Context and Curriculum in Two Global Cities: A Study of Discourses of Citizenship in Hong Kong and Singapore

This qualitative, comparative case study examined global civic education (GCE) in the Asian global cities of Hong Kong and Singapore. Guided by theories that position curriculum at the intersection of discourse, context, and personal meaning-making, we sought to describe the ways in which intentions for GCE reflect broader societal discourses of citizenship and how curricula allow students to tackle tensions surrounding national and global citizenship. We found that Singapore and Hong Kong have adopted depoliticized forms of citizenship as a means of inoculation against global ills. These types Context and curriculum in two global cities 2 of citizenship are more nationalistic than global in nature; moral rather than political; and focused mainly on utilitarian goals to produce adaptable workers able to support national economic projects in the global economy. Although critical, transnational and other emergent civic perspectives are apparent in both cities, the data yielded little evidence of curricular opportunities for students to become exposed to alternative discourses and reconcile discursive contradictions. The findings inform current literature by illuminating the nexus of local and global discursive practices, implicating the ability of curricula to accommodate both novel and established civic identities, and forwarding suggestions to bridge disconnections between theoretical and local curricular definitions of global citizenship.

national and global citizenship. We found that Singapore and Hong Kong have adopted depoliticized forms of citizenship as a means of inoculation against global ills. These types of citizenship are more nationalistic than global in nature; moral rather than political; and focused mainly on utilitarian goals to produce adaptable workers able to support national economic projects in the global economy. Although critical, transnational and other emergent civic perspectives are apparent in both cities, the data yielded little evidence of curricular opportunities for students to become exposed to alternative discourses and reconcile discursive contradictions. The findings inform current literature by illuminating the nexus of local and global discursive practices, implicating the ability of curricula to accommodate both novel and established civic identities, and forwarding suggestions to bridge disconnections between theoretical and local curricular definitions of global citizenship. Keywords: Citizenship; civic identities; curriculum; global cities Contexto y currículo en dos ciudades globales: Un estudio de discursos de ciudadanía en Hong Kong y Singapur Resumen: Este estudio de caso cualitativo y comparativo examino la educación cívica global (ECG) en las ciudades globales asiáticas de Hong Kong y Singapur. Guiado por teorías que entienden que los currículos interaccionan con discursos, contextos y comprensiones personales de significado, los autores describen las maneras en que las intenciones para ECG reflejan discursos sociales amplios sobre ciudadanía y como los currículos permiten que los estudiantes enfrenten tensiones alrededor de la ciudadanía nacional y global. Se encontró que Singapur y Hong Kong han adoptado formas despolitizadas de ciudadanía como un medio de inocular contra problemas mundiales. Estos tipos de ciudadanía son más nacionalistas que globales en carácter; más morales que políticos; y enfocados principalmente en metas utilitarias para producir trabajadores adaptables capaces de sostener proyectos económicos nacionales en una economía global. A pesar de que perspectivas críticas, transnacionales y emergentes son evidentes en ambas ciudades, los datos proporcionan poca evidencia de oportunidades curriculares para que los estudiantes sean expuestos a discursos alternativos y puedan reconciliar contradicciones discursivas. Los resultados iluminan el nexo de prácticas discursivas a nivel local y global, y la capacidad de los currículos para acomodar ambos identidades establecidas y novedosas. El trabajo concluye con sugerencias para conectar desconexiones entre las definiciones teóricas y curriculares local de la ciudadanía global. Palabras-clave: ciudadanía; identidades cívicas; currículo; ciudades globales Contexto e currículo em duas cidades globais: Um estudo de discursos de cidadania em Hong Kong e Singapura Resumo: Este estudo qualitativo e comparativo de caso examinou a educação cívica global (ECG) nas cidades globais asiáticas de Hong Kong e Singapura. Guiado por teorias que põem currículo na interseção de discurso, contexto e a formação pessoal de significado, os autores trataram de descrever as maneiras em que as intenções para ECG reflexam amplos discursos sociais de cidadania e como os currículos permitem que os alunos enfrentem tensões ao redor da cidadania nacional y global. Se encontrou que Singapura y Hong Kong tem adoptado formas despolitizadas de cidadania como meio de inocular cont ra problemas mundiais. Estes tipos de cidadania são mais nacionalistas que globais em carácter; mais moral que política; e focado principalmente nas metas utilitárias para produzir trabalhadores adaptáveis capazes de sustentar projetos económicos nacionais na economia global. Apesar de que perspectivas críticas, transnacionais y emergentes são evidentes em ambas cidades, a data proporcionou pouca evidencia de oportunidades curriculares para que os alunos sejam expostos à discursos alternativos y para reconciliar contradições discursivas. Os resultados informam a literatura existente por iluminar o nexo de práticas discursivas ao nível local y global, implicando a capacidade de currículos para acomodar ambos identidades estabelecidas y novas e dirigindo sugestões para conectar desconexões entre as definições teoréticas y de currículo local da cidadania global. Palavras-chave: cidadania; identidades cívicas; currículo; ciudades globais

Context and Curriculum in Two Global Cities: A Study of Discourses of Citizenship in Hong Kong and Singapore
Discourses of citizenship are in flux under conditions of globalization (Abowitz & Harnish, 2006;Appadurai, 1996). Rather than educating students solely for their roles as citizens of their nations, state school systems have faced demands to prepare young citizens for effective participation in an interdependent global community (Merryfield & Duty, 2008). Academic scholarship increasingly recognizes the civic curriculum's positioning at the intersection of discourse, context, and personal meaning-making (Torney-Purta, Lehman, Oswald, & Shulz, 2001). Yet, current literature lacks investigations that reveal the ways in which curricular intentions of global citizenship education (GCE) reflect broader societal discourses of citizenship and how curricula allow students to tackle tensions surrounding national and global citizenship. The present investigation addresses these gaps in literature by employing macro-and micro-level analytical techniques in order to describe the nature of GCE in two global cities: Hong Kong and Singapore. The purpose of our study was two-fold. First, we aimed to describe the political, economic, and socio-cultural contextual factors that shape the discourses of citizenship and globalization in the two settings. Second, we sought to surface intentions and rationales for GCE as expressed in curriculum documents in order to illuminate opportunities for students to consider emerging conceptions of citizenship and civic identities.
Global cities are cities that are positioned at the center of transnational flows of communication, culture, and capital (Sassen, 1991). Because global cities are primary hubs of media and technology, they create pockets of a global civil society (Appadurai, 1996;Falk, 2000) that underline tensions between patriotic citizenship and multiple and transnational civic identities (Banks, 2008;Kymlicka, 2004). Moreover, as nodes of influence in the world economy, global cities encapsulate growing economic inequalities within and across societies, implicating how school curricula prepare young citizens for economic competitiveness while replicating or challenging existing social hierarchies (Mitchell, 2003). The issues of multiple identities and social disparities resonate in Hong Kong and Singapore, two democratic societies that are major centers in the global economy. Hong Kong, a former British colony recently returned to Chinese dominion, faces uncertainties regarding how to maintain local identities and democratic traditions while inculcating in young citizens a sense of nationalism (Chan, 2014). Whereas, the cosmopolitan city-state of Singapore has faced criticism as an illiberal democracy, where education policies support a narrowly defined agenda of state-sanctioned multiculturalism and national identity (Mutalib, 2000).The two global cities, thus, provide information-rich contexts to inform curricular efforts in GCE.
Within these two settings, we examined contextual factors that shaped the discourses of GCE. We then scrutinized policy and curriculum documents to determine curricular intentions and rationalizations for stated civic goals. The situated characterizations of GCE in two global cities contribute to current literature by illuminating the intersection of local and global discursive practices, implicating the ability of curricula to accommodate both emerging and established civic discourses, and raising questions regarding disconnections between academic conceptions and local curricular definitions of global citizenship.

Discourses of Citizenship and the Curriculum
Discourses are ways of constituting knowledge (Foucault, 1980); the language and beliefs that serve as frameworks and ideologies to help people to understand and act in the world (Abowitz & Harnish, 2006). In their review of contemporary civic discourses, Abowitz and Harnish (2006) defined curriculum as a discursive practice reflective of "terminology, values, rhetorical styles, habits, and truths" (p. 655) that spring from historical and social conditions. They argue that the civic curriculum -in the form of official documents articulating appropriate modes of civic engagement or a political directive that defines civic identity-comprise expressions of beliefs about citizenship, privileging specific ideological perspectives over others. Influenced by civic republican and liberal democratic perspectives that find basis in the Enlightenment, discourses regarding citizenship have traditionally referred to individuals' status, rights, and obligations as defined by national laws (Heater, 2002;Osler & Starkey, 2005). Similarly, curriculum theorists posit curriculum as a form of "institutionalized learning" whose structure, sequence, and outcomes are strongly associated with political discourses of development particular to nation-states (Reid, 2003). In this view, curriculum is an instrument that mediates between the individual and a nation-centric political order (Lee, 2006). More recently, however, research has called attention to how the curriculum is influenced by global exchanges of ideas that expose young people to discourses of citizenship unbound from nationalistic definitions (Oxley & Morris, 2013). Among these are critical discourses that view problems in society through the lenses of class, gender, and race; and transnational discourses that emphasize universal human rights as a motivator of civic engagement (Abowitz & Harnish, 2006).
The Octagon model employed in the International Association of Educational Achievement's Civic Education Study (IEA CivEd) is one framework that sought to illustrate the nature of curriculum amidst varying discourses regarding citizenship. The model situates learning about citizenship within "communities of discourse and practice," where young people develop an understanding of citizenship through personal interactions, but progressively learn more complex ways of civic behavior through exposure to public discourse, practices of society, and global media (Torney-Purta et al., 2001, p. 20). The curriculum is framed broadly by a country's international position, including memberships to international organizations and relationships in the global economy. These global factors inform societal discourses about goals and values that are carried through official speeches, processes of communication and media, and national narratives. Within schools, official curriculum documents relay discourses about citizenship and curriculum intentions; whereas, the center of the model features students' interactions with parents, teachers, peers, and other socializing agents. The Octagon, thus, illustrates the ways in which local, national, and transnational discourses might interact to give particular shape to civic learning and curriculum practice (Parker, 2011;Torney-Purta et al., 2001).

The Discursive Curriculum: Context and Personal Meaning-Making
The IEA CivEd Model-while underlining the discursive nature of citizenship-calls attention to how the curriculum develops at the intersection of the macro-level of societal contexts and the micro-level of young people's personal constructions of citizenship. Foucault (1980) argues that discourse is a form of "constituting knowledge" that cannot be divorced from broader contexts, or "forms of subjectivity and power relations which inhere in such knowledges" (Weedon, 1987, p. 108). Analyses of curricula, therefore, necessitate an understanding of the ways in which a society's culture, economy, history and policy shape relations of power and "control how participants produce and understand (civic) discourse" (Van Dijk, 2008, pp. ix-x). At the micro-level, scholars increasingly recognize citizenship as a multidimensional construct that encompasses legal status as well as individuals' feelings and practice (Osler & Starkey, 2005). The personal dimension of citizenship is captured in Damon's (2001) definition of civic identity, or a "set of moral and political beliefs, a personal ideology . . . to which a young person forges a commitment . . . to one's community and a sense of responsibility to the society at large" (p. 127) (cited in Abowitz & Harnish, 2006, pp. 659-660). More recently, Banks (2008) posits that citizens can cultivate multiple and overlapping identities based on national, ethnic, racial, religious, class, gender, or cultural attachments. As Sen (2006) observed, "Each of these collectivities, to all of which this person simultaneously belongs, gives her a particular identity. None of them can be taken to be the person's only identity of singular membership category" (p. xiii).
Despite growing recognition of the civic curriculum's positioning at the intersection of discourse, context, and personal meaning-making, research has often attended singularly to these elements. For example, current literature sheds light on the ways in which the context of the global economy-and in particular, societies' links to the global economy-reinforce neoliberal-and nation-based discourses (Falk, 2000;Ong, 1999). In turn, education policies forward these discourses to help create workers rather than citizens (Davies & Bansel, 2007), while perpetuating the status of dominant elites (Mitchell, 2003). The vital role of context likewise surfaces in scholars' contentions that prevalent Western-centric perspectives in academic discourse impede a nuanced understanding of citizenship and civic education in Asian societies. They decry researchers' tendencies to employ binary frameworks that pit Western values rooted in individual liberty against collectivist "Asian values" Ong, 1999). Lee (2004) further underlines that-similar to Western conceptions of citizenship-Asian conceptions emphasize individuality. In many Asian societies, however, "individuality" is concerned with self-actualization, whereas, Western notions of "individualism" emphasize a citizen's rights and responsibilities. Instead, Lee forwards a relationalist perspective in understanding the individual citizen and the collective. Kennedy (2004) similarly cautions against investigations of citizenship education framed through "the relevance or not of the Western imagination to non-Western countries" (p. 11). Citing Sen's (2010) historical evidence of democratic deliberative traditions in China, Japan, and India, he argues for contextualized analyses of the ways Western democratic values are compatible with indigenous values and support local cultures threatened by globalization.
With regards to personal constructions of citizenship, studies from Australia (Cogan, Morris, & Print, 2002), the United Kingdom (Osler & Starkey, 2005), and the United States (Alviar-Martin, 2010/2011) evidence how students' daily experiences allow for the development of cultural, local, and global identities. However, citizenship curricula are dominated by discourses that overlook the development of civic identity based on multiple attachments (Banks, 2008). Rather, perspectives that are compatible with multiple civic identities-such as transnational and critical discourses-are likely to be confined to academic circles or non-governmental organizations (Abowitz & Harnish, 2006).
In sum, current literature exposes a gap in studies that bring together macro-and microanalytical approaches in order to illuminate the discursive nature of citizenship curriculum at the intersection of societal contexts and students' capacities to form personal understandings of their civic identities. Zong, Wilson, and Quashiga (2008) have argued, there is a need for investigations of curriculum within "truly global settings" (p. 213) that capture the nexus of global civic discourses and societal structures of power; whereas, Kennedy (2004) has called for situated studies of Asian societies that confront predominant Western-centric examinations of citizenship. Such investigations would reveal the localized ways schools and societies give voice to minority perspectives and emerging identities (Merryfield & Duty, 2008), surface how curricula mitigate or promote neoliberal agendas (Gaudelli, 2013;Nussbaum, 2010), and illustrate how schools maintain or reorganize hierarchal relationships between the state, its citizen-subjects, and the global economy (Mitchell, 2003). In this study, we addressed those gaps in literature by examining the contexts and curricula for civic education in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Methods
Mindful of the growing recognition of the curriculum's positioning at the intersection of discourse, context, and personal meaning-making, our goal was to employ macro-level and microlevel analytical techniques in order to describe the nature of GCE in two Asian global cities. We used a qualitative comparative case study approach (Stake, 2005) to provide rich description of key contexts in Hong Kong and Singapore. Guided by interpretive perspectives, we examined the way historical, political, economic, and socio-cultural contextual factors have shaped local discourses regarding globalization and citizenship education. Additionally, we drew on comparative perspectives that seek to illuminate how local phenomena such as citizenship education can hold broader meanings amidst conditions of globalization (Kennedy, Hahn, & Lee, 2008). Two questions framed our construction of the cases: 1) What contextual factors (e.g. historical, political, economic, and socio-cultural) shape the discourses of GCE in Hong Kong and Singapore? and 2) What intentions are expressed in policy and curriculum documents regarding citizenship and civic identities? How are these intentions rationalized?

Research Setting: Global Cities
The study focuses on two global cities in Asia, a region that has been overlooked in GCE research relative to Western societies (Cogan et al., 2002;Lee at al., 2004). We situate this study in global cities because global cities vivify the issues faced by GCE educators amid changing conceptions of citizenship in a globalized world. Due to their communication-based linkages to the global community, and as gateways for transnational migration, global cities are at the forefront of an emerging multicultural and transnational civil society (Sassen, 2005). It is through these linkages that citizens in global cities are exposed to transnational and critical forms of discursive practices (Abowitz & Harnish, 2006) that may cultivate simultaneous civic affinities based on overlapping markers of identity and underline tensions between patriotic and global citizenships. The global civil society likewise opens new possibilities for social and political participation (Falk, 2000) and advocacy for social, critical, and environmental aims (Oxley & Morris, 2013). New goods, technologies, and media in global cities make possible a whole range of meaning-making resources that can be assembled and re-assembled in new ways to produce new lifestyle choices, forms of participation, communities, and identities (Appadurai, 1996). This study examines how curricula in global cities are informed by official national discourses stemming from the state, as well as dialogues from academic circles and civil society, and other forms of public discourse that may accommodate emerging civic identities.
Moreover, as nodes of influence in the world economy, global cities encapsulate growing social and economic complexities across societies. For Sassen (1996), global cities have become "a strategic terrain for a whole series of conflicts and contradictions" (p. 89) due to the establishment of top-level industries and corporations as well as peripheral sectors that service them. Such expansions create employment growth that tends to cluster at the bottom and top ends of the occupational/income distribution at the expense of the middle, creating an "hourglass" structure where jobs are either highly or poorly paid. Thus, global cities increasingly reflect disparities based on income (Chiu & Lui, 2009). In this study, we attend to the ways each society's socio-political traditions, institutions, and discourses consider issues of socio-economic hierarchies and how schools prepare young citizens for economic competitiveness while replicating or challenging existing hierarchies (Mitchell, 2003).

Case Selection
Comparativists suggest the selection of cases that highlight similarities and differences across criteria to allow for interesting findings (Kennedy et al., 2008;Steiner-Khamsi, 2010). Based on the literature, we selected cases as we considered the cities' global economic standing and socioeconomic structures, historical and political traditions, cultural orientations, educational structures, and climates of public discourse. The cases converged in terms of their classification as "Alpha +" global cities that fill advanced service niches in the global economy (Taylor, 2004). Hong Kong and Singapore share histories as British colonies and cultural orientations as predominantly Confucian societies. Both hold socio-political traditions of democracy, meritocracy, and passive approaches to welfarism (Chiu & Lui, 2009). However, the cases diverge in that Singapore is an independent citystate, whereas Hong Kong operates as an autonomous region of China. Education structures and curriculum diffusion differ slightly in both settings. Although both societies have central agencies that oversee education policy development and curriculum planning, in Singapore curriculum development is relatively top-down, whereas Hong Kong conforms to a school-based approach that provides implementational leeway (Gopinathan & Lee, 2013). With regards to public discourse, Hong Kong's constitution guarantees freedom of speech and assembly. In contrast, official "out-ofbounds (OB) markers" in Singapore inhibit public discussion of controversial topics (Chua, 1995).

Data Sources
We examined selected curriculum documents, curriculum policy statements, and official rhetoric that addressed national and global contexts as well as citizenship education in both cities. We located key documents by government agencies and officials. These included speeches by government officials, including the Prime Minister of Singapore and the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, government officials holding key positions in Singapore's Ministry of Education (MOE), Hong Kong's Education and Manpower Bureau (EMB), as well as other officials with education portfolios. Table 1 summarizes the curriculum documents that relate to citizenship education. In Singapore, we analyzed documents issued by the MOE, such as syllabi and documents that outlined National Education, Social Studies education, 21 st century competencies, and general reports. Documents from Hong Kong included curriculum guidelines issued by the Curriculum and Development Council (CDC) pertaining to education reform from 2000-2014, such as the Basic Education Framework, Learning to Learn: The Way Forward in Curriculum Development, and the New Senior Secondary Curriculum; and two documents specific to civic education (Moral and Civic Education and Liberal Studies). Additionally, we analyzed articles and speeches from scholars and public intellectuals in the area of citizenship and civic education. These documents included reviews of literature and research studies published in academic journals, speeches delivered in conferences or other public fora, and opinion pieces featured in local newspapers.

Data Analysis
We conducted discourse analysis to understand the key documents in relation to their broader contexts. Our analysis mirrors perspectives from citizenship education (Lee, 2006;Torney-Purta et al., 2001) and sociolinguistics (Gee, 2005) that posit the curriculum as a form of discursive practice nested within broad societal contexts and individual meaning-making regarding citizenship. Such a model reconciles "the macro and micro . . . the personal and the social" by attending to civic discourses and surrounding contextual factors (i.e. relations of power, agency, and structure) (Van Dijk, 2008, p. x). Discourse analysis adhered to the constant comparative approach (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) that entailed the examination of fragments of texts, comparing text fragments, and merging similar fragments into categories with the aim of reducing the data and capturing thematically the nature of formal civic preparation and surrounding discourses.
Reflecting our research questions, the objective of the first analytical stage was to sketch the historical, political, economic, and socio-cultural contextual factors that characterize Singapore and Hong Kong as global cities. We drew on data from official documents and speeches, and discourse from public intellectuals to provide rich descriptions of competing perspectives regarding citizenship and globalization in each city. The first analytical phase thematically captured Hong Kong's identity as a Chinese global city marked by social disparity and conflicting identities; while yielding characterizations of Singapore as an illiberal global city.
The second research question focused on education policy and curricular documents in citizenship education. In this analytical phase, we identified the goals of citizenship curricula and sought to ascertain rationales behind curricular aims. This entailed examining the curricular documents while reviewing findings from the contextual analysis in the study's initial stage, continually moving "from context to language and from language to context" (Gee, 2005, p. 14) in order to surface justifications for curricular intentions. The analysis yielded over 15 categories in each setting. The numbers reduced as we noted convergences, merged categories, and created larger themes (Creswell, 2008). Each case-setting featured two categories upon completion of the analysis: "morally grounded national citizenship" and "citizenship as understanding different perspectives" in Hong Kong; and "situational anxiety: civic education reform as adjustment" and "the primacy of economic global citizenship" in Singapore.

Findings
Below, we present findings from the analysis of the cases, first of Hong Kong, and then of Singapore. Within each case, we sketch the context of discourses surrounding globalization and citizenship, and subsequently, thematic descriptions of intentions stated in curriculum documents.

Hong Kong: Social Disparity and Conflicting Identities in a Chinese Global City
Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China and former British colony. Its origins as a global city date to 1842, when the Treaty of Nanking designated Hong Kong as a British free port. From the 19 th to the 20 th centuries-due to a laissez-fare ideology and waves of migration-Hong Kong transformed from an entrepôt economy to an international financial hub.
The 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration laid the foundations of the Basic Law, stipulating that from 1997, Hong Kong would be governed through the "one country, two systems" framework that subsumed the SAR under the Central People's Government (CPG). The Basic Law granted executive, legislative, and judicial autonomy and guaranteed that Hong Kong's capitalist way of life would remain unchanged for 50 years.
Hong Kong's government has embraced its narrative as a global city. The SAR brands itself as "Asia's World City" to highlight its position as one of the world's freest economies and regional base for numerous transnational corporations (Shen, 2007). Yet, members of academia and civil society have argued that this official branding masks the social polarization that results from the global expansion of top-level industries (Chu, 2011). In their census-based study, Chiu and Lui (2009) illustrated increasing disparities based on income across occupations. Migration has further fueled social polarization by providing labor for jobs that locals avoid. Recently, the Gini Coefficient Index Report brought attention to Hong Kong's income inequality and issues such as homelessness and the rising costs of living (Chen, 2014).
Hong Kong is further dominated by discourses surrounding the complex identities stemming from its reversion to Chinese rule. The Handover ushered a period of ambiguity as Hong Kongers struggled to reconcile their localized identities with that of the Chinese mainland. In the past century, Hong Kongers' identities were shaped by their migrant backgrounds. However, as the expanding economy brought opportunities for upward mobility, the "Hong Kong Dream"-the popular belief that "hard work plus a little bit of luck would bring great success"-gave the emergent Hong Kong identity practical basis (Mathews, Ma, & Lui, 2008, p. 36).
Hong Kongers' mostly upwardly-mobile backgrounds have grounded their collective identity on an "instrumental plasticity" that eschews the idea of belonging to the nation as the basis of one's life (Matthews et al., 2008). In the run-up to the 1997 Handover, many middle-class Hong Kongers chose to gain political insurance by applying for dual citizenship in other countries. Yet, Hong Kongers have also drawn on human rights principles to distinguish their identities from that of the mainland. This global dimension of identity is most apparent during public demonstrations, such as rallies that decried the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, and most recently, the 2014 Occupy Central protests, where thousands of citizens voiced demands for direct elections of the Chief Executive.
Today, the concept of a distinct Hong Kong identity parallels a discourse of national renewal promulgated by the CPG and SAR governments (Tse, 2004). The official discourse is reflected in a speech delivered by the first Chief Executive, Tung Chee Hwa, as he discussed his vision for education. Tung couched Hong Kong's ties to China through morality-based rhetoric: "We need to renew our commitment to the traditional Chinese virtues of modesty, hard work . . . emphasis on obligations rather than individual rights, and the willingness to sacrifice one's interest for the common good . . ." (Tung, 1997). The idea of a global Hong Kong identity reflective of human rights likewise differs from the official rendering of a global outlook grounded primarily on economic terms. As Tung (1997) mentioned in the same speech: "I see an increasingly affluent and well educated population . . . confident in our destiny and global in our outlook; a truly . . . cosmopolitan city taking advantage of its Asian location and global perspective to capitalise on a world of opportunities." Cheung (2009) captured these parallel discourses when he noted: "Most Hong Kong citizens want to be proud . . . not just because they are economically affluent . . . Their pride ultimately lies in an institutional edge as represented by political pluralism, the rule of law, respect for human rights and civil liberties, accountable governance, and democratic institutions" (p. 13).

Morally-Grounded National Citizenship
Historically, civic education in Hong Kong has been marked by variations in depictions of nationhood and degrees of politicization (Leung & Ng, 2006). The subject of Civics was introduced in 1925 and became an examinable subject in 1950. Although content included topics such as the nature of government, the curriculum overlooked political rights and mentioned little about political developments in China. The subject Economic and Public Affairs (EPA) took the place of Civics in 1965. EPA entailed exploration of social issues, but centered on describing local problems and the colonial government's response. With the impending Handover to China, the 1980s ushered a period of "politicization" of the intended curriculum with the government's issuing of the 1985 Guidelines on Civic Education in Schools that infused civic education across subject areas. The curriculum reflected civil and social rights as the basis of Hong Kong citizenship, informed students about the nature of democratic government, and provided for increased civic activities in schools and education in political and constitutional matters (Morris, Kan, & Morris, 2000).
Our analysis of documents released from 2000-2002 reveals a reversion to depoliticized civic education characterized by a morally grounded national identity. In 2000, an education reform initiative, the Basic Education Framework (Education Commission, 2000) paved the introduction of the guideline, Learning to Learn "LTL: The Way Forward in Curriculum Development" (LTL). The reform reflected Tung's (1997) calls for education to be a means for national renewal and foundation for morality. In his introduction to LTL document, the CDC chief The subject Moral and Civics Education (MCE) replaced Civics Education within LTL. As one of the Five Essential Learning Experiences in the primary and secondary curriculum, MCE functions as an integrative curricular tool in the teaching of "the five priority values: perseverance, respecting others, responsibility, national identity, and commitment" (CDC, 2002, p. 1). The MCE curriculum reinforces national identity by linking the priority values to Chinese virtues. For example: "Perseverance, which is considered as a strength of the Chinese people, is an important quality that they should embrace . . ." (p. 2, all bolds in original). The section on "responsibility" closely echoes Tung's speech: "[Students] need to understand . . . that the well-being of an individual is inextricably bound up with the collective well-being of the community" (CDC, 2002, p. 3). Although the section on "national identity" cautions teachers not to "impose national sentiments" on students, it nonetheless reminds them: "The return of Hong Kong to China . . . calls for a deeper understanding of the history and culture of our motherland . . . to strengthen the sense of national identity among our young people . . ."(p. 3).
The MCE aims to develop students' local, national, and global awareness: "The priority values must be considered along with students' personal and social development and changes in the local and . . . global context" (p. 2). Using a "life-event" approach, teachers plan MCE lessons that resonate with students' experiences. However, MCE is organized around themes of "personal development and healthy living, family life, school life, social life, and life in the community", with little guidance as to how themes could be connected to global issues. For example, in the appendix section for Secondary 1-3, only one of 52 topics suggested under "core events, extension activities, and special events" refers to "international issues" (p. 34). In the main document, one sample lesson focuses on the environment, while another refers to helping other countries that are struck by natural disasters. Moreover, caring for the environment is presented as a means of instilling national solidarity as opposed to global awareness: "The school . . . conducts a 'Green project' . . . (in) Guangdong . . . aiming at arousing students' concern for the natural environment of China and to develop a sense of national identity . . ." (p. 5).
The MCE's morality-grounded and nationalistic tone underlines its predominantly depoliticized content. Of the 52 topics in the suggested activities, most refer to relationships with peers and family members. Among activities in the section on "life in the community", the focus is on addressing social obligations, such as "respecting the elderly, helping neighbours/needy in society, participating in voluntary work" (p. 32). Notably, these topics are linked back to the five priority values, while overlooking the structural causes of underlying issues, the political dimensions of problems, or the rights of citizens who may be in need.

Citizenship as Understanding Different Perspectives
The New Senior Secondary Curriculum (SSC), introduced in 2005, integrates citizenship education through MCE, which is included as part of the "Other Learning Experiences", and Liberal Studies, one of four core subjects. In its introduction section, the SSC restates the importance of the five priority values identified in MCE: "the moral development of students needs to be continuously strengthened, and positive values and attitudes need to be nurtured" (EMB, 2005, p. 16). The document later reinforces the need to emphasize Hong Kong's Chinese identity: "Since Hong Kong is part of China, the learning of Chinese culture and promotion of civic and national citizenship need strengthening" (p. 25).
The SSC document further reveals how the curriculum is intended to strengthen national identity by emphasizing the SAR's economic relationship to the mainland along with the need to sustain Hong Kong's development as an international city amidst economic restructuring and rapid developments in Mainland China. It highlights the need for Hong Kong citizens to "develop their adaptability, creativity, independent thinking and life-long learning capabilities" in order to maintain Hong Kong's competitive edge in the global economy and cope with "unprecedented worldwide changes" (EMB, 2005, p. 6).
A subject within the SSC, the Liberal Studies (LS) curriculum emphasizes an issues-centered and cross-disciplinary learning approach. Its specific aims are to help students: (1) acquire a broad knowledge base, and understand contemporary issues that may affect their daily life at personal, community, national and global levels; (2) be an informed and responsible citizen with a sense of global and national identity; (3) respect pluralism of cultures and views, and be a critical, reflective and independent thinker; and (4) acquire information technology (IT) and other skills necessary to life-long learning. The LS curriculum spans three areas of study: Self and Personal Development; Society and Culture; and Science, Technology and the Environment. These are further organized into 6 modules that identify specific values and attitudes that teachers could infuse. Teachers choose focal issues based on students' backgrounds and interests, and assess learning through a written examination (70%) and Independent Enquiry Study (30%) that requires students to conduct research on a self-selected issue.
Although nested within the SSC, the LS curriculum is distinguished by its inclusion of multiple perspectives and the need for young citizens to evaluate conflicting viewpoints in their decision-making process. The LS document rationalizes the inclusion of multiple perspectives so that students may learn to cope with "dynamic change . . . and develop both the capacity to reflect on their own culture and adopt a broad worldview that transcends spatial boundaries" (EMB, 2007/2014 p. 23). For example, in Module 2 (Quality of Life), students' learnings are organized around questions such as, "What are the different opinions of Hong Kong residents on the priorities which constitute the quality of life?" The explanatory notes suggest examining the organizing questions through economic, social, cultural, political, or environmental perspectives; or through various configurations (majority versus minority, vocal versus silent, abundance versus scarcity).
Students' exposure to multiple views opens opportunities to unpack conflicting values. The theme, "Rule of law and socio-political participation" for example, highlights civic loyalty, such as "patriotism" and "solidarity" but also concepts that may challenge the status quo, such as "human rights and responsibilities, democracy, and justice" (EMB, 2007(EMB, /2014. Beyond exposing different values, the curriculum exhorts students to be open to a range of opinions. Values referring to "open-mindedness" and "respect for different ways of life, beliefs and opinions" appear most frequently (10 times). This is apparent in the themes, "Chinese culture and modern life" and "Globalization", the latter of which queries, "Why do people from different parts of the world react differently to the opportunities and challenges brought by globalization?" Given the plurality of views in the LS curriculum, the document underlines developing values and attitudes for deliberation. Across the document, the values of rationality, reflection, and respect for evidence appear six times, stressing that in a diverse society, the government and individuals hold responsibility for evaluating different perspectives and evidence in their decisionmaking process. The "Rule of Law" unit underlines the government's role in weighing demands from groups with diverse values and ideals, such as political and business groups, non-governmental organizations, the disadvantaged, and people of different gender, ethnicity and religion. The curriculum further stresses individuals' need for honing skills of deliberation in defining their identity; encouraging students to explore perspectives relating to adolescents' rights and responsibilities, gender equality, messages communicated through media, and relationships with family, teachers, and peers. The document characterizes individuals' identities as complex and overlapping (Banks, 2008), and can encompass roles as participants in "local, national and global communities" (EMB, 2007(EMB, /2014. In sum, the LS curriculum adheres to an issues-based approach that leads students to consider questions such as, "How are identities shaped? What is the significance of multiple identities to HK residents?" However, LS functions within the broader curriculum frameworks of SSC and LTL that highlight a morality-based national citizenship and overshadow emergent local and global identities. Although the LS curriculum's accommodation of multiple civic identities have led critics to denounce LS for contributing to a political awakening among young protesters of the 2014 Occupy Central movement (Tsoi, 2014), Leung and Yuen (2009) speculate otherwise, contending that the official curriculum's over-all conservative tone inhibits the teaching and learning of citizenship through critical lenses.

Singapore: Illiberal Global City
Singapore is an excellent site for understanding the discourses and operations of globalization (Koh, 2007). Its outlook has always been global; straddling key trade routes between East and West, its economy has been dependent on international trade. The end of British colonial rule in 1963 and the subsequent failed merger with Malaysia abruptly thrust independence onto Singapore in 1965. Lacking an educated workforce and few natural resources, Singapore's leaders faced the challenge of establishing an economically viable nation.
Due to its potentially fractious multi-ethnic and multi-religious population, Singapore's leaders have continually viewed its survival as precarious. Social and political unrest in the early years resulted in political leaders emphasizing nation-building, political control by a ruling elite, an ideology of pragmatism, and economic growth as necessary for national survival (Chan, 1971). Political leaders in Singapore have continually used the discourse of vulnerability to make a case for a responsible, disciplined citizenry.
The dominant People's Action Party (PAP) demonstrates a rationality of economic instrumentalism (Chua, 1995), emphasizing constant economic growth and material comfort to satisfy its citizenry. Early economic policy emphasized manufacturing and trade, infrastructure modernization, and the development of human capital to attract multinational corporations and foreign investments. In more recent years, Singapore has become a post-industrial global city (Sassen, 1996(Sassen, , 2001 serving as a nodal command center for multinational corporations, transnational legal and financial services, and other producer services that coordinate, manage, and service global economic flows. The changing dictates of global capital have required another round of economic restructuring and a more cosmopolitan workforce. Singapore has rebranded itself as a global cosmopolitan city bringing together a range of talents who are encouraged to work and play hard (Wee, 2014). Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong outlined this new global city narrative during his National Day Rally Speech in 1997: "Our . . . strategy to meet future competition is to gather talent and make Singapore a cosmopolitan city … Singapore must become a cosmopolitan, global city, an open society where people from many lands can feel at home . . ." However, as Choo (2014) has argued, Singapore has primarily focused on economic openness while limiting political openness. For example, the governing elite imposes a set of unwritten guidelines, commonly known as "outof-bound" (OB) markers, to define the acceptable boundaries of political and social discourse. By executing various legal instruments in conjunction with the OB markers-such as the Internal Security Act, the Sedition Act, and the use of defamation lawsuits-the government strategically reminds people that there are limits to political freedom. The limits to political openness in Singapore have prompted some to refer to it as an "illiberal democracy" (Mutalib, 2000).
Singapore, then, has had an uneasy relationship with certain aspects of being a global city. While embracing economic globalization, it continues to emphasize political control and limited political pluralism (Chua, 1995;Mutalib, 2000). These contradictions are increasingly highlighted in social media spaces. As Koh and Chong (2014) argue, the recent expressions of anti-foreigner sentiments over the Population White Paper (the government's plan to dramatically increase population to ensure continued economic growth given Singapore's low birth rate and aging demographic) suggest the failure of the global city and inclusive cosmopolitan values. Official discourses have also emphasized Singapore's exposure to transnational terrorism, external shocks, such as the Asian financial crisis of 1997, pandemic disease, intense global competition, and foreign values and lifestyles that may be attractive to Singapore's youth (Daipi, 2002). A sense of both internal and external vulnerabilities in challenging new global contexts remains.
Singapore pragmatically manages globalization and unpredictable global conditions (Koh, 2007). This approach consists of official discourse that persuades its citizens to accept the implementation of certain policies so that Singaporeans can "live with globalization tactically" (Koh, 2007, p. 182). Education in Singapore plays a major role in this process. The education system was centralized and brought under strong direction of the state, and remains remarkably responsive to the directives of the Ministry of Education (MOE) and political leaders. Such a system is seen as essential for economic development and to achieve national cohesion. Education, seen in instrumental terms, is a necessary means of achieving both human capital development for economic growth and the building of social, communitarian reflexes to bind a highly diverse state (Gopinathan, 1999).

Situational Anxiety: Civic Education Reform as Adjustment
Overall, there has been a constant effort to modulate citizenship education in order to make what Deputy Prime Minister S. Rajaratnam (1972) called the necessary "political, social and cultural adjustments" for citizenship in the global city (p. 12). This has resulted in almost constant changes in schools' citizenship education curriculum in Singapore: from Ethics to Civics in 1967;to Education for Living in 1974;from Being and Becoming in 1981;to Civics and Moral Education in 1992;to National Education in 1997; and to the introduction of Social Studies as a vehicle of National Education in 2001. These constant adjustments indicate the anxiety the Singapore government has had about making sure young Singaporeans have the necessary skills and capacities for an everchanging global economy while also ensuring they have the necessary values combined with a sense of national belonging.
National Education and Social Studies were part of broader educational policy reforms. The launch of Thinking Schools, Learning Nation (TSLN) in 1997 called for "a nation of thinking and committed citizens capable of meeting the challenges of the future, and an education system geared to the needs of the 21 st century" (MOE, 2008a). Thinking schools required schools to develop students with marketable critical and creative thinking skills, while learning nation emphasized a culture of lifelong learning and adaptability to changing economic demands. TSLN was primarily a response to perceived economic imperatives in the 21 st century. In new and highly competitive global contexts, students would need information and communication skills, the ability to think critically, and other skills necessary in the knowledge based economy.
As young Singaporeans became increasingly connected to the world (through new technologies and media), the danger that they would lose their sense of identity as Singaporeans was also paramount. National Education was designed to address these concerns. Then Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (1997) argued that National Education was necessary to "maintain the will to survive and prosper in an uncertain world." It would provide essential "cultural DNA" to develop national cohesion, foster a sense of national pride, embrace "the Singapore story," understand Singapore's unique challenges, constraints, and vulnerabilities, and instill the core values of meritocracy, harmony, and good governance (MOE, 2008a). Nothing less than national survival was at stake. As Parliamentary Secretary of Education Hawazi Daipi (2002) would claim, "A strong national identity, healthy values, and racial and religious harmony are needed to withstand the divisive impact of globalization and the attractions of imitating the West." National Education in 1997 outlined six messages emphasizing Singapore as a homeland, the need to preserve social harmony, readiness to defend Singapore, and the importance of Singapore finding a way to survive and prosper. Secondary Social Studies, introduced in 2001, further attested to the need to develop important thinking skills for work in the knowledge-based economy while developing national identity. The aims of the Social Studies syllabus (MOE, 2008b) are to enable students to: (1) understand the issues that affect socio-economic development, the governance and future of Singapore; (2) learn from other countries' experiences to build and sustain a politically viable, socially cohesive and economically vibrant Singapore; (3) develop empathetic citizens who will participate sensibly and responsibly in society; and (4) have a deep sense of shared destiny and national identity.
In the Social Studies syllabus, personal responsibility is emphasized as the primary civic virtue in the context of learning about Singapore's economic development, social cohesion, and governance. The six themes in the syllabus primarily focus on what the government has done or is doing to develop the nation, enact good governance, sustain economic development, and manage conflict and harmony, international relations, and challenges and change. The first two themes, "Singapore as a Nation in the World" and "Understanding Governance," emphasize individual commitment to the nation (with the value of commitment the only value listed multiple times across all themes), along with loyalty, responsibility, accountability, and integrity.
However, there were still concerns that efforts were missing their mark. "Preparing Students for a Global Future," a second phase of National Education set by the government in 2007, called for "strengthening heartware and rootedness to Singapore" (MOE, 2007). It called for "deeper understanding of the challenges facing Singapore"; connection to the Singapore story (about effective governance overcoming vulnerabilities); a "deeper sense of belonging" and the need for young people to play a part "to contribute to and create Singapore's future." At its core, National Education expresses explicit recognition that globalization and the changing global economy would "strain the loyalties and attachments of young Singaporeans" (Gopinathan, 2007, p. 61). Despite Singapore being the quintessential global city, globalization was creating new threats and vulnerabilities that made national citizenship precarious. There was a need to create and reinforce the values and dispositions necessary for national unity and social cohesion.
A repeated call has been made to develop national citizens who would be prepared to withstand the uncertainties of the global economy and the vagaries of global society. Minister of Education Heng (2011), noting the potential for global crises, threats, and shocks that accompany increasing global competition and changes in traditional social structures, called for strong character development and the values of grit, determination, and resilience. Similar to the past, education would continue to play a central role in helping Singapore manage new vulnerabilities.

The Primacy of Economic Global Citizenship
Educational policy rhetoric in Singapore tends to be economistic. The 2000 Report of the Committee on Compulsory Education in Singapore (MOE, 2000) notes that since the 1960s national curriculum has aimed to develop a common core of knowledge and skills to build national identity and social cohesion as well as prepare students for the global economy. The report states that, globalization has made it increasingly critical to "educate our young to be global players without losing their sense of belonging to Singapore" (p. 7). The report highlights the importance of learning English as "the language of commerce, science and technology" (p. 8) and calls for the development of skills that enable students to become "innovative and adaptable workers for the Knowledge Based Economy" (p. 9). These skills included problem-solving and communication skills, thinking skills, and the ability to effectively use IT.
As Prime Minister Lee (2013) noted, the changing global economy requires the continual upgrading of skills: "You must be able to continue to reprogramme yourself, download new firmware, reboot if necessary and continue to be useful for a very long working career." MOE's (2014) "Information Sheet on 21 st Century Competencies" highlights globalization, changing demographics, and technological advancements as key driving forces of the future that require new competencies, such as communication, collaboration and information skills, critical and inventive thinking, and civic literacy, global awareness, and cross-cultural skills.
The 2008 GCE Ordinary Level Social Studies syllabus for secondary students is organized around two core ideas: "Being Rooted and Living Globally." It calls for developing students "into well-informed, responsible citizens with a sense of national identity and a global perspective" (MOE, 2008, p. 3). The multidisciplinary syllabus highlights that three themes develop the idea of "living global": Managing International Relations, Sustaining Economic Development, and Facing Challenges and Change.
The themes emphasize the need to sustain economic development in a global context, the need for political stability to manage international relations and ensure ongoing economic development and prosperity, and national survival. The case of Venice is used to demonstrate what can happen to a global city-state, like Singapore, if challenges and change are not managed well. Sustaining Economic Development is not about sustainable development. Its focus is on understanding how economic growth can be sustained despite challenges in the world economy. The syllabus notes that, "Adopting proactive and effective strategies to remain economically competitive would help the nation to develop and progress in an increasingly competitive world economy" (p. 14) and goes on to highlight Singapore's strategies for economic development in a globalized world.
A set of values listed in the syllabus can be characterized as economic values: enterprising spirit, risk-taking, adaptability, and life-long learning. Most of these are a part of the Sustaining Economic Development theme, clearly with the emphasis on what individuals are expected to value and do to sustain Singapore's economic development. Along these lines, the values expressed by the syllabus are quite instrumental; they are to ensure students understand necessary commitments to the state and the need for ongoing social cohesion and consensus along with the need to play their part to sustain economic development.
In the Social Studies syllabus, there is no mention of human rights or issues related to social justice. The Understanding Governance theme in the syllabus is mainly a matter of understanding how the government functions to meet the needs of the people, with very little consideration of citizenship, citizens' rights, or the roles and responsibilities of citizens. There is little sense of citizens playing an active political or civic role in Singapore society. Singapore's limited democracy and elite governance are articulated throughout the syllabus to suggest that citizen participation in public affairs should be minimal (Ho, 2003;Barr, 2006). This is powerfully communicated in Singapore's Secondary Social Studies syllabus.

Discussion
The purpose of our study was two-fold: (1) to describe the historical, political, economic, and socio-cultural contextual factors that shape the discourses of citizenship and globalization in Hong Kong and Singapore; and (2) to examine intentions and underlying rationales for citizenship and GCE as expressed in policy and curriculum documents in order to illuminate opportunities for students to consider emerging civic identities. Guided by theories of the discursive nature of curriculum that is nested between societal contexts and personal meaning-making to examine civic education within and across the cases, we found that Singapore and Hong Kong have adopted depoliticized forms of citizenship as a means of inoculation against global ills. These types of citizenship are more nationalistic than global in nature; moral rather than political; and mainly focused on utilitarian goals to produce productive, self-governing and adaptable workers able to support national economic projects in the global economy. Although the curriculum in both settings is situated within discursive contexts that reflect social, critical, transnational and other perspectives advocated by academics and non-governmental organizations, the data yielded little evidence of curricular opportunities for students to become exposed to these emergent discourses of global citizenship and reconcile discursive contradictions. In the following, we review the findings to discuss their significance to international scholarship and education policies, and conclude by forwarding suggestions to open the curricular spaces in which students construct meaning about their roles as citizens in a globalized world.

Global Citizenship as Inoculation Against Global Ills
While embracing globalization, both cities are anxious about the impact of foreign influxes of labor (with workers at all rungs facing increasing labor market competition and the need to continually upgrade skills to remain competitive), economic volatility, and the challenge of maintaining national identities and social cohesion. These insecurities are resulting in almost constant educational reform in Hong Kong and Singapore and in these jurisdictions, like almost everywhere, we see increasing focus on higher order thinking, educational innovation, use of technology in classrooms, and more emphasis on processes (Gopinathan, 2007).
A central theme in official documents has been the need for citizens to be adaptable in skill development to ensure they and the nation can remain globally competitive. In Hong Kong, the 2000 Basic Education Framework and the introduction of the LTL curriculum guidelines focus almost exclusively on the development of skills necessary for global economic success while avoiding issues of inclusion, diversity, and unity (Leung & Yuen, 2009). Similarly, the SSC stresses the need for citizens to develop independent and lifelong learning capabilities so that Hong Kong can sustain development amidst the restructuring and rapid development of Mainland China. Since Hong Kong's political future is uncertain, education aims to prepare adaptable, malleable, and resilient workers, rather than citizens. Singaporean educational policy also strives to insulate the nation against the perceived downsides of globalization and an uncertain future. This effort to "'inoculate' the Singapore body politic against the ills of globalization" (Koh, 2007, p. 360) has resulted in constant modulations of citizenship education programs in Singapore. The emphasis in educational policies since 1997, such as Thinking Schools, Learning Nation, National Education, and the introduction of Social Studies as a compulsory subject for all students, can be seen as primarily focused on national cohesion, national survival, and national identity. Although they have an "instrumental-strategic intent" (Choo, 2014) and call for skills that will be marketable in the global economy, they are nationalistic in tone and purpose. This is because of the strong discourse of economic rationality that emphasizes discrete, instrumental skills (Choo, 2014) as well as the rhetoric of national vulnerability that permeates official pronouncements and curriculum.
Because Singapore is a multi-ethnic, multi-religious society and because the nation is an ambiguous concept in Hong Kong, we also see an emphasis on moral education and personal responsibility. In both global cities there are several common core values running through curriculum documents: commitment, obligation, responsibility, and respect. These core values have been the primary focus of citizenship curriculum rather than political or civic concerns. This means citizenship education emphasizes personal or self-management, a morally good citizen who does not engage in overt political action yet serves the common good. These findings are consistent with Lee's (2004) view that rather than politics, individual rights and responsibilities, "citizenship education in the East talks about morality" (p. 32). The emphasis on values in both global cities seems more intent on developing morally responsible and disciplined citizens committed to the nation-state and able to resist the perceived decline of morality wrought by external influences. Ong (2006) argues that these values are depicted as "Asian values" but used as sources of instrumental rationality. Ideals of responsibility, meritocracy and hard work are used to create a disciplined society and work force that is appealing to global capital. In this respect, corporate and governmental discourses work together to create economic subjects rather than citizens (Davies & Bansel, 2007). This narrow view of citizens and of identities, fails to acknowledge the multiple, shifting identities individuals are developing based on culture, gender, or socio-economic standing; as well as a cosmopolitan political consciousness emanating from global discourses that frame societal issues through principles such as democracy and human rights (Osler & Starkey, 2005).

Citizenship Curriculum and Discursive Contradictions in the Global City
Across cases, the data point to how dominant curricular discourses of depoliticization, morality and virtues, and economic competitiveness contribute to perpetuating the logics of social polarization in the global economy. For example, schools in both cities conform to a system of tracking based on academic merit. In Singapore, high academic achievers are prepared for a globallyfocused and leadership-oriented type of citizenship, while the lowest academic achievers experience a locally-focused, technical skills-based curriculum (Ho, 2012). Such a system provides a pre-sorted workforce for the hourglass economy. Additionally, the civic education curriculum perpetuates social inequality in Hong Kong and Singapore by remaining largely silent on how meritocracy discriminates against ethnic minorities and low-income groups. It is a type of civic education that ignores more systemic forms of inequality and discrimination (Gaudelli & Heilman, 2009).
In both global cities, however, there is intensified claiming of a more critical citizenship as platforms for social, economic, and political change. Singaporeans are beginning to challenge the notion of a passive citizenry and question the meritocratic ethos that underlines the government's social and educational platforms. Since the watershed 2011 General Election, there has been an increase in criticism of the government and its policies in online spaces. Civil society is growing and civil society groups, such as the Singapore Nature Society, Transient Workers Count Too, and MARUAH (a Working Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism), are increasingly active and vocal. Interest in politics among youth seems to have increased in recent years (National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre, 2013). There have been public protests, such as the 2014 Pink Dot Sg event advocating greater rights for the LGBT community in Singapore and "the freedom to love." The Population White Paper, which called for increasing Singapore's 5.3 million population to 6.9 million by 2030 led to an impassioned response from citizens, including public protest at Hong Lim Park. Although the government continues to use defamation suits and other measures to stifle opposition, citizens are increasingly challenging official discourses.
Hong Kong's constitutional guarantees of press freedom-coupled with the presence of a vocal civil society comprising local and transnational non-governmental organizations-have created relatively open climates for the expression of political demands. Public mass demonstrations have increasingly drawn on human rights discourses as bases for such demands. For example, the 2003 protest against Article 23, a provision that requires the SAR to enact laws that prohibit acts of subversion against the CPG drew 500,000 demonstrators who decried the proposed law as an infringement on the rights of free speech and assembly. Most recently, the 2014 Occupy Central movement mobilized thousands of protesters to demand universal suffrage and called attention to young people's disenchantment with an economy where the "tycoon-dominated business sector has enjoyed preferential treatment" (Lo, 2015, n.p.). Although polls conducted by the University of Hong Kong (2014) indicate that the general public had become weary of the economic disruptions caused by the protests and had withdrawn initial support, these demonstrations evidence a localized identity that incorporates a global-based political consciousness. Cheung (2009) further contends that the localized identity rejects the "instrumental identity of Hong Kong as an 'economic city'" imposed by the Beijing and SAR governments.
The collision of politicized local/global identities with governments' promotion of depoliticized and unequal citizenship highlights tensions that result from flows of people, ideas, and resources that create new moral economies (Appadurai, 1996). This complicates the role of curriculum significantly. Not only are state education systems developing worker-citizens, or morally upright and self-managing, adaptable citizens, they may be educating young people to not take up matters of economic or social justice, or to unquestioningly accept particular values and notions of civic agency. In fact we find that much of the academic discourse that forwards more critical, transnational, or cosmopolitan forms of citizenship is largely lacking in official policy and curriculum discourses in both settings. Although Hong Kong's Liberal Studies curriculum exposes students to different views of citizenship (Chong, 2015), its intent is to encourage student deliberation while not fully advocating for civic engagement that gives voice to dispossessed populations or principles of social justice. Abowitz and Harnish (2006) found that critical and transnational discourses as practiced in schools in the United States were similarly shallow, sporadic, and tended to be viewed as threatening to social stability. Hong Kong's New Senior Secondary Curriculum (SSC) exemplifies the negative view that officials have toward criticality. The SSC states that "the use of an issue-enquiry approach [would] . . . encourage students to criticize . . . [I]t would not be desirable to develop a culture of 'criticism' that is not constructive to society" (EMB, 2005a, p. 42). The SSC document further reminds teachers to help students to "take positive actions to improve the well-being of society, rather than being allowed merely 'to criticize' in a negative way" (p. 43). The critical and cosmopolitan forms of global citizenship articulated in academic articles (e.g., Abowitz & Harnish, 2006;Johnson & Morris, 2010;Oxley & Morris, 2013) may be regarded by officials as not able to contribute in a "positive" way to the improvement of society. Despite the apparent social, economic, and political contradictions in both settings, these emergent discourses appear to have made little inroads in the highly centralized education systems of Singapore and Hong Kong.

Opening Curricula as Discursive Spaces for Global Citizenships
The cases of Hong Kong and Singapore, while revealing particular ways that civic education unfolds within two global cities, point to a problematic condition of curriculum that resonates in the context of schooling in a globalized world. Foremost among the issues identified in our study is the power of state educational systems to construct a particular kind of global citizen, one who is a citizen-worker, moral and productive in certain ways, but may have little sense of their agency in other areas of life. In many ways, the cases of Hong Kong and Singapore embody Mitchell's (2003) indictment of how state education systems historically have, normalized unequal relations of power, and served to solidify the rule of dominant classes, mediate class systems and colonize civil society. . . . Thus the educational 'project' was far greater than mere schooling itself, but rather encompassed the creation of social identities, the maintenance of power relations, and the reorganization of the relationship between a capitalist economic formation, the state, and its citizen-subjects (p. 350).
The rendering of the citizenship curriculum as a means of inoculation against global ills and the curricular silence on novel perspectives of citizenship within contexts of discursive contradictions underline the disconnections between young people's experiences and schooling. Studies suggest that, especially in school systems with culturally diverse populations, students' multiple civic identities that are informed by cultural backgrounds or feelings of belonging to the human community are likely to be incompatible with the perspectives of citizenship portrayed in official discourses and curricular materials (Banks, 2008;Myers & Zaman, 2009;Torney-Purta, Schwille, & Amadeo, 1999). Abowitz and Harnish (2006) observed similar disconnections, arguing that despite the visibility of critical and transnational perspectives in scholarly and theoretical texts, these remain invisible in the practical discourses of schools. Research further illustrates that as nation-centric and mono-cultural conceptions of citizenship continue to dictate public school policies and curriculum enactment, schools risk overlooking students' realities and aspirations, and may contribute to the growing cynicism among young citizens (Ladson-Billings, 2004;Rubin, 2007).
Despite these disjunctures, we believe that the curriculum can offer spaces in which to consider novel discourses of citizenship alongside dominant perspectives. Ideally, curricula that acknowledge students' multiple identities and agendas for social justice would be supported by official discourses and policies. Lacking these supports, stakeholders, teachers, actors in civil society, and academics can contribute through top-down and bottom-up efforts to open civic curricular spaces in schools.
From the top-down, academics and members of civil society could reiterate the importance of curriculum in promoting critical thinking-not as a utilitarian skill-but as a value indicative of an inclusive society. Our findings suggest that, in Hong Kong and Singapore, critically-based notions of citizenship are taking root. However, the dominant utilitarian agendas in both cities inhibit the flourishing of a critical type of mentality that challenges entrenched constructions of citizens as economic and nationalistic subjects, and risks excluding cultural minority and low-income groups. Instead, educators interested in critical and cosmopolitan forms of citizenship education must find more "palatable" formulas (Boulding, 1968) that can bring civil society organizations and individuals into policy and curriculum deliberation with officials. For academics it is important to consider the ways marginalized discourses might be given greater attention by officials in national educational policy and curriculum formulations. It means helping national policy-makers and curriculum designers understand the value of critical and cosmopolitan discourses and how they can contribute in positive ways towards societal improvement. In Asian contexts such as Hong Kong and Singapore, it may require a more relationalist (Lee, 2004) stance that highlights social cohesion for all of society, brings together economic and political interests, a balance between individual and societal rights and responsibilities, and an intermingling of national, cultural, and global perspectives. A relationalist stance would also strive to blend or harmonize different discourses in ways that promote a broader range of interests and agendas, and point to the curriculum as an arena where students may consider how their society promotes inclusion for all individuals.
Our findings further suggest the importance of curriculum that facilitates the deliberation of multiple perspectives regarding issues of citizenship and identity. Although the curriculum documents in Hong Kong and Singapore did not advocate for global forms of citizenship, the LS curriculum in Hong Kong suggests that exposing students to societal issues and viewing these issues through perspectives of different stakeholders-as well as local, national, and global frameworksmay instill in young citizens awareness of or even motivate action towards human rights, social justice, or equality. As one participant of the Occupy protest movement noted, LS provided "room to study social issues and discuss views in class . . . it was a kind of awakening for me" (South China Morning Post, 2014, n.p.). In this vein, teachers and teacher educators need to explore strategies to foster democratic dialogue and view the curriculum as an additional forum for students to construct their own understandings of citizenship. Such views and strategies would enable the curriculum to function as an additional springboard that contributes to broader societal discourses, rather than an instrument that mediates between individuals and the established political order (Lee, 2006).
In addition to school experiences that overlook students' shifting civic identities, increased social polarization in the new global economy contributes to a growing disenfranchisement among young citizens (Sassen, 2014). New forms of media make accessible a plethora of information, including extreme, fundamentalist ideologies that offer a sense of security and belonging to individuals who may feel excluded by societies that define their roles primarily through their capacities to produce and consume (Nussbaum, 2010). Faust (2009) decried the tendency of schools to conform to instrumentalist views of citizenship as indicative of a dehumanization of education: "Human beings need meaning, understanding, and perspective as well as jobs. The question should not be whether we can afford to believe in such purposes in these times, but whether we can afford not to" (p. 19). As this study of global cities shows, a challenge for global citizenship is to recapture the curriculum from dominant discourses of nationalistic morality and economic competitiveness, so that youth are empowered to actively construct meaningful civic identities, and envision novel forms of citizenship, engagement, and society.

About the Authors Theresa Alviar-Martin
The Hong Kong Institute of Education tpbalviar@ied.edu.hk Theresa Alviar-Martin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and fellow of the Center for Governance and Citizenship at the Hong Kong Institute of Education. Her research examines citizenship education in culturally diverse democracies from global and comparative perspectives. Theresa's writing has been published in several academic books and peer-reviewed journals, including Teaching and Teacher Education, Journal of Educational Research, Teachers College Record, and Theory and Research in Social Education.

Mark C. Baildon
National Institute of Education, Singapore mark.baildon@nie.edu.sg Mark Baildon is Associate Professor and Head with the Humanities and Social Studies Education Academic Group at the National Institute of Education (Singapore). His scholarly interests focus on ways to support social studies inquiry practices and 21st century literacies in new global contexts. He has published two books: Social Studies as New Literacies in a Global Society: Relational Cosmopolitanism in the Classroom (with James Damico, Routledge, 2011) and Controversial History Education in Asian Contexts (co-editor; Routledge, 2013).

About the Guest Editor
John P. Myers Florida State University jpmyers@fsu.edu John P. Myers is Associate Professor in the School of Teacher Education at Florida State University and coordinator of the Social Science Education program. His research examines the consequences of globalization for how youth understand the complexities of the modern world. This work focuses on classroom practices that foster global citizenship and identities as students come to understand core world history and social science concepts.