Empathy, Engagement, Evolution: Cosmopolitan Connections in an Online Intercultural Exchange in Korea

Critical cosmopolitan education, which aims to encourage open-minded, responsive, reflective dispositions in students, is one possible response to the ever-increasing, insidious intolerance that seems so rife in the world today. Recent research in cosmopolitanism, however, has primarily been from Western perspectives. Situated in a sociocultural framework, this ethnographic case study seeks to fill this gap, exploring the critical cosmopolitan literacies practiced by Korean university students during a semester-long, online intercultural exchange with diverse community college students in the United States. Using thematic analysis, I delved into these Korean students’ post-exchange reflections, striving to better understand how they positioned themselves in relation to their overseas partners and how their beliefs and perspectives evolved over the course of the exchange. I found the students demonstrated cosmopolitan literacies in a variety of ways, including through perspective-taking, emotional connections, the formation of new solidarities, and recognizing and articulating their personal biases and the norms shaping their understandings of the world. Some tensions were evident, however, as a few students echoed prevailing discourses or seemed hesitant to relate global problems to their local context. Ultimately, this presentation offers a nuanced, asset-oriented perspective on communication across difference, fleshes out understandings of cosmopolitan literacies in an Asian context, and offers a few insights (and cautions) for practitioners seeking to incorporate intercultural awareness into the language classroom.