Citizenship Education In Asia And The Pacific

Based on case studies of 11 societies in the world’s most dynamic region, this book signals a new direction of study at the intersection of citizenship education and the curriculum. Following their successful volume, Citizenship Education in Asia and the Pacific: Concepts and Issues (published as No. 14 in this series), the editors, widely regarded as leaders in the field in the Asia-Pacific region, have gone beyond broad citizenship education frameworks to examine the realities, tensions and pressures that influence the formation of the citizenship curriculum. Chapter authors from different societies have addressed two fundamental questions: (1) how is citizenship education featured in the current curriculum reform agenda in terms of both policy contexts and values; and (2) to what extent do the reforms in citizenship education reflect current debates within the society? From comparative analysis of these 11 case studies the editors have found a complex picture of curriculum reform that indicates deep tensions between global and local agendas. On one hand, there is substantial evidence of an increasingly common policy rhetoric in the debates about citizenship education. On the other, it is evident that this discourse does not necessarily extend to citizenship curriculum, which in most places continues to be constructed according to distinctive social, political and cultural contexts. Whether the focus is on Islamic values in Pakistan, an emerging discourse about Chinese ‘democracy’, a nostalgic conservatism in Australia, or a continuing nation-building project in Malaysia – the cases show that distinctive social values and ideologies construct national citizenship curricula in Asian contexts even in this increasingly globalized era. This impressive collection of case studies of a diverse group of societies informs and enriches understanding of the complex relationship between citizenship education and the curriculum both regionally and globally.

It is a great pleasure to present this book, edited by a distinguished team at the Hong Kong Institute of Education and with excellent contributors from nine countries in the region and beyond. The book is a truly comparative work which significantly advances conceptual understanding. The comparisons undertaken are at many levels and with different units for analysis. One chapter undertakes comparison in two cities (Hong Kong and Guangzhou), three chapters make comparisons between two eountries (South Korea and Singapore; Solomon Islands and Vanuatu; South Korea and China); and five chapters undertake eomparisons across the whole region. Other on individual countries or, in one case, on a single schoo!. In addition, ehapters foeus several chapters examine the attitudes and roles played by individuals and groups within societies. The book is thus an admirable example of the vitality of the field of comparative education in selecting different units for analysis and in examination of issues from diverse angles. Within the book, moreover, readers will find a fascinating array of settings and environments. On the one hand, for example, is Japan with its relatively homogenous eulture, a population of 126 million, and a strong national identity based on language and history. On the other hand is Solomon Islands, which has a population of just 400,000 scattered over 1,000 islands, approximately 90 indigenous languages, and major social problems arising from culture c\ashes, econornic forces, political dyna mies and legacies of colonialism.

How are students in Asia and the Pacific taught to be effective citizens? Following two successful volumes previously published in this series, Citizenship Education in Asia and the Pacific: Concepts and Issues and Citizenship Curriculum in Asia and the Pacific, this volume focuses on citizenship pedagogies that are promoted by governments in the region, advocated by scholars, and adapted in the schools and classrooms where citizenship education takes place every day. Thirteen case studies from diverse societies in Asia and the Pacific highlight the ways in which teachers and students think about, experience or plan for citizenship teaching and learning. Different methods – vignettes, student surveys, case studies and literature reviews – are used to portray these experiences, from both macro- and micro-analytic perspectives. The wide array of case studies provides rich information and insights into the realities and possibilities of pedagogies for citizenship across the region.

This book examines the approach to civic education in six societies located on the Pacific Rim: Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, and the US. In these scrupulously designed studies, the contributors investigate the recent re-emergence of civic education in this region. Developments such as globalization, nationalism, and sovereignty have profound effects on how schools make "good citizens." These essays reveal how definitions of citizenship are contested and revised under such influences, and interrogate differences in civic education from nation to nation. As societies attempt to strike a balance between obedience and critical thinking, schools become the primary site of these transformations. Analyzing both educational policy and its implementation, these contributors offer a groundbreaking, comparative study that grounds civic education historically and politically.

This edited book provides new research highlighting philosophical traditions, emerging perceptions, and the situated practice of global citizenship education (GCE) in Asian societies. The book includes chapters that provide: 1) conceptions and frameworks of GCE in Asian societies; 2) analyses of contexts, policies, and curricula that influence GCE reform efforts in Asia; and 3) studies of students’ and teachers’ experiences of GCE in schools in different Asian contexts. While much citizenship education has focused on constructions and enactments of GCE in Western societies, this volume re-centers investigations of GCE amid Asian contexts, identities, and practices. In doing so, the contributors to this volume give voice to scholarship grounded in Asia, and the book provides a platform for sharing different approaches, strategies, and research across Asian societies. As nations grapple with how to prepare young citizens to face issues confronting our world, this book expands visions of how GCE might be conceptualized, contextualized, and taught; and how innovative curriculum initiatives and pedagogies can be developed and enacted.

This book originates from a collaborative research initiative to examine how various societies in the Asia-Pacific Region construct moral and civic education, and to what extent these systems achieve the democratic objective of creating socially responsible citizens. In many western societies there is at least a rhetorical tendency to separate the moral and civic dimensions of citizenship education, and in some cases to exclude the moral dimension from the discourse of preparing citizens. However, as cross-societal dialogues and research about citizenship education have increased in the past two decades, scholars have identified differences in the emphasis put on the moral dimension of citizenship education across the Asia-Pacific region. In many predominantly Confucian, Islamic and Buddhist societies, for example, the emphasis on the moral dimension of citizenship education is explicit, and in some cases, central. While awareness of a divide, or perhaps more appropriately a continuum in the role of moral versus civic education in democratic societies has been recognized for some time, to our knowledge this book marks the first effort of this scope to address the issue of the moral/civic divide in citizenship education. Thus, through a cross-cultural dialogue across societies in the Asia-Pacific Region, this book addresses the issue of whether elements of both civic and moral education can be effectively joined to create a “socially responsible” citizen.