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1 – 10 of over 12000Cheuk-Hang Leung and Hin Yan Chan
In light of the concerns of declining value education in higher education and the debates on the role of general education in current university setting, the purpose of this paper…
Abstract
Purpose
In light of the concerns of declining value education in higher education and the debates on the role of general education in current university setting, the purpose of this paper is to discuss the relation between general education and moral and civic education by examining the effectiveness of a compulsory classics reading general education program in cultivating civic literacy in Asia-Pacific context.
Design/methodology/approach
Mixed-method approach in the form of survey assessment and focus group studies was employed to examine the degree of students’ development in abilities and virtues relevant to civic literacy in the course.
Findings
Data analyses reveal a promising development on students’ civic literacy in the classics reading general education course. Statistical analysis on surveys indicated students experienced a significant development on democratic skills and critical thinking, acquisition of civic knowledge and cultivation of democratic virtues after taking the course. Focus group analysis illustrated a relation between classics reading and students’ acquisition of knowledge of socio-political institutions, cultivation of open-mindedness and sense of tolerance for diversity and willingness of seeking reasonableness and engaging in social debates.
Originality/value
This paper discusses the successful experience of a newly formulated General Education program in Hong Kong. The program is the first attempt in East Asia to launch values education through the teaching and learning of classics in Asia-Pacific context. This could be an example of launching values education at the level of undergraduate education for other local universities.
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After the handing over of Hong Kong sovereignty from 1997 and under the “one country two systems” model, the Special Administrative Region's Government initiated new policies of…
Abstract
Purpose
After the handing over of Hong Kong sovereignty from 1997 and under the “one country two systems” model, the Special Administrative Region's Government initiated new policies of civic education and amended or ignored the old ones. However, it was not until May 2011 that the complete new policy paper was introduced for consultation and then it was passed and issued as national education in April 2012. This article aims to analyze the civic education policy of Hong Kong in the transfer of power after the handing over in the following 15 years.
Design/methodology/approach
This policy analysis describes the preparations for Hong Kong’s future citizens and masters. Theories of citizenship education are adopted for this analysis. Moreover, theories of the state are also applied for more in‐depth understanding. These concepts are helpful to operationalize the contents of the study. It was a historical and comparative method to help to understand and explain the civic education policy of the HKSAR's governance.
Findings
Basically, it can be seen that the policies are anticipatory and responsive. The historical context of Hong Kong helped to make the correspondence with how the government expected to mold its future citizens in order to facilitate and implement their administration and governance.
Originality/value
This paper explores the role of the Hong Kong Government in the initiation and implementation of civic education.
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Yudan Shi, Eric King Man Chong and Baihe Li
The purpose of this paper is to compare the curriculum developments of civic education in three emerging Chinese societies: China and two Special Administrative Regions of Hong…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to compare the curriculum developments of civic education in three emerging Chinese societies: China and two Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macao, which are increasingly under the impacts of globalisation in this information world.
Design/methodology/approach
The analytical method is used and the following are identified: active and global civic education-related learning units and key themes and main contents in official curriculum guidelines and updated textbooks related to civic education.
Findings
A major finding is that elements of both active and global citizenship, such as participation in the community and understanding about the world and thus forming multiple identities, can be found alongside their emphasis on enhancing national citizenship. Thus, ideas of global citizenship and multiple levels of citizenship from local, national to global start to develop in these three Chinese societies.
Social implications
The implications of such findings of both active and global citizenship, as well as multiple identities, found in these three Chinese societies could be huge for informing civic literature and sociological point of views, in particular, pointing to the next generations receiving a broadened and transcended notion of multiple levels of citizenship, apart from local and national citizenship.
Originality/value
The significance of this paper is that it argues that ideas of active citizenship in terms of community participation and global citizenship have been found in China, Hong Kong and Macao civic education curriculum and textbooks because of the expectations placed on students to compete in a globalized world, though national citizenship and patriotic concerns have been primary concerns. Globalisation makes the world society by impacting on these three Chinese societies for active and global citizenship, though they still retain their particular curricular focusses.
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The many discourses surrounding 9/11 place existing civic education in a tenuous space within the current political climate. The challenges of producing a universally acceptable…
Abstract
The many discourses surrounding 9/11 place existing civic education in a tenuous space within the current political climate. The challenges of producing a universally acceptable interpretation and approach to democratic education have been compounded in the aftermath of 9/11. Due to a heightened sense of fear and an increased level of blind nationalism, many of the basic concepts in the Constitution, like equality, justice, and reciprocity have been temporarily de-emphasized for a more compartmentalized way of “American” living, based on concepts such as patriotism, loyalty, and safety. Given the current political climate, the time to revisit the goals of civic education as a conduit of a globalized deliberative democracy is now. The author argues that civic education programming would be better served if more emphasis were placed on the philosophical foundations of the subject.
The purpose of this paper is to develop a critical analysis of the policy of moral and civic education in the non-tertiary education system in Macao and to examine the kinds of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a critical analysis of the policy of moral and civic education in the non-tertiary education system in Macao and to examine the kinds of citizens it prepares.
Design/methodology/approach
It is a qualitative research design informed by the Foucauldian concepts of “governmentality” and “technology of the self” to analyze the moral and civic education policy in Macao.
Findings
The governmentality or art of government of the moral and civic education policy in Macao is made possible by three strategies, namely “governmentalisation of the state,” construction of “moral and civic education as a field of actions” and creation of “social harmony as a new form of civic virtue.” Based on the disclosed governmentalities, three approaches adopted by the government are identified, “normalising the school system,” “educating the students” and “disciplining the scapegoats.” Through these approaches, two technologies of the self are identified, namely disciplinary power and bio-politics, which are used to prepare citizens. In Macao, it seems that there is a tension between the discourses of active democratic citizenship and patriotic education.
Research limitations/implications
The type of policy and theoretical analysis the author has adopted in investigating moral and civic education policy illuminates the local and national policy and, in so doing, creates opportunities for building comparative research on similar issues and their implications for education.
Social implications
This paper can contribute to the local discussion of the possibility of rewriting the meanings of citizenship.
Originality/value
This paper is comprehensive and can therefore provide a ground for further and future research.
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Research‐intensive universities have special challenges in providing their students with civic education, particularly education that is rooted in the curriculum. Their efforts…
Abstract
Purpose
Research‐intensive universities have special challenges in providing their students with civic education, particularly education that is rooted in the curriculum. Their efforts are important to the overall effort to promote education “for the common good” at colleges and universities because of their stature within the higher education community. This paper aims to address the particular needs and challenges of research universities in fostering civic education and strengthening their leadership contributions.
Design/methodology/approach
This article provides a snapshot of how 15 American research university campuses, which are part of a “learning community”, approach their goal of educating their students to promote the common good. Based on survey self‐reports conducted in the spring of 2009, it documents their civic education work.
Findings
The survey confirms, while research universities are being creative and assertive in expanding their civic education work, there is ample room to extend and improve their efforts, and it frames an agenda for continued improvement. All surveyed campuses are committed to civic education and provide domestic and international engagement experience to undergraduates. Most provide curricular engagement experiences. In‐depth opportunities for a select group of students are common, university‐wide opportunities are not. Many want to improve the integration of curricular and extra‐curricular engagement.
Research limitations/implications
The research is based on self‐reports of a small sample.
Practical implications
These campuses face two major challenges to fostering civic education: generating greater faculty buy‐in, and overcoming the difficulties of program development at large decentralized institutions. Opportunities for program improvement include: better measurement of outcomes, more use of theory, and more student involvement in institutional governance.
Originality/value
These findings provide unique insight into the work of some of the most able practitioners of civic education at American research universities.
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Civic education in the US has historically centered the nation-state. This is often disempowering for marginalized students who exist outside the national narrative and political…
Abstract
Purpose
Civic education in the US has historically centered the nation-state. This is often disempowering for marginalized students who exist outside the national narrative and political sphere.
Design/methodology/approach
This year-long ethnographic study considers what counts as civic education in the US Virgin Islands, a territory of the US. This paper draws on critical theory and critical pedagogy to understand ways teachers in a politically and culturally marginalized space can reimagine civic education. Classroom observations, interviews and curriculum content analysis are used as data.
Findings
The findings suggest that teachers centered the local by surfacing the unjust political relationship between the US and its territories and incorporating local history, civic engagement, resistance and culture to politically empower their students.
Originality/value
This research will contribute a deeper understanding of the possibilities for civic education to be empowering for those who are marginalized and often excluded from the national political arena.
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Bernhard Frevel and Philipp Kuschewski
The demands on the police to ensure security and order have increased in times of growing right-wing extremism, corona protests and widespread criticism of and dissatisfaction…
Abstract
Purpose
The demands on the police to ensure security and order have increased in times of growing right-wing extremism, corona protests and widespread criticism of and dissatisfaction with democratic structures and processes. Protection, escort or even confrontation in the course of public demonstrations and protests as well as the protection, e.g. of politicians, synagogues or mosques requires additional deployment of the police and poses extended challenges. However, the police force itself also faces various problems with antidemocratic, violent or extremist police officers. The purpose of this paper is to elaborate why and how civic education of police officers can be a cornerstone to respond to the described challenges and improve democratic policing.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper describes how civic education can be organized in police training and further education and how it can be designed in cooperation with civil society actors. It is based on a research and development project conducted between 2016 and 2021 under the title “Civic Education and Police.”
Findings
Civic education can or could be an approach in sensitizing police officers to social conflicts and in better understanding the background and reasons for their deployment. Moreover, civic education can be helpful in preventing abuse of power and police violence, reducing negative aspects of esprit de corps and strengthening police legitimacy.
Practical implications
Civic education of police officers can help to understand conflicts and social tensions, strengthen the understanding of the society, improve police investigation, reduce misbehavior and support legitimacy in the democratic state.
Originality/value
The article uses findings from the project Civic Education and Police, which was funded by the Federal Agency for Civic Education between 2016 and 2021. Project partners were the German Police University and the University of Applied Sciences for Police and Public Administration in North Rhine-Westphalia. The project conducted empirical studies on the supply and demand structure of civic education for and in the police. In addition, a database of educational concepts, a series of conferences and a new journal for conference documentation, research and special issues were launched.
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Brandon W. Kliewer, Kristin N. Moretto and Jennifer W. Purcell
The value of the liberal arts and humanities has increasingly been called into question on multiple fronts. Attempts to bridge the practical and liberal arts through forms of civic…
Abstract
The value of the liberal arts and humanities has increasingly been called into question on multiple fronts. Attempts to bridge the practical and liberal arts through forms of civic professionalism have been gaining traction in larger spheres of influence. This article outlines the results of a deliberative civic engagement forum (n = 42) that created a space for community members from business, education, and non-profit sectors at the National Conference on Service and Volunteerism, to consider the role civic leadership education and development has in liberal arts and humanities programs. The forum was intentionally designed to have participants consider the role of the liberal arts and humanities in redefining the purposes and process of democratic engagement through a lens of civic leadership education and development. This forum was able to gather a group of people from sectors that do not normally speak to the intersection of leadership education and the liberal arts.
Civic engagement means more than formal participation in the political process. Students can experience civic life across campus in ways that may not jump off the page as being…
Abstract
Civic engagement means more than formal participation in the political process. Students can experience civic life across campus in ways that may not jump off the page as being relevant on first reading. Whether in the classroom through intentionally designed curricular experiences or through participating in a student organization focused on civic engagement, higher education should be helping develop students as active, participatory citizens. This chapter aims to provide the first look at how students across the United States are organizing on college campuses to participate in the political process.
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