EPAA/AAPE is a peer-reviewed, open-access, international, multilingual, and multidisciplinary journal designed for researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and development analysts concerned with education policies. EPAA/AAPE accepts unpublished original manuscripts in English, Spanish and Portuguese without restriction as to conceptual and methodological perspectives, time or place. EPAA/AAPE publishes issues comprised of empirical articles, commentaries, and special issues at roughly weekly intervals, all of which pertain to educational policy, with direct implications for educational policy.
Theresa Alviar-Martin The Hong Kong Institute of Education Hong Kong
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 Baildon National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University Singapore
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 theClassroom (with James Damico, Routledge, 2011) and Controversial History Education in Asian Contexts (co-editor; Routledge, 2013).
Context and curriculum in two global cities: A study of discourses of citizenship in Hong Kong and Singapore
Theresa Alviar-Martin, Mark Baildon
Abstract
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 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
Abowitz, K. K., & Harnish, J. (2006). Contemporary discourses of citizenship. Review of Educational Research 76(4), 653-690.
Koh, A., & Chong, T. (2014). Education in the global city: The manufacturing of education in Singapore. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 35(5), 625-636.
Leung, Y. W., & Yuen, W. W. (2009). A critical reflection of the evolution of civic education in Hong Kong schools. Pacific-Asian Education, 21(1), 35-50.
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