Citizenship Teaching & Learning - Volume 10, Issue 3, 2015

We discuss the connections between drama education and citizenship education in Japan and England. This discussion is developed in the context of collaboration among colleagues in two countries. We provide some background information about the nature of education in Japan and England, exploring relevant policy and professional initiatives. We discuss three areas of possible congruence between activity-based drama and citizenship education: the importance of public spaces, the use of specific forms of content and educational processes. We suggest that there is potential for fruitful further exploration of the connections between these areas.

This article argues for reconstructing Hong Kong’s civic education in the post-national education era, and puts forward some rethinking on conceptual, curricular and pedagogical matters. This article starts with a brief critical review of the development of school civic education in Hong Kong to set the context. This is followed by a discussion of the MNE controversy. It points out that the shelving of the mandatory subject and reversion to depoliticized school-based civic education is inadequate to address the needs of civic education in Hong Kong. Finally, this article argues in favour of the type of civic education that aims at cultivating politically literate, critically thinking and actively participating citizens, with particular reference to the Civic Education Guidelines from Civil Society. This set of unofficial Guidelines proposes that Hong Kong’s civic education has to be reconstructed both in conceptual, curricular and pedagogical terms accordingly. Hopefully, this article will shed light on the development of civic education in societies that are facing similar challenges in the process of democratization and an upheaval of civic consciousness of the citizenry.

This study investigates Hong Kong primary teachers’ perceptions of moral, civic and national education, which may have an impact on how they prepare students to become ‘good citizens’ through classroom instruction. Moral and Civic Education (MCE) has been an overall goal of Hong Kong’s education system since 2001, while Moral and National Education (MNE) was proposed as a new subject in an effort to introduce a patriotic agenda in 2011. Teachers play essential roles in nurturing students to become ‘good citizens’ because they are the key figures in implementing education and curriculum policies in schools. Therefore, gaining a greater understanding of teachers’ perceptions of MNE provides insights into the extent to which teachers are prepared to contribute to the patriotic agenda as part of a revamped civic education curriculum. While there are complex factors affecting teachers’ receptivity to curriculum change, an understanding of factors that influence teachers’ perceptions of patriotic education could be valuable for school stakeholders (such as policymakers, educators and researchers), not only in Hong Kong but in other places (such as the United States and the United Kingdom), when they consider what can be done to influence students’ attitudes towards citizenship. Utilizing pilot data, this study reports Hong Kong teachers’ attitudes towards patriotic education through the proposed new school subject of MNE. The findings indicate that ‘perceived others’ support’, ‘perceived concerns of MNE’ and ‘non-monetary cost-benefits’ were the significant predictors of teacher receptivity of MNE. The results suggest that when teachers had concerns about patriotic education, they were less likely to support its implementation, while if they had the support of others they were more likely to support implementation of MNE. More importantly, teachers who perceived that patriotic education can cultivate more well-rounded students were more likely to support the implementation of MNE.

In 2014, the Canadian Conservative government caused much concern and debate amongst academics, the media and public over proposed changes to the Elections Act, which would restrict communications from the Chief Electoral Officer. The debate over Bill C-23 provides the opportunity to explore the role of electoral management bodies in civic education. This article argues that based on policy precedent at the provincial level and general institutional support across Canada that there is a case to be made for a civic education role for EMBs, going beyond the responsibility of simply providing answers on ‘How to Vote’ but also suggesting answers to the question of ‘Why Vote’.

To date Canadian citizenship education in English Canada has largely ignored religion. Given the religious diversity of the Canadian population and the increasing political salience of religion in national and international events, the marginalization of religion within citizenship education is no longer tenable. Citizenship education is integrally connected with diversity policies, and the religious illiteracy common among Canadians harms those who belong to minority religions, many of whom are first- and second-generation immigrants. More specifically, religious illiteracy breeds misperceptions about religious adherents who highly identify with their religious identity and it hinders the ability of society to take religious differences seriously. Despite the links between religious and citizenship education however, there are concerns about reducing religion to its political expediency of addressing religious diversity and pluralism. In this article I draw on research about religion conducted in various disciplines that promote citizenship education and address religious illiteracy without reducing religion to its political functions. The three areas studied are religious pluralism, religious identity and inter-religious dialogue.

Citizenship, Education and Social Conflict: Israeli Political Education in Global Perspective, Hanan Alexander, Halleli Pinson and Yossi Yonah (eds) (2011) NY & Abingdon: Routledge, 314 pp., ISBN-13: 9780415744256 p/bk $48.95

Education for Citizenship in Europe: European Policies, National Adaptations and Young Pe ople’s Attitudes, Avril Keating (2014) Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 233+ix pp., ISBN: 9781137019561, h/bk, £61.75

Education and the Common Good: Essays in Honor of Robin Barrow, John Gingell (ed.) (2014) Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 162 pp., ISBN-13: 9780415518345, h/bk, £90