Cooperative learning for multidimensional and multicultural citizenship

Cogan et al (2000) state that the idea of ‘Multi-dimensional citizenship’ centres on joint social and public action demonstrating that “citizens must be able to work and interact with other people in a variety of settings and contexts…as well as …deal respectfully with people whose ideas and values differ from their own” (Cogan, Grossman, & Mei-Hui-Lui, 2000, p.51). It is important for children to work together in cooperation and be able to share viewpoints as well as learn to deal with others ideas respectfully. Cooperative learning additionally helps students to develop ideas and practices about the need to be critical and reflective about the multiplicity of viewpoints in their nation and throughout the world. It is important that teachers should “help students become thoughtful, caring, and reflective citizens in a multicultural world society” (Banks, 2001, p.5). Similarly Banks’ (2001) concept of ‘multicultural citizenship’ also helps to demonstrate the importance of developing cooperation in classrooms, as students who are able to respect others viewpoints and reflect on the variety of views in their classrooms are more likely to become multicultural ‘citizens’. The explicit teaching of cooperative skills should become an integral part of teachers’ pedagogy and the workshop that will follow this paper will explore the types of cooperative activities that can encourage our students to become multi-dimensional and multicultural citizens, as well as encourage our students to have a ‘communicative capacity’ and take ‘communicative action’ (Habermas 1984; 1987, as cited in Lovat and Toomey, 2007). This research paper analyses the responses of six teachers during initial semi-structured interviews, embarking on a journey of implementing cooperative learning practices into their classrooms.