Where and When: I encountered this word when I was reading an article for class titled "Content Literacy for the 21st Century: Excavation, Elevation, and Relational Cosmopolitanism in the Classroom." I am quite familiar to the word "Cosmopolitan" because of the magazine. Oddly, I really never knew what the word meant. Based on my own ideas and perceptions about the magazine, I just assumed the word pertained to something that was popular, fashionable, and trendy.
Based on the article, the word "cosmopolitanism" is different from my perception/ understanding of the word. However, I am still interested in knowing both word meanings to see if they relate to eachother.
What it means:
- The word "cosmopolitan" means "pertinent or common to the whole world," according to http://www.thefreedictionary.com/cosmopolitan.
- The word " cosmopolitanism" pertains to "the opinions and behavior emerging from the theory that cultural and artistic activities should have neither national nor parochial boundaries" according to http://www.thefreedictionary.com/cosmopolitan
Level of Familiarty: Like I mentioned above, I had heard this word but not used in the same context. I really honed on wanting to know this word meanining because I had so many previous exposures to this word, just in different contexts.
In terms of the literacy article, the word or idea "cosmopolitanism" pertains to "a model for framing, understanding, teaching, and learning content in the 21st-century schools" (Baildon & Damico, 2011, p. 232).
Reflective Commentary: After reading the article and thinking about Cosmopolitan magazine, I can better conceptualize the meaning of both cosmopolitan, and cosmopolitanism. They both have to do with releasing discourse from the confines of preconceived boundaries like culture, religion or even regional prejudices. The relational "cosmopolitanism" in the classroom specifically pertains to constructing instruction that focuses on the interrelatedness of different subject areas while abstaining from inadvertently assembling bias or opinion for our students. More specifically, cosmopolitanism encourages teachers to embrace the "challenges of living in a global society" and teach students ways to "critically and creatively respond to these challenges" (p.239).
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