Educating the World - Teachers and their Work as Defined by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) - Paper

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by OmBimo

The paper examines how UNESCO-shaped public documents reframe “teacher” identity and the work of teaching under conditions of globalization and cosmopolitanism. It argues that cross-border flows of information, ideas, people, and capital transform local and national education, increasing classroom diversity and reshaping technology’s role and conceptions of work. Using a critical reading, it situates cosmopolitanism as a guiding frame for educators’ identities and world citizenship.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages10

Reading Time25 min

AccessFree to download

Globalization and the changing work of teaching

Rethinking teacher identity through UNESCO

Cosmopolitanism as a framework for 21st-century educators

Defining cosmopolitanism and world citizenship

Historical foundations in philosophy and the Enlightenment

Cosmopolitanism amid nationalism and educational discourse

Educating the World: Teachers and their Work as Defined by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Helen Harper University of Nevada, Las Vegas Judith Dunkerly University of Nevada, Las Vegas In our times globalization and cosmopolitanism are terms that speak to the intensification of bordercrossing, and in connection to education, to the global conditions and possibilities that are directing change in learning and teaching. Much of this change demands a rethinking of the identity of the teacher and a revisioning of the work of teaching (Luke, 2004, Tierney, 2006). This paper looks to one intergovernmental, transnational site, already heavily involved in international relations, where this rethinking might find productive ground: The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). In a critical examination of key public documents, it is evident that in some instances UNESCO seems to be moving toward a notion of “teacher”framed not by national interests supported by the global community– the more traditional role taken by the UN and UNESCO–but, by global interests and initiatives with regard to world citizens. This is critical, and if what we are seeing is indeed real, it represents a shift towards a more cosmopolitan identity for 21st century educators. Globalization is characterized by the extensive movement or flow of information, ideas, images, capital and people across increasingly permeable political borders due to economic and technological change (Castles, 2004; Luke & Carrington, 2001) . The speed, durability, flexibility and mutability of these transnational flows and networks affectevery aspect of local and national life, albeit unevenly, to the effect that the local and the global are not experienced as polarities but more often as combined and mutually implicating phenomena (Beck, 2002) . Globalization is transforming or at the very least influencing the social, economic and political life within the nation-state. What is evident is that increasingly “cultural homogeneity and cultural heterogeneity are appearing simultaneously in the same cultural landscape”(Burbles & Torres, 2000) and that,“21st century forms of life and identities are ethically and culturally simultaneously global and local”(Beck, 2002, p. 36; see also Apple, Kenway, Singh, 2005). Thus, it is possible that one is both local resident and a global worker, a national citizen and global citizen, a consumer of local products and of international goods. One’s identifications, commitments, and affiliations could be local but also global. This shifting amalgam of life patterns, identities, commitments and affiliations includes those associated with and produced in formal and informal educational sites. There is considerable discussion and increasing scholarship devoted to the effects of globalization on formal education. We know that globalization is increasing the diversity in our classrooms, altering the nature and role of technology in the classroom, as well as changing the nature of work and of community life in which our students are engaged or will be engaged. In these “New Times” teaching and the teacher need to be redefined (Luke & Elkins, 1998) . Allan Luke (2004, 2002) has called for a re-envisioning of education that moves beyond the nation state to consider the contemporary cosmopolitan, transcultural, transnational contexts and conditions of students and teachers in the 21st century. He argues for teaching as “cosmopolitan work” and asks,“What if © 2009 Current Issues in Comparative Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Current Issues in Comparative Education, Vol. 12(1): 56-65. Educating the World we envisioned as part of our rethinking of democratic education a reconstruction of teachers and students as world citizens, thinkers, intellectuals and critics and within this context as national and community-based subjects?”(

FAQs

What change in teacher identity does the paper associate with UNESCO documents?

It suggests UNESCO public documents move toward framing the “teacher” by global interests and initiatives, rather than only by national interests supported by the global community.

How does globalization affect education according to the paper?

Globalization increases diversity in classrooms, alters technology’s role, and reshapes ideas of work and community life in which students are involved.

What does cosmopolitanism mean in the paper’s discussion of educators?

Cosmopolitanism is treated as a sensibility that supports global awareness and affiliations while keeping the local present, guiding educators’ identities and their “world citizen” orientation.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by OmBimo