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As the world becomes more interconnected, educators have opportunities to collaborate across cultures. Using the theory of educational cosmopolitanism and the pedagogy of collaborative inquiry, this collective case study explores how Chinese and American teachers perceive the assets and challenges of conducting collaborative inquiry with their students across cultures, and how they collaboratively planned in order to conduct these inquiries. Results demonstrated both assets (i.e. promotion of global citizenship and interpersonal skills) and challenges (i.e. digital access and the need for sustainable external support). Additionally, results on how the teachers collaborated revealed the four dimensions of educational cosmopolitanism (i.e. hospitality, reflexivity, intercultural dialogue, and transactions of perspectives) were in play, although to varying degrees. The research sheds light on how educational cosmopolitanism holds promise as a potential theoretical lens for conducting collaborative inquiry with culturally and geographically diverse teachers and students.

This study focuses on middle grades teachers from the United States and China, the two countries with the highest Internet use, in an attempt to understand both groups' perspectives on integrating new literacies and technologies into their teaching. Survey and focus group results indicate that, although U.S. and Chinese teachers are operating under different educational policies in their respective countries, their experiences with school changes prompted by the integration of new technologies have similarities. One notable difference was the significantly higher value Chinese teachers assigned to creativity and innovation in contrast to U.S. teachers, which may be a result of current U.S. testing policies. Although there appears to be a gap between their aspirations and their practices, middle grades teachers from both countries report an eagerness to create educational experiences that help students become active global citizens, and they recognize the role of new literacies and technologies in achieving this goal. (Contains 4 tables.)

Highlights • Explored cross-cultural collaboration through disciplinary inquiry-based learning. • Collaborative inquiry can connect culturally and geographically diverse students. • Cross-cultural inquiry projects promote engagement with educational cosmopolitanism. • Adds to the body of literature on global education and disciplinary inquiry learning. Abstract As our world becomes more connected, globalized education becomes increasingly important. Drawing from educational cosmopolitanism and disciplinary inquiry, this collective case study focused on Chinese and US students’ demonstrations of the four capacities of Wahlström’s (2014) educational cosmopolitanism, i.e., hospitality, self-reflexivity, intercultural dialogue, and transactions of perspectives, throughout the phases of a cross-cultural collaborative inquiry project referred to as Project-Based Inquiry (PBI) Global. Data sources included (a) semi-structured student focus groups (post-PBI Global), (b) our observations and interactions with students throughout the process, (c) the students’ posts and uploads in their shared writing space, Quip, and (d) the students’ PBI Global products. Results shed light on how cross-cultural collaborative disciplinary inquiry fosters students’ demonstration and development of educational cosmopolitan capacities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]