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Approaching twenty-first century education from a cosmopolitan perspective

Abstract All over the world, educators and policy-makers are concerned about how best to prepare students to engage actively in an increasingly interconnected world. In this paper, I begin by arguing that twenty-first century education policies have largely been articulated in response to the exigencies of economic globalization. Further, a survey of the worldwide spread of twenty-first century education frameworks reveals that these are predominantly informed by Human Capital Theory. Conceptualized mainly by transnational and governmental organizations, such frameworks essentially steer education towards preparing students to compete successfully in the global economy. Next, utilizing findings from a case study of two schools in Singapore and the USA, I highlight how the concretization of twenty-first century education via school-level frameworks is similarly governed by the aims of Human Capital Theory and I discuss some of the resulting effects. Using these case studies as a platform for theory-building, the final section proposes ways in which twenty-first century education frameworks can be reconceptualized using two alternative theories—Human Capabilities Approach and Cosmopolitan Capacities Approach. I show how their incorporation in twenty-first century education frameworks can offer a more holistic and ethical vision of education conducive to our globally interconnected age.