Citizenship Curriculum in Asia and the Pacific

Based on case studies of societies in the world's most dynamic region, this book signals a new direction in the study of the citizenship curriculum. Following their very successful "Citizenship Education in Asia and the Pacific: Concepts and Issues", the editors have gone beyond broad citizenship education frameworks to examine the realities, tensions, discontinuities and pressures that influence citizenship curriculum. Comparative cross-case and reflective analyses show a complex picture of curriculum reform that reflects struggles between global and local agendas. On the one hand, the cases reveal a global rhetoric and rationale dominating reform discourse across societies. On the other hand, this discourse does not necessarily extend to citizenship curriculum that 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 - these cases show the distinctive social values and ideologies that construct citizenship curriculum in these new times, reflecting the diversity of the region. The editors are widely regarded as leaders in the field in the Asia-Pacific region.