Civics and Citizenship Education in Australia provides a comprehensive analysis of teaching and learning in this field in Australian schools, drawing on case study material to demonstrate the current practice in the field. Reflecting on the issues and possibilities raised by the inclusion of civics and citizenship education in the new national Australian curriculum, leading national and international scholars analyse the subject's theoretical, curricular and pedagogical bases and approaches. Placing civics and citizenship education within historical and contemporary contexts, the book critically explores a range of issues concerning the development, organisation and teaching of the subject. These include how the subject might include indigenous, global and Asian perspectives, and how it may help students to engage with issues around sustainability, active citizenship, diversity, religion and values. The final chapters written by scholars from England, the USA, Canada, Hong Kong and Singapore adopt a comparative approach situating Australian civics and citizenship education in the wider international context.

Citizenship education has recently re-emerged as an important issue, both in policy and in practice. As the nation state undergoes rapid transformation at the end of the 20th century, both Eastern and Western states have focused attention on using the school curriculum as a medium for sustaining cohesion and unity within society. But, as we approach the 21st century, is the possibility of a common citizenship a reality?; This book is designed to provide educators with access to ideas and information that will help them to understand current citizenship- education initiatives across a number of countries. It provides a theoretical rationale in which to consider those issues; illustrates how such issues are being worked out in practice in a number of countries; and provides assistance for policy makers, teacher educators and teachers who are responsible for making decisions about the context of citizenship education programmes for schools.

Civics and Citizenship Education in Australia provides a comprehensive analysis of teaching and learning in this field in Australian schools, drawing on case study material to demonstrate the current practice in the field. Reflecting on the issues and possibilities raised by the inclusion of civics and citizenship education in the new national Australian curriculum, leading national and international scholars analyse the subject's theoretical, curricular and pedagogical bases and approaches. Placing civics and citizenship education within historical and contemporary contexts, the book critically explores a range of issues concerning the development, organisation and teaching of the subject. These include how the subject might include indigenous, global and Asian perspectives, and how it may help students to engage with issues around sustainability, active citizenship, diversity, religion and values. The final chapters written by scholars from England, the USA, Canada, Hong Kong and Singapore adopt a comparative approach situating Australian civics and citizenship education in the wider international context.

"What is needed to be a “good” citizen for the twenty-first century? And how can schools and curricula address this question? This book addresses these questions and what it means to be a “good citizen” in the twenty-first century by exploring this concept in two different, but linked, countries. China is a major international power whose citizens are in the midst of a major social and economic transformation. Australia is transforming itself into an Asian entity in multiple ways and is influenced by its major trading partner – China. Yet both rely on their education systems to facilitate and guide this transformation as both countries search for “good” citizens. The book explores the issue of what it means to be a “good citizen” for the 21st century at the intersection between citizenship education and moral education. The issue of what constitutes a “good citizen” is problematic in many countries and how both countries address this issue is vitally important to understanding how societies can function effectively in an increasingly interconnected world. The book contends that citizenship education and moral education in both countries overlap on the task of how to educate for a “good citizen”. Three key questions are the focus of this book: 1. What is a “good citizen” in a globalizing world? 2. How can “good citizenship” be nurtured in schools?3. What are the implications of the concept of “good citizen” in education, particularly the school curriculum? Murray Print (PhD) and Chuanbao Tan (PhD) are professors from the University of Sydney, Australia and Beijing Normal University, China respectively. Both are national leaders within their respective countries and they have brought together a group of leading Australian and Chinese citizenship educators to explore these key questions."

This volume examines both concepts and realities of citizenship education from various international and research perspectives. It is divided into two main sections. The first group of chapters are all by researchers closely associated with the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) study into citizenship education and focus on the findings reported in the study as well as on the processes of the study itself and the indications for the future. The second group of chapters report on research projects and complement the insights of the first group of chapters. Whereas Part One involves broadly quantitative empirical data, Part Two features chapters with a more qualitative approach. The chapters have a broad geographical range, including the USA, the United Kingdom, Australia, Hong Kong, the Czech Republic and Germany. They also report on a variety of different data sets, use different research approaches, and include findings from the large-scale IEA study as well as a personal account of a research network and two qualitative studies.

This volume, emerging from a cross-national study of teachers' perception of good citizenship, addresses two fundamental questions: What do teachers see as important in citizenship education? How do these perceptions facilitate or hinder the preparation of good citizens? While providing rich and useful data on the latest developments of citizenship education in various contexts, this book also offers an all-round review of concepts and arguments on the subject, as well as insightful comparative analyses of the findings emerged from the case studies. One encouraging conclusion drawn from these studies is that teachers across nations share similar goals and objectives that seem to have transcended cultural and political boundaries.