Reshaping the Public Good Through Critical Asian Cosmopolitanism: A Study of Curricula and Policy in Hong Kong and Singapore

• In Event: Politics and/of Participation in Social Studies Education

Abstract

Although critical and cosmopolitan civic education perspectives are significant in scholarship, neoliberal and nationalist discourses that shrink notions of the common good and possibilities for democratic deliberation dominate educational policy and curricula. This paper analyzes global education policy and curricular discourses in the context of Hong Kong and Singapore. Touted as Asian global cities, the two cases reveal different responses to neoliberal and nation-centric educational agendas that seek to rebrand cosmopolitanism and tame its transformative potential. To develop this argument, we review theories of critical and Asian cosmopolitan forms of global citizenship education and cosmopolitan principles on identity, values, and deliberation. We draw on critical and Asian forms of cosmopolitanism to provide a framework for more empowering ground-up educational practice.

Authors

• Mark C. Baildon, United Arab Emirates University

• Theresa Alviar Martin, Kennesaw State University