Korean Educational Development Institute(KEDI)

The theme of citizenship has come to the forefront of public debate in Asian countries recently, with policies and studies focusing on processes such as democratization and civil society. All modern nation-states are confronted with challenges to effective democracy. Nationalism, welfare reform, and immigration separate the “members” and “non-members” of society in regard to individual entitlement and obligations. Citizenship discourse is the prism through which a nation-state views the politics, society, culture, and philosophy, of its past and present, and attempts to imagine a future. Citizenship as the legal and social framework for individual autonomy and political democracy has been central to Western political philosophy, linking modernization and democratization synonymous to Westernization. However, recently “voices have been heard questioning the universality of the Western imagination and the necessity of adopting Western values, including long cherished democratic values” (p.12). Are there fundamental Asian concerns that are relevant to defining region’s politics and citizenship? In other words, does “Asian modernity” exist as an alternative to Western modernity? The book, Citizenship Education in Asia and the Pacific: Concepts and Issues, published by Comparative Education Research Centre at The University of Hong Kong, is born of an ongoing scholarly “dialogue about the potential for Asia-Pacific values and traditions to contribute to the development of more democratic societies, and whether selected aspects of these values and traditions can be harnessed for democratic citizenship education” (p.1). Throughout the book the authors examine interrelated elements that provide a fundamentally different conception of citizenship, and they endeavor to develop a language of citizenship discourse that is essentially Asian. The book is arranged into five sections. Following series editor Mark Bray’s Foreword, the introduction by David Grossman stands alone. Part I, “Conceptual Debates”, includes three chapters that introduce the conceptual framework that creates the context for following chapters. In Chapter 1, “Searching for Citizenship Values in an Uncertain Global Environment”, Kerry J. Kennedy reviews some of the fundamental flaws in the conceptual debate. He questions whether there is a role for Western democratic values in non-Western countries and how these might correspond to serve Asian values and cultures, while in Chapter 2, “Emerging Concepts of Citizenship in the Asian Context”, W.O. Lee identifies the cultural features of Asia that may be applicable to “understanding political and citizenship concerns among Asians with a particular focus on the meaning of the ‘self’ in an Asian context”. Lee examines the implications of the Asian focus on the development of the individual as an entity, in contrast to the Western notion of individualism for citizenship development. In Chapter 3, “Muslim Views of Citizenship in Indonesia During Democratisation,” by Mary Fearnely-Sander, Isnarmi Muis, and Nurhizrah Gistituati raise the question of how a majority Muslim population relates to state, citizenship, and religion. Part II, “Historical and Policy Perspectives”, studies the development of citizenship education in nation-states across the region. In Chapter 4, “Citizenship Education in Hong Kong: Development and Challenges”, W.O. Lee reports on the IEA civic education study in Hong Kong relating to issues of democracy, civic involvement, views towards the nation (in a historic moment), and problems in carrying out a civic education curriculum. In Chapter 5, “A Solid Foundation: Citizenship Education in Japan”, Lynne Parmenter presents an overview of the historical circumstance of the place of citizenship education in Japanese curriculum. In Chapter 6, “A Society in Transition: The Paradigm Shift of Civic Education in Taiwan”, Liu Meihui explores recent civic education reform i