
itinerary. Steph appeared to add each new location we studied to her mental destination
list, including action items to accomplish while there. Steph’s wanderlust was evident
across the course and my study—so much so that I joked with her during our second
interview about holding her by the ankle to prevent her from simply taking off.
Action-Oriented
My vision of Steph running away to explore distant lands was rooted both in her
burning desire to travel internationally as soon as possible and her action-oriented nature.
Her propensity for taking action also appeared to influence her development of
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cosmopolitan stances. When Steph was interested in particular ideas or topics, she took
actions to explore them further. As with Mexican cenotes mentioned above, Steph
identified new places to visit and activities to do within each unit of SPAN 121. She also
discovered new cultural practices and perspectives to enact. For example, after Steph’s
first social media interactions with global Spanish speakers via Opciones activities, she
described utilizing more hashtags and attempting to write her Spanish comments more
informally. After watching YouTube videos of Nicaraguan food preparation, she
sincerely wanted to sample those meals. Steph explained that interest was not sufficient
for her; she valued action.
When I get excited about something or write about something exciting--like
watching those videos about food, for example--that makes me like, ‘Oh, that's so
cool!’ [in an excited tone of voice]. But I'm not just like, ‘Oh, that's cool.’ [in a
bored tone of voice]. I'm like, ‘Wow. I actually want to try that now. […] I want
to do more with what I've learned about.’ I feel like I don't want to just take notes
about how that made me feel and be like, ‘Oh, that's exciting.’ [in a bored tone of
voice] I want to continue and take it a step further. (Interview Three)
Because interest inspired action in Steph, she consistently considered her next steps when
exploring cultural practices and perspectives. Steph discerned a difference between other
students’ levels of interest and her own. Steph believed that “if you really were
passionate about it, interested in it, you would go and live in that other country and really
experience it” (Interview Two). Learning about other communities and cultures in SPAN
121 contributed to her desire to participate in those communities.
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Steph’s interests in travelling extended beyond well-known tourist locations and
beach-front luxury resorts. She crinkled her nose when describing tourists who visited
popular destinations and explained that she hoped to “engage in different cultures and see
how they [local communities] live their lives compared to my own” (Interview One).
Steph envisioned immersive experiences and participating in day-to-day moments within
local communities. Her goals for travel focused on exploring and experiencing diverse
cultural practices and perspectives, not simply vacationing. Steph’s enthusiasm for
learning about others was reflected in the value she placed on international travel and
immersive experiences and how she anticipated benefitting from her experiences.
Return on Investment
Another set of values that appeared to affect how Steph engaged with
cosmopolitan perspectives was her desire for competence, success, and receiving returns
on investment of her time and energy. Being competent was extremely important to
Steph. She was a student in the University’s highly regarded honors program, and she
admitted to always holding herself to very high personal and academic standards. She
frequently referenced success and being successful as a goals or criteria for self-
assessment. Her professional goal was to “have a successful career”, even though she had
not decided which career it would be. I asked her about a hobby she might like to adopt,
and she responded, “I want to be able to sing really well, but I'm not musically inclined”
(Interview One). Because she was unlikely to sing well, Steph had no interest in pursuing
this hobby. Being successful appeared to significantly impact how she approached
activities—or whether she attempted them at all. If she believed that she would be
successful, Steph was willing to invest time and energy.
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Drawing on concepts she learned in her business courses, Steph framed decisions
around her perceived return on investment (Poulin & Caruso, 1993)—whether time and
energy invested in an activity were worth what would be gained. As an Honors student,
Steph was accustomed to achieving a level of success without exerting substantial effort.
As a result, if activities required too much investment or there was too little return, she
was unlikely to start or continue. When I inquired about this pattern, she described her
thought process: “It's just super frustrating when I'm just, like, not naturally good at
something. And then it's just kind of, I feel like, ‘Why am I even doing it at this point’?”
(Interview Two). Steph described her reluctance to attempt overly demanding tasks as
stemming from frustration. Her perceived incompetence frustrated her, and, as a result,
she did not see the point, or the return on her investment, in continuing.
In Steph’s previous language courses, earning desirable grades required too much
investment compared to how little she believed she benefitted from her work. She
explained that “It's [Learning Spanish is] too much--it's so hard. And also I feel like
there's so many other people in my classes who are just so naturally good at learning
another language. And I'm just not. And I just can’t” (Interview Two). Steph described
feeling that previous language classes positioned her as a struggling language-learner
because she found it “too hard”. She believed that she invested too much effort to achieve
what others had achieved with less perceived effort. Her return-on-investment mindset
affected willingness to invest in Spanish.
Steph was ready to explore the world. Interest inspired action in Steph, and she
envisioned immersive experiences that involved learning from and participating in global
communities. Notions of competence and success also influenced Steph’s choices and
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actions. Steph’s prior personal values and experiences appeared to play important roles as
Steph engaged with focal dispositions and cosmopolitan stances across my study.
Lisa
Lisa was also from a small town within easy driving distance from the University,
but Lisa was a senior with many demands on her time. She was a white female student
with a matter-of-fact demeanor and a renaissance-style curiosity about learning and the
world. She was a pre-med biology major and had no free time, owing to her many
academic and pre-professional commitments. Lisa was constantly working on her
medical school applications and completing interviews when she was not volunteering at
the local Free Medical Clinic or practicing American Sign Language, a language she is
learning out of a genuine interest to communicate with the Deaf population. Lisa hoped
to attend medical school upon graduation and then practice medicine among underserved
populations.
Lisa’s Personal Values and Experiences
Being a Senior
Across the course and the study, Lisa made repeated references to her status as a
senior completing her last year of undergraduate studies. She referenced this distinction
from her freshman and sophomore classmates to mark how time and experience often
changed people’s perspectives. For example, in our first interview, I asked if she believed
students at our University would be open to cosmopolitan stances. She answered that it
would be “split”, because seniors would view cosmopolitan stances differently than
freshman. Lisa viewed SPAN 121 coursework differently than typical SPAN 121
students, who were usually freshmen and sophomores. She often used this line of
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reasoning to explain her responses, even when I did not invite comparisons. Lisa viewed
seniors as more likely to value the cosmopolitan framing of the course, to appreciate
Opciones assignments, and to embrace new cultural perspectives. Lisa continually
contextualized her thoughts, opinions, and responses for me, explaining that her opinion
now might differ from her response as a freshman in college. Her sentiments aligned with
the emergent nature of cosmopolitan stances and reflect recognition of her own growth.
As a senior, she was also preoccupied with her planned next step after graduation:
applying to and attending medical school in order to become a doctor.
Becoming a Doctor
As often as Lisa mentioned her status as a senior, she also referenced her
application process for medical schools. At this time in her life, it consumed her thoughts.
Lisa often connected her coursework or our interviews to her future plans. For example,
in her Unit One reflections, she explained: “I identify a lot by my career goals.” Although
Lisa could have identified herself in a myriad of ways, she chose to claim an identity as a
future healthcare provider. As she continued reflecting on the assignment, she added “It
was interesting to have the opportunity to interact with someone else sharing in my health
care interests via the talk abroad assignment.” What Lisa found most salient in her
TalkAbroad conversation, according to her Unit One reflection, was connecting with
another healthcare professional.
Lisa often referenced applying to medical school, possibly attending medical
school, and becoming a doctor during our interviews. As we discussed dispositions, she
referenced her interview experiences to provide examples. For example, Lisa utilized
cosmopolitan dispositions to make sense of what she perceived as the wholly different
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culture she encountered when she interviewed at a prestigious medical school. During her
medical school interviews, she met several applicants whose socio-economic status
afforded them opportunities to engage in various global activities and experiences. Lisa
grappled with whether those students were “truly” demonstrating dispositions of
openness during those global experiences: Were they “truly” demonstrating openness to
differences if their lives consistently positioned them to interact with differences? Or
were those students simply demonstrating that they had “access to opportunities”? She
never arrived at an answer to her questions. That experience had a lasting effect on her,
and she created new understandings by associating cosmopolitan dispositions to applying
to medical school, attending medical school, and becoming a doctor.
Lisa’s personal experiences and beliefs influenced her responses to SPAN 121
activities differently than was observed with Linda and Steph. As a senior applying to
medical school with goals to become a doctor and care for underserved populations, her
focus was on experiences outside of the classroom—and her responses to SPAN 121
activities reflected that focus.
My study was set in a typical, undergraduate intermediate Spanish-language
course at a state flagship university. I examined the experiences of three focal students. I
explored how three focal students developed and demonstrated markers of focal
dispositions contributing to cosmopolitan perspectives and what activities embedded in a
Spanish-language course created opportunities for students to demonstrate markers of
cosmopolitanism. In the following section, I describe how I intentionally framed SPAN
121 in cosmopolitan perspectives.
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A Class Framed in Cosmopolitan Perspectives
In this study, I intentionally framed intermediate-level Spanish-language classes
in cosmopolitan perspectives to explore how additional-language students might develop
or display cosmopolitanism in response to experiences engaging with global others
embedded in class. I utilized a global cosmopolitan framing (Boni, MacDonald, & Peris,
2012; Cloete, Dinesh, Hazou, & Matchett, 2015; Crosbie, 2014; DeJaynes, 2015;
Stornaioulo & Thomas, 2018) of my SPAN 121 curricula through the intentional
introduction of cosmopolitan ideals and stances, references to these ideas during in-class
discussion and within the instructions to activities.
As I previously described in Chapter Two of the current study, my study is
situated in emergent, everyday, and pluralistic cosmopolitanism to explore perspectives
and actions that guide day-to-day life. I also focused on demonstrations of dispositions of
global identity, global competence, openness, and responsibility to others because they
are fundamental in both fostering cosmopolitan perspectives and language learning
(ACTFL, 2015; TESOL, 2006), although I acknowledge that they do not encompass all
dispositions that comprise cosmopolitan perspectives. As a reminder, they are:
• Global Identity: a person who takes up the identity or position of a global citizen
without giving up local traditions or affiliations (Nussbaum, 1996). Do students
describe themselves as local citizens or as global citizens? What other identities
do they reference or demonstrate?
• Global Competence: communicative and behavioral awareness and interactions
with those who are culturally different. Are they successful in their
communication? In what ways do they reflect knowledge of the products,
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practices and perspectives of the countries and cultures being studied? Do they
enact any of those products, practices or perspectives in class?
• Openness: the positive recognition of other cultures and communities
(Wahlström, 2014). How do they demonstrate openness to global others?
• Responsibility to Others: Seeing one’s self as a social actor with obligations to
others (Stevenson, 2003); obligations to others to listen and respond respectfully
and considerately (e.g., Appiah, 2006; Delanty, 2006; Hansen, 2010). How do
they demonstrate responsibility to or for global others? How do they express care
in communicating with and about the Spanish speakers with whom they interact?
In alignment with these perspectives and associated actions, my SPAN 121 class was
intentionally designed to provide multiple opportunities for students to develop and
demonstrate these dispositions and cosmopolitan stances by engaging them with a wide
variety of cultures, communities, and global Spanish speakers.
Rather than a single cosmopolitanism-centered activity, SPAN 121 students
completed a series of activities framed in cosmopolitan perspectives. I embedded
activities and experiences that overlap how researchers propose cultivating participants’
cosmopolitan perspectives and how researchers of language acquisition propose students
learn or acquire additional languages, following the literature. Researchers have
suggested that direct, one-to-one intercultural interactions (Collins & Delgado, 2019;
Spires, Paul, Hymes, & Yuan, 2018; Wu & Li, 2019) as well as intercultural interactions
through social media (Hull & Stornaioulo, 2010; Hull, Storntaioulo, & Sahni, 2010) may
lead to the development or demonstrations of cosmopolitan perspectives. My students
engaged in direct, one-to-one intercultural interactions via TalkAbroad conversations
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with global Spanish speakers as well as intercultural interactions through social media via
Opciones activities. International travel is not a requirement of SPAN 121, it is
impractical and exclusionary to students with limited financial means, and it was
rendered impossible because of COVID-19. For these reasons, I did not include it in
SPAN 121. The activities are described in detail in the next section. Students completed
approximately one activity each day of class, and activities are modeled after
communicative activities that global Spanish speakers might complete in daily life. Both
the frequency and type of activities reinforce the stance that everyday cosmopolitan
perspectives and actions guide day-to-day life; cosmopolitanism is not an elite, romantic
goal that my students have not yet achieved.
Another way in which my SPAN 121 class was designed to reinforce and
highlight everyday cosmopolitan perspectives was the purposeful manner in which
students interacted with global Spanish speakers. Many studies on theories of
cosmopolitanism have paired students with a specific group of culturally different people.
For example, Hull, Stornaioulo, and Sahni (2010) and Hull and Stornaioulo (2010, 2014)
paired groups of culturally different students through an online social networking site
called Space2Cre8. Sánchez and Ensor (2020) studied the actions and interactions of
elementary students partnered with a refugee center. Hawkins (2018) and Vallejo
Rubenstein, Moore, Esbert, and Hawkins (2020) utilized Global StoryBridges to partner
international groups of underserved students. In these studies, students engaged in
interactions with partner groups and built relationships over time.
In contrast, my current study was intentionally designed to engage students with
multiple Spanish speakers from various Spanish-speaking cultures and communities,
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lowering the possibility that they might develop deeper relationships with global others.
This intentional choice reflects that, in their everyday lives, students likely will not
develop a relationship with everyone with whom they interact. However, students
demonstrating cosmopolitan perspectives will begin to consider anyone with whom they
interact to be part of their shared global community. They interact with all people in a
competent manner, be open to other perspectives, and treat all people with respect—
whether a person is a student in their Spanish class, the geographically distant author of
an article posted on the internet, or seatmate on a city bus. Cosmopolitan perspectives are
not reserved for people with whom we have established relationships; they should be
utilized at all times and in all interactions.
My SPAN 121 classes were also situated in pluralistic visions of
cosmopolitanism, which acknowledge that there are many worthwhile values, one cannot
live by all of them, and different societies will embody different values (Appiah, 2006).
This pluralistic view underpinned how students explored Spanish-speaking cultures and
communities to discover new ideas without feeling compelled to disavow their own
communities and cultures. Engaging students with multiple Spanish speakers from
various Spanish-speaking cultures and communities also reflected the plural and diverse
population of global Spanish speakers students might encounter. It helped to dispel the
monolithic image that students may have of a single, shared Hispanic/Latinx culture. A
pluralistic cosmopolitanism supported students as they explored differences amongst
Spanish-speaking cultures and communities and between those communities and their
own.
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SPAN 121 was designed to highlight everyday, day-to-day moments of
understanding founded in a mutual respect for each other’s pluralistic differences. In the
next section, I explain SPAN 121 course activities in more detail.
Activities
As previously mentioned in Chapter Two, in my study, cosmopolitan perspectives
encompass globalized citizens engaging in open, respectful, and reflective dialogue
across personal, geographic, and identity boundaries as they learn about themselves and
the world (Appiah, 2006, De Costa, 2014; Delanty, 2006; Hansen, 2010; Hawkins, 2014;
Hull & Stornaioulo, 2010; Wahlström, 2014). Building on the work of Appiah (2006),
Hull and Stornaioulo (2010) and Hawkins (2014) highlight responsibility to others, as
well. With this definition in mind, SPAN 121 was designed to develop students’
cosmopolitan perspectives in four ways: 1. To engage in dialogue across a variety of
boundaries. 2. To learn about themselves and the world. 3. To practice being open,
respectful, and responsible to others. 4. To be reflective in their own thinking. The
activities were designed and sequenced to develop students’ languaging skills in Spanish
as well as their cosmopolitan dispositions. See Figure 4.1.
Figure 4.1 Intentional Scaffolding of SPAN 121 Activities
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As discussed earlier in this dissertation, research demonstrates that without guided
engagement with those who are culturally and communicatively different, deeper
stereotyping and divisiveness may be created (Allport, 1954; Crichton & Scarino, 2007;
Sidanius, Levin, van Larr, & Sears, 2008). Without guidance, students may not explore
beyond superficial differences or participate in reflective practices. In my study, students
were incrementally guided to do both.
For SPAN 121 students, these activities were adjusted to explicitly promote
cosmopolitan perspectives through an intentional framing in cosmopolitan stances and
through the addition of self-reflective questions. In all four course units, students
completed all of the following activities and students reflected on them at the end of each
unit. Each unit had a focal Spanish-speaking country or countries, essential questions
meant to foster students’ consideration of others’ practices and perspectives, and three of
each of the activities listed below. To be clear about textbook-supplied activities: it is not
this particular textbook that I believe may contribute to cosmopolitan perspectives but
the types of activities listed below. If my textbook had not supplied these activities, I
would have found or created similar activities. As you will see, I also amended many of
the activities to align better with cosmopolitan stances. Below, each activity is described
and how they develop cosmopolitan perspectives is specifically addressed. See Appendix
A for examples of each of these activities.
• MindTap activities: These are textbook-supplied activities.
o En Acción: These activities completed in Spanish that guide students
through exercises that combine considering cultural perspectives with
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practicing communicative skills. Cosmopolitan goals: Students learn about
themselves and others and practice being open and responsible.
o A Leer and A Escuchar: These are textbook-supplied activities that
practice students’ reading and listening skills in Spanish. These texts are
appropriate for intermediate level Spanish learners. I added questions that
direct students to reflect in English on cultural perspectives. Cosmopolitan
goals: Students learn about themselves and others, practice being open and
responsible, and are reflective.
o Perspectivas: These are also textbook-supplied activities that address
specific cultural perspectives often found in the unit’s focal countries.
Students consider and discuss products, practices and perspectives of focal
cultures to find connections and make comparisons in both Spanish and
English. Cosmopolitan goals: Students learn about themselves and others,
practice being open and responsible, and are reflective.
o Entre Compañeros: These are textbook-supplied activities where students
practice conversing synchronously in Spanish. The activity supplies a
prompt and specific content to include, as well as models. However,
students’ conversations are only guided by this information; they are not
scripted. I added prompts requiring students to consider cultural
perspectives as part of these conversations. Cosmopolitan goals: Students
engage in dialogue, learn about themselves and others, and practice being
open and responsible.
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The activities listed thus far were completed by all SPAN 121 students enrolled at the
University in the Fall 2020 semester. A significant difference, however, entailed the
global cosmopolitan framing that permeated the course and the additional reflective
questioning that I added to many of the above activities. I created the activities listed
below, they were unique to my course sections of SPAN 121 and further emphasized the
global cosmopolitan framing.
• FlipGrid is a website where students record and post videos; they can also
respond to each other’s videos. It is asynchronous, interpersonal communication
that allows students: to listen to a speaker’s recording as many times as necessary,
to prepare and practice before responding, and to re-record their response if
desired. Prompts are designed for students to learn about each other and to
consider how they are similar and how they are different. Cosmopolitan goals:
Students engage in dialogue, learn about themselves and others, and practice
being open and responsible.
• TalkAbroad is a website that connected Spanish students with trained, paid
conversation partners to practice synchronous, interpersonal speaking skills in
Spanish. Students conversed with a Spanish speaker from one of the focal
countries from the unit, guided by the unit’s essential questions. An important
objective in these conversations is to determine what practices and perspectives
are shared and which are different between the students and their TalkAbroad
partners. Cosmopolitan goals: Students engage in dialogue, learn about
themselves and others, and practice being open and responsible.
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• Opciones: For each unit, students choose one of three activities that I curated and
designed to address the themes of that unit and guide students’ cosmopolitan
consideration of and engagement with authentic, transnational texts. Because of
COVID-19, these were all online. Students were required to engage with global
Spanish-speakers by directly responding to someone (i.e., replying to a Tweet or
Instagram comment) or tag a global Spanish-speaking person or account (i.e.
@usal, the Twitter account of the Universidad de Salamanca in Spain) and
communicate in Spanish. Cosmopolitan goals: Students engage in dialogue, learn
about themselves and others, practice being open and responsible, and are
reflective. See Appendix B for example Opciones activities.
By the end of each unit, students engaged in multiple asynchronous and synchronous
global interactions with Spanish speakers. Through these activities, students were
scaffolded toward true-to-life languaging and literacy practices that entailed conversing
with someone who was culturally different or engaging with an authentic text. These
activities scaffolded students’ languaging practices in Spanish, as well as the
development of cosmopolitan perspectives.
SPAN 121 activities provided opportunities for students to develop and
demonstrate global identities, global competence, openness, responsibility to others—
dispositions that contribute to cosmopolitan perspectives. Because each unit has a
different geographic focus, students cultivated global identities rather than singularly
identifying with one particular country where Spanish is spoken. Students practiced in
Spanish and had multiple opportunities to interact with local and distant others while
doing so. Each activity also called students to consider new points of view as they learned
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about and developed an openness to the multiple cultures where Spanish is spoken.
Students cultivated responsibility to and for others as they interacted with global Spanish
speakers.
In language-learning courses, students learn about, connect with and explore new
cultures and communities. Theories of cosmopolitan perspectives present possibilities for
language-learning classes due to their shared focus on dialogues across boundaries and
expanding global knowledge. In my study, I intentionally framed intermediate-level
Spanish-language classes in everyday cosmopolitan perspectives and actions that guide
day-to-day life. I did so to explore how students learning an additional language might
develop and display cosmopolitan stances in response to experiences embedded in class
that engage them with global others. In the following section, I detail the data collection
process I used to inform the results of my study.
Data Collection
My study benefitted from the collection of data from varied sources. Case study
researchers of cosmopolitanism, identities, literacies, and languaging frequently collect
data from multiple sources, noting that “the combination of such methods that provided
the rich data necessary to understand the learners and their classroom ... as socially,
historically and politically constructed” (Norton, 2013, p. 15). Multiple data sources
provided multiple lenses for studying cosmopolitan perspectives and actions and how
they varied within and across contexts. Furthermore, using multiple data sources to
validate claims, or triangulation, increased my study’s trustworthiness (Dornyei, 2016;
Glesne, 2016). Researchers may triangulate data across collection methods and types of
data, including observations, interviews, diaries, and other sources.
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I collected participants’ reflections at the end of each of four units. These were
submitted approximately every four weeks over the semester. I also collected a Final
Reflection at the end of the semester. I conducted semi-structured interviews with focal
participants in the first week of September, the second week of October, and the second
week of December, which approximately corresponded with the beginning, middle, and
end of the course. Focal participants also submitted weekly language-learning diary
entries beginning the first week of September and concluding the first week of December.
Table 4.3 includes an overview of data collection for the study. Unit Reflections, Final
Reflections and weekly diary entries were submitted via the university’s online course
management system that required dual-factor authentication. Interview videos and
transcripts were kept on a password-locked external drive accessed through a password-
locked laptop. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the laptop and external drive were kept in
the locked home-office of the researcher.
Table 4.3 Data Collection by Study Participants
Per Focal Participant
Student Reflections
4 Unit, 1 Final
Interviews
3
Diary Entries
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I collected data via interview transcripts, students’ diary entries, and students’
written reflections, however, because of COVID-19, I was not able to collect data
through any form of observation. In qualitative inquiry, observation is utilized to better
understand the study’s setting, participants, and their behaviors (Glesne, 2016).
Following Swain (2009) who viewed cosmopolitanism as situated, embodied, performed
and also imagined, I believe that observations would have added contextual
understandings, “new vantage points with wider horizons [and] new ways of thinking
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about some aspect of social interaction,” (Glesne, 2016, p. 68). As a result, my findings
are dependent upon students’ responses to my oral and written questions. Thus, students’
demonstrations of markers of dispositions are often taken from their reports of their
behaviors, although some demonstrations were noted during interviews.
In the following sections, I describe each type of data I collected. I begin with a
description of the reflections. Next I describe the semi-structured interviews and weekly
language-learning diaries.
Reflections
A reflective stance is central to the development of cosmopolitan perspectives
(Delanty, 2006). “Cosmopolitanism underscores how the reality of other people and their
modes of dwelling address us, metaphorically speaking, with questions about ourselves,"
(Hansen, 2014, p. 11). All students submitted reflections at the end of each unit. Students
reflected on all of the activities from that unit, though some focused on particular
activities and experiences. Lindberg (2003) notes that adult learners of an additional
language may feel robbed of their intellectual capability when asked to express complex
views in their additional language instead of their primary language. As a result, while
students had the opportunity to respond in either English or Spanish, my three focal
participants (as well as their classmates) chose to respond in English.
Students’ reflections for Units 1 and 2 were guided by the following questions I
purposefully created to address cosmopolitan ideals:
(A) With whom did I engage in Spanish and how? How did it go? What language
content from class did I use?
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(B) What did I learn from this experience that is similar to my own community?
What is different? What do those similarities and differences reflect about
underlying perspectives?
(C) What did I encounter that made me uncomfortable or required me to rethink
my beliefs? What did I learn about myself and my own ideas/practices/beliefs,
and how did these activities specifically help me to learn it?
(D) ¿Quién soy yo? (Who am I?)
Students were not be required to address each of these questions specifically, but they
were expected to reflect on their work in relation to these topics. Question (A) asks
students to reflect on both the content from class as well as cosmopolitan perspectives
and acts of global competence for achieving communicative success. Students’ responses
to question (B) address global competence and cosmopolitan openness. Responses to
question (C) address the reflexivity and openness. Question (D) asks students to describe
themselves and poses the possibility of a cosmopolitan perspective on global identity.
After the second Portfolio submission, I changed the questions to more directly
address the focal dispositions contributing to cosmopolitan stances. I created these
questions to guide their third reflections:
(A) You engaged with multiple Spanish-speakers this unit: your classmates, Profa
C., the people on social media as part of your Opción activity, and your
TalkAbroad conversation. Do you think your communicative skills are
improving? Why or why not? Do you feel more comfortable, less comfortable, or
about the same level of comfort while engaging with Spanish speakers now as
you felt at the beginning of our course? Why?
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(B) As you become an Spanish speaker yourself and engage with people from all
over the world, do you feel like you are a member of a global community? Why
or why not? What does a 'global community' mean/look like to you?
(C) What do Spanish and the cultures we studied have in common (and how are
they different than) your own languages and cultures? Do you feel like you have
more awareness of cultural practices other than your own? Why is this important?
(D) One of the goals of our course is to practice being more open to other ideas--
not that you have to adopt those ideas, though! Tell me about a time during this
course when you had to have more of an open mind: what was the situation?
What required you to have a more open mind? How do you think or feel about
that situation now, looking back on it?
I changed the questions again in their fourth entry because of the overwhelmingly
positive feedback I received about having changed the questions for the third unit.
Students remarked that they enjoyed answering new questions each time. They
commented that repeating the same questions got boring and new questions made them
think in different ways. I created these questions to guide their fourth entry:
(A) You engaged with multiple Spanish-speakers this semester: your classmates,
Profa C., the people on social media as part of your Opción activity, and your
TalkAbroad conversation. What was your favorite way to engage with Spanish
speakers? Why? (B) As you become an Spanish speaker yourself and engage
with people from all over the world, do you feel like you have a global identity?
Why or why not? What does a 'global identity' mean/look like to you?
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(C) One of the goals of our course is to develop an cosmopolitanism. A
cosmopolitan is someone who has a global identity, who has global competence,
who is open to others, and who recognizes their responsibility to others. Which of
these four characteristics increased/improved the most for you? Why? How?
Which was the least? Why?
I created a Final Reflection for students to look across their experiences during the
semester. Students responded to the following prompt that I created for their final
reflections:
Choose one of the following quotes and respond to it in a planned, thoughtful
reflection. Reference the different topics we have discussed in class and reference
your own reflections from each of the previous chapters.
• "Every human is like all other humans, some other humans, and no other
human." -- Clyde Kluckhon
• "The world in which you were born is just one model of reality. Other
cultures are not failed attempts at being like you. They are unique
manifestations of the human spirit." -- Wade Davis
• "In studying other cultures, we learn more about ourselves and our
relationship to all things in this world." --Eustace Conway
Each of these quotes related to cosmopolitan stances, and students were able to
choose and engage with the one of their choice. This reflective process was evocative,
forcing some students to articulate and grapple with their own notions of languages,
literacies, and cultures in ways they may not have before. SPAN 121 students reflected
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on class activities as they considered perspectives and values that underscore languaging
and literacy practices related to language learning.
Language Learning Diaries – Focal Participants Only
Along with the reflections submitted as part of SPAN 121, focal participants kept
a language-learning diary to chronicle their experiences during the semester. Participant-
produced, diary-style writing is a valuable source of data in qualitative studies. Diary-
style writing provides an unobtrusive means of tapping into people’s thoughts and
experiences that may otherwise be inaccessible (Gibson, 1995) and diaries or journals are
viewed as an important tool for studying language learning (Chaudron, 1988; Nunan,
1992). Diary writing is a rich source of data for eliciting subjective descriptions and
interpretations of the events in students’ own words and as activities unfold. Like the
reflections, focal participants chose to write these in English.
Following Johnson (2013) who studied self-reported learning of adult students in
a first-semester, college Spanish class to determine what participants learned in addition
to Spanish, my focal participants submitted diary entries each week of the semester in
response to the following questions:
1. What did you learn about people in other parts of the world?
2. Did you have any experiences outside of class and work assigned for class that
related to what we are learning in Spanish class? (Johnson, 2013, p. 9)
3. Is there anything we learned or discussed that caused you to feel excited,
shocked, or disturbed? If so, please explain. (Johnson, 2013, p. 9)
If cosmopolitan stances describe students as presenting an expanded regard and
relation to the world that accompanies them wherever they go (Hansen, 2014), it was
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important to learn whether participants demonstrated focal dispositions or cosmopolitan
stances are demonstrated elsewhere and not just in response to class activities. Johnson’s
(2013) participants reported learning about “differences, about connectedness, and about
learning itself,” (p. 18). The diaries in my study were a window into students’ Spanish-
language learning experiences within and outside of class.
Interviews – Focal Participants Only
I conducted semi-structured interviews in English with focal participants three
times during the semester. Through interviews, researchers have “the opportunity to learn
about what they cannot see and to explore alternative explanations of what they do see,”
(Glesne, 2016, p. 97). Especially when studying topics related to theories of
cosmopolitanism, including identity, openness, and a sense of responsibility to others,
which a researcher cannot necessarily see, interviews were a way to access focal
participants’ thoughts and perspectives. Semi-structured interviews allowed for
adjustments to interview protocols as new questions arose during the course of fieldwork
while ensuring necessary topics and themes were still addressed (Glesne, 2016).
During interviews, I asked focal participants about their notions of global
identities, their intercultural experiences in which they engaged, their concepts of cultures
and communities, and other topics that emerged during the study through their
reflections, diaries, and previous interviews. See Appendix C for interview protocols for
each interview. Prior to the second interview, I sent each participant transcripts of their
first interview and copies of their Units One and Two reflections and diaries. They were
instructed to read through the documents and be ready to reflect on them at the start of
the second interview. Prior to the third interview, I sent each participant transcripts of
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their second interview, copies of Units Three and Four reflections and diaries, and their
final reflections. They were given similar instructions to read and be ready to share their
reflections. It was both enlightening and clarifying to hear focal participants discuss
themselves in this way, and it also served as member checking (Glesne, 2016).
Prior to the second and third interviews, I also looked across participants’ diaries
and reflections and created personalized questions for each participant. These questions
asked participants to clarify or expand on what they had written or shared during the
previous interviews. For example, Steph mentioned in her Unit Two Reflections that she
felt uncomfortable commenting in Spanish on Instagram posts but, in contrast, liked
TalkAbroad conversations even when she believed she “messed up”. I asked her to tell
me more about why Instagram posts made her uncomfortable but TalkAbroad
conversations were fun. For this reason, I often utilized quotes from interviews with
participants because they demonstrated particular dispositions or other ideas most clearly.
This process served as a form of triangulation and member-checking. See Appendix C for
interview protocols, including questions asked of all participants and questions asked of
individual participants.
To further increase the trustworthiness of my study (Glesne, 2016), I recorded
interviews via Zoom and wrote reflective memos immediately following each interview. I
also coded transcripts as soon as they were completed and wrote additional memos upon
re-reading them to capture immediate reactions, observations, and to pose further
questions.
After each set of data I collected, I first read through the documents and jotted
down initial reactions and questions in the margins. Then I wrote reflective memos where
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I included any thoughts and questions I had about patterns or tensions I saw in these
data. Then I coded the data in NVivo; after using NVivo’s data visualization tools, I
wrote memos reflecting on any additional insights coding may have offered. In the
following section, I explain how I coded and analyzed the data.
Analytic Methods
The purpose of this study was to explore how SPAN 121 might be designed to
foster and support students’ development of cosmopolitan perspectives. Specifically, I
explored how English-speaking students might demonstrate cosmopolitan perspectives in
response to activities engaging them in Spanish with global Spanish speakers as part of
their undergraduate, intermediate Spanish-language class.
I analyzed interview transcripts, students’ diary entries, and students’ written
reflections, focusing on markers of dispositions of global identity, global competence,
openness, and responsibility to others. Markers are actions, reactions, characteristics, or
perspectives generally associated with particular dispositions. These markers were
gathered from literature on theories of cosmopolitanism, how participants in studies of
cosmopolitanism were described as demonstrating cosmopolitan perspectives, and from
my own participants through open and in vivo (Saldaña, 2013) coding.
Because of COVID-19, I was not able to collect data through any form of
observation. In qualitative inquiry, observation is utilized to better understand the study’s
setting, participants, and their behaviors (Glesne, 2016). Following Swain (2009) who
viewed cosmopolitanism as situated, embodied, performed and also imagined, I believe
that observations would have added contextual understandings, “new vantage points with
wider horizons [and] new ways of thinking about some aspect of social interaction,”
118
(Glesne, 2016, p. 68). As a result, my findings are dependent upon students’ responses to
my oral and written questions. Thus, students’ demonstrations of markers of dispositions
are often taken from their reports of their behaviors, although some demonstrations were
noted during interviews.
In the following section, I explain how I collected each source of data and
prepared it for analysis. Then I explain my process to code and analyze these data.
Interviews
For each interview with focal participants, I followed the same process: I video-
recorded each interview on Zoom and audio-recorded it on my cell phone, as well. To
focus on participants and their stories, I chose not to take notes during interviews.
Immediately after completing the interviews, I typed up reflective memos to capture my
impressions, thoughts, and questions about the interviews and what participants shared
(Glesne, 2016). I sent Zoom recordings to Rev.com for automated transcription, and I
typically received transcripts within one or two days. Because transcripts were created by
automated computers, I listened to the videos while looking at transcripts in order to
correct any errors. This part of the process was surprisingly beneficial, as it provided
additional opportunities to engage with data by re-reading and re-listening. Once
transcripts were accurate, I printed hard copies with exaggerated margins. I re-read post-
interview reflective memos to remind me of my initial impressions. Then I read hard
copies again and annotated in the margins. During this reading, I informally coded for
demonstrations of cosmopolitanism and/or focal dispositions, but I also sought additional
salient themes and tensions. When finished, I wrote additional memos to summarize my
impressions, thoughts, and questions thus far. Next, I imported transcripts into NVivo and
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coded them by hand. I used NVivo’s data visualization tools to gain additional
understandings. Once I finished, I wrote summarizing memos. See Figure 4.2 for a
summary.
Figure 4.2 Process for collecting and analyzing interview transcripts
Reflections, Diaries, and Final Reflections
For reflections and focal participants’ diary entries, I followed a similar process.
After students submitted these documents via the online course management system, I
printed hard copies with exaggerated margins and annotated in the margins. During this
reading, I informally coded for demonstrations of cosmopolitanism and/or focal
dispositions, but I also sought additional salient themes and tensions. When finished, I
wrote reflective memos to summarize my impressions, thoughts, and questions thus far.
Next, I imported documents into NVivo and coded by hand. I used NVivo’s data
visualization tools to gain additional understandings. I wrote a final summarizing memo
for each document. See Figure 4.3 for a summary.
Figure 4.3 Process for collecting and analyzing reflections and diaries
C Interview
•
C , r annotate
• memo
C in NVivo, data visualization
• memo
C entries, print hard copies
R and annotate
• memo
C in NViv , us data tools
• memo
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Coding Process
Johnson (2014) described the problematic nature of ‘measuring’ or analyzing
cosmopolitanism, noting that “it is the abstractions that complicate, rather than clarify,
pinning down its substance,” (p. 264) However, many researchers narrow their focus in
particular studies because, as I describe in more detail in Chapter Two, each
conceptualization of cosmopolitanism is comprised of multiple characteristics, traits,
qualities or dispositions and “no study can do everything,” (Glesne, 2016, p. 213). For
example, Moskal and Schweisfurth (2018) focused their study on cosmopolitan global
identities, Boni and Calabuig (2017) focused on the development of students’
cosmopolitan global awareness, and both Wahlström (2014) and Spires, Paul, Hymes,
and Yuan (2018) examined participants’ demonstrations of self-reflexivity, hospitality,
intercultural dialogue, and transactions of perspectives.
Like these researchers, I chose to focus my study on particular dispositions and
the markers participants used to demonstrate them. Following Starkey (2007), Darvin and
Norton (2017), and Pegrum (2008), I explored participants’ demonstrations of
dispositions of global identity, global competence, openness, and responsibility to others,
while acknowledging that they do not encompass all cosmopolitan stances. I defined each
of these dispositions, discuss them in greater detail and connect them to cosmopolitan
stances in Chapter Two. Although Robbins (1998) warned that “situating
cosmopolitanism means taking a risk”, it is important to clarify and situate how
cosmopolitan perspectives are understood and utilized in this study.
Because “measuring the invisible contents of the mind has always been difficult,”
(Cook, 2016, p. 132), I sought participants’ demonstrations or descriptions of their
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markers of these dispositions. These focal dispositions and their markers serve as an
heuristic for making cosmopolitan perspectives more visible while acknowledging that
they do not encapsulate all dispositions contributing to cosmopolitan stances.
Furthermore, following Vertovec (2009) who described cosmopolitan perspectives as
combinations of dispositions, characteristics, competences or behaviors, I sought
participants’ demonstrations or descriptions of combinations of markers of these
dispositions. In this study, cosmopolitan perspectives were reflected when participants
demonstrated two or more focal dispositions working in concert.
I analyzed interview transcripts, students’ diary entries, and students’ written
reflections, focusing on markers of dispositions of global identity, global competence,
openness, and responsibility to others. Because of COVID-19, I was not able to collect
data through any form of observation. In qualitative inquiry, observation is utilized to
better understand the study’s setting, participants, and their behaviors (Glesne, 2016).
Following Swain (2009) who viewed cosmopolitanism as situated, embodied, performed
and also imagined, I believe that observations would have added contextual
understandings, “new vantage points with wider horizons [and] new ways of thinking
about some aspect of social interaction,” (Glesne, 2016, p. 68). As a result, my findings
are dependent upon students’ responses to my oral and written questions. Thus, students’
demonstrations of markers of dispositions are often taken from their reports of their
behaviors, although some demonstrations were noted during interviews.
Each choice I made as a researcher to narrow my understanding of these theories
reveals important information about my worldview as a researcher—"framework of ideas
and beliefs by which one interprets and interacts with the world,” (Johnson, 2014, p.
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265). The study described in this dissertation situates its understanding of
cosmopolitanism within emergent, everyday, and pluralist stances, reflecting my
constructivist ontology—that there are multiple realities (Cresswell & Plano-Clark,
2018)--and my constructivist axiology that acknowledges my inherently biased personal
values and interpretations (Cresswell & Plano-Clark, 2018).
To analyze these data, I engaged in several rounds of qualitative coding (Saldaña,
2016). They were 1. A priori and open/ in vivo coding, 2. Thematic and open coding, 3.
Axial Coding (Saldaña, 2016). In this section, I describe each round of coding in further
detail.
First Round
In my first round of coding, I sought markers of focal dispositions contributing to
cosmopolitan stances central to the present study--global identity, global competence,
openness, and responsibility to others. The focal dispositions were used as an heuristic
and do not include all dispositions that contribute to cosmopolitan perspectives. I curated
a list of markers of global identity, global competence, openness, and responsibility to
others from existing literature on cosmopolitan perspectives. (See below for my second
codebook and list of markers.) For example, Spires, Paul, Hymes, and Yuan’s (2018)
studied cosmopolitan stances among Chinese and American high school students
working together to complete a group project. Students demonstrated hospitality—a
marker of responsibility to others—by praising and encouraging their group members.
Curating this list assisted me in finding or more clearly understanding markers of
students’ dispositions.
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Because of the emergent nature of qualitative study (Glesne, 2016), I was also
open to other salient themes and understandings that emerged from my study. I
concurrently completed open and in vivo (Saldaña, 2013) coding using students’ own
words to enhance and deepen my understanding of their conceptualizations of emergent
global identities, global competence, openness and responsibility to others as parts of
their cosmopolitan stances. By comparing codes using data visualization tools in NVivo
and reflective memos, I determined prominent characteristics of each focal participant. I
was intentional, though, to look for disconfirming instances, as well.
One important affordance of qualitative inquiry is its emergent nature. Dornyei
(2016) defines emergent research nature as open, fluid, responsive, and flexible with the
possibility of entailing new details or openings that may emerge during the study. This
inductive methodology reflects a constructivist research paradigm (Creswell & Plano
Clark, 2018). As I collected data and came to new understandings, I was able to adjust
and amend aspects of the study, including research questions, data collection methods,
data analysis, and timetable. Once I settled into the semester, I finalized my research
questions and chose to focus on connections between key dispositions, their markers, and
SPAN 121 activities described above.
Because I had initially hoped to determine how students’ dispositions developed, I
coded each disposition along a continuum from Rejecting to Emerging along with the
disposition name—such as Openness. For example, I had coded an instance first as
Emerging and then again as Openness. However, results from initial coding queries in
NVivo 12 were confusing and inaccurate because I had been double coding. For
increased accuracy and clarity, I created an ‘emerging’ and ‘rejecting’ child code for each
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focal disposition—such as EmergingOpenness or RejectingGlobalID. I also determined
that each focal disposition needed a ‘grappling’ child code to mark instances where
students were not outright rejecting dispositions, but neither were they embracing them.
For example, Hilde, a SPAN 121 student, included this statement in her Unit Three
reflections: “I’m not sure I’m a global citizen. Can one Spanish class actually change
that?” Some students expressed confusion in relation to developing focal dispositions.
Adding a ‘grappling’ child code along with ‘emerging’ and ‘rejecting’ child codes for
each disposition increased clarity and accuracy of my findings. Because I ultimately was
not able to determine whether activities in SPAN 121 developed students’ cosmopolitan
perspectives, I ended up not referring to dispositions as Emerging. See Table 4.4 for more
detail on each code. In addition to changes to these child codes, I added additional codes
derived from my open/in vivo coding for markers of focal dispositions that students
demonstrated.
Table 4.4 Coding for key dispositions, including illustrative examples taken from
collected data
Global Identity
Is…
Is not…
a person who takes up the identity or
position of a global citizen without
giving up local traditions or affiliations
(Nussbaum, 1996). Do students describe
themselves as local citizens or as global
citizens? What other identities do they
reference or demonstrate?
--Expressing confusion or outright rejecting
the concept of developing or having a
global identity
--“I’m not sure…”, “Not yet…”, “I don’t
want…” with negative explanations, i.e
“I’m not sure I’m a global citizen. I don’t
think one Spanish class will change that.”
Examples from the literature
Expanded orientation of the world (De
Costa, 2014); interculturality, engaging
concepts at global/local scales (Collins
& Delgado, 2019); imagining, trying out
future and potential selves (Hull &
Stornaioulo, 2010)
GRAPPLING with/REJECTING Global Identity
Is…
Is not…
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Expressing confusion or outright
rejecting the concept of developing or
having a global identity; “I’m not
sure…”, “Not yet…”, “I don’t want…”
with negative explanations, i.e “I’m not
sure I’m a global citizen. I don’t think
one Spanish class will change that.”
Positive or accepting statements
Declarative statements without clarifying
explanation, i.e. “Developing a global
identity takes work.”
“I’m not sure…”, “Not yet…” with positive
or affirming explanations, i.e “I don’t know
if I am a global citizen yet, but I think by
learning more about others and speaking in
Spanish, I’m getting closer!”
Global Competence
Is…
Is not…
communicative and behavioral
awareness and interactions with those
who are culturally different. Are they
successful in their communication? In
what ways do they reflect knowledge of
the products, practices and
perspectives of the countries and
cultures being studied?
--Expressing confusion or outright rejecting
the concept of developing or having global
competence; “I’m not sure…”, “Not yet…”,
“I don’t want…” with negative explanations,
i.e “I don’t think I speak Spanish well
enough to say I am competent. Can that even
happen in one semester?”
--Declarative statements without clarifying
explanation, i.e. “I learned about Día de
Muertos today.”
Examples from the literature
Bravery, trying something new (Hull,
Stornaioulo & Sahni, 2010);
intercultural dialogue, evaluating and
navigating other languages (Spires,
Paul, Hymes, & Yuan, 2018); using
commonalities as a source of
knowledge for participation, (Moskal &
Schweisfurth, 2017)
GRAPPLING with/REJECTING Global Competence
Is…
Is not…
Expressing confusion or outright
rejecting the concept of developing or
having global competence; “I’m not
sure…”, “Not yet…”, “I don’t want…”
with negative explanations, i.e “I don’t
think I speak Spanish well enough to
say I am competent. Can that even
happen in one semester?”
--Positive or accepting statements
--Declarative statements without clarifying
explanation, i.e. “Developing global
competence takes work.”
--“I’m not sure…”, “Not yet…” with positive
or affirming explanations, i.e “I don’t know
if I am globally competent yet, but I think by
learning more about others and speaking in
Spanish, I’m getting closer!”
Openness
Is…
Is not…
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the positive recognition of other
cultures and communities (Wahlström,
2014). How do they demonstrate
openness to global others?
--Expressing confusion or outright rejecting
the concept of developing or having a global
identity; “I’m not sure…”, “Not yet…”, “I
don’t want…” with negative explanations,
i.e “I’m not sure I’m a global citizen. I don’t
think 1 Spanish class will change that.”
--Declarative statements without clarifying
explanation, i.e. “I learned about Día de
Muertos.”
--“I was surprised by…”/ “I was shocked
by…” without clarifying explanation, i.e. “I
was surprised to learn that they have class
at different times.”
Examples from the literature
Inquiry, exploring others’ lives, beliefs
and experiences, (Hawkins, 2018);
asking questions, (Hawkins, 2014);
acceptance, fostering a communal
energy (DeJaynes, 2015); imagination,
understanding other people’s emotions,
wishes and desires, (Boni & Calabuig,
2015)
GRAPPLING with /REJECTING Openness
Is…
Is not…
Expressing confusion or outright
rejecting the concept of developing
openness to other cultures, practices,
perspectives
--“I’m not sure…”, “Not yet…”, “I don’t
know…” with negative explanations, i.e
“I don’t know what y’all think, but
sugar skulls are weird.”
--Positive or accepting statements
--Declarative statements without clarifying
explanation, i.e. “Developing openness takes
work.”
--“I’m not sure…”, “Not yet…” with positive
or affirming explanations, i.e “I don’t know
if I am very open, but I think by learning
more about others and speaking in Spanish,
I’m getting closer!”
Responsibility to Others
Is…
Is not…
Seeing one’s self as a social actor with
obligations to others (Stevenson, 2003);
obligations to others to listen and
respond respectfully and considerately
(e.g., Appiah, 2006; Delanty, 2006;
Hansen, 2010) How do they
demonstrate responsibility to or for
global others? How do they express
care in communicating with and about
the Spanish speakers with whom they
interact?
--Expressing confusion or outright rejecting
the concept of developing or having
responsibility to others
--“I’m not sure…”, “Not yet…”, “I don’t
want…” with negative explanations, i.e “I’m
not sure how responsible I should be to
people I don’t even know.”
--Declarative statements without clarifying
explanation, i.e. “Kindness is important.”
Examples from the literature
giving importance to diversity (Boni &
Calabuig, 2015); seeking common
ground, going beyond the particular
(Wu & Li, 2019); listening into,
empathy, agency, (Sánchez & Ensor,
2020)
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GRAPPLING/REJECTING Responsibility to Others
Is…
Is not…
-- Expressing confusion or outright
rejecting the concept of developing or
having responsibility to others; “I’m not
sure…”, “Not yet…”, “I don’t want…”
with negative explanations, i.e “I’m not
sure how responsible I should be to
people I don’t even know.”
--Positive or accepting statements
--“I’m not sure…”, “Not yet…” with positive
or affirming explanations, i.e “I’m not sure
what my obligations are to others, but it’s
important to learn!”
Second Round
Next I completed a round of Thematic Coding (Saldaña, 2016), focused
specifically on: 1. Instances of emerging, grappling or rejecting global identity, global
competence, openness and responsibility to others, 2. Instances where students attributed
a key disposition to MindTap, FlipGrid, Opciones, or TalkAbroad, and 3. Continued open
coding for other salient points. I used Table 4.5 below as my codebook during this round.
I also referenced my list of markers from the literature to assist in finding instances of
focal dispositions, but I did not code for them specifically in this round.
Table 4.5 Coding for SPAN 121 activities
TalkAbroad
Conversations in Spanish with trained, global Spanish speakers via an
online service. An important objective in conversations is to determine
what perspectives and practices are shared and which are different
between students and TalkAbroad partners.
Is…
Is not…
Referred to by name or otherwise
explicitly referenced [ex: “Native/
authentic/ real/ actual/ etc.”
speakers, partners, or
conversations]
--A general statement without attribution, i.e. “All
the opportunities to speak Spanish…”
--Conversations with classmates
--Conversations with Spanish-speakers outside of
class activities
Opciones
Activities I curated and designed to address themes of unit and guide
students’ cosmopolitan engagement with authentic, transnational texts. All
online. Students required to engage with global Spanish-speakers by
directly responding to someone (i.e., replying to a Tweet or Instagram
comment) or tagging a global Spanish-speaking person or account (i.e.
@usal, the Twitter account of the Universidad de Salamanca in Spain)
Is…
Is not…
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Referred to by name or otherwise
explicitly referenced [ex:
References to Twitter, Instagram,
TikTok]
--A general statement without attribution, i.e.
“Learning more about other cultures made me a
more open person!”
--“the culture activities” as referring to MindTap
MindTap
Textbook publisher-produced, online, asynchronous component of SPAN
121. Includes content for learning and practicing language. It also includes
activities to introduce and invite students to thoughtfully consider cultural
practices, products and perspectives.
Is…
Is not…
Referred to by name, specific
activity names, or otherwise
explicitly referenced
[ex: Homework/classwork
activities, “the videos”, “the
readings”]
--A general statement without attribution, i.e.
“Learning more about other cultures made me a
more open person!”
--“the culture activities” when referring to social
media or Opciones
This Class
Referencing the class/course overall/ in a general way.
Is…
Is not…
A general attribution to “this
class” as a whole, i.e. “I learned
so much about being open to
other cultures because of this
class.” [ex: “this class”, “this
course”, “SPAN 121”]
--A general statement without attribution, i.e.
“Learning more about other cultures made me a
more open person!”
--A specifically attributable/ code-able list, i.e.
“TalkAbroad, MindTap and Opciones all
increased my openness so much!”
While running initial queries after this round, I realized I needed to ‘clean up’ my
coding. I ran queries by focal disposition, critically re-read each instance to verify my
initial coding, and made necessary changes. I was especially intentional in verifying my
coding process/criteria for Cosmopolitanism. I sought instances where students
demonstrated multiple dispositions working in concert to demonstrate cosmopolitan
stances. To find them, I ran queries to find instances where I coded multiple focal
dispositions, critically re-read each instance, and made necessary changes.
Table 4.6 Coding for demonstrating, grappling and rejecting cosmopolitan stances
Cosmopolitan Stances
Is…
Is not…
Multiple dispositions working together
plus self-improvement or self-
Expressing confusion or outright rejecting
the concept of developing cosmopolitan
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transformation (Wahlström, 2014) or
perception, discernment, and appreciation
(Hansen, 2010, p. 9)
perspectives; “I’m not sure…”, “Not
yet…”, “I don’t want…” with negative
explanations, i.e “I’m not sure if I’m ever
going to use all this. Why do I need to
know about kite festivals?”;
Demonstration of a single disposition or
demonstrating multiple dispositions at a
superficial level of understanding.
GRAPPLING/REJECTING Cosmopolitan Stances
Is…
Is not…
Expressing confusion or outright rejecting
the concept of developing or having a
cosmopolitan stance; “I’m not sure…”,
“Not yet…”, “I don’t want…” with
negative explanations, i.e “I’m not sure if
I’m ever going to use all this. Why do I
need to know about kite festivals?”
Positive or accepting statements
Declarative statements without clarifying
explanation, i.e. “Developing
cosmopolitan perspectives takes work.”
“I’m not sure…”, “Not yet…” with
positive or affirming explanations, i.e “I
don’t know if I am cosmopolitan yet, but I
think by learning more about others and
speaking in Spanish, I’m getting closer!”
Third and Final Round
Finally, I utilized Axial coding (Saldaña, 2016) to condense various, individual
markers into themes. I did this round twice—once for developing dispositions in focal
participants and once for dispositions with which they grappled or outright rejected. See
Table 4.7 for themes that emerged after this round.
Table 4.7 Prominent Themes
Demonstrating
Global Identity
Global Competence
Openness
Responsibility
to Others:
Potential Selves
Participating
Learning ab Others
Languages
Global/Local
Perspectives
New
Skills/Perspectives
Learning about Others
Personalized
Knowledge
Enjoying
Building Confidence
Authenticity
New Perspectives
Curiosity/Inquiry
Hospitality
Embracing
Differences
Embracing Plurality
Adventures
Participating
Respect
Obligation
Helping Others
Grappling/
Rejecting
Global Identity
Global Competence
Openness
Responsibility
to Others:
Not Enough GC –
Ling
Misunderstandings
Refusal
Discomfort
Uncertainty
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Not Enough GC –
Cult
Don’t Want It
Don’t Feel It
Balance
Struggling
Negative Emotions
After three rounds of coding, I was able to determine consistent trends among my data
and interpret relationships between dispositions, markers, activities and my participants.
This information is summarized in Table 4.8 below.
Table 4.8 Final codebook: Codes for Constructs, SPAN 121 activities, and markers of
constructs
Dispositions
Demonstrating,
Grappling or
Rejecting:
Global Identity
Global
Competence
--Communicative
--Cultural
Openness
Responsibility to
Others
Markers
Demonstrating:
Potential/Future
Selves
Participating in
Global
Communities
Learning
Language
Global/Local
Perspectives
Using
Commonalities
New
Perspectives
Learning About
Connecting
Information
Personalized
Knowledge
Enjoying
Building
Confidence
Authenticity
New
Perspectives
Curiosity/Inquiry
Hospitality
Embracing
Differences
Embracing
Plurality
Adventures
Participating
Respect
Obligation
Helping
Others
Grappling or
Rejecting:
Not Enough GC –
Ling
Not Enough GC –
Cult
Don’t Want It
Don’t Feel It
Balance
Wrong
Information
Do Not Want
Did Not Engage
Confused
Balancing
Struggling
Room for
Improvement
Negative
Emotions
Discomfort
Uncertainty
Activities
• MindTap (MT)
• Opciones (Ops)
• TalkAbroad (TA)
• “This Class” (TC)
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NVivo 12 software was useful for sorting through data (Bryant & Charmaz,
2010). It assisted me in identifying trends within my data that addressed my research
questions.
I ran queries to determine how often the participants demonstrated:
Table 4.9: NVivo Queries and which Research Question they Addressed
Queries sorted by Research Question Addressed
RQ 1
RQ 2
1. each disposition across activities
2. particular combinations of dispositions
3. ‘cosmopolitanism’
4. ‘cosmopolitanism’ by activities
5. each disposition across all data.
6. each disposition across markers
7. markers by activities
I compared the results of these queries with my focal participants’ documents, my
reflective memos, and my personal experiences with them for interpretation. I utilized
triangulation (Glesne, 2016; Lincoln & Guba, 1985) to confirm or disconfirm my
interpretations. I used mind-mapping (Glesne, 2016) to draw pictures that aided in
making further connections and understandings. This process for analyzing data was
appropriate for addressing my research questions.
Because of the dearth of studies set in additional-language classrooms, it is not
known how a cosmopolitan framing may develop cosmopolitan perspectives in students
in an additional-language class. My first research question addressed this gap in the
literature: while analyzing data, I looked specifically for instances when students
connected cosmopolitan perspectives to class activities. To address the second research
question, I analyzed interview transcripts, students’ reflections and diaries to determine
which constructs of cosmopolitanism—specifically global identities, global competence,
openness and responsibility to others--students displayed and in what ways they
displayed them. My study sought to explore how SPAN 121 might be designed to foster
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and support students’ development of cosmopolitan perspectives. Specifically, I explored
how English-speaking students might demonstrate cosmopolitan perspectives in response
to activities engaging them in Spanish with global Spanish speakers as part of their
undergraduate, intermediate Spanish-language class. In the previous section, I described
the research design of the current study. In the next section, I explain how I approached
trustworthiness in my study.
Trustworthiness
Here, I address my measures for increasing my study’s trustworthiness. To
contribute to the trustworthiness of my study, I utilized triangulation and multiple
participants, member checking on collected data, debriefing with peers and supervisors,
negative case analysis, monitoring of subjectivity, and an audit trail (Glesne, 2016;
Lincoln & Guba, 1985). I collected multiple forms of data to validate claims, or
triangulation, from multiple participants who brought varied life experiences and
perspectives. I engaged in member checking (Glesne, 2016) for clarity in my
understandings and transparency in the process through providing focal participants
copies of all of their documents, encouraging participants to reflect on what they shared
in diaries, reflections, and interviews. I also checked my own understandings of the data
with participants, and I asked questions for clarification. I met with my advisor to discuss
my progress with the study and initial understandings, and I utilized a critical friend
(Samaras & Roberts, 2011) for reflection, questioning, and discussion. I wrote extensive
memos to record my thoughts and questions, and the memos serve as part of my audit
trail for how I decided on including and excluding codes. I engaged in a rigorous coding
process, and I utilized a second coder for verification of my findings. I consulted with
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both my critical friend and my advisor on my findings and discussion. All of these
measures contributed to increasing the trustworthiness of my study. In the following
section, I address ethical considerations.
Ethics
In this section, I discuss ethical considerations of my study. My research project
was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the University of South
Carolina. All students enrolled in my two sections of SPAN 121 were invited to
participate. Although IRB determined that my study was exempt, I still requested
permission to have their work included in my project. (See Appendix D for IRB
Approval letter and Student Consent to Participate.) I made clear that they were not
required to participate, they were free to discontinue participation at any time, and I
assured them that I would use a pseudonym to protect their identities. Their participation
or abstention did not affect their grade in the course. Unit Reflections, Final Reflections
and weekly diary entries were submitted via the university’s online course management
system that requires dual-factor authentication. Interview videos and transcripts were
kept on a password-locked external drive accessed through a password-locked laptop.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the laptop and external drive were kept in my locked
home-office of the researcher. Participants were assigned a code, and only I knew which
focal participant was assigned to each code; not even my critical friend or advisor knew.
As I collected data, I used only their codes when labeling files, etc. That code was turned
into a pseudonym, and any references to specific or possibly identifying details have been
removed. In the following section, I consider my researcher reflexivity.
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Researcher Reflexivity
This section explains how my background, experiences, and ideas may have
influenced my research. To some degree, I was able to assume an emic approach to my
study. My students brought a wide variety of backgrounds, beliefs and experiences to my
classes. My lived experiences have positioned me to be able to share and connect with
my students in sometimes contrasting ways. My past life enabled me to connect with
students who have more modest means, and my present enabled me to connect with those
who have similar privileges.
For example, at my students’ age, my family and I did not have much money. I
lived in a conservative small town that followed Christian norms. My global experiences
were very limited: I had traveled to Germany once, but I had never lived anywhere other
than my hometown and my college town; both towns were in the same state. Some
students may have backgrounds that were very similar to mine, or they shared one or two
particular experiences.
At the time of the study, my family was financially much more comfortable. I
lived in a more metropolitan city, and I interacted with people who brought a variety of
beliefs. I had the opportunity to travel extensively, and I had lived in Spain and Peru.
From this perspective, I was able to model that knowing Spanish and having
cosmopolitan perspectives are new ways to learn more and offer new opportunities.
Having both perspectives was helpful to me as an educator to connect with my students.
It also allowed me to connect with my focal participants—one participant also comes
from a family with more financial resources, although the other two did not. We all,
however, come from a place of privilege as white women whose understanding of
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globality is primarily in line with the less critical—and arguably more superficial—
notions of those who travel or relocate by choice—for adventure, education, or career
opportunities.
Additionally, like many of my students, I am from an immigrant family: my
grandmother immigrated with my mother from Germany to the United States in the mid-
1950s. Furthermore, my best friend as I grew up was deaf. (She still is deaf, but we are no
longer best friends.) As I learned to speak as a child, I also learned American Sign
Language to communicate with my friend. My childhood was a swirl of English, ASL,
and German. In this sense, a cosmopolitan perspective came easily to me, and I was able
to highlight that fact with students who also brought multiple communicative repertoires.
On the other hand, like my students, I learned Spanish as a student in a classroom.
I was fortunate to study abroad for a semester, but no one else in my family spoke
Spanish. Students appreciated when I shared my experiences learning Spanish. They
appreciated when I acknowledged that learning another language can be difficult, and
they told me that I served as a model proving they could do it, too. Students especially
liked my stories about communication gaffes or when I pushed myself to explore new
things. A perennial student favorite was a series of videos I made when trying foods
common in Peru but not South Carolina. For example, they watched me initially hesitate
to eat cuy (guinea pig) followed by an openness to trying it and my changed perspectives
on eating cuy as part of a meal. Through videos documenting my own developing
dispositions, they saw that cosmopolitan perspectives are developed and not inherent.
At the time of the study, there had been very few situations where I felt like I had
very different experiences than my students: I am not a person of color nor am I a
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member of the LGBTQ+ community. I considered myself an engaged ally of both of
these groups, but I recognized that my lived experience was vastly different than theirs.
For example, I had not faced legal discrimination nor feared for my safety and wellbeing
as those communities continuously must. Furthermore, I am not male, and I am not
conservative. I did not find it difficult to connect with male-identifying students solely
due to their gender, but I recognized that our experiences were very different. I had many
students who expressed very conservative opinions in my career, but I did not have any
negative experiences or issues serving as their instructor. Theories of cosmopolitanism
appealed to me because of its openness to and responsibility for others. In my experience,
cosmopolitan perspectives starkly contradict conservative views.
Another important consideration was my dual positions of instructor and
researcher. Both the study and the course were constructed around my understandings of
cosmopolitanism and each of the focal dispositions. Thus, how cosmopolitanism was
presented in class, discussed during the interviews, and analyzed in the data are all
significantly influenced by my own understandings. My dual role also presented a power
imbalance. Participants may have wanted to please me by responding in ways they
thought I wanted, or they may have feared retaliation for saying or doing something
displeasing to me. This power imbalance is especially important when considering that
my findings are based on students’ reports of their behaviors, although some
demonstrations were noted during interviews. I have to trust that my students did what
they said. In both roles, I recognized that I must build and maintain relationships with
students, especially focal participants, so that they could trust me and share their honest
views. I did not allow my relationship with focal participants to affect their grades, either
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positively or negatively. I did not allow focal participants’ academics to affect how I
viewed the data.
Overall, my priority was to collect data that reflected students’ experiences
without allowing either my personal beliefs or my role as their instructor to influence
how I interpreted data. I was intentional in keeping these roles as separate as possible.
Although I engaged in several steps to mitigate my own subjectivity—such as
participating in a rigorous dissertation proposal defense, meeting with my advisor to
discuss my progress with the study and initial understandings, utilizing a critical friend
(Samaras & Roberts, 2011), engaging in a rigorous coding process, and utilizing a second
coder for verification of my findings—it is still likely that some parts of my own
subjectivities are reflected in my findings and discussion. In the following section, I
summarize this chapter.
Summary
In my study, I intentionally framed intermediate-level Spanish-language classes in
everyday cosmopolitan perspectives and actions that guide day-to-day life. I embedded
activities and experiences that overlap how researchers propose cultivating participants’
cosmopolitan perspectives and how researchers of language acquisition propose students
learn or acquire additional languages. Specifically, I utilized a global cosmopolitan
framing of my SPAN 121 curricula, direct, one-to-one intercultural interactions via
TalkAbroad conversations with global Spanish speakers as well as intercultural
interactions through social media via Opciones activities.
I did so to explore how SPAN 121 might be designed to foster and support
students’ development of cosmopolitan perspectives. Specifically, I explored how
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English-speaking students might demonstrate cosmopolitan perspectives in response to
activities engaging them in Spanish with global Spanish speakers as part of their
undergraduate, intermediate Spanish-language class. I engaged in teacher research to gain
insight into practices that may improve teaching and learning (Henderson, Meier, Perry &
Strommel, 2012). My study used qualitative methods to clarify understanding of a
phenomenon (Merriam, 1998) through the contextualizing benefits of multiple data
sources and the flexibility of qualitative methods’ emergent nature (Dornyei, 2016;
Glesne, 2016). I utilized case study (Stake 2006), selecting my SPAN 121 over the course
of the fall 2020 semester, but within this case, I utilized data from three focal participants
students.
In this chapter, I reviewed the purpose of my study and research questions that
guided my research. I explained my reasons for choosing a qualitative methodology and
teacher action research with a case study in particular. I described the setting,
participants, and specifics of framing a SPAN 121 class in cosmopolitan perspectives. I
discussed my types of data sources, as well as how I collected and analyzed data. I also
addressed issues of trustworthiness, ethics, and researcher reflexivity. In the next chapter,
I discuss my findings.
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CHAPTER 5
SPAN 121 ACTIVITIES AND PARTICIPANTS' COSMOPOLITAN
PERSPECTIVES
The purpose of this study was to explore how SPAN 121 might be designed to
foster and support students’ development of cosmopolitan perspectives. Cosmopolitan
stances include dispositions of responsible global citizens engaged in open, respectful,
and reflective dialogue across personal, geographic, and identity boundaries to learn
about themselves and the world (Appiah, 2006; De Costa, 2014; Delanty, 2006; Hansen,
2010; Hawkins, 2014; Hull & Stornaioulo, 2010; Wahlström, 2014). I explored how
English-speaking students might demonstrate cosmopolitan perspectives in response to
activities engaging them in Spanish with global Spanish speakers as part of their
undergraduate, intermediate Spanish-language class. My first research question
questioned how SPAN 121 students demonstrated cosmopolitan perspectives in response
to activities and experiences embedded in the course. Specifically, what combinations of
markers of dispositions of global identity, global competence, openness, and
responsibility to others did students demonstrate? Markers are actions, reactions,
characteristics, or perspectives generally associated with particular dispositions. These
markers were gathered from literature on theories of cosmopolitanism, how participants
in studies of cosmopolitanism were described as demonstrating cosmopolitan
perspectives, and from my own participants through open and in vivo (Saldaña, 2014)
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coding. I sought participants’ demonstrations or descriptions of their markers of these
dispositions, utilizing them as an heuristic for making cosmopolitan perspectives more
visible while acknowledging that they do not encapsulate all dispositions contributing to
cosmopolitan stances.
I examined students’ diary entries, written reflections and interview responses for
descriptions of their engagement with each activity or experience. I relied on students’
responses to my oral and written questions because I was not able to observe and analyze
their interactions. TalkAbroad conversations, Opciones social media interactions, and
MindTap academic activities scaffolded students’ languaging practices in Spanish while
engaging them with cosmopolitan perspectives. See Appendices A and B for examples of
each of these activities. I also examined their responses to a global cosmopolitan framing
of SPAN 121 that students often referenced as “This Class.” I sought moments when
participants demonstrated markers of multiple focal dispositions that worked in concert to
reflect cosmopolitan stances in response to SPAN 121 activities and experiences
specifically. I determined that:
1. I could not determine whether activities in SPAN 121 developed students’
cosmopolitan perspectives.
2. Participants most often demonstrated markers of cosmopolitan dispositions in
response to SPAN 121 activities that closely aligned with their personal
values and experiences.
3. Some activities only fostered demonstrations of individual dispositions but did
not significantly foster demonstrations of cosmopolitan perspectives.
4. Some activities elicited problematic responses.
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Even though these participants had similar coursework experiences, their personal
experiences and values significantly affected how they each engaged with and
demonstrated markers of focal dispositions and cosmopolitan perspectives.
In this chapter, I first briefly explain why I could not determine whether SPAN
121 developed students’ cosmopolitan perspectives. Then I discuss my other findings,
activity by activity.
Development?
Although my teacher action research project was driven by a desire to create a
curriculum that might develop students’ cosmopolitan perspectives, I have found that I
cannot determine whether these activities contributed to the development of those
perspectives. While qualitative inquiry cannot imply causation (Glesne, 2016), my data
analysis was incomplete and I did not have sufficient types of data to support claims
about students’ cosmopolitan development. However, my other findings support salient
trends in students’ demonstrations of cosmopolitan perspectives. I will address these
points in more detail in Chapter Eight, when I discuss my study’s conclusions and
limitations.
In the next section, I discuss my findings, activity by activity. I begin each section
with a brief description of the activity and describe participants’ overall responses to it.
Then I focus on the focal participant who most often responded to those activities with
cosmopolitan perspectives. Finally, I describe whether participants grappled with
activities. I first explore TalkAbroad conversations followed by Opciones social media
interactions and then MindTap academic activities. Then I introduce and explore “This
Class” and “Everyday Life.” Finally, I offer my conclusions.
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TalkAbroad
TalkAbroad is a website that connected SPAN 121 students with trained
conversation partners to practice synchronous, interpersonal speaking skills. Students
conversed with a global Spanish speaker during the final week of each of the four units in
SPAN 121. Students’ conversations were guided by the unit’s essential questions.
Furthermore, students sought to determine what practices and perspectives they shared
and which differed between students and their TalkAbroad partners. All three participants
enjoyed TalkAbroad conversations. Steph and Lisa appreciated that the conversations
were pleasant and described believing that these “actual” conversations were more
valuable than typical coursework. Linda most often demonstrated cosmopolitan
perspectives in response to her TalkAbroad conversations. See Table 5.1 for a summary
or participants’ responses to TalkAbroad.
Table 5.1 Summary of Participants’ Responses to Talk Abroad
TalkAbroad
Positive responses
Conversations were “nice”, having
“actual” conversations gave meaning to
the assignment.
Particularly resonated with [participant
name] because…
Linda; valued personal relationships
Combinations of dispositions that
contribute to cosmopolitan stances
openness, global competence and
responsibility to others
Problematic responses
None
Steph’s and Lisa’s TalkAbroad Conversations
Steph stated that she enjoyed TalkAbroad conversations more than the other
activities in class. TalkAbroad conversations appealed to Steph because they “felt […]
authentic and the people were all so nice and understanding” (Reflection Four). Steph
enjoyed the “nice” conversations with global Spanish speakers because they were
pleasant experiences. Steph also emphasized that the conversations “felt […] authentic”
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to her because “you're actually talking to someone else. So, it's--you're not trying to
waste their time. And you're actually trying to get a meaningful conversation out of it”
(Interview Three). Steph repeatedly used the term ‘actually’ to validate TalkAbroad
conversations. Steph valued action, and during these assignments, she was “actually”
communicating with global Spanish speakers.
Lisa also valued these conversations for similar reasons. She described
appreciating TalkAbroad conversations because “it was nice to talk with other
individuals” (Reflection Four) instead of creating individual recordings for homework.
Lisa echoed Steph’s use of “actually” to validate her conversations. Lisa explained that
she and her partners “weren't just having a conversation for the sake of sport--we were
actually communicating.” Direct interactions via TalkAbroad conversations with global
Spanish speakers “were the best way to actually practice useful engagements with
Spanish speaking individuals” (Lisa, Interview Three) and provided purpose for language
practice.
For Steph and Lisa, activities on MindTap or conversations with classmates were
“just assignments in school” (Steph, Interview Three) that positioned them as Spanish-
language students. ‘Actual’ conversations, however, positioned Steph and Lisa as
Spanish speakers because they were “actually communicating” and having “meaningful
conversations” with global Spanish speakers.
Linda’s Demonstrations of Cosmopolitan Perspectives in Response to TalkAbroad
Conversations
Upon analyzing my data closely, I found that participants demonstrated
cosmopolitan perspectives in response to multiple SPAN 121 activities. However, they
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most often displayed cosmopolitan perspectives in relation to activities that closely
aligned with their personal values and experiences. Perhaps because she valued personal
relationships, Linda most often demonstrated cosmopolitan stances in response to one-
on-one TalkAbroad conversations. Although she reported enjoying Opciones, MindTap,
and in-class activities, Linda preferred personal connections afforded by conversation
practice “with people who actually live in another country and experience a unique
culture on a daily basis” (Reflection Four). She reported feeling like she learned more
about cultural practices and perspectives through conversations because “through the
TalkAbroad conversations--I was able to kind of, um…It allowed me to connect more to
their lives.” Linda routinely demonstrated cosmopolitan perspectives in response to her
TalkAbroad conversations with global Spanish speakers.
For example, Linda reported that she could “relate to” her partner and “connect
more to their lives” during her Unit Two TalkAbroad conversation. While this
conversation was designed to focus on travel practices, but Linda found another aspect of
the conversation more salient. She reported:
And I really got to understand, like…the music that they listened to--and there's
one woman, she listens to, like, the same music that we really listen to here. And,
um, she'll like hang with all her friends, she likes to be outside and do all these
things--the same things that we enjoy doing. (Interview Two)
Although she and her TalkAbroad partner were assigned to discuss travel and tourism,
Linda focused her reflections on everyday connections with her partner: they listened to
the same music, they both hung out with friends, and they both spent time outside. These
similarities in everyday moments excited Linda.
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Linda also valued differences she encountered and described how these
conversations helped her to understand cultural practices and perspectives better. Linda
reflected on a separate TalkAbroad conversation:
[Our] similarities demonstrate how communities are much more alike than we
first expect. The differences are constructive as well. Our two living
arrangements are different but we enjoy the things we can do in each place and
we call our cities home. (Reflection Three)
As I detailed below, in both excerpts, Linda demonstrated dispositions of openness and
global competence. Linda’s dispositions entailed finding small moments of “everyday
cosmopolitanism” (Hull & Stornaioulo, 2014) during these conversations.
Linda displayed openness through markers of inquiry and hospitality in both
excerpts. Linda demonstrated inquiry by exploring her partners’ practices and
perspectives regarding recreational activities and communities during her conversations.
She described how she demonstrated hospitality by fostering a communal energy with her
partners during her reflections. In the first excerpt, she fostered commonality by matching
similarities during their conversation; in the second, she repeatedly used the communal
pronoun “we” even when describing differences.
In both excerpts, Linda also demonstrated global competence through markers of
using an additional language and connecting information. Linda used an additional
language to navigate these conversations in Spanish. Although she completed these
conversations in Spanish for the class assignment, there were students who spoke
primarily in English to their partners and others who opted not to participate in the
conversations. Linda also demonstrated her global competence by connecting information
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about recreation activities and community life across their respective communities and
cultures. She connected information she learned about her partners’ lives to her prior
knowledge to create new understandings.
Another way Linda responded to TalkAbroad conversations with cosmopolitan
stances occurred when Linda revealed an awareness about the nature of languages and
their influence on how she could “relate to” her partners and “connect more to their
lives”. To clarify why TalkAbroad conversations were her favorite activity in SPAN 121,
she explained, “I was able to connect with these people better mainly due to the fact that I
could speak their native language” (Interview Three). To Linda, communicating in
Spanish with global Spanish speakers improved her ability to “connect” with them. She
believed conversation in Spanish improved personal connections because her
conversation partners “were more comfortable” (Interview Three) She continued “I think
that whenever you learn any new language, I think that not only can you better
communicate with those people, I think that they trust you more” (Interview Three). Like
the students in Hull, Stornaioulo, and Sahni (2010) who demonstrated small moments of
reaching out to communicate with and welcome others into conversation, Linda
demonstrated how she connected comfort, languages and trust for improved
communication.
In this conversation, Linda displayed cosmopolitan perspectives through
demonstrations of openness, global competence, and responsibility to others. She
demonstrated a disposition of global competence by using additional languages to
connect with global Spanish speakers. Linda also demonstrated a disposition of openness
through the marker of hospitality, to communicate with and welcome global others into
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dialogue with her. She demonstrated how communicating in others’ preferred languages
may improve interactions and build better relationships (Douglas Fir Group, 2016;
Schrum & Glisan, 2016). Linda also displayed an disposition of responsibility to others
by respecting the importance of learning from people in languages they prefer to use. Her
developing dispositions of global competence, openness and responsibility to others
worked in concert to demonstrate cosmopolitan perspectives.
TalkAbroad conversations afforded Linda multiple opportunities to engage in
open, respectful, and reflective dialogue across personal, geographic, and identity
boundaries to learn about herself and the world (Appiah, 2006; De Costa, 2014; Delanty,
2006; Hansen, 2010; Hawkins, 2014; Hull & Stornaioulo, 2010; Wahlström, 2014). As
described in Chapter Four, Linda valued relationships built on trust, and she described
feeling like she could “connect” with her partners who could “trust” her. Linda
demonstrated developing dispositions of openness, global competence and responsibility
to others, although these conversations did not appear to develop a disposition of global
identity in Linda. While these conversations were one part of an overall cosmopolitan
framing of her SPAN 121 course, Linda most often displayed cosmopolitan perspectives
in response to them.
Opciones
Opciones—the Spanish word for Options—were a culminating end-of-unit
assignment. I created three online options for engaging students with global Spanish
speakers and communities. Students then chose among those activities and reflected on
what they learned about themselves and global others in the process. For all three options,
students were required to engage with global Spanish-speakers by directly tagging
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(including @ with their username) or responding to someone (i.e., replying to a Tweet or
Instagram comment). See Appendix B for an example and Table 5.2 for a summary of
focal participants’ responses to Opciones.
Table 5.2 Summary of Participants’ Responses to Opciones
Opciones
Positive responses
Lisa enjoyed the continuity of interaction
past initial engagement and new pathways
to communicate with Spanish speakers.
Particularly resonated with
[participant name] because…
None
Combinations of dispositions that
contribute to cosmopolitan stances
No combinations—only individual
dispositions
Problematic responses
Steph feared others’ judgment of her
language usage; Linda, Steph and Lisa
disliked the timing of when they were
assigned.
How Participants Engaged with Opciones
Linda rarely mentioned Opciones in her interviews, diaries, and reflections. She
appeared to view these social media accounts as static sources of information rather than
dynamic opportunities for engagement. For example, she described Opciones by saying,
“I thought that I was able to learn more and maybe gain a little bit more understanding
about other people through the videos or the links” (Interview Three). In this example
and across the study, Linda reported information she learned by looking at the webpages,
but she did not reflect on interactions with global Spanish speakers.
Steph often described discomfort with social media interactions in Opciones in
her Reflections. As I will describe in more detail in Chapter Six, Steph worried that
global Spanish speakers would notice and judge her inaccuracies. After reading her Unit
Two Reflections, I inquired why these activities made her uncomfortable. She mimicked
how she feared someone might think while reading her writing, saying “ ‘Oh, they
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spelled this wrong.’ Or like, ‘They spelled that wrong’” (Interview Two). She described
being fearful that global Spanish speakers might read what she had written and point out
her mistakes. As described in the following chapter, however, Steph did report building
confidence in social media interactions across the semester.
In contrast, Lisa liked communicating in Spanish with global Spanish speakers
through Opciones “because there's a continuation of interaction past that [initial posting]”
(Interview Three). She continued by describing how she had started to access social
media accounts that included Spanish-language content. Lisa enjoyed how these sites
afforded new opportunities for additional practice in Spanish. She said “I think
[communicating in Spanish via social media] is interesting because I didn't realize there
are alternative ways for me to regularly engage in Spanish through my regular social
media interactions” (Reflection One). While she reported using Spanish regularly in her
volunteer position, here Lisa recognized additional avenues for Spanish-language
interaction.
Limited Cosmopolitan Perspectives
After analyzing my data, I did not find specific or salient instances of participants
demonstrating cosmopolitan perspectives in response to Opciones activities. As described
in my theoretical framework, cosmopolitan perspectives are demonstrated through
varying combinations of focal dispositions because theories of cosmopolitanism are
comprised of multiple qualities, attributes, dispositions, and characteristics, Linda, Steph
and Lisa often lumped TalkAbroad and Opciones together as they reflected on “actual”
interactions with “real” Spanish speakers. However, there were no instances of
Opciones—or a specific activity choice within Opciones—to which the participants
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responded with multiple dispositions working in concert to demonstrate cosmopolitan
stances.
Linda, Steph, and Lisa may not have engaged with Opciones because they
described them as somewhat problematic for reasons unrelated to the activities
themselves. Linda stated that Opciones least contributed to her cosmopolitan stances. She
said:
Because it was more work. Um, and it would always be during the exam week
that we would have. So maybe if it wasn't during that same period, um, where I'm
already studying stuff, I probably would have enjoyed it more. (Interview Three)
Lisa and Steph mentioned similar objections. Lisa stated “It's not that I don't care about
[Opciones]. It's just that it's at the end [of the unit].” (Interview Two) Steph agreed and
suggested that students may get more out of Opciones activities by “bringing more of
those lessons in the class” (Interview Two). They agreed that the timing of Opciones due
dates influenced how they did or did not engage with the activities.
Although focal participants reported problems with Opciones, Linda, Steph and
Lisa demonstrated markers of singular focal dispositions in response to Opciones
activities. In Chapter Seven of this dissertation, we will see how Opciones activities
contributed to Linda’s disposition of global competence through connecting information.
They contributed to Steph’s disposition of global identity through participating in
communities and to her global competence through building communicative confidence.
Opciones contributed to Lisa’s global competence through using additional languages.
While Opciones did not appear to elicit cosmopolitan stances from the participants, these
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activities did appear to support the development of individual dispositions that may have
contributed to participants’ overall cosmopolitan perspectives.
MindTap
MindTap activities were textbook-supplied activities that engaged students with
cultural perspectives and practices while practicing communicative skills. Students
considered and discussed products, practices and perspectives related to focal cultures to
find connections and make comparisons. To clarify: it is not this particular textbook and
MindTap/textbook-supplied activities that I believe may have contributed to
cosmopolitan perspectives but the types of activities provided. If my textbook had not
supplied these activities, I would have found or created similar ones. In this sense,
MindTap activities represented static activities through which students learned about
Spanish-speaking cultures and communities without engaging in interactions with those
cultures and communities. See Appendix A for examples and Table 5.3 for a summary of
participants’ response to MindTap.
Table 5.3 Summary of Participants’ Responses to MindTap
MindTap
Positive responses
Introduced communicative and cultural
content necessary for other activities;
Linda, Steph and Lisa enjoyed learning
cultural content
Particularly resonated with
[participant name] because…
None
Combinations of dispositions that
contribute to cosmopolitan stances
No combinations—only individual
dispositions
Problematic responses
Steph and Lisa described them as
“cheesy”; Linda idealized other cultures
based on inaccurate understandings
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How Participants Engaged with MindTap
Steph found MindTap activities to be “cheesy” (Interview Three), because many
activities “seem staged” and she questioned whether “people actually talk like this”
(Interview Two). To Steph, MindTap utilized pedagogical tools to support students’
communicative skills, such as “staged” conversations about “cheesy” topics that engaged
focal vocabulary and grammatical structures. Although Steph found many activities to be
inauthentic, she conceded that she “totally understood” why MindTap made the
adjustments that she criticized. She said, “We're trying to learn the language--they
[MindTap ‘characters’] wouldn't have just, like, an actual conversation” (Interview
Two).
Steph also reported enjoying the videos about focal countries, cultures and
communities provided by MindTap. As I described in Chapter Four, Steph suffered from
wanderlust and was ready to travel the globe. As she reflected on the videos, she seemed
to be adding each new location to her growing global itinerary. Lisa described “enjoying
the different cultural exposures” (Reflections One) she encountered via MindTap, and
Linda reported similar opinions in her Reflections, as well. As I describe in the next
section, Linda’s engagement with MindTap activities both contributed to her disposition
of global competence and how she grappled with cosmopolitan stances.
Limits of MindTap
During my study, Linda consistently referenced how important to her it is to be a
kind and trustworthy person who treats others respectfully. Furthermore, as a dedicated
student, she took seriously my instructions to consider how cultural perspectives inform
cultural practices. As a result, she often adopted “generous interpretive stances" (Hull &
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Stornaioulo, 2014, p. 92) when encountering global differences. It is likely that her kind,
respectful nature combined with her efforts to understand underlying perspectives
produced cosmopolitan rose-colored glasses that transformed her cosmopolitan stances
into inaccurate idolization.
A generous perception of newly-encountered cultural practices is evident in her
response to different family dynamics. For example, Linda learned that, in many Spanish-
speaking communities, familial relationships are highly valued, including those with
extended family members. In this dynamic, family members are routinely involved in
each other’s lives. For example, extended family members may play a significant role in
raising children. American students often view this practice positively. However, Linda
seized on this information and extrapolated her thoughts with an almost-idolizing
reverence. Linda referenced these cultural perspectives in her Unit Two Reflections.
When I asked her during an interview about what most interested her from the class, she
spoke at length:
Then the last thing that I thought was really interesting and really significant is
going back to the family part, how the entire family, even the extended family
plays a major role in raising the kids. And so a lot of times in America, people
have a harder time, especially, like, impoverished people who have maybe one-
parent homes and they have--there's only one parent [so] it's kind of hard for them
to work or it's a concern for them—what they're going to do with their kids. And I
feel like in their [culture]—in, like, Spanish culture and in these other, like, Latin
American countries, they have less of that worry because they know that the aunts
or uncles or cousins are going to help take care of those kids. I feel like money's
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not ever a concern either, because I think that if they need help […] they know
that that help will be there if they need it. (Interview Two)
Linda attempted to demonstrate her cosmopolitan dispositions but arrived at an incorrect
understanding. Linda made an effort to connect information by comparing an idealized
understanding of this practice with what she presented as American cultural practices and
perspectives regarding family. She incorrectly determined that with an involved extended
family, Spanish-speaking communities have fewer money woes.
Linda followed a similar path when writing about the Guatemalan tradition of
creating barriletes, or traditional giant, colorful kites in her Unit Three Reflections.
Through her idealized understandings, she determined that Guatemalans do not require
money to have fun and, as a result, were happier than Americans. While these are
flattering misunderstandings of the cultures and communities she studied—and better
than unsubstantiated negative assumptions—they are nonetheless inaccurate.
Based on my initial codebook, believing inaccurate information was a rejection of
global competence and cosmopolitan stances. When I envisioned such instances prior to
the study, I assumed the actions would be intentional and the misinformation would be
negative. For example, I anticipated that some students might bring nationalist
perspectives to the course. Linda, and the handful of other students who idealized other
cultures and communities based on inaccurate understandings, challenged my
understandings of the ways in which dispositions and cosmopolitan stances might be
demonstrated.
Like Opciones activities, Linda, Steph and Lisa did not appear to demonstrate
combinations of focal dispositions that contributed to cosmopolitan perspectives in
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response to MindTap activities specifically. However, participants demonstrated
individual focal dispositions, as described in Chapter Seven. Furthermore, MindTap
activities introduced participants to communicative content and cultural practices and
perspectives necessary for TalkAbroad conversations and Opciones assignments. As I
will describe in more detail in Chapter Seven, the communicative content introduced in
MindTap contributed to participating in communities, marking Steph and Lisa’s global
identities. It also contributed to building communicative confidence in Steph and using
additional languages for Lisa as they developed a disposition of global competence.
Cultural content from MindTap contributed to Steph and Lisa’s potential and
future selves as well as Linda’s and Lisa’s global and local perspectives, marking
dispositions of global identities. Linda utilized cultural information from MindTap to
connect information, marking her developing global competence—although this is also
an area with which she struggled. In addition, it contributed to demonstrating an
disposition of openness through embracing differences and embracing plurality, as well
as in the respect and obligation marking Linda, Steph, and Lisa’s developing dispositions
of responsibility to others.
“This Class”
As described in my methods chapter, I focused my analysis on data collected from
my three focal participants. However, I collected data via Unit Reflections from all
SPAN 121 students enrolled in my classes during the study. Across the semester, I
utilized a global cosmopolitan framing (Cloete, Dinesh, Hazou, & Matchett, 2015;
Stornaioulo & Thomas, 2018; DeJaynes, 2015; Crosbie, 2014; Boni, MacDonald, &
Peris, 2012) of my SPAN 121 curricula through the intentional introduction of
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cosmopolitan ideals and stances, references to these ideas during in-class discussion and
within the instructions to activities.
An intriguing finding that emerged from the full data set was students’ attribution
of developing cosmopolitan stances to “this class” as a whole or general entity. While I
anticipated that TalkAbroad conversations and Opciones would prompt demonstrations
of cosmopolitan perspectives, I did not anticipate the saliency of the global cosmopolitan
framing. Although specific activity names were listed in the Reflection prompts that I
provided, many students intentionally used phrases including “this class,” “this course,”
or “SPAN 121” to encompass multiple aspects of the course rather than naming a specific
activity. Using “this class”, “this course”, or “SPAN 121” as umbrella terms, students
credited and its activities as positively impacting their worldviews. Below are examples
from other participants as written in their Unit Reflections:
Ginger: I do think that my communicative skills are improving, this class allowed
me to freshen up on my vocabulary skills and all of the speaking activities
allowed me to gain practice and confidence in my speaking abilities.
Birdie: In this class I was definitely able to learn about an [and] engage with
different cultures, but I think that this is just the beginning for me.
Erik: This course forced me to look outside my bubble and see other cultures and
take the time to recognize them and learn about them.
Larry: I am someone who has respect for and loves to learn and see other cultures
and hear what they have to say. That is why I enjoy this class so much because
one day I will be able to engage with a whole other part of the world.
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Seth: I firmly believe that in this Spanish class, I have connected more with the
global identity of Spanish speakers and more.
Taina: After taking this course, I do feel like I have a global identity now. I like
that we have the ability to connect with people all over the world.
Multiple students referenced This Class while describing their perceived development of
focal dispositions. Ginger referenced how she built confidence in her communicative
abilities, while Birdie and Erik referenced learning more other cultures and communities.
Ginger, Birdie and Erik credit This Class with developing dispositions of global
competence. Larry described learning more about other cultures, but he also indicated
that he might “engage with a whole other part of the world”. Engaging with global others
is a form of participating in global communities, which marked an global identity. Seth
and Taina also described how This Class “connected” them more to global identities.
These students’ reflections show that intentionally framing SPAN 121 in cosmopolitan
perspectives was as salient to students as activities like TalkAbroad or Opciones that
directly engaged them with global Spanish speakers. See Table 5.4 for a summary of
focal participants’ responses to This Class.
Table 5.4 Summary of Participants’ Responses to This Class
“This Class”
Positive responses
Framing SPAN 121 in cosmopolitan ideals
was salient to students; demonstrated
emergent nature of Steph’s cosmopolitan
stances
Particularly resonated with
[participant name] because…
Steph; prior negative Spanish experiences and
a return-on-investment mindset
Combinations of dispositions that
contribute to cosmopolitan stances
openness and global competence
Problematic responses
Making comparisons felt divisive to Steph,
and she questioned validity of dispositions
without actual experiences; Lisa’s
cosmopolitan stances already more advanced
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How Linda and Lisa Engaged With This Class
Although many SPAN 121 students referenced This Class as a particular and
intentional reference, neither Linda nor Lisa did. As I will describe in more detail in
Chapter Six, one of Linda’s strengths was specificity. She was able to connect
information encountered during SPAN 121 in specific ways—either across cultures or to
her own thoughts and feelings—to create new understandings and demonstrate a
disposition of global competence. Linda practiced this same level of specificity when
reflecting on the work she did in SPAN 121 by naming specific activities in her
Reflections and interviews. As a senior applying for medical school, Lisa focused on
experiences outside of This Class. Steph, however, demonstrated cosmopolitan
perspectives in response to This Class through combinations of displays of openness and
global competence.
Steph’s Cosmopolitan Perspectives in Response to This Class
Of the three focal students, I only documented salient responses to This Class
from Steph. Steph likely responded to This Class positively because of her prior negative
experiences in Spanish-language courses and her return-on-investment mindset. In
Steph’s previous language courses, earning desirable grades required too much
investment compared to how little she believed she benefitted from her work. Steph
described past language courses as “book work.” This Class, however, invited exploring
communities and cultures, participating in global interactions, and having “real”
experiences. These activities framed in cosmopolitan ideals added value to the course.
She described the value she saw in the course, saying:
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You're not just learning about how to speak the language. You're not just learning
about another language. You're learning about the people, the culture, everything-
-where the language comes from and how it's used. And I feel like that just makes
people appreciate it more and just gives them the drive to speak a little bit more.
(Interview Two)
To Steph, investing energy into SPAN 121 offered greater returns than courses that
focused only on language. A return-on-investment mindset runs contrary to cosmopolitan
ideals, however it serves as a kind of conduit through which Steph could move past a
focus on the linguistics of Spanish and demonstrate dispositions of openness and global
competence. These new perspectives on learning “the language” marked possible
dispositions of openness to learning Spanish and engaging with global Spanish speakers.
They also marked an openness to learning about global Spanish speakers’ cultural
practices and perspectives. Steph linked “learning about another language” with “the
people, the culture, everything--where the language comes from and how it is used.”
Steph emphasized how learning Spanish also afforded opportunities to explore new
cultural understandings that reflected an cosmopolitan perspective.
Steph continued, “It [This Class] makes it [learning Spanish] a little bit more real.
I'm not just learning a language--I'm learning about other people. This language is spoken
in other countries; other people use this.” (Interview Two). Steph again emphasized her
disposition of openness to “learning about other people” and embracing differences. She
also focused on how she might develop her disposition of global competence by using
additional languages that “other people use”. Steph’s demonstrations of openness and
global competence contributed to cosmopolitan perspective.
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We witness the emergent nature of cosmopolitan stances (Compton-Lilly &
Hawkins, in preparation; Campano & Ghiso, 2011; Rizvi & Beech, 2017) as we compare
Steph’s initial perspectives on languages, cultures and communities with perspectives
voiced in her final interview. In her first interview, Steph described prioritizing a
willingness to immerse herself in other cultures over learning additional languages. Steph
seemed to consider openness as sufficient for successful interactions with global others.
After a semester in SPAN 121 framed in cosmopolitan ideals, her perspectives have
changed.
I’ve never not been accepting of different ways, but I—I understand that more
[through] learning the language and watching the videos about your foods and
everything [we do in class]. It’s—I can do more than just accept; I can actually
understand their culture and language and everything else in a better sense. So I
feel like that definitely has helped me become more cosmopolitan. (Interview
Three)
Whereas she initially believed her openness to travel and immersing herself in other
cultures was sufficient, through This Class, she recognized her openness is only a starting
point. Although she was open to embracing differences or embracing plurality by “just
accept[ing]” others, Steph explained that This Class showed her that she could “do
more.” In this statement, Steph appeared to position passive acceptance in contrast with
active engagement needed to “actually understand” others—such as “learning the
language” and exploring cultural practices, including “foods and everything.” Steph
displayed how she valued connecting information and using additional languages--
markers of global competence. Steph’s openness and developing global competence
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worked in concert to demonstrate an cosmopolitan stance that emerged over time and
practice (Compton-Lilly & Hawkins, in preparation; Campano & Ghiso, 2011; Rizvi &
Beech, 2017) through activities embedded in This Class.
Problems Engaging with This Class
Although many students had positive reactions to how SPAN 121 activities
engaged students with cosmopolitan ideals, Lisa reflected on potentially problematic
issues. Although I already noted that Lisa rarely referenced This Class in her diaries and
reflections, a salient instance appeared during our final interview. I commented to Lisa
that her reflections did not seem to suggest new insights or reflect excitement or
introspection like other students in her class. I inquired if she already had realizations that
other SPAN 121 students were having in response to activities. Lisa agreed and added:
I would be more concerned, honestly, [if] there wasn't a difference there to some
degree on like, with regard to, like, if I was having all of these realizations now. I
think that that would be a little bit concerning, being I'm, like, about to go out into
the world and be a person. (Interview Three)
Lisa again referenced her senior status to explain how she experienced SPAN 121
differently than her younger classmates. She believed that she already had realizations
through her lived experiences across four years in college that her classmates expressed
in SPAN 121 reflections, a suspicion that aligns with notions of emergent
cosmopolitanism developing across time and experiences (Campano & Ghiso, 2011;
Compton-Lilly & Hawkins, in preparation; Rizvi & Beech, 2017). Although activities
embedded in This Class challenged her as a language learner, Lisa had already amassed
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similar experiences across her four years at the University; class activities did not inspire
her as they inspired her classmates.
By engaging students with cosmopolitan ideals embedded in a SPAN 121 class,
my goal was to develop cosmopolitan perspectives that would further develop across time
and experiences. I selected activities commonly utilized in Spanish-language courses and
framed them to address cosmopolitan ideals. However, not all students responded to these
activities. Developing cosmopolitan stances is personal (Rizvi & Beech, 2017) and
contextual (Hawkins, 2018), and Lisa’s contexts were different than her classmates’.
This Class provided Linda, Steph, and Lisa with multiple opportunities to engage
in open, respectful, and reflective dialogue across personal, geographic, and identity
boundaries to learn about themselves and the world (Appiah, 2006; De Costa, 2014;
Delanty, 2006; Hansen, 2010; Hawkins, 2014; Hull & Stornaioulo, 2010; Wahlström,
2014). Of my three focal participants, Steph most often responded to This Class with
cosmopolitan stances through combinations of openness and global competence.
And Lisa?
Importantly, Lisa did not display salient responses to TalkAbroad, Opciones,
MindTap, or “This Class”. Lisa believed that she experienced “This Class”–and all the
activities embedded within it--differently than her classmates because of her prior lived
experiences. Lisa rarely produced more than surface-level reflections on SPAN 121
activities, however she was already enacting cosmopolitan and critical cosmopolitan
stances in spaces outside of class. Importantly and problematically, without her diaries
and interviews—which were not assigned to other SPAN 121 students beyond the focal
participants—I would not know the depth of Lisa’s cosmopolitan perspectives. Because
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her cosmopolitan perspectives were not demonstrated in response to SPAN 121 activities,
I discuss Lisa’s descriptions and demonstrations of her cosmopolitan stances in Chapter
Seven of this dissertation.
Conclusions
In this chapter, I explored participants’ engagement with TalkAbroad
conversations, Opciones social media interactions, MindTap academic activities, and
“This Class”. I began each section with a brief description of the activities and described
participants’ overall responses to them. Then, I focused on the focal participant who most
often responded to those activities with cosmopolitan perspectives. See Tables 5.7 and
5.8 for summaries of my findings. Other activities listed and described in chapter four of
this dissertation, such as asynchronous FlipGrid conversations or recorded conversations
with class partners, were either rarely mentioned or not often referenced in connection
with developing cosmopolitan dispositions. As a result, they are not included my analysis
of these findings.
Table 5.5 Summary of Findings by Activity
TalkAbroad
Opciones
MindTap
“This Class”
Positive
responses
Lisa and Steph
thought
conversations
were “nice”,
having “actual”
conversations
gave meaning
to the
assignment.
Lisa enjoyed
the continuity
of interaction
past initial
engagement and
new pathways
to communicate
with Spanish
speakers.
Introduced
communicative
and cultural
content
necessary for
other activities;
Linda, Steph
and Lisa
enjoyed
learning
cultural content
Framing
SPAN 121 in
cosmopolitan
ideals was
salient to
students;
demonstrated
emergent
nature of
Steph’s
cosmopolitan
stances
Particularly
resonated
with
[participant
Linda; she
valued personal
relationships
None
None
Steph; prior
negative
Spanish
experiences
164
name]
because…
and a return-
on-investment
mindset
Combination
s of
dispositions
that
contribute to
cosmopolitan
stances
openness,
global
competence and
responsibility to
others
No
combinations—
only individual
dispositions
No
combinations—
only individual
dispositions
openness and
global
competence
Problematic
responses
None
Steph feared
others’
judgment of her
language usage;
Linda, Steph
and Lisa
disliked the
timing of when
they were
assigned.
Steph and Lisa
described them
as “cheesy”;
Linda idealized
other cultures
based on
inaccurate
understandings
Lisa’s
cosmopolitan
stances already
more advanced
Table 5.6 Summary of Overall Findings For Research Question 1
Summary of Overall Findings
RQ 1: Which SPAN 121 coursework activities might invite participants’ engagement
with cosmopolitan ideals? Specifically, how might SPAN 121 students demonstrate
cosmopolitan perspectives in their responses when asked to reflect on to activities and
experiences embedded in their class designed to engage them with cosmopolitan
thinking?
• I was not able to determine whether activities in SPAN 121 developed students’
cosmopolitan perspectives.
• Participants most often demonstrated markers of cosmopolitan dispositions in
response to SPAN 121 activities that closely aligned with their personal values and
experiences.
• Some activities only fostered demonstrations of individual dispositions but did not
significantly foster demonstrations of cosmopolitan perspectives.
• Some activities elicited problematic responses.
The purpose of this study was to explore how SPAN 121 might be designed to
foster and support students’ development of cosmopolitan perspectives. Specifically, I
explored how English-speaking students might demonstrate cosmopolitan perspectives in
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response to activities engaging them in Spanish with global Spanish speakers as part of
their undergraduate, intermediate Spanish-language class. While I found that I could not
determine whether these activities contributed to the development of participants’
cosmopolitan perspectives, there were interesting trends across the data concerning their
demonstrations of those perspectives. I found that participants most often demonstrated
markers of cosmopolitan dispositions in response to SPAN 121 activities that closely
aligned with their personal values and experiences. Furthermore, participants
demonstrated individual dispositions in response to all activities, but Opciones and
MindTap activities did not significantly foster demonstrations of cosmopolitan
perspectives. Finally, some activities elicited problematic responses. I describe these
findings in further detail below.
Aligned with Personal Values and Experiences
Linda, Steph, and Lisa completed the same activities in SPAN 121, but their
responses significantly differed. Participants most often demonstrated cosmopolitan
stances in response to SPAN 121 activities that closely aligned with personal values and
experiences. Their personal values and experiences also affected how they engaged with
other activities, as well.
Linda most often demonstrated cosmopolitan stances in response to TalkAbroad
conversations. She demonstrated cosmopolitan stances through combinations of
openness, global competence and responsibility to others. TalkAbroad conversations
resonated with Linda because she valued personal relationships and enjoyed learning
about other cultures. Opciones, in contrast, provided opportunities to engage with global
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Spanish speakers, but social media lacked the one-on-one aspect of TalkAbroad
conversations.
Steph demonstrated cosmopolitan perspectives through combinations of openness
and global competence. She likely responded to This Class because of her prior negative
experiences in Spanish-language courses, wanderlust, and return-on-investment mindset.
This Class provided opportunities for “actual conversations” with “nice” global Spanish
speakers, which made her “appreciate it more.” MindTap, however, was “cheesy” and
reminiscent of work she completed in previous Spanish courses.
As a senior applying to medical school, Lisa no longer focused on class but
engaged in experiences preparing her for a career in medicine. She described being too
busy and already had extensive life experiences to produce in-depth, revelatory
reflections in response to TalkAbroad, Opciones and Mindtap.
Responding Solely with Individual Dispositions
All tracked activities appeared to foster focal participants’ demonstrations of
individual dispositions, however Opciones and MindTap activities did not significantly
foster demonstrations of cosmopolitan perspectives. As described in my theoretical
framework, theories of cosmopolitanism are comprised of multiple qualities, attributes,
dispositions, characteristics, etc. In order to demonstrate cosmopolitan perspectives,
participants needed to demonstrate combinations of focal dispositions. Linda, Steph, and
Lisa only demonstrated singular dispositions of openness or global competence in
response to Opciones and MindTap activities. As will be described in Chapter Six, for
example, MindTap activities introduced participants to communicative content and
cultural perspectives that supported their global competence. However, I did not find
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specific instances of Linda, Steph, and Lisa demonstrating combinations of dispositions
that marked cosmopolitan perspectives in response to Opciones and MindTap activities.
Problematic Responses
Across the study, I observed that some activities elicited problematic responses
from Linda, Steph and Lisa. For example, Steph expressed fear of others judging her
language usage while engaged in social media aspects of Opciones assignments.
Furthermore, although they described enjoying Opciones activities, Linda, Steph, and
Lisa agreed that due dates influenced how they engaged with Opciones activities. Due
dates were an extraneous factor unrelated to cosmopolitan stances, but they significantly
affected participants’ responses to Opciones activities. MindTap also invited problematic
responses. Linda and other students sometimes appeared to extrapolate an almost-
idolizing reverence of other cultures from information learned from MindTap, leading to
several inaccurate understandings. In addition, Steph described experiencing divisiveness
created through consistent cultural comparisons in This Class.
In this chapter, I described activities embedded into SPAN 121 that invited
participants to engage with cosmopolitan ideals and how they demonstrated their
cosmopolitan perspectives. In the following chapter, I describe how students
demonstrated markers of individual dispositions across the semester.
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CHAPTER 6
MARKERS OF INDIVIDUAL FOCAL DISPOSITIONS
In this chapter, I respond to my second research question addressing which
markers of focal dispositions become evident in students’ responses to reflections on
activities designed to engage them with cosmopolitan thinking. I focus on participants’
demonstrations of markers--outward manifestations—of the individual dispositions of
global identities, global competence, openness, and responsibility to others while
acknowledging that they do not encompass all cosmopolitan stances. Markers are actions,
reactions, characteristics, or perspectives generally associated with particular
dispositions. These markers were gathered from literature on theories of
cosmopolitanism, how participants in studies of cosmopolitanism were described as
demonstrating cosmopolitan perspectives, and from my own participants through open
and in vivo (Saldaña, 2014) coding.
Importantly, this chapter focuses on individual dispositions. The heuristic I
utilized to focus on combinations of focal dispositions in response to SPAN 121 activities
made many demonstrations of cosmopolitan perspectives visible—as described in
Chapter Five. However, this heuristic also excluded other dispositions described in the
literature as well as participants’ possible overarching focal dispositions and
cosmopolitan perspectives. As a result, this chapter includes data showing how
participants demonstrated individual dispositions that were not in combinations reflecting
cosmopolitan perspectives and/or not in response to a particular SPAN 121 activity.
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Although it is not a finding of this study, demonstrations of all four focal dispositions
during the semester may suggest that participants were engaging with overarching
cosmopolitan perspectives in ways not attended to by this study.
I analyzed interview transcripts, students’ diary entries, and students’ written
reflections, however, because of COVID-19, I was not able to collect data through any
form of observation. As a result, my findings are dependent upon students’ responses to
my oral and written questions. Thus, students’ demonstrations of markers of dispositions
are often taken from their reports of their behaviors, although some demonstrations were
noted during interviews.
Through careful consideration of my data, I determined that
1. Steph, Linda, and Lisa’s personal values and experiences appeared to affect
which focal dispositions they demonstrated.
2. I also determined that dispositions were not demonstrated equally by each
participant. Participants demonstrated certain dispositions more than other
participants.
3. Finally, I found that participants did not demonstrate dispositions consistently
across the semester.
In this chapter, I describe each focal disposition and what markers each
participant used to demonstrate it. I then summarize findings related to each disposition. I
begin with global identity, followed by global competence. I then explore openness, and,
finally, I describe responsibility to others. Then I offer my conclusions.
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Global Identity
In my study, I define global identities as practicing local, national, and global
levels of citizenship (Osler & Starkey, 2003, 2005; Osler & Vincent, 2002) and belonging
to communities of the world (Beck, 2002). People who display dispositions of a global
identity may also be referred to as global citizens or members of a global community.
This study was situated on American undergraduates learning an additional-language. If
one’s understanding of globality is relative to one’s own understandings and life
experiences (Sánchez & Ensor, 2021), then this study’s understanding of globality is
primarily in line with the less critical—and arguably more superficial—notions of those
who travel by choice—for adventure, education, or career opportunities.
As described in my methodology chapter, I identified eight markers of students
demonstrating potential dispositions of global identities. For example, students
demonstrated an expanded orientation of the world (De Costa, 2014); interculturality or
engaging with concepts at global and local scales (Collins & Delgado, 2019); and
imagining or trying out future and potential selves (Hull & Stornaioulo, 2010).
Across my study, Linda, Steph and Lisa demonstrated many markers that
displayed a disposition of a global identity. Each of these participants demonstrated
learning about cultures and using the language routinely during SPAN 121, but markers
of participating in global communities, potential and future selves, and global and local
perspectives were more salient in this study. See Table 6.1 for a summary.
Table 6.1 Participants’ Demonstrations of Global Identity by Markers
Disposition
Markers
Linda
Steph
Lisa
Global
Identity
Participating in
Global
Communities
X
X
Potential & Future
X
X
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Selves
Global & Local
Perspectives
X
X
Participating in Global Communities
The global identity marker most often demonstrated by participants was
participating in communities, which has been described as a first step toward belonging
to communities of the world (Beck, 2002). Although it was the most common marker in
the data set, Linda did not display this marker. All three focal participants completed
SPAN 121 assignments designed to engage them directly with global Spanish speakers,
although other students did not. While Lisa viewed SPAN 121 assignments as
preparation for enacting her developing global identity later in her life, Steph perceived
her participation in these activities as actively participating in global communities.
Of the markers related to displaying a disposition of a global identity, Steph most
often displayed evidence of participating in global communities. As previously
described, Steph envisioned future immersive experiences and participation in local
communities in order to learn about diverse cultural practices and perspectives. Her
intention to travel and have these experiences revealed her anticipated membership in a
global community.
I think a global community looks like a group of people who do not come from
the same background and/or speak the same language and/or have different
cultures but they still find a way to connect with each other and get to know about
other cultures ad [and] languages. (Reflection Three)
Steph described a diverse group of people participating in global communities as
connecting and communicating with each other. She reported feeling that she was
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“forming a global identity, though, by forming these connections” (Reflection Three)
with global Spanish speakers specifically through interpersonal conversations and social
media interactions completed for class.
Steph described her SPAN 121 coursework assignments as tools connecting her to
global Spanish speakers and inviting participation in Spanish-speaking communities.
She explained:
[They] helped [me] create a global identity, because I was actually contacting
other people from different countries and learning about them. […] I think anyone
can have a global identity if they are accepting of other cultures and make an
effort to communicate with them in some way. (Reflection Three)
She reported connecting with global community members, communicating with them,
and learning about them by “actually” contacting global Spanish speakers. True to her
action-oriented nature, Steph linked enactments of her participation in global
communities—connecting, communicating, learning--to the development of her
disposition of global identity.
Lisa also displayed the marker of participating in communities across my study,
but her participation occurred only outside the classroom. In her diaries and during
interviews, Lisa described communicating with Spanish-speaking patients in order to
provide quality healthcare at the free clinic where she volunteered. Language practices
signal community membership (Heath, 1983; Kramsch & Widdowson, 1998), and Lisa’s
Spanish-language communication marked her participation in the community and her
global identity, but rarely demonstrated markers of global identity in relation to class
activities.
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Potential and Future Selves
Another marker of global identity entails references to potential or future selves.
Students engaged with cosmopolitan perspectives sometimes imagine or explore future
and potential identities (Hull & Stornaioulo, 2010) as they learn more about themselves
and the world through global interactions. In my study, potential or future selves
reflected instances in which participants described who they might be or become as they
interact with global others.
Steph entered my study already claiming a global identity, which was likely
influenced by her father’s Portuguese heritage and her family’s history of moving often.
When I inquired if she considered herself a global citizen, she quickly agreed, saying, “I
would definitely identify myself as a global citizen.” But she immediately qualified her
claim, saying, “I just… haven't had the opportunity to go and travel, meet new people”
(Interview One). While she had only travelled to Canada, she envisioned her potential or
future self as traveling the world. Thus, Steph already considered herself a citizen of
global circles:
I think anyone who is open to that idea [of having a global identity/identifying as
a global citizen] and who was open to meeting new people and trying new things
and having that adventurous lifestyle can be identified as having a global identity.
(Interview One)
In her view, global identities reflect a desire for global experiences, although global
experiences are not prerequisites. Her potential self, based on her espoused openness, and
her future self, who intended to travel the world, positioned her as demonstrating an
disposition of global identity or global citizenship.
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Although Lisa interacted with global communities at the medical clinic, she also
had global plans for her future self. In contrast to Steph who envisioned world travel but
had not taken action to bring it to fruition, Lisa had taken significant steps toward
achieving future global experiences. At the time of the study, Lisa was awaiting news of
her semi-finalist position for an internationally-recognized and highly prestigious award
to study internationally (that she eventually was awarded), and was completing an
application for a program in Spain sponsored by the United States Embassy. Lisa chose
these global opportunities “to further engage with diverse cultures as I continue in my
professional pursuits.” (Interview Three). Her international experiences would entail
participation in global communities. Furthermore, they would serve as preparation for
her future self to become a doctor and provide improved healthcare to “diverse”
communities.
Global and Local Perspectives
A third marker of dispositions of global identities is a participant’s consideration
of global and local perspectives on issues and topics. Considering global perspectives has
been described as part of practicing local, national, and global levels of citizenship (Osler
& Starkey, 2003, 2005; Osler & Vincent, 2002). In my study, participants explored
global and local perspectives as a marker of a developing disposition of global identity.
Participants demonstrated this disposition when they considered topics and ideas as they
apply both locally and globally. Across my study, Steph did not demonstrate this marker,
Linda grew in this area, and Lisa regularly made global connections.
Linda often engaged with concepts at a personal level. As I will describe in more
detail in the next section, she explored new understandings of previously unfamiliar
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cultural practices and perspectives by comparing and contrasting them with her own. In
the next section, I describe how Linda engaged with perspectives about particular
holidays by situating them in relation to her own practices and beliefs. These initial
instances were limited in scope, however, because her new understandings were solely
personal in nature. Across the study, Linda demonstrated growth in considering global
and local perspectives as she moved away from personalizing her responses and
considering broader global and local communities. For example, by the third interview,
she described global and local perspectives on learning an additional language:
I feel like all these countries and all these people, not just Latin America and like
Central America, but like a wide variety of countries in the world, those people
know English. And I feel like they're in that they grow up knowing I because
they're just kind of forced to.[…] Other people are forced to learn English--they're
kind of having to conform more to our world or our [English-speaking/American]
society to like fit in, I guess. We don't; I wish we did. I wish that these [American]
kids grew up little learning other languages, not just knowing English and that
being it. (Interview Three)
Linda compared global and local perspectives on learning another language as she
described how people in countries where other languages are spoken also learn English
while American students only learn English. She addressed power imbalances faced by
global others who were “forced” to learn English to interact with Americans, and how
perspectives on language learning were different for local students.
Across my study, Lisa often engaged with new understandings by connecting her
responses to class activities with her experiences with applying to medical school,
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attending medical school, and becoming a doctor. Furthermore, she rarely demonstrated
individual dispositions, because Lisa brought well-developed cosmopolitan stances with
her to SPAN 121. While the example given below demonstrates a cosmopolitan
perspective through a combination of global identity and responsibility to others, I chose
to focus on her demonstration of a global identity. Lisa demonstrated global and local
perspectives through her commitment to serving other people in the field of medicine and
healthcare.
My beliefs with medicine is that every single person, um, deserves adequate
health care. […] I don't look at the things that I want to do in medicine is I want to
fix it in the United States. It's--I want my efforts to globally reduce the burden of
cancer. And it's not just about any one person. It's about everyone. (Interview
One)
Lisa understood her work and her mission by recognizing and attending to global and
local perspectives. Her personal goal was to “reduce the burden of cancer,” but Lisa’s
perspectives on healthcare extended beyond local practices here in the United States to
addressing global cancer burdens. Lisa embodied a global identity and cosmopolitan
perspective that recognized that everybody matters (Appiah, 2006) and that we are social
actors with obligations towards others (Stevenson, 2003).
Focal Participants’ Dispositions of Global Identity
Each of my focal participants demonstrated multiple markers of global identity.
Steph’s disposition of a global identity was marked by her participation in communities
and references to her potential and future selves. However, her global identity was still
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somewhat superficial since Steph did not explicitly demonstrate global and local
perspectives and the deeper cosmopolitan understandings that accompany them.
Linda’s disposition of a global identity was marked by her consideration of global
and local perspectives on topics and issues, but her global identity was limited to gaining
knowledge about others. In her reflections, she reported “I am becoming a member of a
global community because this occurs when one gains more knowledge about a diverse
group of individuals.” (Reflections Three) and “I have a global identity based on the
knowledge I have gained […] which is the keystone of having a global identity.”
(Reflections Four). If having a global identity is practicing local, national, and global
levels of citizenship (Osler & Starkey, 2003, 2005; Osler & Vincent, 2002), Linda’s
disposition of a global identity must extend beyond knowledge to recognize her
coursework as a potential form of participation and by finding other ways of participating
in global communities.
Lisa demonstrated all tracked markers consistently across the study, clearly
displaying a disposition of global identity the most among the three participants.
However, Lisa did not fully claim a global identity because she felt like “a global identity
is relevant to perspective. We have different identities based on context. I also think
identity is more fluid than constant and can be more transient” (Interview Three).
Specifically, Lisa believed that she demonstrated her disposition of a global identity in
particular contexts, “for example if I am working in the clinic and actively trying to
engage with Spanish speaking patients or I am in a situation where global identity is
relevant” (Interview Three). In these contexts, when she was participating with global
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communities, she demonstrated aspects of a global identity, but she did not believe that
her identity was fully global across all of her contexts.
In this section, I described the markers of a developing disposition of global
identity as demonstrated by my focal participants. I also identified limits on their
development of global identities. In the following section, I discuss participants’
demonstrations of global competence.
Global Competence
As described in my theoretical framework, global competence is comprised of
communicative competence and cultural competence—or knowledges and practices for
successfully navigating global interactions. In the literature, students demonstrated
bravery and trying something new (Hull, Stornaioulo & Sahni, 2010); intercultural
dialogue through evaluating and navigating other languages (Spires, Paul, Hymes, &
Yuan, 2018); and using commonalities as a means for participation, (Moskal &
Schweisfurth, 2017). This study was situated on American undergraduates learning an
additional-language. If one’s understanding of globality is relative to one’s own
understandings and life experiences (Sánchez & Ensor, 2021), then this study’s
understanding of globality is primarily in line with the less critical—and arguably more
superficial—notions of those who travel by choice—for adventure, education, or career
opportunities.
Students in SPAN 121 increased their understandings of cultural practices and
perspectives through specifically designed activities. Because increasing cultural and
communicative knowledge and practices are course objectives, Linda, Steph and Lisa
often demonstrated various markers of a disposition of global competence in the context
179
of course activities. Unlike the disposition of global identity where participants shared
markers, salient markers of global competence were individual and specific, reflecting
their personal values and lived experiences. Linda demonstrated global competence by
connecting information, Steph demonstrated her building confidence, and Lisa
demonstrated the marker of using additional languages. See Table 6.2 for a summary.
Table 6.2 Participants’ Demonstrations of Global Competence by Markers
Disposition
Markers
Linda
Steph
Lisa
Global
Competence
Connecting
Information
X
Building
Confidence
X
Using Additional
Languages
X
Connecting Information
As previously described, exploring global cultural practices and perspectives in
Spanish-speaking cultures and communities is a course objective for SPAN 121. Thus,
students are required to practice communicating in Spanish and learn about cultural
practices in global Spanish-speaking communities. As a result, many students made
general references to cultural practices in their reflections. However, referencing
practices without connecting information—or connecting new, unfamiliar practices and
perspectives to familiar ideas in order to create new understandings--does not constitute a
disposition of o global competence.
Across her diaries, reflections, and interviews, Linda often demonstrated
connecting information about cultural practices to the cultural perspectives undergirding
them. Linda explained why she felt it was important to make these connections:
If you don't really know the other person's point of view, you're more likely to
judge [a previously unknown cultural practice or perspective]--more likely to
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judge the difference rather than if you did know their point of view and you did
understand it a little bit more - you'd be more likely to accept [a previously
unknown cultural practice or perspective]. (Interview One)
Linda recognized the importance of understanding perspectives behind the cultural
practices she encountered and avoiding uninformed judgment. By connecting information
about cultural practices to cultural perspectives, Linda demonstrated an disposition of
global competence.
Furthermore, while her classmates often made general statements or references to
what they claimed to have learned, Linda demonstrated global competence through her
specificity while connecting information. Linda consistently named specific cultural
practices or perspectives from coursework and connected that information to her
thoughts, feelings or new understandings (Byram, 2000; Fantini, 2009; Williams, 2009).
For example, when her classmates generally described Nicaraguan food customs, Linda
connected recently-learned information with prior knowledge and experiences to describe
how similar Nicaraguan and American perspectives on unhealthy foods are.
The foods they consider unhealthy are the same foods we would consider
unhealthy. It surprised me when she said that 50% of the citizens fo [of]
Nicaragua are obese. I did not realize that was such a problem there. I think this
goes to show that unhealthy eating habits continue to be a growing concern
worldwide, not just in the United States. (Diary Four)
In this excerpt, she described being surprised to learn that Nicaraguans are also facing an
obesity epidemic. Before watching these videos, she reported believing that most Central
Americans ate relatively healthy diets. Linda situated her new understandings by
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connecting information about Nicaraguan diets to her prior knowledge of American diets,
actively engaging with what she was learning rather than passively receiving cultural
knowledge.
Linda connected information in her written Reflections several times during the
semester, Linda followed a similar process: when learning about university schedules and
technology usage (Reflections One), travel locations and motivations (Reflections Two),
cultural celebrations (Reflections Three), notions of hospitality and traditional meals
(Reflections Four) across various Spanish-speaking cultures. In each of these situations,
Linda connected new information to her previous knowledge or community practices in
order to create new understandings regarding cultural practices and the perspectives that
influence them. By connecting information, Linda displayed a disposition that may serve
her in varying future intercultural interactions, not solely those with Spanish speakers--a
skill that will continue to foster her global competence.
Building Communicative Confidence
Steph demonstrated her developing disposition of global competence most often
through the marker of building communicative confidence. Steph’s confidence in her
communicative knowledge and practices emerged across the semester. Every unit
provided multiple opportunities for her to interact with global Spanish speakers. Steph
described her growing communicative competence as “strange” and “surprising”.
Unit One Reflection: This [TalkAbroad conversation] went surprisingly well. It
was strange to me that I could a better conversation in Spanish than I could with
my partner for the flipgrid activity but everything just flowed so smoothly.
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Unit Two Reflection: I didn't speak in English at all which was surprising to me
but I think overall I did a pretty good job keeping up with the conversation.
Unit Three Reflection: I was not super confident going into the conversation, but
[…] I was surprised at how much I actually did understand and how little I had to
rely on the provided questions. I was super comfortable making up my own
questions and communicating them to her.
In Steph’s reflections, we see that as she built communicative competence and
confidence, she increased her expectations for success. Steph was pleased and surprised
by how smoothly she completed her first conversation, avoiding English in her second,
and not relying on the prompt in the third. Each TalkAbroad conversation presented new
goals to achieve, and achieving them built her communicative confidence.
Steph also demonstrated building communicative confidence as a marker of a
disposition of global competence in her written Spanish communication, as well. Initially,
Steph described disliking engagement via social media, fearing other people’s judgment
of her contributions. She explained, “I was kind of uncomfortable commenting on other
people posts because I think that I may have messed up a few words or something.”
(Reflection One) Steph described worrying about mistakes because she was “not used to
the way these other people post” (Reflection One). In contrast, Steph described feeling
more confident at the end of the semester. For the final unit, she participated in Spanish in
the comments section of a Spanish-language YouTube video that introduced Nicaraguan
recipes. She said:
When I wrote stuff in Spanish, I didn't feel as much like, ‘Oh, I'm taking this--I'm
doing this for my Spanish class, and I'm writing.’ I felt like it was more natural to
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me like that. Like I can write something in another language and it wouldn't just
be like, ‘Oh, this girl, she just…’ [Steph mimicked a judgmental face, alluding to
a global Spanish speaker dismissing her participation as insincere] Yeah. So I
felt like that was good. That was a lot better. (Interview Three)
Steph described feeling more “integrated” or valid commenting in Spanish on the video
because she had built her communicative confidence writing in Spanish. In Steph’s view,
her communicative confidence and competence shifted her writing from “I’m doing this
for my Spanish class” to feeling like “it was more natural”. This shift made it less likely,
she believed, that her comments in Spanish might garner criticism or judgement from
global Spanish speakers. In contrast with participating as a Spanish student, her “more
natural” communication in Spanish signaled emergent community membership and
reflected cultural norms of practice (Heath, 1983; Kramsch & Widdowson, 1998). Steph
demonstrated a developing disposition of global competence through the marker of
building communicative confidence.
Using Additional Languages
Lisa marked her disposition of global competence when she described using
additional languages—Spanish and American Sign Language—with people in the
community. In contrast, Linda and Steph used Spanish in SPAN 121 activities but not
beyond class. Lisa, however, frequently communicated in Spanish while volunteering the
free medical clinic near the University. Lisa described a particularly salient experience at
the free clinic that involved using Spanish language skills with immigrant patients:
I spent the whole morning translating in the free clinic for a Spanish speaking
patient. It was nice being able to do that in the clinic! Granted I had to use a
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translator [app on phone] for what I said, but it was nice to understand what the
patient said (for the most part). The nurse practitioner did laugh after we left the
room because she thought my accent sounded very funny combined with Spanish.
However, I just decided to brush this off because in the grand scheme of things, I
was able to effectively communicate with the patient in the clinic today. (Diary
Two)
Lisa described an instance where she was able to augment a patient’s care by using
Spanish language during her appointment. Lisa needed assistance from an app to
supplement her proficiency in Spanish, which is understandable for a student in a SPAN
121 course. However, Lisa was proud of “effectively” communicating with her patient,
because using Spanish improved the patient’s healthcare experience.
Although Lisa did not describe specific instances of treating Deaf people at the
free clinic, she explained why using American Sign Language (ASL) is important to her.
She said:
I started taking it ASL is because I realized, you know, Deaf culture is an entirely
separate entity and that's a population of people that I will be interacting with and
I wanted to learn about them and, you know, I don't know what might pop up
along the way. (Interview One)
Lisa was also learning American Sign Language at the University. She was fascinated by
differences in how the Deaf population communicates. Beyond signing, Lisa recognized
that there were unique, significant practices and perspectives that inform Deaf culture
(DFG, 2016; Heath, 1983; Kramsch & Widdowson, 1998). In her work at the free clinic
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as well as in the future when she practiced medicine, Lisa would be prepared to serve
more people by using additional languages.
Although Lisa is an emergent user of both Spanish and ASL, she described her
belief that simply acknowledging communicative and cultural differences and making an
effort to understand others contributed to one’s competence. She said:
I think that what makes you competent is actively making an effort and
acknowledging that cultures are different and making efforts to understand the
other cultures or […] being aware that there are differences in cultures. I think
that that is, is where the competency comes in because no individual is just fully
informed on every single aspect of every culture. It's not feasible. Um, but I think,
I think that the competency really comes in in acknowledging that it is different
for different cultures. (Interview One)
In this description of global competence, Lisa emphasized an awareness of differences
and her eagerness to bridge them (Byram, 2000; Fantini, 2009; Williams, 2009) while
delivering medical care. In her definition, awareness of and acknowledging differences
combined with “making an effort” are more important than accuracy. Lisa believed that
“making the effort” to use additional languages at the clinic created opportunities to treat
patients who might not have received the same level of care otherwise. Lisa’s goal was to
eliminate disparities in healthcare to the best of her abilities, and developing her
disposition of global competence will improve the level of care she is able to deliver.
Focal Participants’ Developing Dispositions of Global Competence
SPAN 121 includes course objectives emphasizing the development of both
communicative and cultural knowledge and practices—global competence as defined in
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this study. As a result, participants demonstrated multiple markers of an global
competence as defined in my codebook, including new skills and perspectives, learning
about other cultures, and enjoying global interactions. The salient markers that Linda,
Steph, and Lisa most often demonstrated reflected their personal values and lived
experiences.
For Linda, the goal of increasing one’s global competence was a valuable addition
to language class curriculum. She said, “It will be more useful than if we were just—if
the whole goal was just to learn Spanish. […] I actually really like that idea.” Linda had
an insatiable curiosity to learn more about other cultures, and she emphasized new
understandings she created through connecting information across cultural contexts.
Although she completed all of her assignments and increased in her Spanish languaging
skills, she rarely referenced communicative knowledge and practices that would have
contributed to her global competence.
Steph was influenced by her criteria for success, getting a return on her
investment of time and energy, and her prior negative experiences in Spanish courses.
She was “surprised” by her building communicative confidence as an emerging Spanish
speaker. Steph rarely referenced cultural knowledge or practices—except to comment on
them as “cool” or “interesting”. Her developing disposition of global competence is
confined to her increased communicative knowledge and practices.
Lisa demonstrated her disposition of global competence by using additional
languages outside of class. As a senior, she focused less on classroom and coursework
experiences and more on ‘real life’ experiences that prepared her for her future career in
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medicine. Lisa used Spanish and American Sign Language to augment the health care
provided to current and future patients, demonstrating her communicative competence.
In this section, I described the markers of a disposition of global competence my
focal participants demonstrated. In the following section, I discuss participants’
demonstrations of markers of dispositions of openness.
Openness
In my study, openness is defined as the positive recognition of other cultures and
communities (Wahlström, 2014) that presents a respect for difference and a respect for
actual human beings (Appiah, 2006). It is not the simple acknowledgement that practices
are performed differently by others elsewhere but a positive perception either of the
difference itself or of the fact that differences exist. As described in my methodology
chapter, I identified five markers of a disposition of openness: embracing plurality,
curiosity or inquiry, hospitality, embracing differences, and adventures. Participants
might demonstrate curiosity or inquiry by exploring others’ lives, beliefs and
experiences, or asking questions, (Hawkins, 2014); embracing differences by stating it or
fostering a communal energy (DeJaynes, 2015); or embracing plurality by understanding
other people’s emotions, wishes and desires, (Boni & Calabuig, 2015).
All three focal participants began my study already demonstrating dispositions of
openness. Across my study, Linda and Steph demonstrated embracing differences, Linda,
Steph and Lisa all demonstrated embracing plurality, and Linda grappled with and
sometimes rejected this disposition, as well. See Table 6.3 for a summary.
Table 6.3 Participants’ Demonstrations of Openness by Markers
Disposition
Markers
Linda
Steph
Lisa
Openness
Embracing
Differences
X
X
