Lonely Business or Mutual Concern: The Role of Comparative Education in the Cosmopolitan Citizenship Debates

Cosmopolitan and global discourses are more and more often used for conceptualization and interpretation of citizenship. However, in the United States, the majority of schools are still resistant to incorporating cosmopolitan and global perspectives into citizenship education curriculum. This paper addresses challenges of cosmopolitan and global citizenship education in the United States. Three major challenges, namely (a) terminological and theoretical divergence, (b) lack of awareness among educators, and (c) patriotism-focused curricula are discussed. Also, the perspective areas of comparative education research to advance cosmopolitan and global education agendas are identified.