Is there an ‘Asian’ perspective on citizenship: Learning from the international civics and citizenship study?

One of the unique features of the International Civic and Citizenship Study (ICCS 2009) was the inclusion of regional modules specifically for students in Europe, Asia and Latin America. This provides the opportunity to examine in more detail how different regional contexts might influence student understanding of citizenship and citizenship responsibilities. The importance of context is particularly highlighted in Asia where varieties of democracy and multiply constructed cultures, religions and social mores provide unique challenges for both citizenship and citizenship education. Important attempts have been made to highlight the distinctiveness of these Asian contexts so that the philosophical contours are well known. Yet there have been very few comparative empirical studies seeking to understand the views of students across the region so this remains an important area for investigation. This paper will provide an introduction to the design of the ICCS 2009 Asian Regional Module indicating its conceptual underpinnings. A preliminary analysis of Korean, Taiwanese, Hong Kong, Indonesian and Thai student responses to questions in each of the conceptual domains will also be provided. An assessment will be these results for better understanding Asian students’ conceptions of citizenship and implications will be drawn for practice in citizenship education in Asian contexts.