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Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research 23
Joseph Zajda Suzanne Majhanovich Editors
Globalisation, Cultural Identity and Nation-Building The Changing Paradigms
Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research Volume 23
Series Editor Joseph Zajda, Faculty of Education and Arts, Australian Catholic University, East Melbourne, VIC, Australia Editorial Board Members Robert Arnove, Indiana University Birgit Brock-Utne, University of Oslo Martin Carnoy, Stanford University Lyn Davies, University of Birmingham Fred Dervin, University of Helsinki Karen Evans, University of London Kassie Freeman, Alcorn State University MacLeans Geo-JaJa, Brigham Young University Deborah Henderson, Queensland University of Technology Andreas Kazamias, University of Wisconsin Tatiana Koval, Institute for Strategy of Education Development of the Russian Academy of Education, Moscow Leslie Limage, UNESCO Susan Majhanovich, University of Western Ontario Marcella Mollis, University of Buenos Aires Nikolai Nikandrov, Russian Academy of Education Val Rust, UCLA John Whitehouse, University of Melbourne Vince Wright, Educational Consultant Advisory Editors Abdeljalil Akkari, University of Geneva Beatrice Avalos, National Ministry of Education, Chile Sheng Yao Cheng, Chung Chen University Karen Biraimah, University of Central Florida David Chapman, University of Minnesota Mark Ginsburg, University of Pittsburgh Yaacov Iram, Bar Ilan University Henry Levin, Teachers College Columbia University Noel McGinn, Harvard University David Phillips, Oxford University
Gerald Postglione, University of Hong Kong Heidi Ross, Indiana University M’hammed Sabour, University of Joensuu Jurgen Schriewer, Humboldt University Sandra Stacki, Hofstra University Nelly Stromquist, University of Maryland Carlos Torres, UCLA David Willis, Soai University
The Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research book series aims to meet the research needs of all those interested in in-depth developments in comparative education research. The series provides a global overview of developments and changes in policy and comparative education research during the last decade. Presenting up-to-date scholarly research on global trends, it is an easily accessible, practical yet scholarly source of information for researchers, policy makers and practitioners. It seeks to address the nexus between comparative education, policy, and forces of globalisation, and provides perspectives from all the major disciplines and all the world regions. The series offers possible strategies for the effective and pragmatic policy planning and implementation at local, regional and national levels. The book series complements the International Handbook of Globalisation and Education Policy Research. The volumes focus on comparative education themes and case studies in much greater scope and depth than is possible in the Handbook. The series includes volumes on both empirical and qualitative studies of policy initiatives and developments in comparative education research in elementary, secondary and post-compulsory sectors. Case studies may include changes and education reforms around the world, curriculum reforms, trends in evaluation and assessment, decentralisation and privatisation in education, technical and vocational education, early childhood education, excellence and quality in education. Above all, the series offers the latest findings on critical issues in comparative education and policy directions, such as: • developing new internal strategies (more comprehensive, flexible and innovative modes of learning) that take into account the changing and expanding learner needs; • overcoming ‘unacceptable’ socio-economic educational disparities and inequalities; • improving educational quality; • harmonizing education and culture; • international co-operation in education and policy directions in each country. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/6932
Joseph Zajda • Suzanne Majhanovich Editors
Globalisation, Cultural Identity and Nation-Building The Changing Paradigms
Editors Joseph Zajda Faculty of Education & Arts, School of Education Australian Catholic University East Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Suzanne Majhanovich Faculty of Education Western University London, ON, Canada
ISSN 2543-0564 ISSN 2543-0572 (electronic) Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research ISBN 978-94-024-2013-5 ISBN 978-94-024-2014-2 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-2014-2 © Springer Nature B.V. 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature B.V. The registered company address is: Van Godewijckstraat 30, 3311 GX Dordrecht, The Netherlands
To Rea, Dorothy, Nikolai, Sophie, Imogen and Belinda
Foreword
Globalisation, Cultural Identity and Nation-Building: The Changing Paradigms, the 23rd book in the 24-volume book series Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research, critiques dominant discourses and debates pertaining to cultural identity, set against the current climate of growing social stratification and unequal access to quality education for all. It opens current discourses related to globalisation, ideologies and the state, and approaches to constructing national, ethnic and religious identities in the global culture. It examines the ambivalent and problematic relationship between the state, globalisation and the construction of cultural identity, and the nation-building process. The book also analyses conceptual frameworks and methodological approaches applicable in the research covering the state, globalisation, nation-building and identity politics. The book examines the ambivalent and problematic relationship between the state, globalisation and the construction of cultural identity in history education, and school history textbooks. Using several diverse paradigms, ranging from critical theory to globalisation, the book, by focusing on globalisation, ideology and cultural identity, evaluates critically recent research in history education and their impact of identity politics. The book examines critical and significant social, cultural and political dimensions defining, shaping and contextualising the processes surrounding nation- building and identity politics globally. Furthermore, the perception of globalisation, as dynamic and multi-faceted processes, clearly necessitates a multiple-perspective approach in the study of cultural identity. In the book, the authors, who come from diverse backgrounds and regions, attempt insightfully to provide a worldview of current developments in research concerning nation-states, national identity and citizenship education globally. The book contributes in a very scholarly way to a more holistic understanding of the nexus between national identity and nation-state globally. Faculty of Education and Arts Australian Catholic University, East Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Joseph Zajda
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Preface
Series title: Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research (24-volume series) Globalisation, Cultural Identity and Nation-Building: The Changing Paradigms, the 23rd book in the series, examines and critiques dominant discourses and debates pertaining to cultural identity in the global era. It opens current discourses related to globalisation, ideologies, cultural identity, and the state, and approaches to constructing national, ethnic and local identities in the global culture. It examines the ambivalent and problematic relationship between the state, globalisation and the construction of cultural identity, and the nation-building process. The chapter also analyses conceptual frameworks and methodological approaches applicable in the research covering the state, globalisation, nation-building and identity politics. Globalisation has also contributed, among other things, to the strengthening of various cultural identities: religious, national, ethnic and geographic. Furthermore, identity is not as transparent or unproblematic. It has been argued that identity is always positioned in the cultural context and, as such, is dynamic, as a continuous cultural process. It could be argued, that in terms of time, the process of re-defining and consolidation of cultural identities has been one of a continuous social, cultural, political and historical transformation. The usage of the term ‘identity’ can be traced to historical traditions in Western philosophy and intellectual thought, in particular to philosophers John Locke (1690) in his An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689) and David Hume (1739) in his Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man (1785). Locke (1690) wrote that identity consists of: …in nothing but a participation of the same continued Life...consciousness always accompanies thinking. …in this alone consists personal Identity (Locke 1690/2008).
Identity became a key word in the 1950s, when Carl Rogers (1902-–1987), a noted humanistic psychologist, used the term. While Eric Erickson (1902–1994), a prominent psychoanalyst, used the term to study adolescent personality/identity crises. Erikson, in Childhood and Society (1950), used a more holistic notion of ‘national identities’, which was his preferred term. Since then, there has been an incredible proliferation of the use of the term across various disciplines and xi
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theoretical perspectives, referring to cultural identity, ethnic identity, racial identity, religious identity, sexual identity, gender identity, institutional identity, interest identity tribal identity, passport identity (as part of the documentation identity), identity credit cards, and identity politics, to name a few. In order to simplify the discourse of cultural identity, I propose to delineate between global and cultural perspectives of identity. A global perspective of identity was first used by Comenius (1592–1670), when he wrote that ‘we are all citizens of one world’: We are all citizens of one world; we are all of one blood. To hate a man because he was born in another country, because he speaks a different language, or because he takes a different view on this subject or that, is a great folly. Desist I implore you, for we are all equally human…Let us have but one end in view, the welfare of humanity (Comenius, 1649/1907).
Finally, one of the most powerful forces of globalisation shaping cultural identities is the ubiquitous presence of information technology and mass media. Every facet of culture and identity is defined by mass media and propelled by information technology. Global marketing of socially desirable commodities, such as clothing, fashion and global brands, perfumes, toys, and the entertaining industry, to name a few, has affected the cultural identity. Global marketing affecting the formation of one’s cultural identity has manufactured a new consumerist and materialistic culture of commodification of the self and multiple identities. East Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Joseph Zajda
Editorial by Series Editors
Volume 23 is a further publication in the Springer Series of books on Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research, edited by Joseph Zajda & Suzanne Majhanovich Globalisation, Cultural Identity and Nation-Building: The Changing Paradigms, the 23rd book in the 24-volume book series Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research, edited by Joseph Zajda (Series editor) and Suzanne Majhanovich (University of Western Ontario), presents a global overview of selected scholarly research on global and comparative trends in dominant discourses of cultural identity. National identity represents a specific cultural community, whose members are united by common historical memories, values, beliefs, customs, languages and practices, myths, symbols and traditions. It denotes such elements as historic territory, legal-political community, legal political equality of members, and common civic culture and ideology. There have been the following two significant paradigm shifts since the 1950s relevant to discourses of cultural identity: structural functionalist and post- structuralist. In terms of cultural identity, the structural-functional paradigm is known for defining and propagating the notion of a single subject, or a single identity, unlike post-structuralism, especially post-modernism which focused on multiple subjectivities and multiple cultural identities. The second paradigm shift, which is post-structuralism, occurred in 1960s. It was a complex paradigm, consisting of a number of perspectives, such as discourse analysis, deconstruction, post- modernism, and social and cognitive constructivism, to name a few. Discourse analysis has been taken up in a variety of social science disciplines, examining the sorts of tools and strategies people use when engaged in communication, such as the use of metaphors, choice of particular words to display affect, and how people construct their own version of an event, and how people use discourse to maintain or construct their own identity. One of the central and unresolved problems in the process of globalisation and cultural identity, within a post-structuralist context, is the unresolved tension and ambivalence between cultural homogenisation and cultural heterogenisation, or the
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on-going dialectic between globalism and localism, between faith and reason, between tradition and modernity, and between totalitarianism and democracy. The book explores conceptual frameworks and methodological approaches applicable in the research covering globalisation, cultural identity and the state. Various book chapters critique the dominant discourses and debates pertaining to cultural identity and nation-building process. The spirit of dialogical encounter has very soundly directed the editors and the book chapter writers’ efforts in organising this volume. The editors’ task was to deepen, and in some cases open widely, diverse and significant discourses related to cultural identity and nation-building process and the politics surrounding the debate. Joseph Zajda and Suzanne Majhanovich critique dominant discourses and debates pertaining to cultural identity in the global era. They discuss current discourses intersecting cultural identity globalisation, ideologies, and the state, and approaches to constructing national, ethnic and local identities in the global culture. They examine the ambivalent and problematic relationship between the state, globalisation and the construction of cultural identity, and the nation-building process. They also analyse conceptual frameworks and methodological approaches applicable in the research covering the state, globalisation, nation-building and identity politics. Gal Ariely examines the impact of globalisation on a national scale. While some researchers have suggested that globalisation prompts a decline in national identity, others maintain that it reinforces national identity. Rather than seeking to offer a novel theoretical perspective, the author examines nationalism ‘from below’ in an attempt to ascertain whether globalisation is related to different dimensions of national identity. The key findings from cross-national surveys analyses demonstrated that higher levels of globalisation are negatively related to patriotism and ethnic identity. The author’s data findings demonstrate that any definitive conclusions concerning the relationship between globalisation and national identity cannot be justified. It may well be that different measures of national identity or globalisation will lead to different findings, especially when considering the evolving and changing multidimensional nature of national identity. Anatoli Rapoport analyses the changing meaning of citizenship and identity and a perspective model of citizenship education. He argues that the nexus between citizenship education, identity construction and socialisation helps determine a potential framework for the converged citizenship education model. Socialisation has been nation-centred since the emergence of nations and nation-states. As the twenty- first century progresses, humanity faces an unprecedented set of challenges: increasing interdependence of economies, growing migration and redistribution of the workforce, rapidly changing technologies and a growing gap between nations, cultural unification and cultural isolationism, growing deterioration of the global environment, and rising violence. It has become commonplace to underscore how significantly globalisation impacts the development of cultural identity in both positive and challenging ways. Michael H. Lee critiques the latest curriculum revision of the upper secondary social studies syllabus and textbook and examines major national messages that are
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conveyed to students. He argues that social studies, which serves as a key subject for the National Education programme, is highly instrumental for meeting socio- political needs and nation-building interests. He argues that the revised upper secondary social studies curriculum reveals that Singapore is profoundly affected by globalisation, which has brought about more intense westernisation and its related values on liberalism and individualism. It is even more important for the Singapore government to make use of education to uphold and promote core political ideologies related to cultural identity formation. Anna Popova’s research is guided by the cultural-historical concept of cultural mediation (Vygotsky, 1978). From this theoretical perspective, the content of teacher-training textbooks is considered as tertiary artefacts that are internalised and externalised by pre-service teachers. The author examines the role of lichnost (identity) and vospitanie (upbringing). The chapter reports that the changes in the textbooks published from 1970s till 2000 were more linguistic than conceptual, whereas the changes detected in the textbooks published after 2000 are more substantial. Zheng Zhang and Le Chen, by means of both interview data and netnographic data, explore the affordances of material-informed netnography in researching biliteracy learners’ identity making in virtual spaces. Undergirded by New Materialism, this research disturbs traditional interviewing that relies heavily on descriptive language representations of youth’s identity construction. Instead, this research focuses on Canadian and Chinese biliteracy learners’ embodied identity making through cross-border digital story-making in virtual spaces. Findings reveal biliteracy learners’ relationship -building with non-human animals, materials and spaces in the processes of meaning making and identity construction. Findings and discussions also relate the affordances of the material-informed netnography in documenting and analysing the focal participants’ moment-by-moment transformation in thinking, meaning making and becoming. Ria Shibata argues that Social Identity Theory posits that the degree to which an individual identifies with the collective – whether it be an ethnic group or a nation – can become a source of individual pride and self-esteem. In this study, it was hypothesised that individuals who identify strongly with the nation are likely to deny, forget or justify the nation’s transgressions of the past and thus feel diminished guilt and responsibility. In order to get an in-depth understanding of the degree of national identification amongst contemporary Japanese, the participants’ responses, based on the collective self-esteem scale, reveal that a fairly large percentage of contemporary Japanese identify strongly with the nation and feel that Japan’s image is important for their positive self-image and self-worth. Jia Ying Neoh suggests that nationalism and globalisation coexist in tension worldwide. This influenced the way citizenship identities are being constructed. Using Australia as a context, the relationships between nationalism, cultural identity and globalisation was explored through the examination of the key educational policy, the Melbourne Declaration, and a case study involving two primary schools in New South Wales. It was found that at the policy level, a globalist view that focused on sharpening Australia’s economic competitiveness was most prominent. In practice, there was inclination towards an apolitical form of global citizenship
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education. This meant that there was generally less emphasis placed on developing skills of critical deliberation about the complexities involved in issues that arise from diversity. This chapter concludes by examining the implications of the findings for educational policies and practices. Deodrin Correa research focuses, using a semiotically oriented discourse analysis in the construction of gender identity, as presented in the Indian media, with reference to advertising, as there is a deficiency of research regarding the role of television advertising in the construction of gender identity in developing countries such as India. The article aims to add to the body of literature in the area of the role of Indian television advertising in the construction of gender identity in developing countries such as India and provide western readers with current knowledge about any changes in role portrayals that have occurred over time. Some attention is paid to the role-set portrayals of women in this article because women in India are said to be emerging as the main target audience for advertisers due to their high viewership of television. For this study, commercials that appeared during Indian teleserials were obtained from a local Indian video rental outlet and recorded and used for the analysis. Finally, Joseph Zajda and Suzanne Majhanovich evaluate current research on cultural identity. They critique dominant discourses surrounding cultural identity, set against the current climate of growing social stratification and unequal access to quality education for all. It opens current discourses related to globalisation, ideologies and the state, and approaches to constructing national, ethnic and religious identities in the global culture. We thank the anonymous international reviewers who reviewed the chapters in the final manuscript.
Contents
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Cultural Identity in the Global Era�������������������������������������������������������� 1 Joseph Zajda and Suzanne Majhanovich
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National Identity and Globalization: Findings from Cross-National Surveys������������������������������������������������������������������ 17 Gal Ariely
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The Changing Meaning of Citizenship and Identity and a Perspective Model of Citizenship Education������������������������������ 37 Anatoli Rapoport
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Upper Secondary Social Studies Curriculum in Singapore and National Identity������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 51 Michael H. Lee
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Cultural Identity in Russian Teacher-Training Textbooks: The Use of Vygotsky in Critiquing Cultural Mediation ���������������������� 69 Anna Popova
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Embodied Identity Making and Bilingual Digital Storytelling in a Virtual Space ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 87 Zheng Zhang, Le Chen, and Zhen Lin
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The Construction of Cultural Identity: National Identity and Collective Forgetting in Japan-South Korea Relations���������������� 107 Ria Shibata
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Directions for Global Citizenship Education: Lessons from Two Australian Primary Schools�������������������������������������������������� 123 Jia Ying Neoh
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An Examination of the Role of the Media in the Construction of Gender Identity: Its Impact on the Status and Educational Opportunities of Women in India���������������������������������������������������������� 143 Deodrin Correa
10 Evaluating Research on Cultural Identity Education Globally���������� 159 Joseph Zajda and Suzanne Majhanovich Index������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 169
About the Series Editor
Joseph Zajda Joseph Zajda, BA (Hons), MA, MEd, PhD, FACE, coordinates EDFD546 in the Faculty of Education and Arts at the Australian Catholic University (Melbourne Campus). He specialises in globalisation and education policy reforms, social justice, history education, human rights education and values education. He has written and edited 30 books and over 120 book chapters and articles in the areas of globalisation and education policy, higher education, history textbooks and curriculum reforms. Recent publications include: Zajda, J. (Ed). (2021). 3rd International handbook of globalisation, education and policy research. Dordrecht: Springer; Zajda, J. (Ed). (2020). Globalisation, Ideology and Education Reforms: Emerging paradigms. Dordrecht: Springer; Zajda, J. (Ed). (2020). Human Rights Education Globally. Dordrecht: Springer; Zajda, J (Ed.). (2020). Globalisation, Ideology and Neo-Liberal Higher Education Reform. Dordrecht: Springer; Zajda, J. (2018). Globalisation and education reforms: Paradigms and ideologies. Dordrecht: Springer. http://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789402412031; Zajda, J. (2017). Globalisation and National Identity in History Textbooks: The Russian Federation. Dordrecht: Springer; Zajda, Tsyrlina-Spady & Lovorn (2017) (Eds.).Globalisation and Historiography of National Leaders: Symbolic Representations in School Textbooks. Dordrecht: Springer; Zajda & Ozdowski (2017). (Eds.), Globalisation and Human Rights Education Dordrecht: Springer; Zajda & Rust (Eds.) (2016). Globalisation and Higher Education Reforms. Dordrecht: Springer; Editor and author of the Second International Handbook on Globalisation, Education and Policy Research. Springer, 2015. http://www.springer. com/education+%26+language/book/978-94-017-9492-3; Zajda, J. (2014). The Russian Revolution. In G. Ritzer & J. M. Ryan (Eds.), The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Globalization Online; Zajda, J. (2014); Zajda, J. (2014). Ideology. In D. Phillips (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Educational Theory and Philosophy. Thousand Oaks: Sage; Zajda, J. (2014). Values Education. In D. Phillips (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Educational Theory and Philosophy. Thousand Oaks: Sage; Zajda, J. (2014); Values Education. In D. Phillips (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Educational Theory and
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Philosophy. Thousand Oaks: Sage; Zajda, J (2008). Schooling the New Russians. Melbourne: James Nicholas Publishers. He is the Editor of the twenty-four-volume book series Globalisation and Comparative Education (Springer, 2013&2021). He is the Editor of the following journals: https://www.jamesnicholaspublishers. com.au/curriculum-and-teaching/ Editor, Curriculum and Teaching, volume 35, 2021. https://www.jamesnicholaspublishers.com.au/education-and-society/ Editor, Education and Society, volume 38, 2021. https://www.jamesnicholaspublishers.com.au/world-studies-in-education/ Editor, World Studies in Education, volume 21, 2021. His works are found in 445 publications in 4 languages and some 10,900 university library holdings globally. He is the recipient of the 2012 Excellence in Research Award, the Faculty of Education and the Australian Catholic University. The award recognises the high quality of research activities, and particularly celebrates sustained research that has had a substantive impact nationally and internationally. He was also a recipient of the Australian Awards for University Teaching in 2011 (Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning, for an innovative, influential and sustained contribution to teacher education through scholarship and publication). He received the Vice Chancellor’s Excellence in Teaching Award at the Australian Catholic University (Melbourne Campus). He was awarded an ARC Discovery Grant (with Monash University) for 2011−2015 for a comparative analysis of history national curriculum implementation in Russia and Australia ($315,000). He was elected as Fellow of the Australian College of Educators (June 2013).
About the Contributors
Gal Ariely is senior lecturer in the Department of Politics & Government, BenGurion University of the Negev. Employing cross-national analysis and experimental survey research, Ariely examines political attitudes and national identity. In addition, his research addresses methodological questions of measurements across different contexts. Gal has authored or co-authored several articles that were published in Political Studies, Nations and Nationalism, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Ethnic and Racial Studies as well as other journals. He is currently studying how national days affect national identity. (Email: galariel@ bgu.ac.il)
Le Chen, PhD is a postdoctoral fellow at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Her research interests include plurilingualism, multiliteracies, and language policy and planning. Her work has received awards from the federal government, national academic associations, and institutions, such as SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowships (2019–2020), SSHRC Doctoral Fellowships (2015–2017), Michael Laferrière Award (2019) and Mitacs Globalink Research Award (2017). Her current SSHRC-funded project, entitled ‘Plurilingualism and Innovating the Second Language Pedagogy’, explores evolving language beliefs and innovative pedagogical approaches for international students in Canadian higher education. (Email: [email protected])
Deodrin Correa is a professional educator with strong leadership experience to empower staff, improve educational outcomes and model ethical conduct. She had established strong links with Monash University to develop best practice and learning for students. In recognition of strong, outstanding leadership and management expertise, she was promoted to Learning and Teaching Leader in 2015. Dr Correa has published a number of articles, delivered conference papers and PD sessions, and her latest book chapter ‘An Examination of the Role of the Media in the Construction of Gender Identity: Its Impact on the Status and Educational Opportunities of Women in India’ was accepted for publication in Globalisation,
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Cultural Identity and Nation-Building: The Changing Paradigms (Springer, the Netherlands, 2020). (Email: [email protected]). Michael H. Lee (The Chinese University of Hong Kong) teaches in the Department of History at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He formerly served as instructor in the Department of Educational Policy and Administration at the Hong Kong Institute of Education and as research associate in the Comparative Education Policy Research Unit in the Department of Public and Social Administration, City University of Hong Kong. His publications cover education reforms, comparative education, privatisation in education, and globalisation. His latest book chapter ‘Upper Secondary Social Studies Curriculum in Singapore and National Identity’ was accepted for publication in Globalisation, Cultural Identity and NationBuilding: The Changing Paradigms (Springer, the Netherlands, 2020). (Email: [email protected])
Zhen Lin, MA is a doctoral student in the Department of Language and Literacy Education, Faculty of Education, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Her research interests include bilingualism and biculturalism, immigrant children’s literacy and identity development in and out of school, Chinese as a heritage language teaching and learning, multimodal literacy, and literacy materials. These research directions meet the growing demands of in-depth knowledge about the status quo of learners from the diversity in the contemporary global nexus. (Email: [email protected])
Suzanne Majhanovich is professor emerita/adjunct research professor in the Faculty of Education at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada. She has published numerous articles and edited books, and has guest-edited (with different others) five special issues of the International Review of Education. Her research interests include globalisation, internationalisation and education restructuring, as well as first and second language acquisition and the teaching of English and French in international contexts. She was the senior author of the French text series En français s’il vous plait and also worked at times on contract for the Ministry of Education, developing curriculum guidelines for French as a Second Language and International Languages. She has been active in the Ontario Modern Language Teachers’ Association and was awarded a Life Membership in 2000. Before joining the Faculty of Education, she taught secondary school French as a second language and German. She co-edited the special issue of the International Review of Education: Journal of Lifelong Learning (with Diane Napier and Norberto Fernández Lamarra) and “New Times, New Voices” based on selected papers from the thematic group on higher/adult education of the 2013 WCCES in Buenos Aires, which appeared as volume 60(4) 2014. Professor Majhanovich also co-edited several volumes on comparative education for Sense Publishers. In June 2013, she was honoured to receive the David N. Wilson Award for contributions to comparative and international education from the Comparative and International Education
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Society Canada (CIESC) at the annual meeting in Victoria, BC. (Email: [email protected]). Jia Ying Neoh teaches in HSIE and Study 1 (MTeach Foundation). Her key research interest is in citizenship education. She is interested in understanding the citizenship curricula of schools, focusing on the preparatory processes of citizenship. Her PhD research focused on the practice of civics and citizenship education, within the context of the HSIE learning area, in NSW primary schools. On a broader level, she is also interested in understanding how teachers’ pedagogies and interpretations of various curricula reflect the links that teachers make between education and the broader society. Much of her research work is based on qualitative case study research, using multiple data sources. (Email: [email protected])
Anna Popova is senior lecturer in the Faculty of Education and Arts at the Australian Catholic University (Melbourne Campus). She has published a number of book chapters and articles in international outlets. Her latest book chapter ‘Cultural Identity in Russian Teacher-Training Textbooks: The Use of Vygotsky in Critiquing Cultural Mediation’ was accepted for publication in Globalisation, Cultural Identity and Nation-Building: The Changing Paradigms (Springer, the Netherlands, 2020). Email: [email protected]
Anatoli Rapoport is associate professor of curriculum and instruction at Purdue University College of Education. Before he received his PhD in social studies education, he worked as classroom teacher and school administrator for 20 years. His research interests include citizenship education, comparative, international, and global education, and application of constructivist theory in education. He is board member of the National Council for the Social Studies International Assembly, editor of the Journal of International Social Studies, director of Benjamin Franklin Transatlantic Summer Institute and director of the GK-12/Graduate Student Engagement in K-12 program. He is recipient of the Leadership in Globalization Award, the Curriculum and Instruction Discovery Award, and Curriculum and Instruction Engagement Award. He also holds honorary doctorate (Honoris Causa) from Academy of Science of Moldova. Since 2003, Dr Rapoport organised and coordinated a number of international teacher training and professional development projects and several Study Abroad programs. At Purdue, Dr Rapoport teaches social studies methods courses and graduate seminars on international and comparative education. He published in a number of journals and was guest editor of special issues of Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education (with Serhiy Kovalchuk); Education, Citizenship and Social Justice (with Miri Yemini); and Research in Social Sciences and Technology. He is the author of four books: Fields Unknown (2007), Civic Education in Contemporary Global Society (with Andrey Borshevsky, 2009), Competing Frameworks: Global and National in Citizenship Education (2018) and Democratic Citizenship in Non-Western Contexts (with Serhiy Kovalchuk, 2019) (Email: [email protected])
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About the Contributors
Ria Shibata received her PhD from the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Otago. She has conducted extensive research on the underlying socio-psychological dynamics of intractable conflicts and the effectiveness of intervention strategies such as interactive problem-solving workshops. Her research has focused on identity-driven needs and protracted interstate conflicts in East Asia. She has published works on the role of collective memory, competitive victimhood and reconciliation in East Asia. Ria has been trained in practical skills and strategies for conflict management and resolution through SIT’s CONTACT program. She has helped design and facilitate problem-solving workshops and Track 2 dialogues with influential academics and policy makers from China, Korea and Japan since 2012. Her recent publication includes ‘Memories of the War and Japanese “Historical Amnesia”’, Education & Society, 35(1), 5−25. (Email: [email protected])
Joseph Zajda (Australian Catholic University, Melbourne) is associate professor in the Faculty of Education and Arts at the Australian Catholic University (Melbourne Campus). He specialises in globalisation and education policy reforms, social justice, history education, and values education. He has written and edited 48 books and over 168 book chapters and articles in the areas of globalisation and education policy, higher education, and curriculum reforms. Recent publications include: Zajda, J (Ed). (2020a). Globalisation, Ideology and Neo-liberal Higher Education Reform. Dordrecht: Springer; Zajda, J. (Ed). (2020b). Human Rights Education Globally. Dordrecht: Springer; Zajda, J. (Ed). (2020c). Globalisation, Ideology and Education Reforms: Emerging Paradigms. Dordrecht: Springer; Zajda, J. (2020a). Globalization, Education and Reforms. In George Ritzer & Chris Rojek (Eds.), Wiley-Blackwell’s Encyclopedia of Sociology; Zajda, J. (2020b). Globalisation and the Impact of Social Change and Economic Transformation in Lifelong Learning in Russia. In M. London (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Lifelong Learning. Oxford: OUP; Zajda, J. (2020c) Globalization, education and policy reforms. In G. Fan & T. Popkewitz (Eds.), Handbook of Policy Studies: Values, Governance, Globalization and Methodology. Dordrecht: Springer. Zajda, J. & Majhanovich, S. (Eds.)(2021).Globalisation, Cultural Identity and Nation-Building: The Changing Paradigms. Dordrecht: Springer. Zajda, J. (2019) (Ed.). Globalisation, Ideology and Politics of Education Reforms. Dordrecht: Springer. Zajda, J. (2018). Globalisation and Education Reforms: Paradigms and Ideologies. Dordrecht: Springer Zajda, J. (2017). Globalisation and National Identity in History Textbooks: The Russian Federation. Dordrecht: Springer. He is also the editor of the24-volume book series Globalisation and Comparative Education (Springer, 2009 & 2021). He edits World Studies in Education, Curriculum and Teaching and Education and Society for James Nicholas Publishers. His works are found in 445 publications in 4 languages and some 10,800 university library holdings globally. He was awarded an ARC Discovery Grant (with Monash University) for 2011–2015 for a comparative analysis of history national curriculum implementation in Russia and Australia ($315,000). He was elected as Fellow of the Australian College of Educators (June 2013). (Email: [email protected])
About the Contributors
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Zheng Zhang, PhD is an associate professor in the Faculty of Education at Western University, London, Ontario, Canada Her research interests include curriculum studies of transnational education, literacy and biliteracy curriculum, internationalisation of curriculum, multimodal literacy, cross-border teacher education undergirded by new media literacies, and multiliteracies pedagogy in culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. These primary research areas have addressed pertinent educational challenges in the era of changes with increasing cultural and linguistic diversity, rapid global connectivity, and fast-paced technological changes. (Email: [email protected]).
Chapter 1
Cultural Identity in the Global Era Joseph Zajda and Suzanne Majhanovich
Abstract The chapter critiques dominant discourses and debates pertaining to cultural identity in the global era. It analyses current discourses related to globalisation, ideologies, cultural identity, and the state, and approaches to constructing national, ethnic and local identities in the global culture. It examines the ambivalent and problematic relationship between the state, globalisation and the construction of cultural identity, and the nation-building process. The chapter also analyses conceptual frameworks and methodological approaches applicable in the research covering the state, globalisation, nation-building and identity politics. Keywords Culture · Cultural identity · Discourses of cultural identity · Ethnic identity · Geographic identity · Globalisation · Global culture · Global identity · Identity crisis · Identity politics · Ideology · Institutional identity · Language · Local identity · Multiple identities · National identity · Nation-building process · Passport identity · Religious identity
Cultural Identity: Introduction Globalisation Globalisation is one of the most complex and ‘contested’ concepts (Zajda, 2020a). Gilpin (1987), in his theory of globalisation of economies, defined globalisation as the ‘increasing interdependence of national economies in trade, finance and J. Zajda (*) Faculty of Education & Arts, School of Education, Australian Catholic University, East Melbourne, VIC, Australia e-mail: [email protected] S. Majhanovich Faculty of Education, Western University, London, ON, Canada e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature B.V. 2021 J. Zajda, S. Majhanovich (eds.), Globalisation, Cultural Identity and NationBuilding, Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research 23, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-2014-2_1
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macroeconomic policies’ (Gilpin, 1987, p. 389). As a dominant ideology, globalisation was associated with neo-liberalism and technocratic solutions to economic reforms (Cox, 1996; Majhanovich & Malet, 2015). Castells (2006), Kobrin (1998), and Carnoy & Rhoten (2002), on the other hand, stressed the technological dimension, as result of the advances in the ICT (Information Communication Technologies) on the global economy. Apart from the multi-faceted nature of globalisation that invites contesting and competing ideological interpretations, numerous paradigms and theoretical models have also been used, ranging from structuralism to post- structuralism, to explain the phenomenon of globalisation (Zajda, 2020a). The globalisation process is characterized by the acceptance of ‘unified global time’, the increase in the number of international corporations and institutions, the ever-increasing global forms of communication, the development of global competitions, and, above all, the acceptance of global notions of citizenship, equality, human rights, and justice (see also Featherstone, 1990, p. 6; Zajda, 2020b). Globalisation as a phenomenon, is a multi-dimensional cultural construct, reflecting the necessary interdependence and connections of all core facets of culture: the economy, politics, ideology, languages, education, consumer goods, travel, modes of communication, technology, and the people around the world. (Zajda, 2015). Santos (2002), argued that globalisation was heterogeneous, rather than homogeneous, combining universality and local diversity: the globalisation of the last three decades, instead of conforming to the modern Western model of globalisation – that is, to a homogeneous and uniform globalisation – so keenly upheld by Leibniz as well as Marx, as much in theories of modernization as in theories of dependent development, seems to combine universality and the elimination of national borders, on the one hand, with particularity, local diversity, ethnic identity and a return to communitarian values, on the other. (Santos, 2002).
Cultural Identity Globalisation has also contributed, among other things, to ‘the strengthening of various cultural identities: religious, national, ethnic, and geographic’ (Castells, 2006, see also Castells, 2010; Napier & Majhanovich, 2013). The construct of cultural identity is associated with a reification of culture (similar to Marx’s notion of ‘reification’), which becomes a defining feature of the dominant discourse on identity (Bauman, 1996). Reification is the process of attributing concrete form to an abstract concept. Reification was used by Marx to describe a form of ‘social consciousness in which human relations come to be identified with the physical properties of things, thereby acquiring an appearance of naturalness and inevitability’ (Burris, 1988). Using the concept of reification, Marx tried to explain why workers accepted their labour and wages exploitation as natural. Furthermore, identity is not that ‘transparent or unproblematic’, according to Hall (1996). Hall argued that identity is always positioned in the cultural context and, as such, is dynamic, as a continuous cultural process:
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Identity is not as transparent or unproblematic as we think. Perhaps instead of thinking of identity as an already accomplished fact, which the new cultural practices then represent, we should think, instead, of identity as a ‘production’, which is never complete, always in process, and always constituted within, not outside, representation. This view problematises the very authority and authenticity to which the term, ‘cultural identity’, lays claim (Hall, 1996).
It could be argued, that in terms of time, the process of re-defining and consolidation of cultural identities has been one of a continuous social, cultural, political and historical transformation. A more recent example of a geo-political transformation of cultural identities was the sudden collapse of the USSR in December 1991, and collapse of communist countries in Eastern Europe. Castells (2006) also points out that the nation-states have been weakened by various geo-political conflicts: The instrumental processes of power, global wealth, institutions, and the Nation-State no longer represent the nation and identities built on local autonomy. This lies at the root of the management crisis currently afflicting the world. Even the most powerful countries are affected by this crisis, of which the post 9/11 United States is an example. Under such circumstances, governments resort to the State’s raison d’être, namely the ability to legitimise a monopoly of violence, as Weber put it. (Castells, 2006).
The usage of the term ‘identity’ can be traced to historical traditions in Western philosophy and intellectual thought, in particular to philosophers John Locke (1690) in his An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689) and David Hume (1739) in his Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man (1785). Locke (1690) wrote that identity consists of: … nothing but a participation of the same continued Life…consciousness always accompanies thinking. …in this alone consists personal Identity (Locke, 1690/2008).
Identity became a key word in the 1950s, when Carl Rogers (1902–1987), a noted humanistic psychologist, used the term. While Eric Erickson (1902–1994), a prominent psychoanalyst, used the term to study adolescent personality/identity crises. Erikson, in Childhood and Society (1950), used a more holistic notion of ‘national identities’, which was his preferred term. Since then, there has been an incredible proliferation of the use of the term, across various disciplines and theoretical perspectives, referring to cultural identity, ethnic identity, racial identity, religious identity, sexual identity, gender identity, institutional identity, interest identity, tribal identity, passport identity (as part of the documentation identity), identity credit cards, and identity politics, to name a few. In order to simplify the discourse of cultural identity, we propose to delineate between global and cultural perspectives of identity. A global perspective of identity was first used by Comenius (1592–1670), when he wrote that ‘we are all citizens of one world’: We are all citizens of one world; we are all of one blood. To hate a man because he was born in another country, because he speaks a different language, or because he takes a different view on this subject or that, is a great folly. Desist I implore you, for we are all equally human…Let us have but one end in view, the welfare of humanity (Comenius, 1649/1907).
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Some academics have used a similar idea in their education for sustainability graduate classes when they referred to the ‘spaceship Earth’ construct, where citizens globally need to work together, to achieve their goals, including one of saving the Earth from environmental and other disasters (Smith, 2007a, 2007b): It was the astronauts too who brought those extraordinary pictures of the earth from space, who talked of how ‘fragile was this tiny ball of blue and green, floating through the enormity of time and space, how this was our only home, and how important it was that we should take care of it’ Thus was born the idea of Spaceship Earth (see Survival of Spaceship Earth, 1972). The film ‘Survival of Spaceship Earth’ was produced for the first ever United Nations Conference on the Human Environment. The film portrayed vividly Earth’s evolving environmental crisis, showing how uncontrolled technology, consumerism, and too much ‘progress’, were endangering life on a global scale through a set of complex and intertwined issues, collectively termed the global problematique (Smith, 2007a, 2007b, p. 25).
Dominant Discourses of Cultural Identity: An Overview In brief, there have been the following two significant paradigm shifts since the 1950s relevant to discourses of cultural identity: 1. Structural functionalist 2. Post-structuralist The structural-functional paradigm is a perspective in social sciences and sociology that sees society as a complex system, whose parts work together to produce a division of labour, order, stability and values-consensus (in a Durkheimian sense). It was a dominant paradigm in the late nineteenth century up to the 1970s. It asserted that our lives are guided by social structures (organisation), which define and normalise the accepted patterns of social behaviour. In terms of cultural identity, the structural-functional paradigm is known for defining and propagating the notion of a single subject, or a single identity, unlike post-structuralism, especially post- modernism which focused on multiple subjectivities and multiple cultural identities. The second paradigm shift, which is post-structuralism, occurred in the 1960s. It was a complex paradigm, consisting of a number of perspectives, such as discourse analysis, deconstruction, post-modernism, and social and cognitive constructivism, to name a few. Some have argued that post-structuralism can be traced to the work of Michel Foucault and precedes deconstruction (Harcourt, 2007; Zajda, 1988, 2018). Discourse Analysis is a deconstructive reading and interpretation of a problem or text (the term was coined by Jacques Derrida). Discourse Analysis, relevant to analysing cultural identity, includes Jacques Derrida’s Deconstruction, Michel Foucault’s genealogy and social criticism and analysis of the uses of discourse to exercise power (see his analysis of how knowledge is created). He argued that knowledge is a power over others, the power to define others. In his view knowledge ceases to be liberation and becomes a mode of surveillance, regulation, and discipline), Julia Kristeva’s analysis of feminism and others. Discourse analysis has been
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taken up in a variety of social science disciplines, examining the sorts of tools and strategies people use when engaged in communication, such as the use of metaphors, choice of particular words to display affect, and how people construct their own version of an event, and how people use discourse to ‘maintain or construct their own identity’ (Zajda, 2012). Post-modernism, by rejecting the idea of a unitary subject, advanced the concept of multiple identities, and subjectivities, relevant to current discourses of cultural identities. It referred to new departures in the arts, in literature, and in architecture that had their origins in ‘the 1950s and early 1960s, gained momentum in the course of the 1960s, and became a dominant factor in the 1970s’ (Bertens, 2019). Postmodernism was very popular in the 1980s and 1990s, and attracted scholars like Peter McLaren (1995), who used his neo-Marxist critique to analyse the impact of cultural imperialism, as a dominant ideology, on the construction of identity. We would like to stress that one of central and unresolved problems in the process of globalisation and identity, within a post-structuralist context, is the unresolved tension, and ambivalence ‘between cultural homogenization and cultural heterogenization’ (Appadurai, 1990, p. 295, italics mine), or the on-going dialectic between globalism and localism, between faith and reason, between tradition and modernity, and between totalitarianism and democracy (Zajda, 2015).
Global Cultural Identities Since the 1980s, two parallel social, political, economic and technology-driven forces have impacted on the world. On one hand, the ubiquitous processes of globalisation affecting everything are occurring and, on the other, the transformation and reaffirmation of nation-building, and cultural identities, both locally and globally, are taking place. Castells (2010) believes that globalisation, with its cultural homogenisation, was a potential threat to local cultures and to specific identities. This is due to globalisation perceived to be generating a global, cosmopolitan culture, and cultural homogenisation. At the same time, due to dominant political and religious ideologies, some nations wanted to preserve their historically-defined identities, based on language, nationality, ethnicity, religion, territory, and other relevant identity-defining characteristics. This has resulted in the local and global cultural identity dichotomy. One of the most powerful forces of globalisation shaping cultural identities is the ubiquitous presence of information technology and the mass media. Every facet of culture and identity is defined by mass media, and propelled by information technology. Global marketing of socially desirable commodities, such as clothing, fashion and global brands, perfumes, toys, and the entertaining industry, to name a few, has affected cultural identity. Global marketing affecting the formation of one’s cultural identity has manufactured a new consumerist and materialistic culture, of ‘commodification of the self “(Zajda, 1988).
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In one major comparative and cross-national investigation, testing the relationship between globalization and national identity, using 149 national samples across 74 countries, Ariely (2012) wished to discover whether country level of globalisation impacts on ethnic identity and whether globalisation moderates between patriotism and ethnic identity. He concludes that globalisation does not reduce national identity, but it does reduce their sense of ethnic identity: While the impact of globalization does not erode people’s national identification or their sense of nationalism’ it seems that it does reduce their ethnic conceptions of membership in the nation (Ariely, 2012, p. 477).
Another study tested the nexus between country level of globalisation and its impact on ethnic identity and whether globalisation moderates between patriotism and ethnic identity. (Ariely, 2019). It was demonstrated that ethnic identity levels were lower in the more globalized than the less globalized countries: Although ethnic identity levels are lower in the more globalized than the less globalized countries, globalization has no differential effect on the strong and positive link between patriotism and ethnic identity (Ariely, 2019).
The complexity of globalisation, and its varied cultural, social and economic influences, together with the multidimensionality of national identity, are likely to produce ‘the conflicting theoretical perspectives and inconsistency of the empirical findings’ (Ariely, 2019).
National Identity National identity represents a specific cultural community, whose members are united by common historical memories, values, beliefs, customs, conventions, habits, languages and practices, myths, symbols and traditions. It denotes such elements as ‘historic territory, legal-political community, legal political equality of members, and common civic culture and ideology’ (Smith, 1991, p. 11). According to Smith (1991), ‘the underlying sentiments and aspirations that nationalist ideology, nationalist language and symbols evoke’ relate to the three main concepts: territory, history and community (Smith, 1991, p. 78; see also Smith, 1995, 2002). Smith (2007a, 2007b) in his analysis of the impact of globalisation on cultural identity argued that global culture not only cannot replace national culture but that national identity possesses the capacity to withstand the forces of globalisation (Smith, 2007a, 2007b, p. 30). From Smith’s (2007a, 2007b) analysis of cultural identity dynamics, according to Ariely (2019), globalisation not only fails to create global identity but intensifies national feelings. Smith, according to Guibernau (2004), has produced ‘the most comprehensive analysis of the cultural components of national identity to date’. Guibernau (2004, p. 136). On the other hand, Guibernau (2004), responding critically to Smith (2002) argued that national identity is also a modern phenomenon of a ‘fluid and dynamic nature’:
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…one by means of which a community sharing a particular set of characteristics is led to the subjective belief that its members are ancestrally related. Belief in a shared culture, history, traditions, symbols, kinship, language, religion, territory, founding moment, and destiny have been invoked, with varying intensity at different times and places, by peoples claiming to share a particular national identity. Generally, national identity is applied to citizens of a nation-state. There are other cases, however, where national identity is shared among individuals belonging to a nation without a state of their own… (Guibernau, 2004, p.134).
National identity, according to Guibernau (2001) refers to ‘the set of attributes and beliefs shared by those who belong to the same nation’, and that ‘the political aspect of national identity’, when applied to the nation-state and nation-building, ‘focuses upon those state’s strategies, often referred to as ‘nation-building’, designed to cultivate a ‘cohesive, loyal and up to a point, homogeneous citizenry’ (Guibernau, 2001, pp. 242–68). The state’s strategies for building a single national identity, to unite its citizens by shared core values, include, among others, the promotion of preferred image of the ‘nation’, communicating a desirable set of symbols and rituals to reinforce a sense of solidarity and community, and ‘the advancement of citizenship involving a well-defined set of civil and legal rights, political rights and duties as well as socio-economic rights’ (Guibernau, 2004, p.140). Exploring other types of identities, Wang Zhuojun (2014) suggested that national identity is a combination of institutional identity, interest identity, cultural identity and non-national community identity, and that any national identity crisis lies in the ineffectiveness of nation states’ governance. This is partly true. There are other mitigating factors relevant to national identity crisis, such as the nature of geo-politics, religious conflicts, and unstable capitalist economies legitimizing social inequality. The construction of national identity in the global age, requires a number of social, economic and political reforms, including reforming the political system, accelerating equitable economic transformation, grounded in equality and social justice, and promoting the idea of national culture, in order to ‘strengthen value integration and enrich the cultural significance of national identity’ (Wang Zhuojun, 2014). However, globalization’s effects on national identity are problematic and widely critiqued by numerous researchers (Hobsbawm, 1992; Kaldor, 2004; Roudometof, 2014). Some researchers argue that globalisation affects national identity in different ways: While some regard globalization as undermining national identity and increasing cosmopolitanism, others argue that it works in the opposite direction, possibly even reinforcing national feelings in the form of a backlash—or that it impacts different segments in society in dissimilar ways (Ariely, 2019).
The problematic nature of globalisation, and its varied cultural, social and economic influences, together with the multidimensionality of national identity (Pryke, 2009; Halikiopoulou & Vasilopoulou, 2011; Holton, 2011) are likely to produce ‘the conflicting theoretical perspectives and inconsistency of the empirical findings’ (Ariely, 2019).
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he Role of Language in Defining and Shaping T Cultural Identity A cultural perspective of identity refers to local identities, defined by a particular culture, language, religion, values and location (Zajda, 2018). Within many local communities there is a widespread consensus on what characterises their local identity (Terlouw, 2017). Sebba & Tate (2002) used the language as a medium of communication to explain how ‘identities of British Caribbeans manifest and reproduce themselves through everyday discourse’: …identities are texts of social practice based on the identifications made in interactions between spemedium used (the language or language variety used in an utterance) we attempt to illustrate how global diasporic discourses of identity are reproduced at the local level. We argue that the ‘global’ and ‘local’ identities of British Caribbeans manifest and reproduce themselves through everyday discourse, and are constructed through identifications in which the choice of language and the choice of words interact and are both significant (Sebba & Tate, 2002).
The choice of official language in several former USSR states signals how language relates to cultural identity. The Baltic States, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have all declared Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian respectively as the official language of their post USSR nation eliminating Russian as a possible official language. In some cases, citizenship is contingent upon being fluent in the official language leaving Russian speakers who have resided in these states since before the dissolution of the USSR virtually stateless. This reflects the power of language in the construction of a national cultural identity. Belarus in contrast which identifies more with the Russian culture and traditions has designated both Belarussian and Russian as official languages. The Balkan States provide another salient example. When Yugoslavia existed as a federation of the states Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia, the official languages were Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian and Macedonian and the languages appeared on the Yugoslavian banknotes in both Cyrillic and Roman alphabets. Once Yugoslavia dissolved, the new states declared their official languages as Slovenian, Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, Macedonian and even in some cases Montenegrin although the language is essentially Serbian and written in Cyrillic. Serbo-Croatian is no longer an accepted language even though except for the Cyrillic and Roman alphabets used (connected to the traditions of the Orthodox or Roman Catholic religions), they are almost identical languages. It is no longer permissible to recognize a language such as Serbo-Croatian related to what is now regarded as two separate cultures and ethnic identities. Bosnian, too has replaced Serbo-Croatian to reflect the Muslim culture in Bosnia Herzegovina. Under globalisation, even very small nations promote their ethnic identity through language while embracing the economic benefits that globalisation can provide. For example, Croatia is a member of the European Union but has chosen the Kuna as its currency, the Kuna being a traditional Croatian monetary unit dating to before the establishment of Yugoslavia.
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Cultural Identity in the Global Era: Language and Identity Language is intrinsically connected to personal, national, and ethnic identity. The case of Canada provides a powerful example of the nexus between language and identity. Ever since the founding of Canada as a nation in 1867 and even prior to that in the Canada Act of 1791, English and French language rights have been acknowledged. As Magnet (1998) has noted “Canada’s Constitution was born in the attempt to unite two powerful language communities—two nations—in a single state” (p. 188). It is fair to say that Canadian identity for its citizens involves being a member of a bi-lingual state. Although most Canadians are not in fact bilingual English and French speakers, nevertheless, Canadians accept a bilingual Canada as part of their national reality. A 2012 report from the Office of the Commissioner for Official Languages shows that 72% of Canadians favour bilingualism, and a 2016 Neilsen poll showed that 86% of Canadians believe that the Prime Minister should be bi- lingual. In the latter part of the twentieth century Canadian governments spent a considerable amount of time grappling with issues of bilingualism and forging policies to address concerns. The province of Quebec where the largest number of francophones reside has been justifiably concerned about guaranteeing French language rights. Once about one third the population of Canada, francophones saw their numbers fall with declining birth rates and a rise in immigration to Canada. Those immigrants who settled in Quebec often favoured English over French as the official language to be learned, and also wanted to have their children educated in English rather than French. The power of English in a globalized world posed a threat to the maintenance of a solid population of French speakers in Quebec and elsewhere in Canada. Speaking about the importance of language as part of one’s place in the world, Thomas Ricento (2006) observed: Language is something most of us take for granted most of the time; it is usually when we discover that our language (or language variety) is different from and perhaps less valued than, the language of others, or that our options are somehow limited either because we don’t speak/understand a language or language variety…that we begin to pay attention to languages (p. 21).
Immigrants to Quebec recognized that part of succeeding in a globalized world would entail knowing English while Quebecers saw the growth of English in their “nation” as a threat to their basic identity especially given their geographical position surrounded by a huge mass of Anglophones in the rest of Canada and in the USA. Hence in the 60s and 70s successive Quebec governments passed a series of Bills to protect their language rights. Bill 63, “La loi pour promouvoir la langue française au Québec” was a mild response to the language issue and merely encouraged the teaching of French in English medium schools and provided for French classes for immigrants but did not make the language classes mandatory. Francophone Quebecers were alarmed that this law would actually hasten the demise of French. The next Quebec provincial government brought in a stricter law in 1974, Bill 22 (La loi sur la langue officielle) which declared French the
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official language of Quebec and required among other stipulations that corporations housed in Quebec have a French name, advertise primarily in French and demonstrate their ability to carry on business in French. However, in education, an English language section was still permitted. Still dissatisfied with the legal protections for the French language, and concerned at the prospect of losing their language to English, Quebecers turned to the nationalist Parti Québécois whose goal ultimately became separation from Canada making Quebec a separate state altogether. They enacted Bill 101 in 1977, “La Charte de la langue française” which strengthened provisions of the previous Bill 22 and extended requirements for the use of the French language to every aspect of life in Quebec (see Hudon, 1985a, 1985b; Majhanovich, 2007). The Federal Government needed to respond to the rising concerns in Quebec if it was to prevent dissolution of the country. A massive initiative, the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, begun in 1963 and carried out over 7 years aimed at establishing recognition of the basic cultural dualism of Canada (Laing, 1985, p. 216). A preliminary report in 1965 was followed by 6 other volumes. This massive publication resulted in changes to federal and provincial language policy, led to changes in French education across the country, and the creation of the Federal Department of Multiculturalism and the Official Languages Act (1969) (See Yalden, 1985, p. 1560). The importance of language as essential to the identity and culture of Canadians is reflected in its Canadian Charter of rights and Freedoms which was created and adopted in 1982 when the constitution was patriated from the UK. Of the 34 clauses outlining the basic rights of Canadian citizens, eight or almost one quarter are concerned with language rights—mainly focusing on French and English rights, but also referring to legal or customary rights or privileges with respect to any language that is not English or French (Clause 22). The French and English languages remain signal elements of the Canadian identity supported through ongoing policies. For example, the Official Languages Act of 1969 was expanded in 1987 to bring it into line with the clauses of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In 2005 further amendments were made to require “federal institutions to take positive measures to support the development of official language communities and to foster the full recognition and use of French and English in Canadian society” (Government of Canada, 2019a). Canada has managed so far to remain together notwithstanding several failed attempts by Quebec governments to secede from Canada through referenda in 1990 and 1992 where the vote to secede was narrowly defeated. In the interim, tensions have abated partially because of the Federal Government’s efforts and policies to reassure Quebec of its linguistic rights and to declare it a “nation” within the Canadian confederation. No doubt the overall power of globalization has also led to the realization among all Canadians that we are better off together in a globalized world than striving to succeed as small weak entities facing global powers. However, Canada is not just a nation made up of two founding language groups, but is made up of, in addition to the descendants of the French and English colonists, the many aboriginal First Nations and of successive waves of immigrant groups from all over the world. There is no mention other than obliquely in Clause 22 to language
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rights of first nations groups. Clause 27 alone makes reference to the multicultural heritage of Canada (This Charter shall be interpreted in a manner consistent with the preservation and enhancement of the multicultural heritage of Canadians). With its preoccupation with keeping harmony between Canada’s so-called founding nations, the Canadian government has until recently neglected to attend to the linguistic and cultural rights of Canada’s original inhabitants. Sadly, there is considerable evidence that until the 1970s government policies were dedicated to assimilation of indigenous people through the eradication of cultural (and by extension linguistic), spiritual and economic foundations of First Nations societies (Hill, 2004). The infamous residential school system where generations of native children were educated in the ways of the dominant culture, and were severely punished if they dared to speak their native language or practice cultural rituals has left an indelible mark on Canada’s native populations which to this day still afflicts its descendants. In the twenty-first century Canada is finally turning its attention to address the wrongs committed for over a century against its first nations people. In 2007, the “Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement” began implementation. (Government of Canada (2019b). The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was set up to permit those directly or indirectly affected by the legacy of residential schools to share their stories and experiences. Over the next 6 years Commission members travelled all over Canada and heard from 6500 witnesses. The final report was presented in 2015 and contained 94 “calls to action”. Language and Culture issues figure prominently in the “calls to action” including an appeal to the federal government to enact an Aboriginal Languages Act that affirms that “Aboriginal languages are a fundamental and valued element of Canadian Culture and society, and there is an urgency to preserve them.” The clauses related to language and culture and the recommendations in them from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report are in many ways parallel those related to the French-English issues in the Official Languages Act and Charter of Rights and Freedoms, including the recommendation of the creation of an Office of the Commissioner of Indigenous Languages (parallel to the Commissioner of Official Languages). In this case the Commissioner will work with 3 distinctionsbased directors, one each for First Nations, Inuit and Métis languages. As of 2019, Bill C-91, An Act respecting Indigenous Languages received Royal assent. In effect, clauses 13, 14 and 15 in the calls to action that dealt with issues of language and culture are being addressed and the recommendations implemented. Canada’s multicultural nature is an accepted fact and is a proud part of its identity. Canada’s Multiculturalism Policy adopted in 1988 affirms that “multiculturalism reflects the cultural and racial diversity of Canadian society and acknowledges the freedom of all members of Canadian society to preserve, enhance and share their cultural heritage” (Government of Canada, 2008). The policy also includes provision for the preservation and enhancement of languages other than English and French. Multiculturalism implies that immigrants to Canada will not be assimilated into the culture developed from the English and French original colonists but rather will acculturate and add to whatever constitutes Canadian culture. This vision of a multicultural Canada has proved a benefit to the country as the influence of globalization has penetrated every part of the world.
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ational Identity: Searching for Russia’s Historical N Cultural Identity One somewhat complex example of an evolving cultural and national identity, is the current and on-going transformation of cultural identity in the Russian Federation (RF) (see also Dijink (2014). In the RF, as a result of the nexus between nationalism, national identity, language and ideology, representation of heroes in history textbooks has ideological, cultural and pedagogical significance. Apart from preferred historical narratives and particular language used, illustrations and visual images are also used to reinforce the cult of a hero. National heroes tend to be celebrated for the important roles they played in history. This is associated, at times, with a ‘vision of national identity grounded in pride in a culture’ (Hutchins, 2016, p.14). In their recent search for Russia’s historical cultural identity, Russian policy makers and historians are compelled to cultivate a new sense of Russian identity and consciousness. In doing so, they invariably use religion, in their attempt to re- discover the origin of the Orthodox faith in Ancient Rus, and its power to unite the people, when Prince Vladimir introduced Christianity in the kingdom of Ancient Rus in 988 AD (Zajda, 2017). The current cultural and ideological connections to religion, as a symbol of cultural identity in Russia, represent a new dimension of a return to traditional values. It could be argued that for Russia, in her search for identity in the twenty-first century, the road leads to ‘inclusive and integrative’ religion, which acts as a ‘symbol of cultural identity’: Only culturally inclusive and integrative type of religion will be religion as a symbol of a cultural identity’.
Berman (1991), in All that is solid melts into air, drawing on Marx’s Communist Manifesto (1848), discusses the identity crisis confronting various nations during the later part of the nineteenth century: All that is solid melts into air all that is holy is profaned, and men at last are forced to face with sober senses the real conditions of their lives… (Communist Manifesto, 1848).
The crisis of materialism and the destruction of everything holy, resulting in the ‘aura of holiness suddenly missing’, meant that there existed an existentialist crisis and identity crisis. Berman (1991) explains it: ‘We cannot understand ourselves in the present until we confront what is absent’ (Berman, 1991, p. 89). It is not surprising, that Russia, in confronting what is absent, turns to religion, the Orthodox faith, nationalism and patriotism. Not only are its foot prints traced in the Ancient Russia, but its modernist revival is now celebrated across the nation.
Conclusion The chapter critiques dominant discourses and debates pertaining to cultural identity in the global era. It analyses current discourses related to globalisation, ideologies, cultural identity, and the state, as well as approaches to constructing national,
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ethnic and local identities in the global culture. One of the most powerful forces of globalisation shaping cultural identities is the ubiquitous presence of information technology and the mass media. Every facet of culture and identity is defined by the mass media, and propelled by the information technology. Global marketing of socially desirable commodities, such as clothing, fashion and global brands, perfumes, toys, and the entertainment industry, to name a few, has affected cultural identity. Global marketing affecting the formation of one’s cultural identity has manufactured a new consumerist and a global materialistic culture of ‘commodification of the self’. As the above demonstrates, the chapter examines the ambivalent and problematic relationship between the state, globalisation and the construction of cultural identity. The chapter also evaluates conceptual frameworks and methodological approaches applicable in the research covering the state, globalisation, and identity politics. In addition, the chapter demonstrates that language is intrinsically connected to personal, national, and ethnic identity. The case of Canada provides a powerful example of the nexus between language and identity, as do the examples of the Baltic States and the newly created nations from the former Yugoslavia. The Orthodox religion has played an important role in the construction of the modern Russian cultural identity. It has been argued, as demonstrated above, that in terms of time, location and culture, the process of re-defining and consolidation of cultural identities has been one of a continuous social, cultural, political and historical transformation.
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Marx, K. & Engels, F. (1848, 1998). The Communist manifesto. (Introduction by Martin Malia). New York: Penguin group. McLaren, P. (1995). Postmodernism, postcolonialism and pedagogy. South Melbourne, Australia: James Nicholas Publishers. Napier, D. B., & Majhanovich, S. (2013). Education, dominance and identity. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers. Pryke, S. (2009). Nationalism in a global world. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. Ricento, T. (2006). Theoretical perspectives in language policy: An overview. In T. Ricento (Ed.), An introduction to language policy. Theory and method (pp. 10–23). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publ. Roudometof, V. (2014). Nationalism, globalization and glocalization. Thesis Eleven, 122(1), 18–33. Sebba, M. & Tate, S. (2002). ‘Global’ and ‘Local’ identities in the discourses of British- born Caribbeans. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.117 7/13670069020060010501?journalCode=ijba Smith, A. (1991). National identity. London: Penguin Books. Smith, A. (1995). Nations and nationalism in a global Era. Cambridge, UK: Polity. Smith, A. (2002). When is a nation. Geopolitics, 7(2), 5–32. Smith, A. (2007a). Nationalism in decline? In M. Young, E. Zuelow, & A. Strum (Eds.), Nationalism in a global Era (pp. 17–32). London/New York: Routledge. Smith, C. (2007b). The case for ecoliteracy. Education and Society, 25(1), 25–37. Survival of Spaceship Earth. (1972). Retrieved from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0278756/ plotsummary Terlouw, K. (2017). Local identities and politics. Negotiating the old and the new. London: Routledge. Thiel, U. (2011). The early modern subject: Self-consciousness and personal identity. Oxford, UK: OUP. Yalden, M. (1985). The official languages act, 1969. In The Canadian Encyclopedia (Vol. 3, 2nd ed., p. 1560). Edmonton, Canada: Hurtig Publishing. Zajda, J. (Ed.). (2020a). Globalisation, ideology and education reforms: Emerging paradigms. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. Zajda, J. (2012). Mixed methodologies research methods video conference workshop, 19 July 12 noon-2PM. East Melbourne, Australia: Australian Catholic University. Zajda, J. (2015). Globalisation, ideology and politics of education reforms. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. http://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319195056 Zajda, J. (2017). Globalisation and national identity in history textbooks: The Russian Federation. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. http://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789402409710 Zajda, J. (2018). Researching values education in the classroom: A global perspective. Education & Society, 36(2), 29–47. https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/jnp/ es/2018/00000036/00000002/art00004 Zajda, J. (Ed.). (2020a). Globalisation, ideology and education reforms: Emerging paradigms. Dordrecht: Springer. Zajda, J. (Ed.). (2020b). Human rights education globally. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. Zajda, J. (Ed.). (2020c). Globalisation, ideology and neo-liberal higher education reform. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. Zajda, J., & Majhanovich, S. (Eds.). (2020). Globalisation, cultural identity and nation-building: The changing paradigms. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. Zajda, R. (1988). The calculable woman: Discourses of the self and sexuality in the Australian women’s magazine. Master of Education (Research) thesis. 258 pp. The University of Melbourne Zhuojun, W. (2014). National identity in the era of globalization: crisis and reconstruction. Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02529203.2014.900889?journa lCode=rssc20
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Joseph Zajda (Australian Catholic University, Melbourne) is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education and Arts at the Australian Catholic University (Melbourne Campus). He specializes in globalisation and education policy reforms, social justice, history education, and values education. He has written and edited 48 books and over 168 book chapters and articles in the areas of globalisation and education policy, higher education, and curriculum reforms. Recent publications include: Zajda, J (Ed). (2020a). Globalisation, ideology and neo-liberal higher education reform. Dordrecht: Springer; Zajda, J. (Ed). (2020b). Human rights education globally. Dordrecht: Springer. Zajda, J. (Ed). (2020c). Globalisation, ideology and education reforms: Emerging paradigms. Dordrecht: Springer; Zajda, J. (2020a). Globalization, Education and Reforms. In George Ritzer & Chris Rojek (Eds.), Wiley-Blackwell’s Encyclopedia of Sociology; Zajda, J. (2020b). Globalisation and the Impact of Social Change and Economic Transformation in Lifelong Learning in Russia. In M. London (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Lifelong Learning. Oxford: OUP; Zajda, J. (2020c) Globalization, education and policy reforms. In G. Fan & T. Popkewitz (Eds.), Handbook of policy studies: Values, governance, globalization and methodology. Dordrecht: Springer. Zajda, J. & Majhanovich, S. (Eds.) (2021). Globalisation, cultural identity and nation-building: The changing paradigms. Dordrecht: Springer. Zajda, J. (2019) (Ed.). Globalisation, ideology and politics of education reforms. Dordrecht: Springer. Zajda, J. (2018). Globalisation and education reforms: Paradigms and ideologies. Dordrecht; Zajda, J. (2017). Globalisation and National Identity in History Textbooks: The Russian Federation. Dordrecht: Springer. He is also the editor of the twenty-four volume book series Globalisation and Comparative Education (Springer, 2009 & 2021). He edits World Studies in Education, Curriculum and Teaching, and Education and Society for James Nicholas Publishers. His works are found in 445 publications in 4 languages and some 10,800 university library holdings globally. He was awarded an ARC Discovery Grant (with Monash University) for 2011–2015 for a comparative analysis of history national curriculum implementation in Russia and Australia ($315,000). He was elected as Fellow of the Australian College of Educators (June 2013). Professor Suzanne Majhanovich is Professor Emerita/Adjunct Research Professor at the Faculty of Education Western University in London, Ontario, Canada. She has published numerous articles and edited books, and has guest-edited (with different others) five special issues of the International Review of Education. Her research interests include globalization, internationalization and education restructuring, as well as first and second language acquisition and the teaching of English and French in international contexts. She was the senior author of the French text series En français s’il vous plait and also worked at times on contract for the Ministry of Education developing curriculum guidelines for French as a Second Language and International Languages. She has been active in the Ontario Modern Language Teachers’ Association and was awarded a Life Membership in 2000. Before joining a faculty of education, she taught secondary school French as a Second Language and German. She co-edited the special issue of the International Review of Education: Journal of Lifelong Learning (with Diane Napier and Norberto Fernández Lamarra), “New Times, New Voices” based on selected papers from the thematic group on Higher/ adult Education of the 2013 WCCES in Buenos Aires, which appeared as volume 60(4) 2014. Professor Majhanovich also co-edited several volumes on Comparative Education for Sense Publishers. In June, 2013 she was honoured to receive the David N. Wilson Award for contributions to Comparative and International Education from the Comparative and International Education Society Canada (CIESC) at the annual meeting in Victoria BC.
Chapter 2
National Identity and Globalization: Findings from Cross-National Surveys Gal Ariely
Abstract The impact of globalization on national identity is accounted for by various theoretical perspectives, while the empirical studies also reveal contradictory results. While some have suggested that globalization prompts a decline in national identity, others maintain that it reinforces national identity. Rather than seeking to offer a novel theoretical perspective, this chapter set out to examine nationalism ‘from below’ in an attempt to ascertain whether globalization is related to different dimensions of national identity. The key findings from cross-national surveys analyses demonstrated that higher levels of globalization are negatively related to patriotism and ethnic identity. This chapter illustrates that any definitive conclusions concerning the relationship between globalization and national identity cannot be justified. It may well be that different measures of national identity or globalization will lead to different findings, especially when considering the evolving and changing multidimensional nature of national identity. Keywords Cross-national surveys · Cultural identity · Ethnic identity · Ideology · Globalisation · Multidimensional national identity · Multilevel analysis · National identity · Nationalism · Patriotism
Introduction The effects of globalization on national identity are widely disputed: some regard globalization as undermining national identity and increasing cosmopolitanism, while others argue that it works in the opposite direction, possibly even reinforcing national feelings in the form of a backlash or impacting different segments of society in different ways (Calhoun, 2007; Guibernau, 2001; Holton, 2011; Roudometof,
G. Ariely (*) The Department of Politics & Government, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature B.V. 2021 J. Zajda, S. Majhanovich (eds.), Globalisation, Cultural Identity and NationBuilding, Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research 23, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-2014-2_2
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2014; Smith, 2007). Inconsistent interpretations of the nexus between globalization and national identity reflect not only different theoretical predispositions regarding the meaning of national identity but also the different methods used to examine that relationship. While some studies have found that the experience of globalization reduces the public’s identification with the nation (e.g., Norris & Inglehart, 2009), others have reached the opposite conclusion (e.g., Jung, 2008). Interestingly, despite the ongoing debate on the links between national identity and globalization, few studies have undertaken systematic cross-national research concerning how globalization is related to the way in which people perceive national identity. From Ernest Renan’s aphorism that the nation is a ‘daily plebiscite’ through to Benedict Anderson’s conception of nations as ‘imagined communities’, the way in which the public perceive the nation has formed an integral factor in the conceptualization of nationhood. While most studies have adopted a historical perspective, the past two decades have witnessed a growing trend toward investigating public perceptions (e.g., Blank & Schmidt, 2003; Helbling, Reeskens, & Wright, 2016; Miller & Ali, 2014; Schildkraut, 2011; Theiss-Morse, 2009; Wright, 2011). Surveys, and especially cross-national surveys, have an important function in these studies (Bonikowski, 2016; Schmidt & Quandt, 2018). Following this approach, this chapter provides an overview of some findings about national identity and globalization as reflected in cross-national surveys. These are findings from several studies as well as my previous analysis of this issue (Ariely, 2012a, b, 2016, 2019). The chapter starts with an outline of the key theoretical interpretations of the relationship between globalization and national identity and a review of the studies that used surveys in order to examine these interpretations. It then explores the multidimensionality of national identity and the different aspects that should be considered. The empirical part of the chapter demonstrates how cross-national surveys are used to inspect the relationships between different dimensions of national identity which are measured at the individual level and at the country level of globalization. It shows that globalization is related to some but not all aspects of national identity. The final part discusses the implications of the findings as well as the limitations of using such an approach to examine the complex relations between globalization and national identity.
lobalization and National Identity: G Theoretical Considerations National identity is a type of collective identity that is both rooted in past symbols, memories, and values which are linked to a specific territory that distinguishes itself from other nations and projects into the future (Guibernau, 2001). In contrast to its focus on the particular and unique, globalization—defined as ‘increasing cross- border flows of goods, services, money, people, information, and culture’ (Held, Goldblat, McGrew, & Perraton, 1999, p. 16)—promotes international interconnectedness. Although some scholars have thus viewed the two phenomena as
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conflicting, others have drawn attention to their affinities (Calhoun, 2007; Holton, 2011; Roudometof, 2014; Smith, 2007). According to the former perception, globalization threatens the foundations of national identity (e.g., Hobsbawm, 1992). As people become global consumers of goods and information, the production and maintenance of a homogeneous national identity within the ‘global village’ becomes increasingly challenging, with the cross-border flow of information making it difficult for national identity entities to retain their unique significance and distinguish themselves from other similar entities. Furthermore, in a wired world, national elites no longer possess the exclusive capacity to exert cultural control over their citizens or territory (Barber, 1996; Guibernau, 2001). The blurring of boundaries interferes with attempts to preserve distinctive local or national identities, with globalization promoting, instead, a cosmopolitan identity (Beck, 2006). The trend toward cosmopolitanism—i.e., the view that human beings form the ultimate unit of moral concern irrespective of nationality, citizenship, or any other communal affiliations (Brown & Held, 2010)—has also increased under globalization. These developments led the prominent historian of nationalism Eric Hobsbawm to argue that nationalism has become ‘historically less important’ and to predict that over the course of time it will no longer be a vital political program and the world ‘will be largely supernational’ (Hobsbawm, 1992, p.191). Fifteen years later, he reached the same conclusion. In his opinion, the emergence of national movements and national claims in the past 20 years has not undermined the contention that nationalism’s role as the main force shaping politics is decreasing (Hobsbawm, 2007). Others, however, claim that globalization reinforces national feelings in a ‘backlash’ effect; members of nations whose national identity has been reshaped by waves of immigrants are, accordingly, more likely to reflect on their national identity, thereby reinforcing its meaning and function. Some scholars have contended that the continued existence of national identity in a globalized world reflects the need to structure public life. By organizing people’s ‘sense of belonging’, this feeling takes on added significance (Calhoun, 2007), serving, for example, as a response to globalization in the post-Cold War era (Kaldor, 2004). According to Anthony Smith (1995): it would be folly to predict an early supersession of nationalism and an imminent transcendence of the nation. For a global culture seems unable to offer the qualities of collective faith, dignity and hope that only a ‘religious surrogate’ with its promise of a territorial cultural community across the generations can provide (Smith, 1995, p. 160).
In a later account, Smith (2007) asserted that global culture cannot replace national culture and, moreover, that national identity possesses the capacity to withstand the forces of globalization. Culturally diverse waves of immigrants having reshaped the meaning of national identity and citizens reflect more upon it, thereby reinforcing its meaning and its functions. Self-reflective and self-celebrating communities, nations, and nationalism are thus “still very much alive” (Smith, 2007, p. 30). From this perspective, globalization not only fails to create global identity but even intensifies national feelings.
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There are also studies that have focused on globalization’s differential impact and the way in which it influences different segments of society in different ways. While globalization may thus push some citizens toward cosmopolitanism, other groups develop ‘resistance identities’ (Castells, 2011) that reinforce national feelings. National identity can serve as a counterforce against the destabilization of people’s sense of security induced by globalization, functioning as a set of stories and beliefs that are particular powerful ‘because of their ability to convey a picture of security, stability, and simple answers’ (Kinnvall, 2004, p. 742). In Western Europe, for example, globalization has created a new conflict between ‘winners’ and ‘losers’, with the former enjoying the benefits created by the opening up of borders and the latter possessing less resources (such as education) to cope with the impact of globalization on their status in the labor market and their earning prospects. This scenario is talked up by radical right parties as part of their effort to mobilize support among those who attribute their (economic and cultural) losses to globalization, thus intensifying national feelings (Kriesi et al., 2006). According to this perspective, globalization influences people in different ways depending on their status and their nationalist feelings. Theoretical arguments can thus be seen to support various views of globalization and its effect on national identity. While globalization may reduce the relevance of national identity, it may also create a nationalism backlash which affects people in different ways. Any consideration of the effect of globalization on national identity must therefore consider the multidimensionality of national identity.
lobalization and National Identity: Empirical Findings G from Previous Studies In addition to the various theoretical views concerning the relationship between globalization and national identity, research efforts have increasingly attempted to assess its impact empirically. Given the multidimensionality of both globalization and nationalism, it is not surprising to learn that these studies—whether conducted in a single nation or across several—have produced mixed results. Thus, in Germany, for example, a study conducted among German citizens found that people with a higher level of exposure to globalization (in terms of experiences of border crossing and transnational social relations) are more likely to adopt cosmopolitan attitudes toward foreigners and global governance than those with less exposure (Mau, Mewes, & Zimmermann, 2008). In Britain, the younger generation has been found less attached and less proud of their country than the older generation (Tilley & Heath, 2007). While this may be due to higher exposure and a more positive attitude toward globalization, it may also represent a life-cycle effect, meaning that, in the long run, no decline in national identity has actually occurred (Jung, 2008). In Australia, globalization has been shown to influence both people’s conceptions of their national identity and their perceptions of the indigenous population as forming part of the nation (Moran, 2005). While such studies support the argument that globalization has an impact on national identity, other studies have suggested that this
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influence is relatively limited. For example, a longitudinal study of cosmopolitan orientation among Swedish citizens found that protectionist rather than cosmopolitan attitudes tended to emerge (Olofsson & Öhman, 2007). Although most studies have focused on single countries or on Europe, there are those that have adopted a more global approach. The availability of cross-national survey data, such as the World Value Survey (WVS) and the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) National Identity Modules, facilitates exploration of the interaction between globalization and national identity. Despite reliance on the same set of data, researchers have, nonetheless, reached inconsistent conclusions. Using WVS, Norris and Inglehart (2009) found support for the claim that supranational identity and cosmopolitan citizenship rates are on the increase, with the additional result that living in a cosmopolitan society is strongly related to less nationalistic attitudes. Nonetheless, Jung (2008), also using WVS, reached a completely different conclusion: ‘It is a myth to expect cosmopolitan attitudes and supranational identities to increase significantly in the current globalizing world’ (p. 600). Likewise, an analysis of elite cosmopolitan orientations using the same set of data drew similar inferences (Davidson, Poor, & Williams, 2009). By analyzing quantitative (Eurobarometer) and qualitative data from Western Europe, Antonsich (2009) found that national pride increased, national attachment exhibited a stable trend, and the meanings associated with the nation remained ‘thick’. Another study combining several cross-national surveys found that while globalization is generally associated with greater support for nationalist attitudes, some countries evinced a negative correlation between globalization and nationalist attitudes (Bekhuis, Lubbers, & Verkuyten, 2014). By measuring nationalism as ‘national pride’, Bekhuis Lubbers and Verkuyten indicated that globalization has virtually no effect on nationalist attitudes among the highly educated but increased nationalist attitudes among the less educated. A further study examining the impact of globalization on national pride and other measures of nationalism found that globalization reduced pride but not nationalism (Ariely, 2012a). Cross-national studies investigating the impact of globalization on civic and ethnic national identity have also yielded contradictory results. Analyzing data across 23 countries using ISSP National Identity I (1995), Jones and Smith (2001) initially distinguished between two aspects of ethnic national identity: ascribed/objective (ethnic) and civic/voluntarist (civic). They then proceeded to examine whether globalization (measured by an index of import/export and international phone calls) is related to these two dimensions. The results indicated no significant link. Kunovich’s later study (Kunovich, 2009) employed virtually identical items from ISSP National Identity II (2003), similarly distinguishing between ethnic and civic identity across 31 countries. He found that globalization is negatively related to ethnic national identity and positively related to civic identity. Hadler and Meyer’s (2009) study, whose data was drawn from ISSP National Identity I (1995) and II (2003), revealed mixed results regarding the impact of globalization on people’s views of policies relating to national boundaries. One index of globalization (the number of international NGOs) was negatively related to people’s focus on the need for national boundaries; the other (the number of international intergovernmental organizations) was found unrelated to the attitudes under discussion.
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The Multidimensionality of National Identity Numerous studies have investigated the public perception of nationhood (e.g., Blank & Schmidt, 2003; Helbling et al., 2016; Miller & Ali, 2014; Schildkraut, 2011; Theiss-Morse, 2009; Wright, 2011). The sole consensus this literature has yielded to date is that national identity is multidimensional and complex. Despite its complexity, two principal dimensions of national identity are commonly identified: national boundaries (determined by a civic/ethnic framework) and attachment to the nation (in the dual forms of patriotism and nationalism). The classical distinction between civic and ethnic aspects of national identity is one of the most widely employed conceptual building blocks in the study of nations (Arnason, 2006). Rooted in the divergent interpretations of nationality offered by German and French historians, this division became accepted in the wake of Hans Kohn’s seminal historical account of nation building. In this context, civic, rational, liberal, and inclusive tendencies are differentiated from the ethnic, organic, illiberal, and exclusionary dimensions of the nation (Arnason, 2006). According to Kohn, Western nationhood has largely been a political affair, namely, the idea of the nation developing within an already existing state. National affiliation is thus primarily determined by citizenship rather than kinship or ethnic origin and national identity is thus regarded as acquirable. The ethnic view of the nation, on the other hand, is predicated on the idea that national identity is astrictive, namely, nations consolidate a common heritage around the notion of the volk (people). Despite being heavily criticized (see Yack, 1999), the civic/ethnic framework has inspired many scholars, forming the basis for not only historical accounts but also the study of current relations between state, nation, and ethnicity in various countries (Ignatieff, 1993). The civic/ethnic framework has also featured in studies examining perceptions of national identity, via, primarily, an analysis of respondents’ views on the criteria of membership in the nation, i.e., citizenship and/or belonging to the dominant religion. Generally speaking, these studies have demonstrated that the distinction between civic and ethnic conceptions of the nation are valid and directly affect attitudes toward issues such as immigration and foreign policy (e.g., Ariely, 2013; Helbling et al., 2016; Hochman, Raijman, & Schmidt, 2016; Kunovich, 2009; Wright, 2011). A more civically informed understanding of the nation is not only related to toleration of immigrants, endorsement of multiculturalism, and less belligerence in the international arena but also to immigrants’ feelings of belonging to the host country (Simonsen, 2016). The second area of distinction is between nationalism and patriotism with respect to attachment to the nation (Huddy, 2016). Both nationalism and patriotism are based on a positive evaluation of one’s national group. The difference, however, is when relating to those who are not part of the national group. Nationalism (also labeled chauvinism) is generally defined as the positive evaluation of one’s national group as superior to other nations. It is based on a comparison between one’s own nation and others (Huddy, 2016) and comprises unconditional support for the nation and rejection of any criticism. Patriotism, commonly defined as a sense of pride in
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one’s nation, is regarded as a form of attachment to one’s nation that does not necessarily entail a sense of national superiority. While nationalism is traditionally treated as a one-dimensional notion relating to a sense of national superiority and unconditional support for one’s country, the definition of patriotism ranges from general pride in one’s nation to domains such as the regime (constructive patriotism) and past history (cultural patriotism) (e.g., Grigoryan & Ponizovskiy 2018). As attested by empirical evidence across various countries, the distinction between nationalism and patriotism appears to be common (Blank & Schmidt, 2003). Cross-national analysis employing the ISSP National Identities Modules also found a clear distinction between these two aspects of national identity (Davidov, 2009; De Figueiredo & Elkins, 2003; Raijman, Davidov, Schmidt, & Hochman, 2008). More importantly, they also impact attitudes in dissimilar ways: while nationalism is integrally related to out-group hostility, patriotism does not necessarily entail such feelings. The positive association between nationalism and out-group devaluation is well documented, with nationalism predicting negative attitudes toward out-groups such as minorities, immigrants, or nationals of other countries across diverse countries. Likewise, patriotism has frequently (but not always) been found unrelated or even negatively related to out-group devaluation (Blank & Schmidt, 2003; De Figueiredo & Elkins, 2003; Raijman et al., 2008; Wagner, Becker, Christ, Pettigrew, & Schmidt, 2012).
lobalization and National Identity: Findings G from Cross-National Surveys The proliferation of cross-national research projects in recent decades has enabled scholars to study various aspects of national identity within diverse political and societal contexts. Numerous studies have used data from cross-national surveys such as WVS, ISSP, the European Social Survey (ESS), and various other cross- national surveys were used to study patriotism. These cross-national surveys have extended beyond Western countries to include areas such as Latin America and postcommunist states. The studies provide empirical tools for the systematic study of the way in which expressions of patriotism—such as national pride or constructive patriotism—influence attitudes and behaviours and the relationship between them (e.g., De Figueiredo & Elkins, 2003). Cross-national surveys of this type also enable comparative investigations of the ways in which patriotism is related to the broader social and political context. They thus help to clarify, for example, the extent to which immigrants are proud of their host countries (Reeskens & Wright, 2014) and the degree to which ethnopolitical inequality is reflected in majority and minority national pride (Wimmer, 2017). Cross-national surveys therefore enable the measuring of people’s attitudes toward the nation across different countries relative to the levels of globalization in each country. In this way, differences in a country’s overall level of globalization can be linked to differences in the attitudes revealed in the surveys. The KOF index is use to measure globalization. This index was defined as:
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G. Ariely the process of creating networks of connections among actors at multi-continental distances, mediated through a variety of flows including people, information and ideas, capital and goods. Globalization is conceptualized as a process that erodes national boundaries, integrates national economies, cultures, technologies and governance and produces complex relations of mutual interdependence. (Dreher, Gaston, & Martens, 2008, p. 43).
The KOF index is drawn from various data, e.g., the number of McDonalds restaurants, internet hosts, and internet users, country’s membership in international organizations, and international trade. Measured on a 100-point scale, the results varied in my analysis from as low as 31 in Rwanda to as high as 92 in Belgium. The KOF index represents an attempt to measure globalization in the broadest sense, i.e., representing economic, social, and political dimensions.
Globalization and National Pride The most common aspect of national identity measured in cross-national surveys is national pride, namely, asking respondents how proud they are of their country. According to Moaddel, Tessler, and Inglehart (2008), the usefulness of measuring national pride as a tool for cross-national comparison derives from its generality. In this analysis, I used survey data from WVS 2005 and 2010 and EVS 2008, all of which included the question: ‘How proud are you to be [nationality]?’ The response options consisted of: ‘very proud’, ‘quite proud’, ‘not very proud’, and ‘not at all proud. These three data sets also contained standardized questions relating to age, income, and education. Individual-level demographic explanations for patriotism could thus be controlled for and within country variations and between different segments of the population addressed to a certain extent. A combination of the three data sets allowed for the measurement of the level of patriotism in 93 countries using data provided by 153,031 respondents. While the countries included in the analysis were not a random sample, they include over approximately 90% of the world’s population. The purpose of this analysis is to examine whether the macro condition—exposure to globalization—is related to people’s perceptions of the dimensions of national identity. The use of cross-national survey data facilitates such an analysis since the respondents of the survey, is resident in different countries. Thus, if the individual is affected by their country’s exposure to globalization, significant statistical relations should be obtained in the models (see Ariely, 2016 for the models). In order to examine the ways in which globalization is related to an individual’s perceptions of national identity, the hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) approach was applied to the analysis, which allowed for macro-level explanations. The between- country variation in national pride levels across 93 countries was found to be 17.4%, thus indicating the relevance of the multilevel analysis (Hox, Moerbeek, & Van de Schoot, 2017). A simple and straightforward method was adopted for examining national pride along the contextual variables, with the direct impact on national pride being analyzed while controlling for both education and age.
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Fig. 2.1 National pride and globalization
The analysis provides a clear indication of negative relations between globalization and national pride (see Ariely, 2016 for details). Figure 2.1 is an illustration of the findings, plotting the country’s level of globalization alongside the percentage of respondents who are ‘very proud’ of their country. The figure shows that respondents in more globalized countries were, on average, less likely to express high levels of national pride.
Globalization and Ethnic Identity A common method for measuring the various conceptions of the nation was first developed by Citrin, Reingold, and Green (1990). It is based on responses to the question: ‘Some people say the following things are important for being truly [country member: e.g., Hungarian]. Others say they are not important. How important do you think each of the following is?’ The list of characteristics includes: ‘to be born in the country’, ‘to respect [country]‘s political institutions and laws’, and ‘to be able to speak [the national language]’. This approach, which represents the distinction between a civic and an ethnic understanding of the nation, has been employed in numerous studies (e.g., Kunovich, 2009; Wright, 2011). While there are some doubts regarding the validity of the civic dimension of national identity and the rating method, Wright, Citrin, and Wand (2012) demonstrated the robustness of the ethnic measure that employs the item, ‘to have [country]’s ancestry’. By and large, such use of single-item scales precludes the examination of cross-national measurement equivalence. While Reeskens and
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Hooghe (2010) questioned the comparability of civic and ethnic conceptions of citizenship, they also showed that this item reflects civic and ethnic components better than others. Following their insights, I employed this item alone in the analysis, with no attempt to establish any scale comparability, to measure the ethnic conception of the nation in the ISSP National Identity II (2003), ISSP National Identity III (2013), and EVS. The WVS 5 employs a slightly different measure of ethnic identity. In answering the question ‘In your opinion, how important should the following be as requirements for somebody seeking citizenship of your country?’, respondents are given four options: ‘being born on my country’s soil’, ‘adopting the customs of my country’, ‘abiding by my country’s laws’, and ‘having ancestors from my country’. This last option was employed in the current analysis to reflect ethnic identity. The analysis was conducted in the same way as the previous one, using HLM while controlling for age and education. Models for the direct effect of globalization on ethnic identity were applied across the four surveys (Ariely, 2019). A negative association was obtained between globalization and ethnic identity at various levels of significance across the four surveys. Figure 2.2 provides an additional illustration of the globalization effect on ethnic identity by plotting globalization in line with country ethnic identity aggregate means. This demonstrates that respondents in more globalized countries were, on average, less likely to express high levels of
Fig. 2.2 Plots for globalization and ethnic identity
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ethnic identity. More globalized countries also exhibited a significant variation in levels of ethnic identity, possibly indicating the presence of additional factors impacting ethnic identity. At the same time, however, less globalized countries displayed less variation and their overall rate for ethnic identity was high.
Globalization and Nationalism The analysis so far might seem a justification for the argument that in more globalized countries the feelings of national sentiments—in the form of national pride and ethnic identity—are lower. Nonetheless, to conclude that such findings point to the links between globalization and nationalism overlooks the different dimensions of nationalism as reviewed above. An examination of the ISSP National Identity surveys which focuses solely on the issue of national identity enables a description of national identity dimensions—in this case, nationalism and constructive patriotism. I measured nationalism and constructive patriotism with the scales used by Raijman et al. (2008) and Davidov (2009). Nationalism was measured with two items: ‘the world would be a better place if people from other countries were more like the [country nationality of respondent]’ and ‘generally speaking, [respondent’s country] is a better country than most other countries’. Constructive patriotism was measured with three items: ‘How proud are you of [respondent’s country] in the way democracy works in [respondent’s country]?’; ‘How proud are you of [respondent’s country] in its social security system?’ and ‘How proud are you of [respondent’s country] in its fair and equal treatment of all groups in society?’ Using the same analysis approach as above, globalization was found unrelated to the overall levels of nationalism or constructive patriotism across the countries. In other words, differences in the levels of nationalism and constructive patriotism cannot be attributed to differences in the countries’ levels of globalization.
The Differential Impact of Globalization on National Identity The analysis has thus far inspected the links between globalization and different dimensions of national identity, providing an overview of the ways in which a country’s level of globalization is related to differences in the overall average support for national pride and ethnic identity. However, as emphasized above, the effect of globalization is differential; it influences different people in different ways. This section, therefore, illustrates how globalization affects the relationship between national identity and xenophobic attitudes toward immigrants. Immigration and the host society’s relevant responses are an integral part of globalization. Studies have shown that while national identity is related to such attitudes, (Schmidt & Quandt, 2018) other dimensions should also be considered. For example, nationalism has been found related to more xenophobic attitudes than patriotism (Blank & Schmidt, 2003; Raijman et al., 2008).
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Fig. 2.3 Slope differences for the relations between nationalism and xenophobic attitudes toward immigrants in ten countries
The use of ISSP National Identity II (2003) enabled me a measurement of nationalism (as above), constructive patriotism (Davidov, 2009) with items like ‘How proud are you of the way democracy works in [respondent’s country]?’, and xenophobic attitudes toward immigrants with items like ‘Immigrants increase crime rates’ (see Ariely, 2012b). The analysis used multilevel models to examine not the levels of xenophobia but the interaction effect of globalization on the relationship between nationalism/constructive patriotism and xenophobia; in other words, does the relationship between nationalism/constructive patriotism and xenophobia differ in line with the country’s level of globalization and is the positive or negative relationship stronger or weaker in the more globalized countries? Figure 2.3 illustrates the merit of the multilevel approach, presenting the variation of the slopes in 10 of the 31 countries. It demonstrates that the positive slope of nationalism on xenophobia differs between countries with stronger and weaker relationships. The analysis indicates that globalization has significant interaction effects on the variance of slopes (see Ariely, 2012b for further details). For constructive patriotism there is a negative interaction effect; for nationalism, the interaction effect is positive and significant. As can be seen in Fig. 2.4, in countries with higher levels of globalization, the relationship between nationalism and xenophobia is stronger than in countries with lower levels of globalization. Figure 2.5 provides another
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Fig. 2.4 Slope differences for the relations between nationalism and xenophobic attitudes toward immigrants under the effect of globalization
Fig. 2.5 Plot for globalization and the correlations between nationalism and xenophobia
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illustration, as it plots the levels of globalization on the correlations between nationalism and xenophobia. The positive line indicates that the correlation is stronger in the more globalized countries. Globalization therefore appears to impact the ways in which nationalism and constructive patriotism are related to xenophobic attitudes toward immigrants. In both cases, these relations are stronger in countries with higher levels of globalization.
Evaluation As with its effect on society, politics, and the economy, the precise way in which globalization influences national identity is an ongoing subject of debate. The impact of globalization on national identity is accounted for by various theoretical perspectives, while the empirical studies also reveal contradictory results. While some have suggested that globalization prompts a decline in national identity, others maintain that it reinforces national identity. Rather than seeking to offer a novel theoretical perspective, this chapter set out to examine nationalism ‘from below’ in an attempt to ascertain whether globalization is related to different dimensions of national identity. The key findings from cross-national surveys analyses demonstrated that higher levels of globalization are negatively related to patriotism and ethnic identity. In those countries which benefit from a relatively freer spread of ideas and information and flow of goods and capital, people are, on average, less likely to be very proud of their country and less likely to support ethnic criteria for national membership. But the analysis also showed that high levels of nationalism and constructive patriotism are not related to the country’s level of globalization; the spread of globalization does not weaken people’s view of their country as better than other countries or their pride in their country’s level of democracy. The analysis also revealed the differential impact of globalization on dimensions of national identity: in countries with higher levels of globalization, negative relations between constructive patriotism and xenophobic attitudes toward immigrants tend to be stronger than in countries with lower levels of globalization. However, positive relations between nationalism and xenophobic attitudes toward immigrants are also stronger in such countries; in fact, the higher the country’s level of globalization, the stronger the relations between nationalism, constructive patriotism, and xenophobic attitudes toward immigrants. These findings must be viewed in light of the inherent caveats of the approach adopted here. First, as a cross-sectional study, it does not address questions of causal relations on the individual or country level analysis. The findings can thus only indicate relations not causation. Second, the approach focuses on globalization as the primary contextual explanation. Other confounding explanations may also play a role: some that regard globalization as the expansion of modernity on a global scale, others that propose a very different view (Guillén, 2001). It is therefore not clear whether the cause is globalization or other aspects of modernity such as
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development. Third, as noted above, the use of cross-national survey data to examine national identity precludes exploration of the complexity and multidimensional nature of national identity and different operationalizations of the scales are likely to lead to different results (Ariely, 2012a). It is important to recognize the limitation of the measures, as Bart Bonikowski (2016) recently claimed: To return to the problem of measurement, much of the existing comparative survey research on nationalism relies on a handful of repeated cross-sectional data sets. This is understandable, given the difficulty of cross-national survey projects. As a result, however, researchers are limited to existing survey items, which capture only a subset of nationalist beliefs. (Bonikowski, 2016, p.442)
Fourth, the use of countries as the key unit for measuring globalization and national identity in cross-national surveys severely limits the study’s parameters. While the analysis controlled for age and education, the question of attitude heterogeneity and the questions of exposure to globalization within countries were also not addressed. In light of these limitations, the findings of this study imply that the connection between globalization and national is not definitive; it is related to some aspects and not to others. The implication that globalization is related to some dimensions of national identity and not others also helps to explain why studies have produced contradictory results: some studies measured one dimension of national identity, others another aspect. In the literature the impact of globalization on national identity is understood in different ways. When looking solely at ethnic identity, the more globalized a country becomes, the less relevant its ethnic conception becomes. In ethnic nationalism, national affiliation is determined primarily by kinship or ethnic origin rather than political criteria and is thus considered a more exclusive form of national identity (Ignatieff, 1993; Wright, 2011). The findings suggest that in more globalized countries this perception is losing ground in favor of less exclusive conceptions of the nation. The negative link found here between globalization and ethnic identity should certainly not be understood as implying that globalization is the only factor shaping how citizens conceive their national identity. The findings also imply dissimilar impacts of globalization. In more globalized countries, the sharper distinction between nationalism and constructive patriotism is reflected in a differing interaction effect. The positive effect of globalization on the relationship between nationalism and xenophobia might suggest that exposure to globalization reinforces feelings of nationalism. Meaningful differences between social groups increase the degree to which people compare their social group to other groups. Globalization might reinforce this process. For constructive patriots, this situation may operate conversely and their exposure to globalization may strengthen their superordinate identification with their country’s adoption of universal democratic criteria and as world citizens. Such dual identification might explain the negative effect of globalization on the relationship between constructive patriotism and xenophobia. Hence, the relationship between national identity and
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xenophobia is not identical across all countries but is, rather, shaped by the different national contexts of globalization influence.
Conclusion Overall, this chapter illustrates that any definitive conclusions concerning the relationship between globalization and national identity cannot be justified. As the literature review demonstrates, different operationalizations of globalization and national identity yield different results. It may well be that different measures of national identity or globalization will lead to different findings. More significantly, further research is required in order to determine whether we are indeed approaching the end of national identity. It therefore seems that the claim that national identity is declining in the face of globalization, as well as the opposing argument, should consider the multidimensional nature of national identity.
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Gal Ariely is senior lecturer at the Department of Politics & Government, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Employing cross-national analysis and experimental survey research Ariely examine political attitudes and national identity. In addition, his research addresses methodological questions of measurements across different contexts. Gal has authored or co-authored several articles that were published in Political Studies, Nations and Nationalism, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Ethnic and Racial Studies as well as other journals. His currently studying how national days affect national identity.
Chapter 3
The Changing Meaning of Citizenship and Identity and a Perspective Model of Citizenship Education Anatoli Rapoport
Abstract There has been a dramatic worldwide renewal of interest in citizenship in the last several decades. This interest was ignited by a number of steady, sometimes contradictory, trends such as, a growing role of minorities in society, reevaluation of the position of women, rise of nationalism, and the impact of globalization. Citizenship education that was originally tasked with instilling patriotic and nationalist sentiments has increasingly become a space for critical reassessment of the place and role of a government in society. The global trend and eventual delocalization of citizenship brought up new challenges to citizenship education. On the one hand, citizenship is used in education discourses and spaces as an ideological tool to instill loyalty and preserve narrow traditionalistic communitarian view of responsibility in a community; on the other, citizenship is interpreted as an active agency of change on all levels, including global. This chapter analyzes the convergence of the subject of citizenship education and the new tasks derived from this convergence that citizenship education is inevitably going to face. Keywords Citizenship · Citizenship education · Community · Cultural identity · Human rights · Identity · Ideology · Global citizenship · Globalization · Minorities · Multiple identities · National citizenship
A. Rapoport (*) Purdue University College of Education, West Lafayette, IN, USA e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature B.V. 2021 J. Zajda, S. Majhanovich (eds.), Globalisation, Cultural Identity and NationBuilding, Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research 23, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-2014-2_3
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itizenship and Identity and a Perspective Model C of Citizenship Education: Introduction Citizenship education has a long history that is intrinsically connected to the development of the concept of citizenship (Cogan & Derricott, 2000; McCowan, 2009; Zajda, 2015; Zajda ,2020a). There has been a dramatic worldwide renewal of interest in citizenship in the last several decades. Ignited by a number of steady, sometimes contradictory trends such as the growing role of minorities in society, the reevaluation of the position of women, the rise of nationalism, and the impact of globalization, the growing interest in the idea of citizenship has advanced citizenship education to the forefront of education reform worldwide. Although its main purpose has always been educating good citizens, the idea of what constitutes a good citizen has changed dramatically over time. These changes accelerated recently, prompting a swift shift in rationalization and purposefulness of citizenship education. Originally tasked with instilling patriotic and nationalist sentiments, citizenship education has increasingly become a space for critical reassessment of the place and role of a government in society. The global trend and eventual delocalization of citizenship brings new challenges to citizenship education. On the one hand, citizenship is used in education discourses and spaces as an ideological tool to instill loyalty and preserve narrow traditionalistic communitarian views of responsibility in a community; on the other hand, citizenship is interpreted as an active agency of change on all levels, including global (Banks, 2014; Myers, 2006). As I already mentioned elsewhere (Rapoport, 2015), with the advance of supranational legal citizenship, expansion of multiculturalism and cosmopolitanism in political discourses, and weakening of the idea of a classical nation-state, citizenship education is on the threshold of a new paradigm shift. An inevitable reconceptualization and reinterpretation of many traditional ideas and norms in the time of globalization makes this shift even more expedient and urgent. Identity, that some theorists consider a relationship component of citizenship along with rights, duties, and participation (Delanty, 2000; Zajda & Ozdowski, 2017; Zajda, 2020b), is one of such concepts. Erikson (1964) described identity as a dynamic process between the self and community: we develop identity by projecting ourselves through imaginary norms of a community or group. Because we project ourselves through the norms of many various groups, such as gender, social, religious, or ethnic, we develop multiple identities. One of such identities is a cultural identity. Does the development of such an individualistic feature as cultural identity come into conflict with the growing interest in global citizenship education? Is it possible to reconcile the problem of cultural identity development and education in the spirit of global unity? How can educators overcome this challenge? In this chapter, I analyze the convergence of the subject of citizenship education and the new tasks derived from this convergence that citizenship education will inevitably face. Since education for global citizenship is slowly but steadily becoming one of the frameworks of citizenship education (Gaudelli, 2016; Rapoport, 2019), I argue that the environment and challenges that citizenship education faces have made it possible,
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if not necessary, to expand the notion of citizenship education beyond its traditional nation/nation-state framework to focus more on the idea of expanding global citizenship. If correctly and professionally addressed in this new framework, the development of cultural identity will become a beneficiary of the expanding notion of citizenship rather than an obstacle to it.
What Is Citizenship? Despite a common acknowledgement that citizenship is a contested concept, there is a general universal agreement that citizenship is basically membership in a political community (McCowan, 2009; O’Byrne, 2003; Zajda, 2009). However, the idea of a political community and what constitutes membership have gone through dramatic changes over time. The whole history of citizenship is the history of struggle with two questions: What does it mean to belong? Who sets the rules of belonging? The concept of citizenship as belonging to a community dates back to Ancient Greece and Rome. The emergence of self-regulated city-states in Greece required a clear definition of who could and could not belong to this polity. Greek city-states, whose free adult population rarely exceeded 3000–4000 people, were able to set strict limits for citizenship. They saw their communities as large families, and those who were beyond their familiar structures could not be fully human. Romans, who inherited the Greek concept of citizenship, adjusted to a different historic and spatial reality. For Romans, citizenship was a legal status that allowed them to move freely around the vast empire. Romans also accepted dual citizenship with a divided allegiance to both a person’s place of birth and to the empire (O’Byrne, 2003). The rise of nationalism and subsequent birth of nations and nation-states in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries gave citizenship a second breath. Monarchs were no longer able to guarantee rights or other privileges. With the emergence of republican governments and constitutional monarchies, the decision- making regarding who could and could not belong shifted to elected bodies. Medieval religious and quasi-ethnic solidarity was replaced by secular solidarity conveniently placed within the framework of burgeoning nationalism (Turner, 1993). The disappearance of a subjectivized authority to award civic membership personified by a monarch or bishop required the swift introduction of new codified and institutionalized rules. This is when socially constructed citizenship as we understand it appeared. The establishment of the modern nation-state made it possible to codify citizenship, which had previously been an abstract idea (O’Byrne, 2003). Gradually, citizenship has become a function of a nation, an imaginary entity that is artificial by its origin and nature (Anderson, 1991). Ontologically, citizenship is a social construct that gradually developed as a result of human cultural activity and, after going through reciprocal typification and habitualization, became an institutionalized construct, a part of social reality. Social reality is a constructed reality that does not naturally exist in a physical world. Human beings create this imaginary reality that gradually turns into a “quality
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appertaining to phenomena that we recognize as being independent of our own volition” (Berger & Luckmann, 1966). National citizenship turned out to be such a phenomenon. In order to become an institutionalized concept, to be easily recognizable and ubiquitously acceptable, national citizenship had to pass three important stages: habitualization, objectivation, and legitimation. Habitualization, or the process of reproduction of a frequently repeated action or phenomenon that becomes a pattern, leads to a routinization of an action or a phenomenon, when the latter becomes taken for granted (Berger & Luckmann, 1966). Objectivation is the next step, when the habitualized action or phenomenon “attains the character of objectivity” (p. 57). At this stage, the phenomenon constructed in the course of human social interaction comes to be perceived as independently existing objective reality. An objectivized social construct and the society that created it are in a dialectic relationship: the society impacts the development of the construct and the construct impacts the society (Rapoport, 2012). The construct becomes internalized; in other words, people begin to believe in the reality that they themselves created. The last step in institutionalization is the need to explain and justify the existence of the construct, to legitimize it. Berger and Luckmann (1966) argued that legitimation is needed to protect an already-constructed reality so that it would be difficult to reverse the process. The laws that regulate national citizenship are an example of legitimation and codification of citizenship. Various IDs and passports are tangible representations of the otherwise ephemeral but institutionalized concept of national citizenship. The idea of citizenship is the idea of inclusion and exclusion (Dower, 2003; McCowan, 2009; Zajda, 2017). What complicates the idea of citizenship and makes it confusing are norms used to decide whether an individual should be included or not. The concept of citizenship becomes even more confusing when we look at it through the lenses of citizenship education. For many people, citizenship is a formal legal status that a national community awards its members through providing privileges, usually legal or political, and requiring specific responsibilities in response (Cogan & Derricott, 2000; McCowan, 2009). Government acts as a representative of the population of a national community and regulates all citizenship-related issues on behalf of the population. In other words, governments decide whether a person “deserves” to belong legally and politically to a given community. If this legalistic conception of citizenship was the only one, then citizenship education would easily fit into a formal course of Civics where students learn about government, its forms, functions, and rights and duties of citizens. Citizenship, however, has a much broader meaning than a formal legal status. Although both meanings characterize belonging, they differ in scope and scale. To outline a distinction between these two meanings of citizenship, I suggest that we look at citizenship as a norm of belonging and a form of belonging. Legal formal statutory citizenship, established and regulated by laws and awarded or revoked by governments, is a norm of belonging. A society develops specific norms, legalizes and institutionalizes them, and conducts the process of inclusion/exclusion using those norms. Citizenship as a norm of belonging is close in meaning to McLaughlin’s (1992) concept of minimal citizenship.
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The other concept of citizenship represents a form of belonging. Unlike a norm, form is much more flexible and can be shaped by historical, cultural, or social events. Form of belonging is societal understanding of what good citizenship is and who can be considered a good citizen, not simply a formal passive member of society but rather a member who contributes to society. Heater (2002) called this form of citizenship “a role that is learned” (p. 457). If citizenship as a norm of belonging is close to McLaughlin’s minimal citizenship, then citizenship as a form of belonging is the whole continuum that lies between minimal citizenship and maximal citizenship (McLaughlin, 1992), including the latter. Due to its active status, this type of citizenship goes far beyond just obeying the law; it requires possession of civic knowledge, civic skills, and a sense of core civic values and dispositions. It is this type of citizenship, a form of belonging, which is the major subject of citizenship education (Abowitz & Harnish, 2006; Banks, 2014; Gaudelli, 2016).
National Citizenship Social constructs such as citizenship are vulnerable because they do not exist in the physical world; they exist only in human consciousness. Therefore, one must be regularly reminded of them. Because citizenship is a function of a state that to a certain extent provides its legitimacy by institutionalizing the inclusion/exclusion process, formal citizenship education has always been one of the major elements in official education policies. Formal school curricula are traditionally assigned to prepare loyal citizens who understand and follow the norms of belonging (Apple, 2002). This is usually achieved through the social science courses such as History, Civics, or Study of Society. These courses focus primarily on the development of knowledge of government, its institutions, and a citizen’s rights and responsibilities. Among three powerful political phenomena that pushed citizenship education to the forefront of public education during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, namely a growing sense of nationhood, evolution of parliamentary forms of constitution with a steady extension of franchise, and the process of decolonization (Heater, 2002), the former became the primary purpose of citizenship education. Nation-states were born in struggle. Through wars, revolutions, partitions, and unifications, newly emerged entities needed legitimation, internal stability, and protection. But what is a nation? It is a socially constructed, inherently limited political and social community whose image only exists in the minds of its members (Anderson, 1991). Because of its unstable imaginary nature, a nation needs a very specific discourse to justify its existence. This specific discourse was found in nationalism. Nationalism, which Durkheim (1912) called “civil religion,” was formed and supported through the development and propagation of national myths, metaphoric symbols, rituals, and ceremonies that explain the key role of control over history in “repositioning competing and ideologically driven discourses of historical narratives and processes” (Zajda, 2009, p. 4; Zajda, 2017).
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This is how Smith describes the initial role of nationalism in nation-building in Nationalism and Modernism (Smith, 2003): At the outset, nationalism was an inclusive and liberating force. It broke down the various localisms of region, dialect, custom and clan, and helped to create large and powerful nation-states, with centralised markets and systems of administration, taxation and education. Its appeal was popular and democratic. It attacked feudal practices and oppressive imperial tyrannies and proclaimed the sovereignty of the people and the right of all peoples to determine their own destinies, in states of their own, if that was what they desired. Throughout the nineteenth and well into the twentieth centuries, nationalism was found wherever native elites fought to overthrow foreign imperial and colonial administrations, so much so that for a time it seemed indistinguishable from popular democracy. (Smith, 2003, p. 1)
The false equivalence of nationalism and democratic movements, however, could not and did not last. The nationalism that helped to found nation-states was critical as an original impulse and played a crucial role at the initial stages of nation- building, but due to its nature and inherent exclusiveness, nationalism can eventually be destructive for a nation, threatening the nation’s internal stability, particularly for multi-ethnic nation-states. (Banks, 2014; McCowan, 2009; O’Byrne, 2003). By the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Europe, nationalism turned from the idea of national liberation into the idea of ethnic purity and isolation. This was shadowed by nationalism that appealed to “blood and soil,” violence, brutality, and eventually fascism. Alongside nationalism, another concept was being developed and advanced by both new national governments and intellectuals: patriotism. Patriotism is usually described as a special affinity one has toward their country, a “sense of positive identification with and feelings of affective attachment to one’s country” (Schatz, Staub, & Lavine, 1999, p. 152), “the civic devotion toward the state as a political entity… while expressing commitment toward it” (Kashti, 1997, p. 152), or “a kind of psychological disposition underlying the specific feelings, attitudes, and forms of behavior focused on one’s country” (Reykowski, 1997, p. 108). Unlike nationalism, regionalism, tribalism, or localism, patriotism is always directed towards a political community whose epitomic form is a state or nation. Unlike nationalism, patriotism provides a perfect and visibly noble cause to unite a nation for the very sake of the nation. Cultural identity, that demonstrates how an individual identifies themselves with the specific features of a certain cultural group or groups with shared characteristics, such as racial, ethnic, or geographic origins (Unger, 2011; Zajda & Majhanovich, 2021), is one of the principal relationships that lies in the foundation of national citizenship. A cultural identity is formed through adopting beliefs, norms, habits, language patterns, or practices of a cultural community or communities that an individual believes to belong to. Rapidly changing cultural landscapes in the time of globalization challenge the very core of individual cultural identities in several ways. On the one hand, traditional canons of a particular culture change quickly and the individual becomes a keeper and challenger of traditional norms at the same time. On the other hand, there are few places left where an individual inherits and
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identifies with only one culture; it has become almost a norm that individuals become to identify themselves with a mixture of several cultures (Jensen, Arnett, & McKenzie, 2011; Pashby, 2018). The vulnerability of cultural identity in the time of globalization has become another contributing factor for a critical look at the state of citizenship education.
Citizenship Education and Socialization Citizenship education as an idea of socializing and educating the young into the norms of the community has existed since the first prehistoric communities appeared. The idea of formal citizenship education became possible due to the emergence of three interconnected phenomena that dialectically surfaced almost simultaneously: nation/nation-state, citizen/citizenship, and public education as a functioning entity of a polity. At the time of their emergence throughout the nineteenth century in Europe and the Americas, and later in post-colonial Asia and Africa, the most logical way to deliver citizenship education was through the ideologies prevalent at the time: bourgeoning nationalism and emerging patriotism. Formal public citizenship education, whose purpose was seen in educating loyal members of newly established states, was able to connect and absorb mild nationalism and patriotism into a framework of national citizenship education. With the decline of nationalism and the growth of patriotism, particularly in its most reactionary forms, and with required loyalty to the state, citizenship education became synonymous with national citizenship education and acquired the features observable in public education systems: instilling unquestionable respect for national symbols and existing forms of national government, teaching an uncritically positive version of national history, and inculcating traditional dominant values and dispositions without critical reevaluation (Zajda, 2018). Not only is citizenship education one of the newest areas of education, it is also one of the most vulnerable and dynamic areas of education. All areas of education—math, science, liberal arts, language, physical, etc.—are hardly static; their changes, however, are more content-related and depend on progress in the scope of knowledge or skills that these areas represent rather than the ideological, political, or cultural changes that citizenship education entails. The dynamism and constant challenges in a society is the reason for citizenship education’s vulnerability. The last several decades have witnessed a significant shift in all spheres of human activity that have greatly affected citizenship education. Among many challenges, the two that made the most profound effect were the development of human rights and globalization (Cogan & Derricott, 2000; Osler, 2016; UNESCO, 2013). The development of human rights, the fall of authoritarian regimes, and the development of democracy resulted in new opportunities for racial, ethnic, language, or gender groups that had been previously marginalized and excluded from active participation in political processes and development of civic society. (Abowitz & Harnish, 2006; Banks, 2014; Kymlicka, 1995). A more active role in the life of a
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society required an adequate response from institutions, particularly education, to introduce formerly marginalized groups’ cultural identities into curricula to fully represent their experiences. These new demands and practices significantly transformed citizenship education (Banks, 2004). Courses of national history became more inclusive and began to cover historical content related to ethnic and racial minorities, indigenous groups, women, and LGBTQ groups. Civics/Government courses began to teach about the role of minorities in the development of state institutions. New courses such as Cultural Studies, Ethnic Studies, and Indigenous Studies became a part of formal citizenship curricula. The more inclusive environment and new content used in citizenship education required a new theoretical and methodological approach called critical citizenship education. In contrast with minimal (McLaughlin, 1992) or mainstream citizenship education, critical citizenship education (DeJaeghere, 2009; Johnson & Morris, 2010) promotes critical assessment and re-evaluation of knowledge, discourses, contexts, and experiences using the tools widely provided by postmodern critical and post-colonial theories (Andreotti, 2006; DeJaeghere, 2009). Critical citizenship education is based on critical pedagogy, critical multicultural education, human rights education, and critical peace education that help students re-evaluate, create, and negotiate new meanings of participation and membership through reviewing, critiquing, and reflecting on contexts, policies, and institutions that defined the notion of citizenship. Another challenge that citizenship and citizenship education face is globalization. Globalization is usually linked to economic integration and cooperation, significant changes in international policies, technology and transportation, cultural stability and exchanges, or reevaluation of discourses of power. It is also a concept that has been defined variously over the years with connotations referring to progress, development and stability, integration and cooperation, as well as regression, colonialism, and destabilization (Al-Rodhan & Stoudmann, 2006). But globalization also means the weakening of the nation and state: “the old faith in the unity and superiority of the nation and its state was shaken, and the new generations… accustomed to travel, migrants and the mixing of cultures, no longer felt the full force of ancient national memories, traditions and boundaries” (Smith, 2003, p. 2). Declining unquestionable hegemony over the power to control and regulate membership resulted in the development of multiple loyalties and a growing global perspective of self-identity. The concept of global citizenship has become more real and more tangible, gradually turning from a teaching of ancient Stoics into a reality discussed in the United Nations. UNESCO (2013) defines global citizenship education (GCE) as a framework that “encapsulates how education can develop the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes learners need for securing a world which is more just, peaceful, tolerant, inclusive and sustainable” (p. 9). Although global citizenship is not a legal status, the purpose of GCE is to empower students to actively participate in the resolution of global challenges and contribute to a more inclusive, just, and sustainable world.
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Need for a New Model of Citizenship Education Despite skepticism and criticism (Koyama, 2015; Standish, 2012), global citizenship is no longer a utopian theory, a phantom, or a construct existing only in the minds of theoreticians. As established earlier, exclusiveness in the form of membership has served as the main feature of citizenship: One is excluded from a traditionally understood citizenship “club” if one does not possess attributes artificially constructed by “club management” (Rapoport, 2015). This archaic hegemonic idea of exclusiveness served well in the times of the emergence of new nations and new nation-states. Considering the changing (and improving) living standards worldwide, expansion of technology and communication, and increasing access to knowledge, citizenship increasingly comes to be understood as shared rights, both human and civil, that all individuals should enjoy; as shared responsibilities of all human beings for the survival of the planet, a clean environment, and a sustainable future; and as a collection of ethical principles and values that all humans embrace regardless of their cultural, ethnic, or religious backgrounds. The idea of citizenship that is shared and acknowledged by all humans is gaining strength. The global citizenship model emulates many national citizenship models in which people acquire citizenship status automatically by the virtue of the circumstances of their birth. It becomes the task of the society (parents, school, institutions) to fully socialize legal citizens and educate them into the local norms and forms of belonging. Following this logic, all human beings are legal global citizens by birth, and it is the task of the society to fully socialize them into global citizens, or, in other words, to make them aware of their global citizenship status (Dower, 2003; Rapoport, 2015; Schreiber-Barsch, 2018). In general, the problem of global citizenship is no longer whether or not it exists but rather how citizens should exercise their global status. This problem can be rephrased in the following way: What should parents, schools, and institutions do to help young people become aware of their status as not only local or national citizens but also as global citizens and, particularly, how can we make all people, young and old alike, active global citizens? We are witnessing a paradoxical phenomenon: Citizenship that for centuries has been perceived as a symbol of nationalistic exclusion, ethnic and racial dominance, and cultural and linguistic oppression is becoming a sign of global inclusion, tolerance, and support. Citizenship as a form of belonging, in its maximal meaning (McLaughlin, 1992) as an expanding phenomenon, is no longer perceived as a static status assigned by a specific authority; rather, it begins to encompass all civic actions in public and private domains aimed to improve the life of people all over the world and practices that respect the universal values of human rights, democracy, justice, non-discrimination, diversity, and sustainability. The convergence of citizenship from a narrowly understood, highly exclusive concept to an expansive and almost universally inclusive phenomenon is exemplified by a number of practical steps, including adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the UN Framework on Climate Change, and foundation of the European Union, among others. Even with recent setbacks, the
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general adherence to international agreements and the commitment to uphold them is a promising sign that the international community is ready to move toward a post- national environment. The convergence of the concept of citizenship requires a newer, broader perspective of citizenship education, formally and informally. Instead of separating citizenship education as nation-centered model and GCE, it is time to develop a model that would include both components on an equal basis, a model that would not just incorporate GCE into a traditional citizenship education model but develop a space where these two concepts intertwine. The premises and background for this new citizenship education model already exist. The scope and competences of GCE are the same as the scope and competences of traditional nation-centered citizenship education but elevated to a global transnational level: • Knowledge and understanding of specific global issues and trends, and knowledge of and respect for key universal values (e.g., peace and human rights, diversity, justice, democracy, caring, non-discrimination, tolerance); • Cognitive skills for critical, creative and innovative thinking, problem-solving and decision-making; • Non-cognitive skills such as empathy, openness to experiences and other perspectives, interpersonal/communicative skills and aptitude for networking and interacting with people of different backgrounds and origins; and • Behavioral capacities to launch and engage in proactive actions. – (UNESCO, 2013). A natural link between citizenship education, identity construction and socialization helps determine a potential framework for the converged citizenship education model. Socialization has been nation-centered since the emergence of nations and nation-states. Through its agents such as family, school, or other institutions in mono- and multicultural communities, socialization constructs and reconstructs identities both locally and globally (Okuma-Nystrӧm, Kiwako Okuma-Nystrӧm, 2009; Zajda, 2009); however, it still remains a predominantly local- and nation- centered phenomenon. In this regard, the view of citizenship education as a primary tool of child socialization presents an intriguing theoretical issue: If we are already global citizens by virtue of birth, by our existential status (Dower, 2003), then the task of the new model of citizenship education is to challenge traditional nation- oriented citizenship models and to resocialize children by making them aware of their global citizen status. Resocialization does not lead to a rejection of one’s cultural identity, previous practices and established values; rather, it offers a balance to the socialization experience that is void of reflective thought (Kaviani, 2006) and expands the boundaries of individual rights, freedoms, responsibilities, and identities. Without delving much into the theory (Rapoport, 2015), one element of resocialization is of particular significance for broader citizenship education. The theory of exposure focuses on how much exposure individuals have to the new environment: The more exposure they have, the more they adapt. More and more students
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have an opportunity to get connected with their peers around the world and learn about the world without mediation. In these circumstances, the role of education is not only to provide access to global resources and thus make exposure possible, but also to help students navigate in this sea of possibilities and information. The resocialization-based converged citizenship education framework provides a very helpful background for the development of identities, including cultural identity in the time of expanding globalization. Arnett (2002) argued that globalization has its primary psychological influence on issues of identity, particularly among adolescents. Unlike children, adolescents are more mature and autonomous in pursuing information and new experiences, but unlike adults, they have not yet committed to certain habits, beliefs, or behaviors. Arnett (2002) concluded that “as a consequence of globalization… identity becomes based less on prescribed social roles and more on individual choices. Globalization [will result] in increasingly complex bicultural, multicultural, and hybrid identities” (pp. 781–782) that give young people an awareness of practices and information that are part of a global culture as well as a sense of belonging to the worldwide culture. The methodological base and means of delivery in GCE (Merryfield, 2008) were initially adopted from traditional citizenship education and, following the development of the field, expanded through the inclusion of more internationally related content materials. Similarly to critical citizenship education, critical global citizenship education (Andreotti, 2006; Pashby & de Oliveira Andreotti, 2015) applies a critical citizenship education approach to global issues. Critical GCE shifts the focus from the universalism of “soft” GCE (Andreotti, 2006) that, for example, raises awareness of global issues and interprets interdependence as equal interconnectedness to deliberative inquiry and reflexivity of critical GCE that challenges globalization as asymmetrical replication of unequal power relations. We should, however, keep in mind that a mechanical expansion of the scope of citizenship education by simply using international material instead of local or national examples will not be enough. Citizenship education is a multidisciplinary field, the new expanded model will require a reevaluation of content material in History, Geography, Civics, and other social studies subjects. In other words, the convergence of citizenship education and development of a new expanded model based on resocialization is a complex task that requires a serious theoretical substantiation and practical support.
Conclusion This chapter analyzes and evaluates the convergence of the subject of citizenship education and the new tasks derived from this convergence that citizenship education is inevitably going to face. As the twenty-first century progresses, humanity faces an unprecedented set of challenges: increasing interdependence of economies, growing migration and redistribution of the workforce, rapidly changing technologies and a growing gap between nations, cultural unification and cultural
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isolationism, growing deterioration of the global environment, and rising violence. It has become commonplace to underscore how significantly globalization impacts the development of humanity in both positive and challenging ways. Global citizenship transcends our everyday life and it is present everywhere. The development of a new model of converged citizenship education through resocialization where local, national, and global components are organically intertwined is the task for the near future. All elements of this model are ready, they are already here. This model will not eliminate all internal tensions in citizenship education but it makes citizenship education more relevant and authentic.
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Kaviani, K. (2006). Influences on social studies teachers’ issue-selection for classroom discussion: Social positioning and media. Social Studies Research and Practice, 1(2), 201–222. Kiwako Okuma-Nystrӧm, M. (2009). Globalization, identities, and diversified school education. In J. Zajda, H. Daun, & L. Saha (Eds.), Nation-building, identity and citizenship education: Cross-cultural perspectives (pp. 25–42). Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Springer. Koyama, J. (2015). The elusive and exclusive global citizen. New Delhi, India: Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development/UNESCO. Kymlicka, W. (1995). Multicultural citizenship. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press. McCowan, T. (2009). Rethinking citizenship education: A curriculum for participatory democracy. London: Continuum. McLaughlin, T. (1992). Citizenship, diversity and education: A philosophical perspective. Journal of Moral Education, 21(3), 235–250. Merryfield, M. (2008). Scaffolding social studies for global awareness. Social Education, 72(7), 363–366. Myers, J. (2006). Rethinking the social studies curriculum in the context of globalization: Education for global citizenship in the U.S. Theory and Research in Social Education, 34(3), 370–394. O’Byrne, D. (2003). The dimensions of global citizenship: Political identity beyond the nation- state. London: Routledge. Osler, A. (2016). Human rights and schooling. New York: Teachers College Press. Pashby, K. (2018). Identity, belonging and diversity in education for global citizenship: Multiplying, intersecting, transforming, and engaging lived realities. In I. Davies, L.-C. Ho, D. Kiwan, C. L. Peck, A. Peterson, E. Sant, & Y. Waghid (Eds.), The Palgrave handbook of global citizenship and education (pp. 277–293). London: Palgrave. Pashby, K., & de Oliveira Andreotti, V. (2015). Critical global citizenship in theory and practice. In J. Harshman, T. Augustine, & M. Merryfield (Eds.), Research in global citizenship education (pp. 9–34). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing. Rapoport, A. (2012). Educating new citizens: The role of patriotic education in the post-Soviet countries. Educational Practice and Theory, 34(2), 81–105. Rapoport, A. (2015). Challenges and opportunities: Resocialization as a framework for global citizenship education. In J. Zajda (Ed.), Globalization, ideology and politics of education reform (pp. 11–25). Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Springer. Rapoport, A. (2019). National and global in citizenship education. In A. Rapoport (Ed.), Competing frameworks: Global and national in citizenship education (pp. 1–10). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing. Reykowski, J. (1997). Patriotism and the collective system of meanings. In D. Bar-Tal & E. Staub (Eds.), Patriotism in the lives of individuals and nations (pp. 108–128). Chicago: Nelson-Hall. Schatz, R. T., Staub, E., & Lavine, H. (1999). On the varieties of national attachments: Blind versus constructive patriotism. Political Psychology, 20(1), 151–174. Schreiber-Barsch, S. (2018). Global citizenship education and globalism. In I. Davies, L.-C. Ho, D. Kiwan, C. L. Peck, A. Peterson, E. Sant, & Y. Waghid (Eds.), The Palgrave handbook of global citizenship and education (pp. 113–133). London: Palgrave. Smith, A. D. (2003). Nationalism and modernism. London: Routledge. Standish, A. (2012). The false promise of global learning: Why education needs boundaries. New York: Continuum. Turner, B. S. (1993). Citizenship and social theory. London: Sage. UNESCO. (2013). Global citizenship education: An emerging perspective. Available online: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000224115 Unger, J. (2011). Cultural identity and public health. In S. Schwartz, K. Luyckx, & V. Vignoles (Eds.), Handbook of identity theory and research (pp. 811–825). Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Springer. Zajda, J. (Ed.). (2015). Nation-building and history education in a global culture. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Springer.
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Zajda, J. (2009). Nation-building, identity, and citizenship education: Introduction. In J. Zajda, H. Daun, & L. Saha (Eds.), Nation-building, identity and citizenship education: Cross-cultural perspectives (pp. 1–11). Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Springer. Zajda, J. (2017). Globalisation and national identity in history textbooks: The Russian Federation. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Springer. Zajda, J. (2018). Researching values education in the classroom: A global perspective. Education and Society, 36(2), 29–47. Zajda, J. (Ed.). (2020a). Globalisation, ideology and education reforms: Emerging paradigms. Dordrecht: Springer. Zajda, J. (Ed.). (2020b). Human rights education globally. Dordrecht: Springer. Zajda, J., & Majhanovich, S. (2021). Cultural identity in the global era. In J. Zajda & S. Majhanovich (Eds.), Globalisation, cultural identity and nation-building: The changing paradigms. Book 23. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Springer. Zajda, J., & Ozdowski, S. (Eds.). (2017). Globalisation, human rights education and reforms. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Springer. Professor Anatoli Rapoport is Associate Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at Purdue University College of Education. Before he received Ph. D. in Social Studies Education, he had worked as classroom teacher and school administrator for 20 years. His research interests include citizenship education, comparative, international, and global education, and application of constructivist theory in education. He is Board member of National Council for the Social Studies International Assembly, editor of Journal of International Social Studies, director of Benjamin Franklin Transatlantic Summer Institute and director of the GK-12/Graduate Student Engagement in K-12 program. He is recipient of the Leadership in Globalization Award, the Curriculum and Instruction Discovery Award and Curriculum and Instruction Engagement Award, He also holds honorary doctorate (Honoris Causa) from Academy of Science of Moldova. Since 2003, Dr. Rapoport organized and coordinated a number of international teacher training and professional development projects and several Study Abroad programs. At Purdue, Dr. Rapoport teaches social studies methods courses and graduate seminars on international and comparative education. He published in a number of journals and he was guest editor of special issues of Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education (with Serhiy Kovalchuk); Education, Citizenship and Social Justice (with Miri Yemini), and Research in Social Sciences and Technology. He is the author of four books: Fields Unknown (2007), Civic Education in Contemporary Global Society (with Andrey Borshevsky, 2009), Competing Frameworks: Global and National in Citizenship Education (2018), and Democratic Citizenship in Non-Western Contexts (with Serhiy Kovalchuk, 2019).
Chapter 4
Upper Secondary Social Studies Curriculum in Singapore and National Identity Michael H. Lee
Abstract In Singapore, Social Studies is a compulsory subject for all primary and secondary school students. Since 2001, it has been a required subject for upper secondary school students. The introduction of Social Studies at the upper secondary level was closely related to the implementation of the National Education programme which was launched in 1997 to strengthen students’ sense of national belonging with an emphasis on state-preferred ideas like national unity, social cohesion, racial harmony, multiculturalism and meritocracy. In the mid-2010s, the Singapore government conducted a thorough revision of the upper secondary Social Studies syllabus and textbook, which has been used since 2016. This chapter focuses on the latest revision of the upper secondary Social Studies syllabus and textbook and examines major national messages are conveyed to students. It argues that Social Studies, which serves as a key subject for the National Education programme, is highly instrumental for meeting socio-political needs and nation-building interests. Social Studies plays an important role to nurture students as informed, concerned and participative citizens who are capable to understand the interconnectedness of Singapore and the world and thus contribute responsibly to the society and world they live in. However, Social Studies may not be effective to encourage students to take a critical approach to examine and evaluate state policies under one party dominance as a result of the absence of non-official narratives in this compulsory and examinable upper secondary subject. Keywords Citizenship education · Cultural identity · Globalisation · Identity · Ideology · Multiculturalism · Nation-building · National education · National identity · Political legitimacy · Racial harmony · Social cohesion · Social studies
M. H. Lee (*) Department of History, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature B.V. 2021 J. Zajda, S. Majhanovich (eds.), Globalisation, Cultural Identity and NationBuilding, Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research 23, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-2014-2_4
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Introduction Singapore gained independence in 1965 after a short-lived merger with Malaysia for less than 2 years. How to survive turned out to be the most critical issue facing this new nation which is highly vulnerable and the only multi-ethnic with Chinese as majority in Southeast Asia. It was made a policy priority for the government under the political leadership of founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, who founded the People’s Action Party (PAP) in 1954, to cultivate in people a sense of national identity of being Singaporeans regardless of their races, languages and religions (Chan, 1971; K. Lee, 1998, 2000; E. Lee, 2008; Turnbull, 2009). The nation- building of Singapore is built on certain core values such as racial harmony, social cohesion, communitarianism, incorruptibility, crisis mentality and vulnerability, self-defence, and meritocracy (Chua, 2017; Gopinathan, 2015; Quah, 1991; Singh, 2017; Worthington, 2003). In order to forge national unity and cultivate in students core values of nation- building, several citizenship and national education programmes have been implemented with the teaching of subjects like Ethics, Civics, Education for Living, Being and Becoming, Good Citizens, Religious Knowledge, Civic and Moral Education, and Character and Citizenship Education over the past five decades since the independence of Singapore (Gopinathan, 2015; Han, 2000, 2017 (living with); Ho, 2017a, 2017b; W. Lee, 2013; J. Tan, 2008). In 1997, the government launched the National Education programme with humanities subjects like Geography, History and Social Studies playing a very important role in cultivating in students the “national messages” necessary for the survival of Singapore (Alviar- Martin & Baildon, 2016; Chia, 2015; Han, 2000, 2017; H. Lee, 1997; Sim & Print, 2005, 2009; J. Tan, 2008). Social Studies has been made a compulsory and examinable subject for students who are enrolled in Express and Normal (Academic) courses at the upper secondary level since 2001. With the latest review of the upper secondary Social Studies syllabus and textbook around the mid-2010s when Singapore reached its fiftieth anniversary of independence, the new syllabus and textbook, which were compiled by Curriculum Planning and Development Division (CPDD) of the Ministry of Education, have been adopted since 2016 (Goy, 2016). The latest revision of upper secondary Social Studies curriculum reveals that while Singapore is profoundly affected by globalization which has brought about more intense westernization and its related values on liberalism and individualism penetrate into the Singapore society and among the younger generation of Singaporeans, it is even more important for the Singapore government to make use of education to uphold and promote core political ideologies of communitarianism, and state capitalism for the sake of protecting the national interests and also the political legitimacy and hegemony enjoyed by the ruling party which has been in power for more than half a century since the late 1950s (Chua, 2017). With widespread concerns over the strengthening of both cultural and national identity among young Singaporeans in face of globalization, as mentioned earlier, humanities and social sciences subjects like History and Social Studies are therefore not surprisingly core subjects for promoting national education that a sense of Singaporeanness,
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regardless of race, language and religion, would eventually be cultivated. Simply put, in the wider context of globalization, students are expected to be equipped with a global outlook. This refers to a greater degree of global consciousness that they are more aware about global issues in relation to their own nation, Singapore, such as climate change and the role played by Singapore in both the international and regional arenas. How to survive as a tiny nation-state throughout global upheavals turns out to be a critical issue being covered in the latest Social Studies curriculum. More importantly, it is not “global” but “glocal” as a concept that students need to pay more attention to. It is about their rights, responsibilities and obligations they are expected to make positive contributions to the survival and well-being of Singapore as a young but vibrant nation-state. Therefore, students are expected to be “rooted in Singapore with a global outlook,” striking a balance between staying global and local, which are not mutually exclusive but complementary. Focusing on the latest revision of the upper secondary Social Studies syllabus and textbook in Singapore, this chapter aims to examine core national messages being conveyed by the subject. It argues that Social Studies not only serves the needs of socio-political development and nation building in Singapore, but also it plays an important role to nurture students as informed, concerned and participative citizens who can contribute to the nation-building and national interests of their young nation. However, whether Social Studies can encourage students to take a critical approach to examine and evaluate state policies under the PAP’s one-party dominance is worthy for more in-depth discussion. Following this introductory section, there are four sections in this chapter. The first section gives an overview of the origins of the National Education programme and the upper secondary Social Studies curriculum. The second section brings a content analysis on the latest Social Studies textbook to reveal main ideas being cultivated in students. The penultimate section discusses how effective Social Studies cultivate in students a sense of national identity and whether students are encouraged to be more critical to comment on controversial issues and government’s policies. The final section concludes the discussion.
National Education and Social Studies The Singapore government aims to nurture young people as responsible citizens who are rooted in Singapore with global outlook with a strong sense of national identity of being Singaporeans. In the mid-1990s, political leaders were aware of the lack of knowledge of Singapore’s independence and nation-building history among younger Singaporeans who did not live through the process of merger and independence in the 1960s. In face of the increasingly deep-rooted influence of westernization and individualism in the age of globalization, there was a fear that youngsters who were born since the 1960s onwards and used to high economic growth were less willing to make sacrifices for their society’s well being and national interests under the growing influence of westernization and individualism
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(Chia, 2015; Goh, 1997; Sim, 2011; J. Tan, 2008). While young Singaporeans are urged to root themselves in Singapore with a global outlook, it is also vital to cultivate in young people, who might take peace and prosperity for granted, a shared sense of nationhood so that they can appreciate Singapore’s capability to maintain peace and socio-political context, the National Education programme was launched in 1997 also as a means to teach students survival skills with confidence and ability to solve problems (H. Lee, 1997). As then Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong mentioned in his speech when the National Education programme was officially launched in 1997 (H. Lee, 1997): National Education aims to develop national cohesion, the instinct for survival and confidence in our future. We cannot offer our next generation any fixed formula for success, or even any set goals in life. They will face new circumstances and problems. They will need to think through and work out their own solutions. But we must equip them with the basic attitudes, values and instincts which make them Singaporeans.
Based on this policy background, the National Education programme aims to achieve four objectives: first, to foster young people a sense of identity, pride and self-respect as Singaporeans; second, to ensure young people to know the Singapore Story and how Singapore succeeded against the odds to become a nation; third, to enable young people to understand Singapore’s unique challenges, constraints and vulnerabilities; and fourth, to cultivate in young people the core values of Singapore that ensure the country’s continued success and well-being (H. Lee, 1997). In order to achieve these objectives, a number of school curriculum changes were made. Among those curriculum changes adhering to the goals of the National Education programme, one of them was, in 2001, to introduce a new Social Studies subject at the upper secondary level which covers issues related to Singapore’s survival and success, including governance principles, Singapore’s development strategies, the role of key institutions, such as the Singapore Armed Forces, Housing and Development Board, Central Provident Fund, Economic Development Board and National Trade Union Congress, and challenges facing the nation (H. Lee, 1997). The National Education programme is considered an effort to balance the global orientation required by the knowledge economy with a strengthening of national solidarity and multiculturalism through citizenship education in Singapore (Gopinathan, 2015; C. Tan, 2017; J. Tan, 2008). The Social Studies curriculum aims to prepare students to grasp a better understanding about the interconnectedness of Singapore and the world, and also to develop critical and reflective thinking skills by inquiring into real-world issues with multiple perspectives. Moreover, Social Studies inculcates in students the values that define Singapore society and inspires them to show concern for the society and the world. In short, according to this subject aims to educate students as informed, concerned and participative citizens, who can understand their identity as Singaporeans with a global outlook, have a sense of belonging to their community and nation, build social cohesion by appreciating diversity in society, and take responsibility for effecting change for the good of society (CPDD, 2016a). The tension between “thinking global” and “staying local” has been addressed in the revised Social Studies curriculum.
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Social Studies reflects an integration between citizenship and political education that it is given a political meaning by the government to disseminate six main National Education messages among students, who are expected to serve the interests of Singapore as a young nation. These six messages are (Ministry of Education, Singapore, n.d.): 1. Singapore is our homeland; this is where we belong. (We treasure our heritage and take pride in shaping our own unique way of life.) 2. We must preserve racial and religious harmony. (We value our diversity and are determined to stay a united people.) 3. We must uphold meritocracy and incorruptibility. (We provide opportunities for all, according to their ability and effort.) 4. No one owes Singapore a living. (We find our own way to survive and prosper, turning challenge into opportunity.) 5. We must ourselves defend Singapore. (We are proud to defend Singapore ourselves, no one else is responsible for our security and well-being.) 6. We have confidence in out future. (United, determined and well-prepared, we have what it takes to build a bright future for ourselves, and to progress together as one nation.) Setting against this contextual background in Singapore, the following section provides a content analysis on the latest upper secondary Social Studies syllabus and textbook which have been adopted since 2016 to reveal main ideas and messages, which are closely related to the six National Education messages, being cultivated in students.
Social Studies Curriculum and Textbook (2016 Edition) According to the 2016 syllabus, Social Studies for the upper secondary level is centred around three issues, namely “Exploring Citizenship and Governance”, “Living in a Diverse Society”, and “Being Part of a Globalised World.” Through investigating the first issue, students are able to learn the meaning of being citizens and how they play complementary roles with government to work for the good of society. The examination of the second issue requires students to appreciate diversity and the importance of diversity with a sense of responsibility to promote and maintain harmony in a diverse society. Meanwhile, the studying of the third issue enables students to understand how countries and individuals are interconnected and interdependent in face of tensions arising from economic, cultural and security impacts of globalisation. It is through investigating and critically examining these three societal issues that students are also expected to practise and strengthen critical thinking and lifelong learning skills (CPDD, 2016a, 2016b).
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Issue 1: Exploring Citizenship and Governance Reminding students’ basic rights and responsibilities of Singapore citizens, the first issue draws their attention to the importance of “protecting the country and observing the laws of the country” besides enjoying such rights as accessing education and believing in religion (CPDD, 2016b, p. 6), and also develops a stronger sense of civic consciousness and enhances students’ roles they play as citizens who are rooted in Singapore with a global outlook (CPDD, 2016a, p. 4). Moreover, students are reminded their responsibility to bring about progress, prosperity and harmony in Singapore and the importance of such practices as singing the National Anthem, taking the National Pledge, and celebrating National Day for constructing a sense of national identity (CPDD, 2016b, pp. 18–19). In addition, an emphasis is placed on the political legitimacy enjoyed by the Singapore government, which is elected by citizens, to make decisions on behalf of citizens. The structure of state organs, which is comprised of the legislature, executive and judiciary, is a major content for students to understand the process of lawmaking and policy formulation. This comes with four core ideas and principles shaping governance and decision-making in Singapore: having good leadership, anticipating change and staying relevant, providing a stake for everyone, and practising meritocracy. Leaders should be honest, capable and incorruptible to make decisions for the interest of society. Singaporeans are encouraged to share their views about policies and decision-making in order to develop a greater sense of belonging in citizens. With the practice of meritocracy, Singaporeans will be able to gain access to opportunities to experience success because people are rewarded according to the effort they put in regardless of their race, religion or socio-economic background. Citizens and the government play complementary roles in working for the good of society (CPDD, 2016b, pp. 66, 100). In summary, Issue 1 aims to arouse students’ awareness of the main functions of government which works on the basis of political legitimacy for Singapore is a representative democracy that the government is elected by citizens. It is therefore necessary for students to appreciate the decisions and policies made by the government whose leaders are selected on the basis of meritocracy and thus are morally courage and incorruptible to make policies for the good of society with reference to citizens’ participation and feedback given to the legitimate government. This can be interpreted as a reinforcement of students’ belief that even though some policies may not be popular for the general public, they are made and implemented for the good of society that deserves their support to the government which has political legitimacy.
Issue 2: Living in a Diverse Society Apart from learning the roles of the government and citizens in Singapore, students are also taught about their responsibility in promoting and maintaining harmony in a diverse society in Singapore. It takes note of Singapore as a multicultural society
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that it is necessary for students to share a deep respect for multiracial and multireligious practices and also a commitment to bilingualism and the use of English as the common language among different ethnic groups (CPDD, 2016b, p. 110). Besides nationality, ethnicity and religion, socio-economic status is also considered an important factor determining people’s identity. The widespread concern about the problem of widened income gap and income inequality is also noted in the Social Studies textbook. Equally important is that the government has put forward several measures to support the lower socio-economic status groups in areas such as education, housing and healthcare financing so as to improve their livelihoods and social mobility (CPDD, 2016b, pp. 129–130). Singapore as a diverse society can be dated back to the period before the coming of British colonialism in the early nineteenth century. Students are reminded that immigration policy is a major reason for the diversity of Singapore society. In face of low birth rate and brain drain problems since the 1980s, the government has relied on the immigration policy to attract higher-skilled foreign workers to support knowledge-based economic development in Singapore. Moreover, immigrants as well as foreign workers and professionals are playing an important role to renew the workforce in Singapore where the trend of ageing society with the decline of working-age people from 2020 (CPDD, 2016b, p. 137). The coverage of immigration policy is believed to be closely related to debates and controversies arising from the increase numbers of immigrants in Singapore in recent years. Singapore as a diverse society, with a focus on strengthening harmony among different nationalities, races and ethnicities, religions and socio-economic status, has to cope with a couple of challenges and tensions. These challenges and tensions include prejudices and misunderstanding about people of different races, religion or socio-economic status, and competition for resources in the form of job opportunities or availability of social infrastructure like housing, transport, healthcare and education, which in turn arouses widespread concerns over living standard and social mobility. In responses to these issues arising from the immigration policy, the textbook draws students’ attention to the government’s efforts to alleviate the Singaporeans’ frustration and resentment over immigration by putting in place more stringent foreign workforce controls to reduce the inflow of foreign manpower and to regulate the salary level of foreign manpower. Besides recognizing the importance of immigration for Singapore’s economic renewal and development, the government also puts a strong emphasis on re-training lower income group Singaporeans to learn new skills so as to enable them to stay relevant to economic demands. After all, it is the guiding principle of meritocracy that ensures Singaporeans regardless of socio-economic status would be able to excel and thus achieve upward social mobility with government’s financial assistance for lower income group (CPDD, 2016b, pp. 178–179, 186–187). Apart from discussing the nature of Singapore as a diverse society and some controversies related to the recent immigration policy, the textbook turns to address how the Singapore government manage a socio-culturally diverse society. An emphasis is put on how policies would promote the interaction between the government, communities and individuals to foster social harmony in a society with
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socio-cultural diversity. Instead of adopting an assimilation approach to make the immigrants to adopt the beliefs and practices of the majority group, the Singapore government prefers an integration approach to allow the immigrants to retain their unique identities when they are forging common ground with the majority group. The textbook also takes note of some tensions arising from the integration policy as some Singaporeans do not feel comfortable with the inflow of foreigners, which will reduce job opportunities, cause in prices, traffic congestion and breakdown in infrastructure, and also affect social cohesion because of their different social norms and behaviours. In response, students are reminded the importance of immigrants for sustaining economic development in Singapore with strengthened bond and better mutual understanding between different ethnic groups (CPDD, 2016b, pp. 206–209). In short, Issue 2 puts a strong emphasis on the importance of immigration for Singapore where foreigners and immigrants are considered important to renew the workforce amidst the trend of an ageing society. While students are reminded the importance of immigration for Singapore together with the deep-rooted nature of Singapore as a diverse society ethnically, socially and economically, they are also encouraged to understand more about new immigrants, who in turn are also expected to be more proactively integrating with the widely accepted social norms and behaviours in Singapore. Above all, it may demonstrate clearly the government to defend its immigration policy, with much tighter restrictions imposed on the influx of foreigners and immigrants since the 2011 general elections when the ruling party gained the lowest percentage of votes since independence in 1965 as a result of the widespread discontents among Singaporeans over the rapid and huge influx of immigrants during the late 2000s (Chua, 2017; E. Tan, 2012; K. Tan, 2017). Since then, more attention has been placed on the rationalization of the use and distribution of socio-economic resources such as healthcare, education and housing among citizens and immigrants in Singapore.
Issue 3: Being Part of a Globalised World The focus has been shifted towards how Singapore has been affected by globalisation and also how are the connections between Singapore and the world particularly from the economic perspective. It reviews major factors contributing to the economic growth and development of Singapore since the 1960s which are closely related to Singapore’s participation in the global economy as well as its ability to attract foreign investors and multinational corporations. Meanwhile, Singapore is not immune from the impact of global economic downturn, such as the global financial crisis in 2008, which led to a significant increase in unemployment rate because of the decline in demand for goods and services as well as in industrial production. It also notes the government’s role in assisting small and medium size enterprises to cope with the global economic competition in Singapore. Throughout years, the government has put a much stronger emphasis on economic restructuring to cope
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with the needs of the fourth industrialization, and thus also focused on upgrading workers’ skills and enhancing their employability (CPDD, 2016b, pp. 296–299). In addition, being a tiny and vulnerable city-state, a strong emphasis is not surprisingly placed on the security impacts of globalisation on Singapore, where national defence and security is always a top priority. Both challenges of cyber security and transnational terrorism are considered to be the most imminent threats being felt in Singapore in the midst of the spread of terrorists especially since the 9/11 attacks in the United States in 2001. Therefore, three types of measures have been adopted by the government to cope with the threats of terrorism, including preventive measures, protective measures, and responsive measures. Preventive measures largely depend on the Total Defence policy to build a strong, secure and cohesive country so that it can deal with any crisis and security challenges arising from transnational terrorism and thus reduce Singapore’s vulnerability to potential terrorist attacks (CPDD, 2016b, pp. 346–353). Protective measures are carried out by the military forces which play a vital role to protect borders and major infrastructures, and also refer to Internal Security Act which enables the Singapore government to detain individuals without trial so as to deal with threats of terrorism, and racial and religious extremism (CPDD, 2016b, pp. 354–357). Responsive measures are concerned about Singapore’s collaboration with other countries to strengthen its capabilities in responding to transnational terrorist threats (CPDD, 2016b, pp. 360–361). By all these, students have to be aware of Singapore’s vulnerability in face of the growing threats of transnational terrorism in a globalised world that individuals have to share responsibility to safeguard the national security (CPDD, 2016b, p. 362). Issue 3 addresses that while Singapore benefits from a more globalised economy, it needs to encounter tensions arising from geopolitical globalisation, including the growing threats of terrorism and extremism that people need to be more vigilant and get prepared to defend the country. Students are alerted the importance of equipping themselves a better understanding about Singapore and its connections with major economic partners and other parts of the world. This in turn puts a strong emphasis on the importance of peaceful co-existence between Singapore and the rest of the world, especially the major players in the world and Asian economies such as the United States, Europe, China and India. Moreover, students are expected to be aware of how vulnerable Singapore is and thus they, as Singaporeans, need to contribute themselves to the national security for it is their own shared responsibility to protect and safeguard their own countries.
Discussion Education plays an instrumental role in state formation and nation-building in Singapore. The Social Studies curriculum was launched in response to young Singaporeans’ lack of knowledge and interest in their country’s recent history and challenges facing Singapore’s survival (Sim & Print, 2005). Apart from educating
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students with essential knowledge and updated skills to cope with the changing needs of economy, it is of equal importance to arouse young people’s awareness of protecting national interests and thus they will give their support to government’s policies even though some of them may be controversial and not widely welcomed by the general public. The more relaxed immigration policy, together with increasing pressure on social infrastructures like housing, healthcare and education, became one of the hottest issues impacting the General Elections in 2011 in which the ruling party won the lowest percentage of votes at a slightly above 60% since Singapore’s independence in 1965 (Lim, 2016; E. Tan, 2012; K. Tan, 2017). In response, the subject draws students’ attention to the rationales behind the government to allow a much larger quantity of foreigners and immigrants to work and reside in Singapore so as to renew the workforce in face of a rapid aging society. As a major component of the National Education programme, Social Studies for upper secondary is aimed to cultivate in students shared social norms and values as well as to forge a sense of national belonging and unity among younger people with sufficient knowledge about Singapore’s nation-building and its prospects and challenges. The issue of national identity is even more important for Singapore has long been a multiracial and multicultural society with a significant number of immigrants especially coming from China and India since the nineteenth century (Tarling, 2015; Turnbull, 2009). The forging of a national identity together with a strong sense of being Singaporeans is vital to unite different races regardless of their languages, cultures and religions. Through the teaching of Social Studies, the upper secondary students are made to realize the need of integrating rather than assimilating different ethnic groups in Singapore where individual groups’ mother tongues, religions and cultures are respected even with the presence a majority of Chinese population in the country. The peaceful co-existence among the four major ethnic groups, namely Chinese, Malays, Indians and Others (CMIO) is largely based on the mutual respect of each other’s culture, language and religion. It is because the maintenance of racial harmony in this multiracial and multicultural society is always a high priority for the Singapore government with the historical lessons learnt from the racial riots in the 1950s and 1960s before the independence of island-state (Chua, 2017; Gopinathan, 2015; Quah, 1991; J. Tan, 2010). Apart from arousing students’ awareness of the importance of racial harmony, Social Studies also serves political needs to deepen students’ understanding about the relationship between political legitimacy and the longevity of the PAP’s rule since it has been in power in 1959. In Singapore, political legitimacy is largely attributed to the past achievements in socio-economic progress and development accomplished by the PAP which has consistently won popular support over the past 60 years (Chua, 1995; K. Tan, 2017). It is therefore crucial for the government to uphold good governance in addition to efficient administration and effective policies so that the popular support towards the ruling party can be garnered and strengthened as seen in its victory in various general elections (Chua, 2017; Gopinathan, 2007, 2015).
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The hidden political message delivered through the teaching of Social Studies is to make young people realize that the PAP-led government managed to earn a high level of confidence among Singaporeans for its ability to deliver good governance with a largely corruption-free and efficient government administration to formulate and implement policies in response to socio-economic needs. As such, good governance, strong leadership and meritocracy are major principles shaping decision and policy-making in Singapore under the PAP’s rule, which managed to bring about rapid economic growth and improve people’s livelihoods through increasing job opportunities and providing social infrastructures like education, housing, health care, social security and public transport. By all these, it is important for young people to appreciate the contributions made by the government in nation-building but not to take peace and better livelihood for granted. Additionally, students are also called upon to bear shared responsibility to defend their country, which is highly vulnerable to external threats such as the spread of terrorism and the growing complexity of geopolitical landscape with its related regional and international conflicts. Given Singapore can only rely on its own citizens to defend the country with the imposition of the conscription policy which stipulates that male adult Singaporean citizens are required to receive military training and serve in national service for at least 2 years. With a strong sense of crisis mentality constantly emphasized by the government since independence in 1965 (Chan, 1971), young people have been educated to be obliged to take part in national security and defence for Singapore was facing an urgent task to build up its national armed forces especially after the British troops were withdrawn in 1971. The historical lesson of Japanese occupation in 1942–45 covered in History subject also serves as a reminder to students that peace and safety of the country cannot be secured by foreigners but Singaporeans themselves (Blackburn & Hack, 2012). This reflects the high priority of communitarian interests over those of individuals for it is a shared responsibility for Singaporean citizens to make contributions to peace and security of their own country (Chua, 1997, 2017). By doing so, it is to cultivate in students patriotism together with a strong sense of commitment to promote national security and interests that is a core component of the National Education programme (H. Lee, 1997). Further, Social Studies serves to arouse students’ awareness about the contributions made by the ruling party and its founders or pioneer generation to build up an independent Singapore since the late 1950s. As mentioned earlier, the longevity of the PAP’s rule is largely attributed to good governance delivered by strong and capable political leadership and effective and corruption-free government bureaucracy throughout years with significant achievements accomplished in improving the people’s livelihoods and living standards, securing job opportunities, enhancing Singapore’s international status, and also transforming the city-state to be the most industrialized, developed and globalised First World country in Southeast Asia (K. Lee, 2000). It is to realize that political legitimacy enjoyed by the ruling party in Singapore is largely based on what it managed to achieved over half a century when it witnessed a successful “Singapore Story” (K. Lee, 1998). Meanwhile, it is also
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important for young people to realize the fact that Singapore is always vulnerable in both geopolitical and economic terms because the higher the extent Singapore integrated with the international community and global economy, the more fragile the city-state to be affected by uncontrollable external factors and so-called “global disruptions” such as geopolitical disputes and conflicts, threats of transnational terrorist attacks, global and regional economic fluctuations, and even significant environment and climate changes. Therefore, students need to realize that prolonged peace, security, progress and development can never be taken for granted. Students are drawn to pay more attention to a rosy and optimistic prospects of Singapore to move on with a more participative role taken by its citizens after its first 50 years of independence, it is also a major task for Social Studies to make students, who lack firsthand experience and knowledge about difficulties and challenges facing the nation-building process, to take more care of national and communitarian interests instead of purely individuals’ (Chua, 1995, 1997; Hill & Lian, 1995). Every Singaporean citizen is expected to behave responsibly for the survival of their country because every Singaporean holds a stake there. This is in turn to justify the importance for Singaporeans to support the politically legitimate PAP-led government’s policies which have been made in line with national interests and for the sake of socio-political and economic stability and progress. Although it is aimed at educating students to become more participative citizens in the future, it is never intended to shift Singaporeans’ political allegiance from the ruling party to the opposition. Students are taught about the Singapore political system which has been evolved from the British parliamentary model with a couple of important modifications carried out over years, including the introduction of the Group Representation Constituencies, Non-Constituency Members of Parliament, and Nominated Members of Parliament since the mid-1980s when it witnessed the revival of “limited” political opposition. The teaching of the details of the Singapore political system is to let the younger generation to grasp a better understanding about the importance for the ruling party to maximize its political legitimacy and people’s mandate to govern the country without much resistance from the ground (Singh, 2017). Nevertheless, the coverage of Social Studies excludes certain issues such as the drawbacks of the electoral system which is subject to the influence of the ruling party’s gerrymandering that it is difficult for the political opposition to gain a stronghold in the elections (Chua, 2004, 2017; K. Tan, 2017). Likewise the first time ever victory of an opposition party in a Group Representation Constituency as well as the relatively poor performance of the ruling party in terms of the lowest percentage of votes it gained since 1965 in the 2011 General Elections that was partly as a result of widespread discontents against major policy drawbacks such as a rapid influx of immigrants, a significant rise of housing prices, and also an overcrowded public transport system, are not covered in Social Studies (CPDD, 2016b). This gives an impression that the narratives presented in the subject is tilted towards the merits and interests of the ruling party without leaving much room for students to grasp a more comprehensive picture of Singapore’s political development also with
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reference to major opposition parties and their roles played in the country. It is regardless of the fact that it was not until May 2018, when it marked the commencement of the second half of the parliamentary term since the 2015 General Elections, that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong openly admitted for the first time ever the role played by the Workers’ Party to keep Singapore politics contestable (Seow, 2018). Such an one-sided narrative in favour of the incumbent government under the PAP, which is similar to the official version of “The Singapore Story” derived from the memoirs of the founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, actually stifles any other alternative interpretations of the development of Singapore’s nation-building which are considered to be weakening the ruling party’s political legitimacy in Singapore (Thum, 2013, 2017). Even though Social Studies is aimed at equipping students with critical thinking skills, some critics observed that students are not encouraged to develop alternative interpretations of the nation-building as they are deviant from the official narrative of “The Singapore Story” as a core component of the National Education programme (Han, 2017; Ho, 2010; Sim, 2011; Sim & Print, 2009). Some sensitive topics, which have been widely researched and discussed among academics, such as the detention of political opponents without trial between the 1960s and 1980s, the suppression of opposition parties with the use of legal means such as defamation lawsuits over years, the marginalisation of ethnic minorities in Singapore with special reference to the disadvantaged and underachieved Malays, and the growing problems of poverty and widened income and wealth gap in the Singapore society (Baildon & Afandi, 2017; Barr, 2014; George, 2017; Rahim, 1999; Teo, 2018; Thum, 2017), have been considered as political taboos which are rather neglected under the prevailing atmosphere of self-censorship and self- constrained freedom of political discussion. As a consequence, students are not interested nor able to comprehend these events and delve into how they would affect the nation-building and socio-political development of Singapore. Furthermore, it is possible for teachers to avoid touching upon those sensitive issues in order to avoid sparking off unnecessary debates and controversies which are not in line with the goals of the National Education programme (Baildon & Sim, 2009; Chua & Sim, 2017; Han, 2017; Ho, 2010). The subject and National Education programme thus give an impression that it is a mere political propaganda without enabling students enough room to be equipped with critical thinking skills and problem-solving ability (Teng, 2018). In summary, Social Studies is understandably tasked with an important function to cultivate the younger generation a sense of national identity and also patriotic feeling towards Singapore as a new nation which is still undergoing its nation- building process. Singaporean citizens are obliged to take up responsibility to defend the country against any kind of internal and external security threats and to give priority to communitarian and national interests that they are willing to make contributions to the survival of the new nation. Moreover, students are urged to enhance their awareness towards changes and challenges arising from globalisation and accelerated integration of Singapore into the global economy and more complicated geopolitical environment amidst the growing threats of transnational
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terrorism. Meanwhile, although students are taught the importance for them to take a more participative role in Singapore’s socio-political development, it is not to be done at the expense of their patriotic feeling and political allegiance. While major achievements accomplished by the government which resulted in great extent of trustworthiness and confidence to the ruling party and government are covered in details in Social Studies, it is noteworthy that some sensitive topics or so-called political taboos such as those related to the political opposition and racial differences in the Singapore society are deliberately omitted. While critical thinking skills are expected among students through the learning of Social Studies with the use of appropriate research skills, it is the omission of those sensitive or taboo topics that may hinder students’ ability to come with alternative perspectives and interpretations.
Conclusion This chapter has reviewed the development of Singapore’s upper secondary Social Studies curriculum as a major component of the ongoing National Education programme which was launched in 1997. Social Studies, together with History, Geography and Civic and Character Education, plays a vital role to cultivate in the younger generation a strong sense of national belonging together with strong commitment to contribute to the survival and well-being of the new nation which gained independence since 1965. Students are also expected to be more empathetic to the internal and external circumstances and constraints facing the small city-state of Singapore for policies being formulated and implemented by the PAP-led government with strong mandate and political legitimacy arising from strong supports gained from popular votes in various general elections over the past five decades. Moreover, students are also expected to grasp a better understanding about the core values and principles conducive to good governance upheld by the Singapore government, including racial harmony, anti-corruption, meritocracy, self-defence, and communitarianism. While the effectiveness of Social Studies as a school subject to strengthen students’ national identity and understanding about their own country is remarkable, there are concerns about its ability to nurture students’ critical thinking skills through the teaching of Social Studies for its framework of teaching and learning as well as the syllabus and textbook contents are largely determined and confined by the official interpretation of nation-building under the label of “The Singapore Story”. Research and analysis are largely done within the preset framework in line with the official version without much room left for alternative interpretations to be generated from other perspectives like those from political opposition and other non-officially endorsed sources of data and materials. In fact, being treated as a major means of disseminating the shared values underlying the National Education programme, it is without doubt the Social Studies subject cannot deviate from the mainstream discourse of understanding Singapore’s politico-socio-economic
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changes and developments that is under the government’s directives for the sake of protecting and preaching the political legitimacy of the ruling party without much coverage of all other opposition parties. The latest revision of Upper Secondary Social Studies curriculum and textbook is without doubt a clear attempt by the government to enable students to appreciate the government’s contributions for improving people’s livelihoods and successfully transforming Singapore as a First World country with tremendous praises directed to the founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew for his great statesmanship since the late 1950s until he passed away in March 2015. However, as what the latest review of National Education programme pointed out, instead of being perceived only as a means of official propaganda, students should also be allowed opportunities to discuss and reflect on contemporary issues and be educated with open-mindedness, critical thinking skills, and respect for different views and opinions arising from the course of citizenship education (Teng, 2018).
References Alviar-Martin, T., & Baildon, M. (2016). Context and curriculum in two global cities: A study of discourses of citizenship in Hong Kong and Singapore. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 24, 1–27. Baildon, M., & Afandi, S. (2017). The myth that a singular historical narrative moulds good citizens. In K. Loh, P. Thum, & J. Chia (Eds.), Living with myths in Singapore (pp. 29–39). Singapore, Singapore: Ethos Books. Baildon, M., & Sim, J. (2009). Notions of criticality: Singaporean teachers’ perspectives of critical thinking in social studies. Cambridge Journal of Education, 39, 407–422. Barr, M. (2014). The ruling elite of Singapore: Networks of power and influence. London: I.B. Tarius. Blackburn, K., & Hack, K. (2012). War memory and the making of modern Malaysia and Singapore. Singapore, Singapore: NUS Press. Chan, H. (1971). Singapore: The politics of survival, 1965–1971. Singapore, Singapore: Oxford University Press. Chia, Y. (2015). Education, culture and the Singapore developmental state: World-soul lost and regained? Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave/Macmillan. Chua, B. (1995). Communitarian ideology and democracy in Singapore. London: Routledge. Chua, B. (1997). Political legitimacy and housing: Stake holding in Singapore. London: Routledge. Chua, B. (2004). Communitarianism without competitive politics in Singapore. In B. Chua (Ed.), Communitarian politics in Asia (pp. 78–101). London: Routledge. Chua, B. (2017). Liberalism disavowed: Communitarianism and state capitalism in Singapore. Singapore, Singapore: NUS Press. Chua, S., & Sim, J. (2017). Rethinking critical patriotism: A case of constructive patriotism in social studies teachers in Singapore. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 37, 1–13. CPDD [Curriculum Planning and Development Division, Ministry of Education, Singapore]. (2016a). Social studies syllabus: Upper secondary. Singapore, Singapore: Ministry of Education. CPDD [Curriculum Planning and Development Division, Ministry of Education, Singapore]. (2016b). Upper secondary social studies. Singapore, Singapore: Ministry of Education. George, C. (2017). Singapore, incomplete: Reflections on a first world nation’s arrested political development. Singapore, Singapore: Woodsville News.
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Goh, C. (1997). Speech by prime minister Goh Chok Tong at the opening of the 7th international conference on Thinking on Monday, 2 June 1997, at 9.00 am at the Suntec City Convention Centre Ballroom. Singapore, Singapore: Ministry of Education. Gopinathan, S. (2007). Globalisation, the Singapore developmental state and education policy: A thesis revisited. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 5, 70. Gopinathan, S. (2015). Singapore chronicles: Education. Singapore, Singapore: The Straits Times Press. Goy, P. (2016). Revised social studies syllabus for secondary schools: Hot-button issues featured in textbook. The Straits Times, 6 January. Han, C. (2000). National education and ‘active citizenship’: Implications for citizenship and citizenship education in Singapore. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 20, 63–72. Han, C. (2017). The ‘myth’ of Singaporeanness: Values and identity in citizenship education. In K. Loh, P. Thum, & J. Chia (Eds.), Living with myths in Singapore (pp. 41–51). Singapore, Singapore: Ethos Books. Hill, M., & Lian, K. (1995). The politics of nation building and citizenship in Singapore. London: Routledge. Ho, L. (2010). “Don’t worry, I’m not going to report you”: Education for citizenship in Singapore. Theory & Research in Social Education, 38, 217–247. Ho, L. (2017a). Social harmony and diversity: The affordances and constraints of harmony as an educational goal. Teachers College Record, 119, 1–30. Ho, L. (2017b). Harmony and multicultural education in Singapore. In Y. Cha (Ed.), Multicultural education in global perspective (pp. 91–101). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. Lee, E. (2008). Singapore: The unexpected nation. Singapore, Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. Lee, H. (1997). Speech by BG (NS) Lee Hsien Loong, Deputy Prime Minister, at the launch of National Education at Television Corporation of Singapore (TCS) TV Theatre on Friday, 17 May 1997 at 9.30 am. Singapore, Singapore: Ministry of Education. Lee, K. (1998). The Singapore story: Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew. New York: Prentice Hall. Lee, K. (2000). From third world to first: The Singapore story – 1965–2000. New York: Prentice Hall. Lee, W. (2013). The development of a future-oriented citizenship curriculum in Singapore: Convergence of character and citizenship education and curriculum 2015. In Z. Deng, S. Gopinathan, & C. Lee (Eds.), Globalization and the Singapore curriculum: From policy to classroom (pp. 241–260). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. Lim, J. (2016). The political opposition and its protracted journey towards a two-party system. In J. Lim & T. Lee (Eds.), Singapore: Negotiating state and society, 1965–2015 (pp. 35–53). London: Routledge. Ministry of Education, Singapore. (n.d.). National education. Retrieved from https://ne.moe.edu. sg/ne/slot/u223/ne/index.html Quah, S. (1991). In search of Singapore’s national values. Singapore, Singapore: Institute of Policy Studies. Rahim, L. (1999). The Singapore dilemma: The political and educational marginality of the Malay community. Singapore, Singapore: Oxford University Press. Seow, B. (2018). Parliament: Workers’ Party has a role to play in Singapore’s political system: PM Lee. The Straits Times, 16 May. Sim, J. (2011). Simple ideological “dupes” of national governments’? Teacher agency and citizenship education in Singapore. In K. Kennedy, W. Lee, & D. Grossman (Eds.), Citizenship pedagogies in Asia and the Pacific (pp. 221–242). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. Sim, J., & Print, M. (2005). Citizenship education and social studies in Singapore: A national agenda. International Journal of Citizenship and Teacher Education, 1, 58–73. Sim, J., & Print, M. (2009). Citizenship education in Singapore: Controlling or empowering teacher understanding and practice? Oxford Review of Education, 35, 705–723. Singh, B. (2017). Understanding Singapore politics. Singapore, Singapore: World Scientific.
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Tan, C. (2017). Multiculturalism and citizenship. In O. Tan, E. Low, & D. Hung (Eds.), Lee Kuan Yew’s educational legacy: The challenges of success (pp. 127–137). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. Tan, E. (2012). Singapore: Transitioning to a “new normal” in a post-Lee Kuan Yew era. Southeast Asian Affairs, 2012, 265–282. Tan, J. (2008). Pulling together amid globalization: National education in Singapore schools. In P. Hershock, M. Mason, & J. Hawkins (Eds.), Changing education: Leadership, innovation and development in a globalizing Asia Pacific (pp. 183–197). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. Tan, J. (2010). Education in Singapore: Sorting them out? In T. Chong (Ed.), Management of success Singapore revisited (pp. 288–308). Singapore, Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. Tan, K. (2017). Governing global-city Singapore: Legacies and futures after Lee Kuan Yew. London: Routledge. Tarling, N. (2015). Singapore chronicles: colonial Singapore. Singapore, Singapore: The Straits Times Press. Teng, A. (2018). National education will adapt to global changes. The Straits Times, 6 March. Teo, Y. (2018). This is what inequality looks like. Singapore, Singapore: Ethos Books. Thum, P. (2013). The fundamental issue is anti-colonialism, not merger: Singapore’s “progressive left”, Operation Coldstore, and the creation of Malaysia. Asia Research Institute Working Paper Series, 211. Thum, P. (2017). Justifying colonial rule in post-colonial Singapore: The myths of vulnerability, development, and meritocracy. In K. Loh, P. Thum, & J. Chia (Eds.), Living with myths in Singapore (pp. 15–28). Singapore, Singapore: Ethos Books. Turnbull, C. (2009). A history of modern Singapore, 1819–2005. Singapore, Singapore: NUS Press. Worthington, R. (2003). Governance in Singapore. London: Routledge. Dr. Michael H. Lee (The Chinese University of Hong Kong) teaches in the Department of History in the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He formerly served as Instructor in the Department of Educational Policy and Administration of the Hong Kong Institute of Education, and Research Associate in the Comparative Education Policy Research Unit of the Department of Public and Social Administration, City University of Hong Kong. His publications cover education reforms, comparative education, privatisation in education, and globalisation. His latest book chapter ‘Upper Secondary Social Studies Curriculum in Singapore and National Identity’ was accepted for publication in Globalisation, cultural identity and nation-building: The changing paradigms (Springer, the Netherlands, 2020). (Email: [email protected])
Chapter 5
Cultural Identity in Russian Teacher- Training Textbooks: The Use of Vygotsky in Critiquing Cultural Mediation Anna Popova
Abstract The chapter reports on the research that sought to explore how pedagogical ideas get re-worked over time through published educational materials. Analysis is offered of teacher-training textbooks published in Russia in the period between 2000 and 2013, which was the second post-Soviet decade for Russia. This analysis is a follow-up of the research that examined the content and format of teacher- training textbooks published in the 1970s, 1980s in the Soviet Union and in the 1990s in the Russian Federation. The idea behind both projects was to analyse the change and continuity of pedagogical ideas over four decades and understand the ways in which pedagogical thinking presented in textbooks has reacted to the political, historical and cultural changes in the Russian State following the fall of Communism in 1991. The research presented in this chapter is guided by the cultural-historical concept of cultural mediation (Vygotsky LS, Mind in society (Cole M, John-Steiner V, Scribner S, Souberman E, eds). Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1978). From this theoretical perspective, the content of teachertraining text-books is considered as tertiary artifacts (Wartofsky MW, Models: representation and scientific understanding. Springer, Dordrecht, 1979) that are internalized and externalized by pre-service teachers. The chapter reports that the changes in the textbooks published from 1970s till 2000 were more linguistic than conceptual, whereas the changes detected in the textbooks published after 2000 are more substantial, and yet they are revealed subtly and intricately. The post-2000 textbooks reveal that that the narrative has reacted to the changes in society. Although new ideas are still enveloped in the same conceptual framework that was used in the 1970s–1990s, it is clear that the authors have begun thinking in different terms about the needs for education in Russia. I will present an initial framework of ‘dialogues’ that occur in the analysed narratives; a dialogue with the past, a dialogue with the West and a dialogue of Russian educators with other Russian educators.
A. Popova (*) Faculty of Education and Arts, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature B.V. 2021 J. Zajda, S. Majhanovich (eds.), Globalisation, Cultural Identity and NationBuilding, Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research 23, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-2014-2_5
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Keywords Cultural identity · Cultural mediation · Discourse analysis · Ideology · Socio-cultural theory · Teacher-training textbooks · Vygotsky
Research Focus This research journey started from an interest in the ways Russian teacher education reacted to the political changes of 1991 (the fall of the Soviet Union, and formation of the Russian Federation as a country set to move towards democracy). I was interested in the ways in which educationalists in Russia would deal with the Communist ideology and what they would replace it with. Research that was conducted in 2000–2002 examined teacher training textbooks that were published in 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. There was not much difference between the 1970s and 1980s textbooks. The analysis of the textbooks published after 1991 revealed that there were no changes in the conceptual framework, the ways in which pedagogical processes were viewed; the main change was the language of expression. The Communist jargon that was used in the 1970s and 1990s textbooks was replaced by the vocabulary that contained references to democracy, equality, pluralism, etc. At times, it was possible to find instances in the text where the Communist vocabulary was replaced by democratic vocabulary but the core of the sentence or paragraph was the same. The findings from the first study were concurrent with what found in his research of history textbooks used in Russian schools: Even in a context where the narrative accounts of the past seem to change radically, this underlying narrative template ensures a degree of continuity. The characters, events, and even the plot may appear to change in important ways, but the influence of this narrative template is present at a deeper level. (Wertsch, 2002, p. 113)
He also found that new textbooks were not written, instead the old texts were reworked to adapt to the new situation. In general, the inclusion of “new” information in post-Soviet textbooks raises a set of challenges to employment that have not yet been adequately resolved. Specifically, it raises problems for authors as they attempt to employ the same narrative template to grasp events together while at the same time including new events that have little place in it. As a result, it sometimes seems that new information has been dropped into a narrative with little consideration for how or whether it fits into the overall text. (Wertsch, 2002, p. 112)
The lingering effect of the narrative template is a curious phenomenon, especially because teacher education textbooks embody considerations of values, views and discourses that have the power to mediate important meanings to pre-service teachers. It is important to see whether the second decade following the fall of Communism in the former USSR has made a difference to the texts and the messages they mediate. The research aims to generate a theoretical insight into the ways in which macro processes impact on teacher education texts and develop an
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argument that will help educationalists critically analyse the reasons behind the ideas presented in the publications we offer pre-service teachers elsewhere in the world. Hence, this research asked the following research questions: • Has the narrative template identified in the analysis of the textbooks published in 1970–2000 lingered in the textbooks published after 2000? • What changes have been introduced in the narratives that encourage a dialogue with the changed political and social situation in Russia? The chapter begins with the presentation of the cultural-historical theory as the leading framework for the study. The methodology employed is explained. This is followed by the results of the analysis of the textbooks published between 1970 and 2000. The findings from the analysis of the textbooks published after 2000 are discussed. The concluding section of the chapter raises pertinent questions with regard to the historical value of education textbooks and their usefulness in providing an insight into the direction that society intended to follow. It also poses questions to educators elsewhere in the world about the meanings expressed in various texts offered in teacher education and responsibility that authors have to carry for framing the concepts in the ways that are most beneficial to education practices in those social contexts (Zajda, 2017; Zajda, Tsyrlina-Spady, & Lovorn, 2017).
Theoretical Approach I have selected a socio-cultural and historical theory (Vygotsky, 1978, 1986) in this study as the main theoretical lens to examine the textbooks, especially because of the strength of the concept of cultural mediation. The process of cultural mediation implies that the contact of the learner with reality happens through internalization of the mediating artefacts by gaining its meaning. This implies that the authors of the textbooks construct texts with an intention for pre-service teachers to gain particular meanings of what education is and what it should be like. Yet, mediated action also involves the process of externalization by means of which pre-service teachers will be able to interpret those meanings in certain ways and apply them accordingly. A typical mediating device is constructed by assigning meaning to an object and then placing it in the environment so as to affect mental events. It is important to remember that Vygotsky saw these tools for the self-control of cognition and affect as, above all, social and cultural. “Assigning meaning” and “placing in the environment” are not just individual acts. Rather, mediating devices are part of collectively formed systems of meaning and are products of social history. (Holland & Lanchicotte Jr., 2007, p. 110)
The way in which the meanings are presented (i.e. the form of the narrative might have stronger or weaker implications for particular externalizations) is important (Riessman, 1993). For example, the textbooks in the 1970s employed Communist jargon in sentences where it was not even needed, and by doing that strengthened the political message deemed important at the time. Hence, it is important to find
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out what kind of form of expression post-Soviet textbooks have resorted to, taking into account the uncertain political situation in Russia in the decades following the fall of Communist regime. Pre-service teachers, of course, are not necessarily involved in the on-going historical analysis of the meanings they internalize, and yet they are part of the process. As Jones (2008) asserted: Human social life, then, is conscious life. But the fact that human beings live a conscious life does not mean that they are immediately conscious of the origins of their consciousness and of their humanity, Because they act as conscious individuals, conscious of the role and position that the community allots to them, this does not mean that the historically developing logic of social organization and development is transparent to them. (Jones, 2008, p. 79)
This means that the meanings ‘hidden’ in the narratives of textbooks have the potential to exert power over pre-service teachers’ thinking. It is important to define what it is that the textbooks aim to convey to the future teachers. In Wertsch (2002) it was also found that the textbook narratives hold commitments to particular meanings: [the narrative texts] are important. Such accounts do not simply reflect different objective viewpoints to be accepted or not in a dispassionate way. Instead, they reflect strongly held commitments to a particular narrative account, commitments that are often masked by the tendency to think that our account simply relates what happened. (Wertsch, 2002, p. 9)
Thus, ideas and concepts formulated in the textbooks mediate particular meanings to pre-service teachers. Jones (2008) explained that the language used in a particular human activity (in the case of this research – education) rises from this activity, but it also organises and coordinates individual and collective action within that activity. In other words, the concepts pre-service teachers choose to employ in their work and use the corresponding language to explain their actions are powerful tools of developing education process in one way or another. “The meanings that individuals must use in the concrete circumstances of their lives do not come from a dictionary. Individuals must assimilate “ready” meanings, which come bearing all the traces of their previous uses” (Bakhtin, 1981, pp. 293–294, cited in Collins, 2008, p. 247). This means that it is extremely important to select ideas and concepts for educational texts that will help pre-service teachers to understand the contradictions in schools and society and improve education (in whichever ways suitable for that society at that time). In particular, the focus is on the times following one of the most powerful upheavals of society known to the twentieth century. The time following the collapse of the Soviet Union makes it, from the discourse analysis points of view, a more convenient context in which to conduct text analysis. As according to Volosinov (1986, p. 23 cited in Collins, 2008, p. 247) “inner dialectic quality of meaning comes fully in the open only in times of social crises or revolutionary changes”. Thus, the research presented in this chapter analyses both ‘what’ the narrative conveys, and ‘how’ it does it, thus enabling an investigation of the text as a mediating artefact (Riessman, 1993). Special attention in the analysis is paid to the meaning of context. According to Collins (2008), those who follow the tradition of cultural-historical theory, cannot
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rely on classic discourse analysis, such as, for example, the work by Norman Fairclough. The fundamental concepts of the cultural-historical theory require an understanding of the ways in which the text and the context are connected. Collins (2008) maintains that ‘the discourse is produced by the logic of evolving activity’: Precisely because the discourse is produced by the logic of evolving activity, its analysis will tend to reveal traces of that historical evolution and its twists and turns; moments of reconstitutions and realignment. These traces provide vital prompts to the researcher, who can begin from there to investigate, to reconstruct, and hopefully also concretely to grasp the historical evolution of the human activity from within, and out of, which particular uses of language emerged. (Collins, 2008, p. 248)
Discourse analysis within the cultural-historical tradition observe in which ways governments or other governing organizations organize speech for a particular reason, in order to mediate a particular message, most likely beneficial to those in power (Zajda, 2020a). Macro and micro-level processes are analysed as inter-related through the mediation process, which is localized and is contextually specific. For this research, it means that pedagogical concepts put forward by the authors of the state approved education textbooks carry power to re-construct social meanings of educating children in schools in Russia and create new visions that have not yet been explored in other contexts (Zajda, 2020b).
Methodology The selection process of the textbooks was one of the main aspects of the research process. Making use of the fact that higher education textbooks get approved by the Ministry of Education for publication and use, there were opportunities to select textbooks that are likely to be used in most education faculties in Russia. The same city, university and the university library were used as for the first study and the same principles of selection: • • • • •
locate textbooks in a University library that are used in large undergraduate units; check the numbers of how many students borrowed these textbooks. confirm with the course coordinator that these books are assigned to units. select introductory texts, where the narrative template is more likely to be visible. check the local book shop in case they have newer editions (as students are asked to buy newest editions, even if the library does not have it).
The study took place in the city of Perm, Russia at the Perm State Pedagogical University. The following textbooks where selected for analysis. The table below indicates how many copies the library held at the time of research and how many students borrowed the title in the last semester.
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*Bordovskaya & Rean 2011 Golovanova 2011 Podlasii 2004 *Slastenin 2011 *Tryapitsina 2013
A. Popova Copies in the library 4
How many times was borrowed in the past year 96
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Textbooks marked by * were also available from the local bookshop which is located on the same street as the University and is often used by the students. Although, this is not the University book shop, the library provides information to the bookshop about the books that are in demand. Interviews with the Chair of the Pedagogics department revealed that the selection of the textbooks was appropriate. These were used for first and second year students who had to take units on ‘pedagogics’. This means that students who are enrolled to study ‘Foreign languages’ in order to become a teacher of foreign languages will have take units such as “Introduction to Pedagogics” or “Pedagogics in Class”. These are units that introduce students to the fundamentals of education processes. Methodological choices were guided by the research questions and by the findings from the previous study of the Russian textbooks. This implied that there was a need to find out whether the narrative template was still present in the textbooks and also explore how the template was presented, i.e. if there were any references to the (then) current political and social situation. All the textbooks were analysed in the following way: • Content pages were analysed in terms of ‘what the chapters are about’ and in which order these chapters are presented. • Chapters were then analysed in terms of content, especially with the focus on theoretical concepts used to explain education processes. • Excerpts from the texts were stored in database 1, which classifies content in relation to research question 1: narrative template and ‘form of expression’ (ideological terminology with reference to political events or social values). • Excerpts from the texts were stored in database 2, which classifies content in relation research question 2 ‘dialogues’, i.e. references to particular historical events, political or social figures of authority, literature that was or was not used in the textbooks published before 2000 or other ideas that have not previously figured in the first study. Research question 1: Collected excerpts have been compared in terms of their similarity to the narrative template and the degree to which the definitions and explanations differed in the analysed textbooks. Research question 2: excerpts were grouped thematically, depending on what type of ‘dialogue’ was initiated or maintained by the authors.
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he Narrative Template (Analysis of Textbooks Published T in the 1970s and 2000) The research presented in this chapter is guided by the findings of the previous analysis of the education textbooks published between 1970 and 2000. The first part of this research was conducted in order to identify the change that has occurred in the official discourse as evidence in published education textbooks following one of the biggest political and social upheavals in the world in the twentieth century – the fall of the Soviet Union. The narrative template that was found to be the core of the content presented in the textbooks is explained in this section. Two textbooks from the 1970s (Kharlamov, 1979), two textbooks from the 1980s (Babanskii, Slastenin, & Sorokin, 1988; Boldirev, Goncharov, & Esipov, 1981) and four textbooks from the 1990s (Kalashnikova, 1997; Mudrick, 2000; Podlasii, 1996; Slastenin, Isaev, & Shiyanov, 1997) were analysed. The analysis demonstrated that all textbooks irrespective of the year of publication were grounded in the same narrative template. Two pedagogical terms were explained in detail and connected: vospitanie and lichnost. ‘Vospitanie’ (a process of upbringing and education) is understood as an educational process of socialization that engages individuals in value driven activities that aim to influence them in ways that seem appropriate by society at the time. ‘Lichnost’ (translated as personhood) is understood as a social system developed by an individual who has participated in societal activities ad developed ways of being and acting in that society. All the textbooks defined vospitanie in similar terms. All the authors see that vospitanie is a historical process that emerged with the humanity “it will exist as long as the human society is in existence” (Podlasii, 1996, p. 6). Podlasii (1996) and Slastenin et al. (1997) maintain that vospitanie shapes society, and then society creates new possibilities for vospitanie. The 1970s textbooks (Kharlamov, 1979; Polyanskii, 1972) contain similar definitions, although the emphasis is on the creation of the Soviet state and instilling communist values. Thus, all textbooks claim that individuals cannot escape vospitanie. It is everywhere. Yet, all the textbooks emphasize that educational institutions have a particular role to play in enacting the form of vospitanie required in certain social conditions. From that point of view, vospitanie is seen in these textbooks as an institutional activity that aims to cultivate certain values, opinions, political and moral views, and prepare children and young people for adult life. Kharlamov (1979, p. 7) quotes Krupskaya (1978): “Socialist school should go ahead of life in terms of shaping a new type of personhood – a personhood with communist morals and principles”. Alongside Krupskaya, other contributions to the Soviet concept of vospitanie get acknowledged (Lunacharskii, 1928; Makarenko, 1976; Shatskii, 1980; Suhomlinskii, 1981). The difference between Soviet and post-Soviet interpretations is in the ideological implication. Thus, these authors are referred to as Soviet educators, and in the post-Soviet textbooks these educationalists are acknowledged as contributors to the Russian educational heritage.
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In the analysed textbooks ‘lichnost’ or personhood is defined as a super-structure of higher mental functioning (Kharlamov, 1979) a social unit of society (Babanskii et al., 1988) or a coherent and interdependent social structure which develops through vospitanie (Slastenin et al., 1997). Personhood is not equal to agency or identity (the terms applied to the study of an individual in some English speaking publications). Personhood is a person and is part of society. Neither vospitanie or personhood are theorized in the West in the same ways they are theorized and practised in the former USSR. In Soviet times, Soviet vospitanie was aimed at producing a Soviet lichnost. Therefore, it was surprising that following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 and unfolding changes in education system did not change the theoretical dyad of ‘vospitanie’ – ‘lichnost’. It has to be noted that in the texts by Kalashnikova (1997), Mudrick (2000) and Slastenin et al. (1997) references to post-Soviet developments in the country are made. These authors include arguments about humanisation and individualisation of vospitanie. Hence, they acknowledge the need for an ideological change, as a means of moving away from treating everybody in the same way as was done in the Soviet times. In the case of vospitanie, the textbooks published in the 1990s include sections where the idea of individualisation of personhood is discussed separately. These sections explain the movement away from considering personhood only as a tool for the construction of communism towards discussing ways in which individual aspects of personhood could be developed through the process of vospitanie. These ideas were a response to the situation in the country. The emergence of a market economy created conditions, which made the lives of people in the former USSR very challenging (Jones, 1994; Kitaev, 1994). Mass redundancies and an overall transformation of industry contributed to unemployment that rose from 3.8 million people in 1992 to 7.5 million people in 2000 (Federal Statistics Service, 2006). Yet, despite the changes in the ‘form’ of the text, the underlying conceptual framework remained unchallenged. The narrative template in the teacher education textbooks published between 1970 and 2000 imply that pre-service teachers should learn knowledge and skills associated with leading an activity called vospitanie, which will impact on the development of personhood. Vospitanie is always ideological and personhood has social properties that are not always associated with the study of an individual. The narrative template has lingered over 30 years. The authors of the textbooks changed the ideological terminology associated with both concepts but the structural functioning but both concepts have retained their place in the theoretical framework favoured by the authors of the textbooks.
indings from the Analysis of the Textbooks Published F After 2000 Research Question 1 Has the narrative template identified in the analysis of the textbooks published in 1970–2000 lingered in the textbooks published after 2000?
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It can be confidently claimed that the narrative template of intricately connected concepts of vospitanie and lichnost has lingered in the teachers education textbooks published after 2000. All of the textbooks contain chapters dedicated to vospitanie. For example, Slastenin, Isaev, and Shiyanov (2011) include a whole section called ‘Vospitanie in the pedagogical process’. Tryapitsina (2013) also dedicated a whole section to vospitanie titled ‘Vospitanie’. Bordovskaya and Rean’s (2011) Chapter 2 is called ‘Vospitanie of a person’. Vospitanie is defined in ways that are very similar to the definitions provided in the textbooks published between 1970 and 2000. Slastenin and et al. (2011) define vospitanie as: […] the leading concept in pedagogics. Vospitanie is considered in two ways: broad and specific. The broad understanding of vospitanie is seen as a societal process that involves an impact that society produces on an individual. From this point of view vospitanie is almost similar to socialization. The specific meaning of vospitanie implies an intentionally organized activity of educators and those who are educated to meet the aims of an educational process. (Slastenin et al., 2011, p. 254)
Golovanova’s (2011) definition is also similar to the one provided in the textbooks published between 1970 and 2000. She states that: Vospitanie is a socially grounded process; it is defined by specific needs of society. Society ‘orders’ an ideal of personhood (lichnost) – a type of social order from the state education systems and parents who are citizens of this society. (Golovanova, 2011, p. 51)
Bordovskaya and Rean (2011), similarly to Golovanova (2011) include the term ‘lichnost’ in the definition (the term lichnost in the brackets has been added by the author for clarity). Vospitanie is one of the types of activity, which transforms a person or groups of people. This is a practice which aims at transforming the mind, worldview and consciousness, knowledge and ways of acting personhood (lichnost) and the main values of the person. (Bordovskaya & Rean, 2011, p. 33)
All the textbooks explain that personhood gets formed through the process of vospitanie. The concept of lichnost, though, does not get unpacked straight away. As it is a normal Russian word (e.g. what a great lichnost Checkov was!), the authors seem to weave the term into the narrative without dedicating separate sections or chapters just to lichnost. This is a difference from the pre-2000 textbooks. The existence of the concept of lichnost is not questioned. It is brought into the narrative as if the concept has been unpacked. By doing this the authors rely heavily on the dual notion of the work lichnost, and by doing that they create unusually complex and intricate connections between a more certain and well defined concept of vospitanie and an undefined but definitely present concept of lichnost. Examples of such narratives include: The content of vospitanie is specific experience of humankind, which constitutes the lichnost’s spiritual and moral world. (Tryapitsina, 2013, p. 130) In recent years vospitanie has been understood as a practical activity, which has meaning for the lichnost of the child; this is practice, within which each child develops their own ideas about society and societal issues, and their own role in societal processes. (Tryapitsina, 2013, p. 123)
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Podlasii (2004) who was writing earlier that the 2011 publications has a clearer definition than others and offers some certainty: A person is not born as a lichnost but becomes one in the process of development. The concept of “lichnost” is different from the concept of a ‘person’ because of a social characteristic of a human being that is formed under the influence of societal relations and interaction with other people. Lichnost is defined by the degree to which it has acquired societal experience, on the one hand, and to which it has contributed to the treasury of material and spiritual values, on the other hand. (Podlasii, 2004, p. 79)
The implied nature of the use of the concept of lichnost raises an important question of the reasons why the concept of lichnost has received less attention and why, in most textbooks, is not dealt with in the same was as vospitanie and in the same way as it was discussed in the pre-2000 textbooks. It can be argued that the definition of ‘personhood’ is very challenging and near impossible in the social context of post-Soviet Russia. There seems to be a lot of uncertainty about how to guide the process of vospitanie and what aims to set. The authors are not happy to accept terms of ‘development’ and ‘learning’ as the leading terms, the ways in which they are used in a number of education textbooks published in English (e.g. Duchesne & McCaughey, 2019; Woolfolk & Margetts, 2019). Yet, they do not seem to be able to release hold of the dyad between vospitanie and lichnost. The responses to the second research question can clarify this to a certain extent. Research Question 2 What changes have been introduced in the narratives that encourage a dialogue with the changed political and social situation in Russia? The initial reading of all the textbooks indicated that the authors deviated from the type of narrative that was used in the pre-2000 textbooks. The authors seemed to develop a form of a conversation with ‘others’. It seemed important to capture these kinds of references to particular events, names and ideas that had relevance to the historical and political changes in the country. The analysis has shown at least three thematic streams: a dialogue with the Soviet past, a dialogue with ‘foreign’ or ‘Western’ ideas and authors, and a dialogue with themselves (a form of internal deliberation). This section will describe and discuss these.
A Dialogue with the Soviet Past All the textbooks make implicit and explicit references to the Soviet past. A sense of nostalgia is created, but also a set of references against which to argue for a different educational framework is put forward. Golovanova (2011) acknowledges that in the Soviet times the role of vospitanie was linked to the political ideology. She claims that “there are still a lot of regrets in education about the loss of ideological orientations of the current vospitanie” (p. 51). She makes an interesting reference to
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Makarenko (1976) when discussing the principles of vospitanie (she mentions his name the same way she refers to Aristotle and Karl Jung, etc.). Makarenko was a famous Russian educator who helped a lot of homeless young people to get off the street at the beginning of the twentieth century. His methods in the light of the twenty-first century ethic may not be seen as appropriate in a number of situations (very strict discipline and punishments). His theory was practice-based and was a response to a difficult time for Russian homeless children, who needed protection but some preventative measure to keep them from engaging in crime again. It is interesting that Golovanova seems to be biased towards Makarenko’s ideas, even though in other parts of the text she emphasized methods that call for a very different ethic. Slastenin et al. (2011) make references to the Soviet past in order to formulate a set of new ideas, particularly with a focus on what he calls ‘humanistic vospitanie’. He posits that: Humanistic vospitanie is one of the progressive trend of the education process that has spread to Russia as well. Realisation of this trends made us reconsider the paradigm that was used in the past, that called for particular parameters of lichnost, in particular discipline, obedience, disposition to serve the society and collectivism. This was what was called the ‘social order’, on which Soviet education was based. (p. 257)
There does not seem any particular need in the text to bring up the past. In a way, suggesting that educations should develop good human beings does not necessarily need justification, and yet, the reference to the Soviet past is made. The very idea of focusing on a child as an individual is put forward as an argument against Soviet principles of education. The authors argue that it is paramount to move away from the practices of the past where children were treated as the same and begin to focus on each child as an individual. At times direct references to political events are made to show that the authors strongly believe in the need to break away from the past. For example, Slastenin et al. (2011) makes a reference to the document Vospitanie of the youth, which was first published in 1991 immediately after the fall of the USSR, and then was revised in 1996. The document claims that vospitanie has to develop individuals with “a heightened sense of dignity, a high level of self- conscience and highly developed competences” (p. 344). It is clear that these aspirations are put forward as a means to stay clear off any values that would remind of the values cultivated in Soviet people before, such as lack of dignity and State dependent conscience.
Dialogue with the West Golovanova (2011, p. 49) criticizes the actions of some of other education researchers for trying to diminish the importance of vospitanie. She claims that there is an attempt in Russia to promote ‘western’ views of education, and borrow mainly from the English language publications. She argues this is due to the fact that the English
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language literature does not use the term ‘vospitanie’, and since it is not used, she suspects an attempt to get rid of it in the Russian education literature. She strongly believes that vospitanie, both as a word and a phenomenon, is planted very firmly in the Russian mentality and culture. Golovanova (2011, p. 17) clarifies the differences between the Western concept of education, which she sees as accepting and emphasizing an independent aspect of a person’s development; vospitanie, on the contrary, she argues, comes from the word to ‘feed someone’, which from its very semantic origin implies a connection an individual has with others. There are some other more worrisome references to ‘Western’ educational thought, when discussing the issue of nature vs. nurture makes the following claim: In Western education moral values are deemed to be biologically based. People are considered to be born either kind or evil, honest or deceitful; the nature gives the person aggressiveness, cruelty and greed. (M. Montessori, K. Lorentz, E. Fromm and others) (p. 81)
The quote above makes references to non-Russian researchers without indication of particular publications. Yet, some of these names cannot possibly be associated with the idea of nature as the dominant factor in human development. The claim that these educators favoured nature over nurture is simply not true. Also, the very claim that all Western education tends to promote these ideas is of a concern, as it is an unfounded generalization. Another interesting reference is made by Golovanova (2011) to R. Steiner’s pedagogy. References to his work are included in the section called “Esoteric understanding of education”. Although Steiner’s work is always thought be an alternative to mainstream education, it is very curious that it is classed by Golovanova as esoteric. The term esoteric is narrower and more powerful than the term ‘alternative’. Tryapitsina (2013) describes ideas gained from ‘international documents’ as a positive example of what Russian education should aspire to. She claims that these documents (no reference to particular publications) advocate the following competencies: ‘learning to learn; learning to do; learning to live together and learning to live’ (p. 128). A reference then appears after a quote. This is a reference to a UNESCO report ‘Learning: The Treasure within’ published in 2007. The way a reference to these ‘international documents’ is framed linguistically is also important. It is presented as an argument that helps the author put forward an idea that general humanistic values are needed in current education, and these are the values that are promoted internationally. Yet, right after this section, she makes an unreferenced statement that does not appear to have a relation to these international documents or to any other publications. It is just a statement: Families are interested in a healthy, successful and educated person, which succeed in work and will find happiness in one’s own family. But this is a general definition. All families are different, and families struggle themselves to understand what their aims are. (p. 129)
Thus, the author travels in the space of two pages between a statement of certainty of what is valued elsewhere in the world, and that Russian education should follow it, to a point where she makes an unreferenced statement about what families need, and adds a sense of doubt to that statement immediately after. It is clear that
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the author is questioning what she has just claimed, and this is an opening for what I term in this research a ‘dialogue with oneself’, which will be unpacked in detail in the next section.
he Authors’ Dialogue with Themselves or Other T Russian Educators The most interesting finding from this research is that the authors of the textbooks published after 2000 is that the linguistic form the authors use create a lot of uncertainty. This is new for the teacher education textbooks. The textbooks published before 2000 had a form of expression that was full of certainty of what education should be like and how to conduct it. The way the uncertainty is weaved in to the narrative of the post-2000 textbooks is not explicit, i.e. the authors do not openly question issues or raise concerns. The uncertainty is revealed implicitly through contradictions within the text. There is an implicit attempt to combine the narrative template and some of the new ideas that seem appropriate to the current political situation. In particular, most of the authors claim that children should be educated in such a way that they cultivate values that they deem appropriate. They mention that a person should be freer and more in charge of the kind of values they choose to develop. Yet, without a fail, the authors attempt to provide lists of the kind of values that are needed. Examples of such internal contradictions in the reviewed textbooks are numerous, and below only a few examples are provided that showcase the points above. Textbooks by Slastenin et al. (2011) and Tryapitsina (2013) propose a dedication to the vospitanie that aims to give a person freedom to experience life and cultivate values that they deem more appropriate. Slastenin et al. call argue that “humanistic vospitanie aims to create conditions for self-development and self-realization of personhood in harmony with self and society” (2011, p. 258). They claim that vospitanie should promote freedom of choice. Later on page 346, these authors make a claim that vospitanie should cultivate the following values: “person, family, work, knowledge, culture, motherland, planet Earth, the World”. Not only some of these values are too general and too broad, but they also come as part of a list, which contradicts their earlier claim that vospitanie aims at cultivating freedom of choice. Tryapitsina’s (2013) text reveals a similar contradiction. She claims that “vospitanie is understood as an activity that aims to develop personhood; it is an organized practice, during which children form their own view of society and societal issues, and their own role in societal processes” (p. 123). She adds that a ‘child creates his or her own experience in the unity of cognition, emotions and behavior”. Then, in the next chapter she argues that children should develop through a collective. By a collective she means a group of children that spend a lot of time together, like for example, in the same class at school. When describing a collective and its possibilities for vospitanie, she makes references to Soviet educators’ work. She claims that
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a collective can influence a person by providing examples of desirable behaviours; by persuading and inspiring. The power she attributes to a collective is something that was prominent in the pre-2000 textbooks. The contradiction between a claim of a child’s independent choice and a child’s inseparability from a group of people is a sign that although the author sees the inevitability of an individualized education, the means by which to achieve those have not yet been discovered or accepted. Slastenin et al. (2011) make similar references to the importance of a collective and brings up quotes from the work of Makarenko. e.g. “children’s collective is a group of people who are united by the same societal values and mutual activity, that enables the collective to achieve them” (p. 332). The distinction between unity and separateness of an individual and a societal group (collective) is not framed in subtle terms. It is presented as certainty. Yet, the very co-existence of two very different ideas in the same textbook imply that the authors are in the process of taking decisions of how to formulate the needs of modern education within the framework of ideas that have been used for years. There is also a sense of defensiveness with regard to the need for collectivism in vospitanie. Slastenin et al. (2011) claimed that “The fundamental difference between Russian theory and practice of vospitanie from the foreign, predominantly individualistic education concepts, is in its adherence to collectivist ideas. Those who are against collectivism argue that the principles of collectivism are an attack at an individualization. Yet, the dialectic connection between the two is obvious.” (p. 327). Had this dialectic connection been presented in these terms in the textbooks, the internal dialogue in the text would have been less visible. But this is not the case.
Conclusions The ‘clinging’ to the narrative template is a curious phenomenon. The new ideas the authors are putting forward do not always fit into the narrative template. Yet, the structure of the book and some of the definitions remain the same as in the pre-2000 textbooks. The enveloping of the concepts in an ideological language is not as simple as it was in the textbooks published in the 1990s. It does not seem to be possible any longer to simply reject the past and say that we will do things differently. The dialogue with the past is still present but not as powerful. What gathers momentum is the dialogue with ideas that are ‘borrowed’ from the West, which is a sign of growing globalisation trend in Russian higher education (Zajda, 2016), and also an attempt to compare Russian education to educations systems elsewhere. More importantly, though, it is a dialogue that the authors have with other Russian educators or an internal dialogue that they are engaging with themselves that takes precedence. Despite a well acknowledged trend in education in Russia and elsewhere in the world that education systems try to move away from ‘learner-centered curriculum to economy-centered, human capital- oriented vocational training’ (Zajda, 2007 cited in Zajda & Rust, 2016, p. 181), the authors of the reviewed textbooks do not appear to follow this trend in the narratives. All of the post-2000 textbooks
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promote the idea of humanistic education that is designed to cultivate in a person generally human values. There is an overemphasis on collectivism as well, which stands in contrast to individualization ideas that these authors also emphasize, thus creating an internal dissonance in the text. The textbooks analyzed here come across as if the answers are there but the in- text contradictions and an in-built template do not allow for the issues to be visibly perceived as contentious. It feels as though the authors do not allow themselves to write their own theory of education that they perceive is the most appropriate for the current situation. Some new ideas are woven, in intricate and subtle ways, into the narrative template. The authors attempt to ‘picture’ a new person for new Russia. They envelop the discussion of personhood in terms that imply ‘choice’ and freedom, but no alternative conceptual framework is being offered to support the emergence of this new psychological prototype. Also, the very intention of personhood prototype is fraught with the danger of repeating the template of ‘personhood production’, more typical of the ideology promoted in the USSR. Another interesting thing seems to have happened – the narrative template has changed its role. In the textbooks published at the end of the 1980s and in the 1990s the template was used as a frame upon which to present a changing ideology. In the textbooks published after 2000, the template seems to be used a cover up for the ideas that have to be presented. On the surface, these are still the same textbooks about vospitanie and lichnost, but within the familiar structure lie hidden messages; different educational frameworks emerge in the textbooks, e.g. a bias towards humanistic education in Slastenin et al. (2011) and a bias towards a ‘relational pedagogy’ in Tryapitsina (2013). These are not yet fully defined, and not enveloped in necessary referenced research and yet, they push at the boundaries of what has been accepted for so long. A question that seems lingering is whether these textbooks aim to cultivate critical thinking in pre-service teachers. What is clear the concepts that have been mediated to pre-services teachers reflect the uncertainty of the situation in which pre-service teachers live; a historical process of reimagining citizenship is underway. This can be related to Andreev’s (2012) analysis of modernization of education in Russia. He refers to it as ‘negative modernization’, by which he implies a presence of ‘social tension’ (p. 69) – coexistence of a formal plea for modernization and implied resistance or even opposition to it. Andreev claims that “[…] today’s educational reforms in Russia are essentially drawn up in the manner of pure orgproektirovanie [organizational and workplace planning – a disdainful reference to Soviet-era management] and have virtually nothing to do with the specific social and cultural conditions in the country” (pp. 69–70). Analysis presented in this chapter is slightly more optimistic. The internal dialogues have the potential to mediate to pre-service teachers a sense of curiosity and criticality, which Russia, undoubtedly needs in order to improve its education. It is understandable that creating a radically different theoretical framework is not supported by the current policy trend; yet, the authors are planting seeds for a different educational narrative space.
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Slastenin, V. A., Isaev, I. F., & Shiyanov, E. N. (2011). Pedagogika [Pedagogics]. (2nd ed.). Pedagogicheskoe obrazovanue. Academia. Suhomlinskii, V. A. (1981). Vospitanie kollektiva [Vospitanie of the collective]. Moskva: Prosveshenie. Tryapitsina, A. (2013). Pedagogika [Pedagogics]. San-Petesburg, Russia: Peter Press. Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society (M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner, & E. Souberman, Eds.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Vygotsky, L. S. (1986). Thought and language (A. Kozulin, Ed., & Trans.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. (Original work published in 1934). Wartofsky, M. W. (1979). Models: Representation and scientific understanding. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. Wertsch, J. (2002). Voices of collective remembering. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Woolfolk, A., & Margetts, K. (2019). Educational psychology (4th ed.). Frenchs Forest, Australia: Pearson. Zajda, J. (2007). Reforms in higher education. European Education, 39(2), 20–36. Zajda, J. (2016). Reforms in higher education in the Russian Federation: Implications for equity and social justice. In J. Zajda & V. Rust (Eds.), Globalisation and higher education reforms (pp. 149–159). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. Zajda, J. (2017). Globalisation and national identity in history textbooks: The Russian Federation. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. Zajda, J. (2020a). Discourse analysis as a qualitative methodology. Educational Practice and Theory. (in print). Zajda, J. (2020b). National identity and patriotism in prescribed history textbooks: Secondary teachers’ responses. Curriculum and Teaching. (in print). Zajda, J., & Rust, V. (2016). Research in globalisation and higher education reforms. In J. Zajda & V. Rust (Eds.), Globalisation and higher education reforms (pp. 179–189). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. Zajda, J., Tsyrlina-Spady, T., & Lovorn, M. (Eds.). (2017). Globalisation and historiography of national leaders: Symbolic representations in school textbooks. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. Anna Popova is senior lecturer in the Faculty of Education and Arts at the Australian Catholic University (Melbourne Campus). She has published a number of book chapters and articles in international outlets. Her latest book chapter ‘Cultural identity in Russian teacher-training textbooks: The use of Vygotsky in critiquing cultural mediation’ was accepted for publication in Globalisation, cultural identity and nation-building: The changing paradigms (Springer, the Netherlands, 2020). Email: [email protected]
Chapter 6
Embodied Identity Making and Bilingual Digital Storytelling in a Virtual Space Zheng Zhang, Le Chen, and Zhen Lin
Abstract Engaging interview data and netnographic data, this chapter explores the affordances of material-informed netnography in researching biliteracy learners’ identity making in virtual spaces. Undergirded by New Materialism, this research challenges traditional interviewing that relies heavily on descriptive language representations of youth’s identity construction. Instead, this research focuses on Canadian and Chinese biliteracy learners’ embodied identity making through cross- border digital story-making in virtual spaces. Findings reveal biliteracy learners’ relationship-building with non-human animals, materials, and spaces in the processes of meaning making and identity construction. Findings and discussions also relate the affordances of the material-informed netnography in documenting and analyzing the focal participants’ moment-by-moment transformation in thinking, meaning making, and becoming. Keywords Biliteracy learners · Cognitive engagement · Cultural identity · Digital storytelling · Globalisation · Identity · Identity construction · Multiliteracies · Netnography · Online biliteracy curriculum · Self-transformation · Virtual biliteracy
Z. Zhang (*) Faculty of Education, The Western University, London, ON, Canada e-mail: [email protected] L. Chen Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, The University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada e-mail: [email protected] Z. Lin Department of Language and Literacy Education, Faculty of Education, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature B.V. 2021 J. Zajda, S. Majhanovich (eds.), Globalisation, Cultural Identity and NationBuilding, Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research 23, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-2014-2_6
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Context Against the backdrop of increasing global mobility and rapid technological updates, literature that explores the interwovenness of identity, language, and culture abounds. Scholarship bordering on the multiliteracies stream is a key example (The New London Group, 1996). Multiliteracies is a product of considerable theorizing and researching over decades, fraternizing interdisciplinary areas of cognitive behaviourism, psycholinguistics, cultural psychology, anthropology, and literacy education. Scholars in the field specify their manifesto to support ‘civic pluralism’ in which differences among people in language, culture, and identity were viewed as a resource for a more robust and inclusive society (Serafini & Gee, 2017, p. 7). Inscribed in the manifesto is the acknowledgement of subjectivities behind meaning making (Rowsell & Burgess, 2017). The last two decades have witnessed the scholarly turns in the exploration of identity, culture, and literacy. Moje and Luke (2009), for example, contend that identity and literacy research should move beyond “simple admiration for or celebration of the many ways that people write, speak, or read themselves into the world” (p. 434). They therefore recommend future research that links identity and deep learning. Besides, Zhang, Nagle, McKishnie, Lin, and Li’s (2019) systematic literature review on multiliteracies studies identifies a few studies published from 2006 to 2015 that addressed the connections between identity enactment and cognitive engagement and calls for more relevant studies on literacy and identities (e.g., Ajayi, 2011; Brock, Pennington, & Ndura, 2012; Kendrick, Early, & Chemjor, 2013; Ntelioglou, 2011). Further, the field has moved on and recently witnessed a socio-material turn on literacy that accentuates the agency of human and non-human (e.g., material, animals, and context) in co-constructing meanings (e.g., Kuby & Rowsell, 2017; Smythe et al., 2017). Responding to the paradigmatic turn in literacy education, in this project we attended to the in-the-moment becoming (Rowsell & Burgess, 2017) of Canadian and Chinese biliteracy learners aged 11–15 when they inter-acted with materials, virtual spaces, and humans in the Seesaw and Skype platforms to create their digital stories. In this project, the researchers worked closely with Mandarin and English language teachers and students and co-developed a cross-border online biliteracy curriculum that connected six Canadian biliteracy learners (i.e., learners in Canada who speak the heritage language of Mandarin but are more fluent in English) and seven Chinese biliteracy learners (i.e., learners in China who are fluent in Mandarin but learning English as a foreign language). We set up two virtual platforms on Seesaw and Skype for these learners to converse and collaborate to create their own digital stories. In this chapter, we ask: What are the affordances of material-informed netnography in investigating biliteracy learners’ identity enactment in the cross-border, online biliteracy project?
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Theoretical Framework In this chapter, we attend to biliteracy learners’ perceptions of their identity formation that they expressed in Seesaw postings, Skype meetings, and interviews. We also look at how their identity options were expanded or constrained by the social practices in the cross-border, online biliteracy project. Moje and Luke (2009) categorize five types of identity that are present in prior literacy research: identity as difference, identity as sense of self/subjectivity, identity as mind or consciousness, identity as narrative, and identity as position. Identity as difference refers to the prevailing discourses in which identity is conceptualized, such as national, raced, ethnic, linguistic, and cultural identities. Identity as sense of self/subjectivity is concerned with the processes of how identities and subjectivities come to be. Identity as mind or consciousness positions literacy practices as a tool to enhance higher levels of consciousness and potentially indicates that certain literate skills are associated with “a lower level of consciousness” (p. 426). The category of identity as narrative concerns stories about the evolvement of subjectivities and the recognition of others. Identity as position highlights the development of selves through social positioning in everyday discourses, spatial arrangements, texts, or other media. We specifically asked biliteracy learners in the interviews about their perceptions of identity transformation after they were involved in the project for a few months. Moje and Luke’s (2009) categorization of identity helped shed light on students’ identity perceptions and our observation of their identity construction and negotiation. The differentiation also helped us to identify perceptions of identity that are about static, fixed discourses (e.g., nationality, race, ethnicity, language, and culture) and those that foreground the dynamic becoming of biliteracy learners. Informed by the socio-material turn of literacy, we also focus on biliteracy learners’ identity becoming through their intra-actions with materials and social spaces (e.g., Kuby & Vaughn, 2015; Rowsell & Burgess, 2017). Different from the notion of “interaction” that assumes pre-existing, separate individual agencies, we draw on the notion of intra-action to emphasize “the mutual constitution of entangled agencies” (Barad, 2007, p. 33). In other words, we see that biliteracy learners’ agencies were produced in the entanglement of meaning makers, materials, and their contexts. Scholars in literacy focus their gazes upon the moment-by-moment transformation of subjectivities and learning. Hackett and Somerville (2017) draw on the concept of “ongoing becoming” between younger learners and the more-than-human world and argue that meaning and world constantly emerge, for which we would add that subjectivity, meaning, and world transform simultaneously. Leander and Boldt (2013) describe meaning making activity as ‘living its life in the ongoing present, forming relations and connections across signs, objects, and bodies in often unexpected ways’ (p. 22). Instead of the representational approach of literacy education that focuses on rational control of meanings and forms, Leander and Boldt (2013) looked at affect and emotion that saturate the process of meaning making. In this vein, Boldt and Leander (2017) disturb the human-centered agency in younger meaning makers and explore the presence of human-non-human assemblages in
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shaping the various becomings of the meaning makers. Besides, Kuby and Vaughn (2015) specifically focus on meaning makers’ shifting identities in their multimodal creation and recommended curricular and pedagogical spaces for younger children to re/negotiate identities. In this study, we focus on the enacted agency through biliteracy learners, language teachers, researchers, multimodal materials, and virtual spaces. On the one hand, we acknowledge learners’ agency of “acting on their thoughts, talk, multiple modes, materials and ideas to produce literacy artefacts” (Kuby & Vaughn, 2015, p. 457). For example, the biliteracy learners’ decisions about choices of modes, media, materials, languages, and plots for their digital story creation. We attend to how biliteracy learners “mediated their identities” onto their digital story creation at various stages (Rowsell & Burgess, 2017, p. 79). On the other hand, our analysis also embraces the co-constructive agency of modes, media, materials, languages, and contexts in shaping how learners use them (Kuby & Vaughn, 2015). In line with Rowsell and Burgess (2017), we also accentuate the mutual configuration of individual and collective in the process of designing and meaning making. Through viewing and analyzing students’ processes of multimodal designing, we intend to explore how “individuals are changed; their work makes a contribution to the social world, which then reflects back to the individual” (p. 77).
Project Design Methodology This research used an established approach of netnography to explore the social networking spaces on Seesaw (an educational app for student-driven digital portfolios) and Skype (a popular telecommunications application). Collectively, the research team, language teachers, and biliteracy learners built the virtual spaces for biliteracy learners in Canada and China to develop their biliteracy and new media literacies skills. Connecting the “Internet” and “ethnography”, netnography allows researchers to “explore and explain rich, diverse, cultural worlds” online (Kozinets, Dolbec, & Earley, 2014, p. 262). As a social media platform for learners to document their digital portfolios, Seesaw allowed for Canadian and Chinese student participants’ asynchronous intra-actions while they were geographically dispersed in Canada and Mainland China. Skype otherwise provided opportunities for synchronous intra-actions. We concur with Kozinets et al. (2014) that to gain a situated cultural understanding of the social networking spaces, merely focusing on descriptive postings online would not suffice. Therefore, throughout the researching process, we attended to “multiform communicative connectedness” and followed “multiple links to multiple sites and postings” to understand their identity construction in the virtual cultural worlds (p. 264). To be more specific, we engaged in collecting multiple forms of data (e.g., audio, visual, and written forms of human
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intra-actions) on both Seesaw and Skype at various stages of students’ digital story creation. We also attuned to the “in-the-moment impressions and experiences” (Kozinets, Dolbec, & Earley, 2014, p. 268) on Seesaw and Skype. The moment-by- moment experiences constantly informed our collective curricular decision-making about the ensuing steps of the collaborative digital storytelling. In this paper, we also disturbed the “centrality of individual and group practices” in Internet inquiries (Markham, 2018, p. 656). The affordance of the netnography approach as “a flexible, responsive methodology, sensitive to emergent phenomena” enabled us to see how the human practices, social relations, and identity formation were facilitated by the capacities of the online platforms and apparatuses (Boellstorff, Nardi, Pearce, & Taylor, 2012, p. 6). The project lasted about 4 months from February 13 to June 6, 2019. With the researchers’ and Mandarin and English teachers’ support, the six Canadian biliteracy learners and seven Chinese biliteracy learners networked virtually to create their individual or collective digital stories from scratch, such as creating storyboards, brainstorming plots, scaffolding the bilingual scriptwriting, shooting individual scenes, and editing the final digital stories. The mutual support took place in asynchronous sharing on Seesaw and synchronous meetings on Skype. All the students also participated in one-on-one interviews in late May and early June about their experiences in the cross-border, biliteracy project. In this chapter, we drew on data about three focal participants (Amelia, Chloe, & Kenna) to shed light on their in-the-moment identity enactment (See Table 6.1 for a summary of the focal participants’ profiles). Data sources include: three interview transcripts with individual focal participants, elicited postings from Seesaw intra- actions, and transcripts of 12 Skype video conferences. Though coming from different geographic regions, the three participants voluntarily chose to create a collaborative digital story. All the three participants that we include in this paper chose to use their real first names in Seesaw and Skype. Nevertheless we used pseudonyms to report findings.
Data Analysis Our data analysis was “concurrent” with data collection (Miles, Huberman, & Saldaña, 2014, n.p.). Our continuous analysis of “in-the-moment impressions and experiences” (Kozinets, Dolbec, & Earley, 2014, p. 268) on Seesaw and Skype drove data collection processes and informed our curriculum decision-making about Table 6.1 A summary of focal participants’ profiles Pseudonyms Amelia Chloe Kenna
Age 11 13 13
Country of residence China Canada Canada
Self-identified mother tongue Mandarin English/French Mandarin
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what would happen next in the cross-border collaborative digital storytelling. This is in line with Kozinets et al.’s (2014) recommended netnographic convention of “ethnographic timing”, that is, to ensure “messages and posts are experienced, read, interpreted, and analyzed in real-time, as they become available”, instead of wait until data collection is done (p. 270). The Principal Investigator Zheng led all the Skype meetings and attended to the nuances of the cross-border, biliteracy program. She conducted the first cycle coding and initially summarized segments of data with possible deductive themes in line with our theoretical lenses on identity (Miles et al., 2014, n.p.). The second and third authors Le and Zhen did the second cycle coding together to ensure inter-coder reliability. They traversed across multiple sources of data (e.g., three focal participants’ interview data, multimodal artifacts [storyboards, step-by-step animation creation, music editing, audio recording and editing] shared on Seesaw, and Skype meeting transcripts). Our discussions and debates about data analysis centred around the networks, connections, and overlaps among deductive and emerging inductive themes.
indings Illustrated Through Biliteracy Learners’ Creative F Digital Story-Making In this section, we present data that emerged in the three focal biliteracy learners’ creative digital storytelling and engaged these data with the findings from the interviews to shed light on the affordances of material-informed netnography in investigating biliteracy learners’ identity enactment.
inguistic/Verbal Representation of Selves and Identities L as Communicated in Interviews Interview data show that student participants’ verbal representations portrayed identity as fixed and static regarding their nationalities, ethnicities, and native languages. First of all, when asked about the effects upon their identity transformation after being involved in the project for a few months, Chloe’s and Kenna’s verbal representations of identity reflected static/fixed categories (e.g., ethnicity, nationality and native language) that students used to conceptualize their identity. This finding reflects Moje and Luke’s (2009) category of identity as difference where prevailing discourses often shape identity in static, fixed categories, such as nationality, race, and linguistic and cultural identities. Heath and Street (2008) also argue that people tend to associate ‘culture’ with their associated ‘societies’ which are often seen as synonymous with nation, racial group, religion or ethnicity. In the students’ responses, Chloe and Kenna, both living in Canada, framed their identity
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as per birth origin or nationality. While Chloe identified herself as ‘Canadian’ on the ground that she was born in Canada, Kenna identified herself as ‘Chinese’ given that she was born in China before her immigration to Canada with her family at a younger age. Therefore, when asked if they identified any impacts of participation in this project upon their perceptions about identities, both Kenna and Chloe replied with a “No” because the birth origin is an unchangeable fact for them. Kenna expressed, “I guess my identity was the same”, and “I feel like I was born in China … if someone asks ‘what’s your nationality’ I guess I’d say yeah I’m Chinese”. Chloe stated “I’m basically Canadian. I mean it [the project] didn’t really change my opinion about how I am Canadian like I am Canadian cause I was born in Canada.” Both Chloe and Kenna showed hesitance in their responses to the identity question, which was evident in their pauses and requests for Zheng’s clarifications about what identity means in the interviews. These uncertainties signal the difficulty that they experienced in searching for the meaning of identity. For instance, after Chloe initially identified herself as “basically Canadian”, she went on and said, “But uh I guess I can say that, well, after like communicating more with like actual Chinese, well, I think that I can actually relate to them [Chinese people] a bit more than I relate to Canadian people. So um because we have like this… this um like similar cultural, uh things, like 习惯 [a Mandarin word for ‘habits’ or ‘customs’].” As a result, she concluded that “I can say that I am Canadian but … my background is more like Chinese.” Likewise, although Kenna identified herself as “Chinese”, she stressed that she had always been “halfway” because “I have friends in China, I have friends in Canada. So, I feel like I was like connected.” This “halfway” feeling is common among Generation 1.5 or 2 who often find themselves aligned with a “third space” (Kramsch, 1993, 2009), a notion that refers to an in-between space concerning their country of origin and immigration. These utterances suggest uncertainties and fluidity in the participants’ perceptions of identities. All in all, though certain interview utterances of the focal participants illuminate the fluidity and in-betweenness of their identities, their verbal representations of their identity formation were mainly shaped by prevailing discourses that framed themselves as national and raced beings.
ross-Border Travel of Cultural Knowledges C and Transnational Identities Phillips and Bunda (2018) contend that across the globe, “storytelling enables connection with the other” (p. 10). Through the intimate connections with their global peers, the three focal participants named themselves “the Cat Lords” in their pursuit of the Cat Bacon’s story. The netnographic data show how the Cat Lords’ transnational identities shaped their sharing of cultural knowledges across borders. Participants’ sharing of cultural knowledges about China and Canada occurred in the girls’ synchronous Skype discussions and their creation of the cross-border
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immigration story of the Cat Bacon. In their story, Bacon was immigrating from China to Canada with her owner. When developing the story plot, the girls discussed what differences between China and Canada that Bacon would experience in the cross-border travelling. Living in Hangzhou, China, Amelia was not familiar with how malls look like in Canada. In one of their Skype meetings (Skype meeting on March 15, 2019), Kenna shared with Amelia her observations of differences between China and Canada: “For the cat, maybe China has really tall apartments, and Canada has, you know, houses, generally. So it could be a change. It doesn’t have to be positive or negative; it is just a discovery”. The three girls shared their cultural knowledges and compared their perceived differences in mall infrastructure and environment. This was later confirmed in Amelia’s interview with Zheng, when Amelia reckoned that she learned “How Canada looks like” from the girls in Canada. Kenna also appreciated the opportunity to learn about cultures in her online communications with peers and stated, “because like me and Chloe are in Canada, right, and then Amelia is in China, I feel like just like communicating with them, I’ve learned a lot about the cultures.” A snapshot from the Skype meeting on March 28, 2019 provides a glimpse of the girls’ cross-border cultural knowledge exchanges. Excerpt 6.1 The three girls talked about differences between China and Canada based on Kenna’s drawing, Skype meeting, March 28, 2019 [Kenna shows her paper-based drawing of the Cat Bacon to her peers and ZHENG.] (see Fig. 6.1). Kenna: Amelia, you can see it from here. ZHENG: Oh, with the scarf! Is that when Bacon just arrived in Canada? Kenna: Uh? ZHENG: Is that when Bacon just arrived in Canada? Kenna: Yes, because Canada’s climate is colder than China’s.
Fig. 6.1 Kenna showing her drawing of Bacon with a scarf in the Skype meeting
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ZHENG: That’s another thing we need to talk about very quickly: what is the time frame? If you say it is cold in Canada, will it be, which month of the year? Chloe: December? Christmas time, I guess? ZHENG: OK, Christmas time? Sounds great! Amelia, are you still there? Amelia: Yes. Chloe: Oh but if it is Christmas time, the only thing that the cat can go is all by itself…everywhere freezing, oh my god! Kenna: I wonder if we can change to fall, maybe? ZHENG [laughs]: Fall will be fine. Still you need the scarf. Chloe: I think spring is the easiest one as we represent, because trees are green and usually a lot of flowers, you know. Kenna [laughs]: Yes. ZHENG: OK, so… Chloe [interrupts]: Oh, but isn’t it like…Canada’s (maple leaf) is really nice, so we can do it as fall. And we can show the different colors of the trees. Kenna: Oh yes! ZHENG: Yes, I love that! It is kind of the symbol of Canada, right? Chloe: Yes, it’s a kind of fun, Uwu! ZHENG: Yes, great! So Amelia, what do you think? Do you think October would be a good time? [Amelia nods and agrees.] In the meeting, the girls drew on their situated sociocultural knowledges to decide the temporal and spatial nuances of Bacon’s immigration: Hangzhou (as suggested by Amelia) and Toronto (as suggested by Kenna and Chloe). They agreed to use airports (decorated with national flags) to represent Bacon’s cross-border travel. Excerpt 6.1 shows how they embodied their cultural knowledges and selves in many details in their creation, including infrastructure design (e.g., houses in Canada versus tall apartment buildings in China) and climate differences. Amelia hasn’t been to Canada. Therefore, the intra-actions with her Canadian peers enabled her to have a better understanding of Canada and the pertaining cultures. However, in Chole’s and Kenna’s views, their global connectedness was not facilitated by this project per se, but by their prior family immigration experiences and their relative and friend ties in both China and Canada. For example, Chloe said, “as someone who literally just travelled to China a while ago, then I wouldn’t think that the project helped me that much because I think my family in China helped me more of like what is like the subject right now”. Kenna was also unsure of the impact of the project on her global connectedness because she felt “I’ve always been like…I have a lot of friends in China. I guess I was also like connected to them, I guess.” Grounded on netnographic data from Skype meetings about what the collaborative meaning making looked like, findings shed light on how the three participants’ fluid transnational identities affected the ways their cultural knowledges traversed borders. However, no interview data revealed that the cultural knowledge exchanges in this project dialectically shaped their senses of selves.
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iliteracy Learners Reconfiguring the Sociocultural World B of the Social Media Networking Sites While Experiencing Their Becoming Rowsell and Burgess (2017) posit that “Through the process of designing multimodal projects, individuals are changed; their work makes a contribution to the social world, which then reflects back to the individual” (p. 77). In our study, findings from interviews and Skype meetings reveal how the intra-actions between human and non-human entities on the two social media networking sites (Seesaw and Skype) constantly shaped the three participants’ becoming and, in turn, enabled their reconfiguration of these social media spaces. The Cat Lords’ collective story telling helped reconfigure the collaborative nature of cross-border, biliteracy project. While most of the project participants chose to create their own individual digital stories, the Cat Lords decided to create digital storytelling collectively. In their collaboration, the Cat Lords discussed the plot of “Bacon’s Adventure” in Skype meetings, then each wrote up a scene in English and translated it to Mandarin after confirming the English script. In the animation stage, they coordinated the tasks of sketching, line art, and colouring for each scene. Both interview and netnographic data show that acting as the protagonists in the biliteracy curriculum making helped nurture agentic collaborations among the girls. The three girls celebrate their voices in making decisions about what stories to tell and how to tell them. They worked together through synchronous Skype and asynchronous Seesaw intra-actions to design story elements (e.g., cat’s name/gender, cat’s breed, owner’s name/gender, locations, and the plot), digital drawings, and animation creation. During the interview, Kenna commented that “the boundaries the project gave us were really broad, so like we could like choose like kind of whatever we want, I guess, so it was really cool”. Chloe also stated, My role is a student, but that has more freedom than normal student that goes to school because well, in school normally, when you have a like project to do, you have like a really specific way of making your project for example. For example, maybe the teacher wanted you to make a story but then you are forced to. In this project, while using Seesaw and all that, I guess I have more freedom to do whatever I was comfortable with.
The netnographic data demonstrate that the Cat Lords were respectful and supportive of one another. These competent and resourceful plurilingual speakers code- switched between Mandarin and English and acted as interpreters for other global peers in the Skype meetings. In particular, both Chloe and Kenna mentioned that they improved or expanded their Chinese expressions and vocabulary through this project. For instance, Chloe perceived her growth in Chinese vocabulary in her statement that “I feel like talking with like Chloe and Amelia has really helped increase my vocabulary in Chinese specifically because I’m not that great in Chinese.” Kenna commented on the importance of reflections on peers’ written texts in her own language learning: “When I looked at what Amelia and Chloe
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wrote, sometimes I would be like stumped, oh, how would I translate this or how do I write this without making it sound awkward?” Naming themselves artists, the Cat Lords’ collaborative digital meaning making also resulted in increased engagement in the virtual learning spaces. In the interview, Chole shared that “Amelia and Kenna are both artists basically. So then I think we can relate to each other more and made us have another way of communicating, which is from art.” Likewise, Kenna mentioned, “We all like drawing, so we could do something drawing-based … I guess because I like drawing, I feel like more engaged in the project….I used more meaning making than I usually do.” In the Skype meetings, initially they expressed their concerns about their divergent artistic styles. However, the girls tried to cope with the challenges during the process of design. In the excerpt of the March 29, 2019 Skype meeting, Amelia proposed an idea about how to keep their drawing styles consistent when three of them had to draw different scenes in different time zones and on different apparatuses. Excerpt 6.2 Amelia proposed her idea of keeping drawing styles consistent, Skype meeting, March 29, 2019 Chloe: But if you work separately, then we put everything together, it’s gonna be really awkward—there are three different art styles. Kenna: Yes. Chloe: I don’t know. Kenna: I am gonna say we can post references, for example, for the characters at least. If we post references for the characters, then we all have similar people. Chloe: I mean we can discuss about how you want the character to be… Kenna: Uh-huh. Chloe: Like appearances, like features, whatever…like their hairs, their clothes, their styles… Amelia: We can have different people to take different tasks, like someone makes the draft, one person makes the line art, and some add the color. Kenna: Oh yes, that could work! ZHENG: OK, sounds great! Kenna: Amelia you are smart! Oh my god, I’ve never thought of that. …. Kenna: Uh-huh, yes. I have a question, because I never animate before. Normally I just do web comics. Amelia, when you animate, how many scenes per seconds do you usually do? Chloe: Does it base on how fast you want your thing to be? Kenna: Yes. Chloe: Sometimes your scene is very quick so that you have to make many frames for that specific scene; but sometimes it’s really slow, whatever, it’s like it doesn’t take many frames, you know. I don’t know. Amelia: Maybe I should take the draft. Kenna: Yes, probably. Chloe: And I would like to do the line art. Kenna: OK, I will do the color.
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The three girls’ moment-by-moment transformation of learning took place through the continuous negotiations in the virtual spaces. Their transformation in meaning making expanded from their individualized expertise to collective, social skills. The drafts of scene animations that they later created separately and shared on Seesaw signal the inspiration that they gained from one another and their comfort to engage the differences in the final “product”. Amelia’s desire to contribute her expertise to the project and the positioning of her as the digital expert by the peers, researchers, and teachers facilitated the collaborative meaning making across geographical regions, time zones, and different apparatuses. As she commented in the interview, “I want to help others with things they’re confused on.” Amelia has extensive experience with digital technologies and engagement in online interactions in and outside this project. In a Skype meeting (March 29, 2019), she was able to draw a cat effortless within a few minutes on her iPad (see Fig. 6.2). As she stated, “I have been working with a lot of people before. So I had a lot of background knowledge on how to do that [fixing technical problems]”. Kenna and Chloe sought Amelia’s help through synchronous Skype meetings and asynchronous text messages while they worked in different time zones. Amelia showed Kenna and Chloe how to use FlipaClip, the main app they downloaded to their personal digital gadgets to create the animation. As Kenna shared in the interview, she relied on Amelia as “a resource a lot” when it comes to technical support. Last, findings on the bigger project with all the 13 participants show that participants’ growing awareness of themselves as ethical new media users helped nurture ethical practices within the virtual spaces (Zhang, Submitted). Among them, Chloe served as a good example. Chloe modelled formal writing in the Seesaw sharing when she positioned herself as an “elder” teenager than most of her local and global peers. As she confirmed in the interview, “I’m surrounded by young people…. And I don’t really want to be a bad uh like bad person that they look up to. I don’t want them to learn bad things from me. I want them to, like learn good things from me. So I always try to be like more careful about what I say and what I do.” In contrast, Chloe’s Skype text messages exhibited different styles. Her Skype intra-actions with Kenna and Amelia revealed more casual styles, assembling less formal written texts and photoshopped images. Excerpt 6.3 from their Skype
Fig. 6.2 Two pictures showing a Cat Amelie drew and coloured effortlessly on her iPad
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meeting on March 29, 2019 shows how the Cat Lords used texts and images to communicate their ideas. Excerpt 6.3 The “picture” communication among the three girls, Skype meeting, March 29, 2019 [Amelia is sharing a picture with other people via Skype.] ZHENG [laugh]: Oh, what’s that, Amelia? [Amelia is laughing.] Chloe: Wait, wait, wait! I have more, and I have some, too. Let me send some. [Chloe is trying to figure out how to share pictures with peers via Skype. It seems that she makes a mistake and sends one screen shots with others.]: um…how do you like…? Chloe [is still trying to find some pictures of cats]: Oh, oh…where’s the cat? [Amelia keeps sending other funny pictures.] (see Fig. 6.3). ZHENG: Amelia, is that a cat photoshopped? Amelia [laughs]: Yes. Kenna [completes her uploading of the documents via Skype and notices pictures sent by Amelia]: It’s a draft cat…it’s great! Chloe: Oh my gosh! The puppy is adorable! [Three girls all look happy] As is illustrated from the Skype meeting excerpt, the Cat Lords assembled typed-up texts, images, and emojis while they were having a synchronous Skype meeting about how the main character Cat Bacon should look like. The moment-by-moment transformation of the three participants’ identities as meaning makers was
Fig. 6.3 Funny pictures Amelia shared with other people in the Skype meeting
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entangled with texts and images retrieved online and from their personal computers. Such transformation was enabled by the instant, multimodal nature of the Skype platform. The cheerful collective exploration in the Skype meetings unfold the emotional dimensions of literacy and identify construction evoked in those moments (See also Barkhuizen, Benson, & Chik, 2014). In a nutshell, the Cat Lords’ contribution to the political transformation of the virtual spaces also, in turn, shaped their own identities as ethical, collaborative, respectful, and supportive new media designers.
gentic, Collaborative Meaning Makers Through Assemblages A of Space, Time, Modes, and Devices Multiple texts posted on Seesaw showcase the Cat Lords as agentic, collaborative meaning makers within virtual spaces that traverse across geographical regions, different time zones, multiple modes, and different devices. Data from interviews and Skype meetings exhibit that the girls’ awareness of an authentic global audience played a crucial role in their agentic construction of the digital story of Bacon. As Phillips and Bunda (2018) contend, storytelling “implies an existence of community because it requires storytellers and audiences who listen and respond. The involvement of others is necessary for meaning” (p. 10). For instance, as expressed in her interview, Amelia’s envisioning of an authentic global audience enabled her to “get more serious” about the project. Also, in both Skype synchronous discussions, Chloe and Kenna demonstrated their awareness of Chinese audience, and they collectively decided to use English and Mandarin alternatively in various scenes where the Cat Bacon was situated, for example, the Chinese airport, the owner’s new home, and the Canadian airport and mall. Besides, the participants (Amelia and Kenna) expressed challenges in cross- border collaboration. Amelia noted in the interview that the time difference between Canada and China was the major challenge that she encountered in cooperating with her peers: “I don’t really see any challenges other than the time zones…. Sometimes they’re sleeping and you’re awake and sometimes they’re awake but you’re sleeping.” In addition, the three girls unanimously stated in their Skype meeting (April 14, 2019) that being located in different time zones (i.e., 12 hours of difference between China and Canada) was a major challenge because it hindered timely responses to shared new designs and questions emergent from their individual animation design processes. As Amelia acknowledged in the Skype meeting (May 18, 2019), working on FlipaClip with peers simultaneously could “…make[s] moving [drawing elements] sometimes around harder and make the animation look a little bit weird. So, I have to do a lot of things and then sort of redo it again in another layer. When people accidentally do it on the same layer. Some things are harder to organize.”
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The participants’ collaborative meaning making was enabled by assemblages that networked multiple apparatuses (e.g., apps, personal iPads, and computers). For example, digital apps and their features used in this project altered participants’ ways of communicating and meaning making. In a Skype meeting (May 18, 2019), the three girls addressed challenges of downloading and using the same app of FlipaClip on different devices. The app of animation creation was designed for tablets or mobile phones only, not computers. The Skype meeting was summoned to discuss the possibility of downloading and using an android emulator so that FlipaClip can be used on computers as well. The entanglement of participants’ meaning making with multimodal resources (e.g., videos, animations, digital apps, sound effects) was evident in the netnographic data. Videos were used as an ice-breaker at the beginning of the project when all the participants were new to one another. Amelia shared some videos that she posted on YouTube and explained the contexts of these videos in her Seesaw postings Seesaw as a way to introduce herself to the online community. Through initial self-introductions and intra-actions on Seesaw, the Cat Lords decided to collectively create an animation as a way of expressing their selves and identities. As Chloe remarked, “the animation that we did kind of expresses ourselves, because we kind of put our personalities in the drawings, like the way we draw is related to us in some way but as like the kind of artist. I think that the way that everyone draws is like what type of person they are”. In short, the multiple sites and postings in this netnographic study enabled “multiform communicative connectedness” (Kozinets, Dolbec, & Earley, 2014, p. 264). The enacted agencies of space, time, and materials shaped the dynamic reconfiguration of the meaning makers’ identities and their decisions about language use and mode choices.
Conclusion and Significance We conclude that the findings of biliteracy learners’ identity construction embodied in their collaborative, virtual digital storytelling would have got lost through methods that merely reply on “descriptive and linear language”, for instance, traditional interviewing (McNiff, 2008, p. 5). Our analysis engaged both netnographic data (e.g., online postings, Skype meetings, multimodal meaning making texts) and interview data. The intra-active analysis of multiple data sources manifests a “relational ontology” (Bozalek & Zembylas, 2017, p. 118) that attended to the connections within the human and nonhuman elements and how such relationality affects these elements and their situated virtual spaces. Findings reveal the methodological power of engaging netnographic data and interview data in investigating the interwovenness of meaning making and identity construction. The three focal students created their animations of Bacon’s Adventure in the virtual spaces of Seesaw and Skype while they were located in different geographical regions and different time zones. The “time-space entanglement” (Bozalek
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& Zembylas, 2017, p. 120) enabled new possibilities for geographically dispersed youth to make global connections. The Seesaw and Skype data well recorded the moment-by-moment transformation in the Cat Lords’ thinking, plotting, translating, and becoming. The Cat Lords eventually managed to orchestrate multiple modes (animation, bilingual texts, music, narration, and sound effects) and merge the various scenes that they created on their respective apparatuses. The entanglements between humans, non-human materials and apparatuses, and the virtual spaces were well documented in the netnographic data and would otherwise have got lost if we solely relied on verbal interview data about learners’ perceptions of identity. As Davies and Gannon (2009) argued, human and non-human entities “all exist, and exist in networks of relationality, dependence and influence” (p. 132). We concur with Smythe et al. (2017) in that the human and non-human entities were assembled in the project and were “mutually entailing and influencing” (p. 38). Our study shows that material-informed netnographic studies could enable the researchers to see the reconfiguration of cyber cultural spaces because of the studies’ symmetrical attention to human and non-human actors such as time-space entanglement and the material-discursive forces of technologies, apparatuses, online intra-action platforms, and multimodal meaning making (the discursive). In this chapter, we also interrogate the positivist privileging of what counts as knowledge and foreground a relational ontology in researching meaning making and identity enactment. As Bozalek and Zembylas (2017) contend, different from a “reflective process” (p. 123) that focuses on human agency in searching for interpretations and representations of identity, a relational ontology redirected our attention to agencies of various entities. Heath and Street (2008) expressed concerns with educational systems that overemphasize the significance of verbal representations. The entanglement of “bodies, ideas, flows and intensities” generated through collaborative meaning making in this cross-border, virtual biliteracy project helped illuminate the three participants’ “social-material becomings” (p. 123). Smythe et al. (2017) critique that research methods in literacy education research have relied heavily on interpretations of human-centred interview transcripts and classroom observations. They contend that such a narrow methodological approach would leave vast amounts of material factors that operate outside or alongside literacy inadequately considered. Our findings show the affordances of material-informed netnography in documenting and facilitating analysis of the three students’ emergent multimedia designs in forms of storyboard, bilingual scripts, draft animations, and the final digital story. Such affordances mitigated our reliance on students’ descriptive expressions of their identity formation in the virtual spaces. Our New Materialist sensibilities led us to see the biliteracy learners’ “in-the-moment becoming” with materials and contexts (Rowsell & Burgess, 2017, p. 85). Besides, in line with the significance of ethnographic approaches to investigating language and identity making, the relational ontology enabled us to note what is unnoted and to value what is unvalued in virtual spaces if only using approaches focusing on participants’ linguistic expressions. Findings also refer to ethical and “play-like ways” of meaning making and being (Kuby & Vaughn, 2015, p. 459). The study welcomed unbounded meaning making
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that orchestrates multimodal resources. Our focus on biliteracy meaning making is not merely on biliteracy learners’ input and output in two languages, but on how their meaning making and identity making were embodied in their own desires, expertise, and outside of school practices in creative, artistic forms of digital storytelling. Instead of a prescriptive curriculum, this research, informed by New Materialism, allowed for the biliteracy learners’ freedom to play with various materials and decide what to do in the next step of the curriculum. Such an ethical curricular paradigm has the potential to open up spaces for creative and sophisticated meaning making and becoming (Kuby & Vaughn, 2015). Our findings unfold the capacity of material-informed netnography to engage geographically dispersed Canadian and Chinese researchers and participants to be ethical netnographers and to construct, reflect, interpret, and make sense of the online cultural realities collectively and continuously. After actively engaging in various forms of online intra- actions and meaning making, the three biliteracy learners in the study exhibited critical awareness of their own “social media behaviors, habits, and predilections” (Markham, 2018, p. 662) and the impacts on their self-transformation as collaborative, creative, and responsible twenty-first century new media designers. While celebrating the affordances of material-informed netnographic studies, we also ponder upon netnography’s capacity for researchers to tap the biliteracy learners’ offline identities. As Markham (2018) contends, what happened in the learners’ offline meaning making is “impossible to witness” (p. 661), such as their individual scriptwriting, translation, and animation making. Therefore, the researchers in the study were cautious about the limitation of netnography in ethical representations of participants’ offline becoming and transformation. Markham reminds us that digital technologies have been affecting our practices and becoming at the global scale and researchers play a vital role in shaping “the ethics of our future social structures and practices” (p. 665). This cross-border, virtual biliteracy project can serve as an example of ethical, participatory research paradigm that respects biliteracy learners’ and other matter’s agency.
References Ajayi, L. (2011). A multiliteracies pedagogy: Exploring semiotic possibilities of a Disney video in a third-grade diverse classroom. Urban Review, 43, 396–413. Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the universe halfway: Quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning. London: Duke University Press. Barkhuizen, G., Benson, P., & Chik, A. (2014). Narrative inquiry in language teaching and learning research. New York: Routledge. Boellstorff, T., Nardi, B., Pearce, C., & Taylor, T. L. (2012). Ethnography and virtual worlds: A handbooks of method. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Boldt, G., & Leander, K. (2017). Becoming through ‘the break’: A post-human account of a child’s play. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/ abs/10.1177/1468798417712104. Bozalek, V., & Zembylas, M. (2017). Diffraction or reflection? Sketching the contours of two methodologies in educational research. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 30(2), 111–127.
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Brock, C. H., Pennington, J. L., & Ndura, E. (2012). Using multimodality as a conceptual lens: Examining two teachers’ learning in the Multiliteracies Teacher Institute Project. Pedagogy: An International Journal, 7(4), 275–294. Davies, B., & Gannon, S. (2009). Pedagogical encounters. New York: Peter Lang. Hackett, A., & Somerville, M. (2017). Posthuman literacies: Young children moving in time, place and more-than-human worlds. Journal of Early Literacy Research, 17(3), 374–391. Heath, S. B., & Street, B. V. (2008). On ethnography: Approaches to language and literacy learning. New York: Teachers College Press. Kendrick, M., Early, M., & Chemjor, W. (2013). Integrated literacies in a rural Kenyan girls’ secondary school journalism club. Research in the Teaching of English, 47(4), 391–419. Kozinets, R. V., Dolbec, P., & Earley, A. (2014). Netnographic analysis: Understanding culture through social media data. In U. Flick (Ed.), Sage handbook of qualitative data analysis (pp. 262–275). London: Sage. Kramsch, C. (1993). Context and culture in language teaching. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Kramsch, C. (2009). Third culture and language education. In V. Cook & L. Wei (Eds.), Contemporary applied linguistics (pp. 233–254). London: Continuum. Kuby, C. R., & Rowsell, J. (2017). Early literacy and the posthuman: Pedagogies and methodologies. Journal of Early Literacy Research, 17(3), 285–296. Kuby, C. R., & Vaughn, M. (2015). Young children’s identities becoming: Exploring agency in the creation of multimodal literacies. Journal of Early Literacy Research, 15(4), 433–472. Leander, K., & Boldt, G. (2013). Rereading “a pedagogy of multiliteracies”: Bodies, texts, and emergence. Journal of Literacy Research, 45(1), 22–46. Markham, A. N. (2018). Ethnography in the digital internet era: From fields to flows, descriptions to interventions. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), A SAGE handbook of qualitative research (pp. 650–668). Los Angeles: Sage. McNiff, S. (2008). Art-based research. In J. Knowles & A. L. Cole (Eds.), Handbook of the arts in qualitative research: Perspectives, methodologies, examples, and issues (pp. 29–41). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Miles, M. B., Huberman, A. M., & Saldaña, J. (2014). Qualitative data analysis: A methods sourcebook (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Moje, E. B., & Luke, A. (2009). Literacy and identity: Examining the metaphors in history and contemporary research. Reading Research Quarterly, 44(4), 415–437. Ntelioglou, B. Y. (2011). ‘But why do I have to take this class?’ The mandatory drama-ESL class and multiliteracies pedagogy. Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, 16(4), 595–615. Phillips, L. G., & Bunda, T. (2018). Research through, with and as storying. London: Routledge. Rowsell, J., & Burgess, J. (2017). Around and around we go: Layering turns into the multiliteracies framework. In F. Serafini & E. Gee (Eds.), Remixing multiliteracies: Theory and practice from new London to new times (pp. 74–90). New York: Teachers College Press. Serafini, F., & Gee, E. (2017). Introduction. In F. Serafini & E. Gee (Eds.), Remixing multiliteracies: Theory and practice from new London to new times (pp. 1–18). New York: Teachers College Press. Smythe, S., Hill, C., MacDonald, M., Dagenais, D., Sinclair, N., & Toohey, K. (2017). Disrupting boundaries in education research and practice. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. The New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66(1), 60–92. Zhang, Z. (Submitted). A material-informed study on bilingual digital storytelling. Journal of Literacy Research. Zhang, Z., Nagle, J., McKishnie, B., Lin, Z., & Li, W. (2019). Scientific strengths and reported effectiveness: A systematic review of multiliteracies studies. Pedagogies: An International Journal, 14(1), 33–61. https://doi.org/10.1080/1554480X.2018.1537188
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Zheng Zhang, PhD, is an associate professor, Faculty of Education, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada ([email protected]). Her research interests include curriculum studies of transnational education, literacy and biliteracy curriculum, internationalization of curriculum, multimodal literacy, cross-border teacher education undergirded by new media literacies, and multiliteracies pedagogy in culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. These primary research areas have addressed pertinent educational challenges in the era of changes with increasing cultural and linguistic diversity, rapid global connectivity, and fast-paced technological changes.
Le Chen, PhD, is a postdoctoral fellow at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada ([email protected]). Her research interests include plurilingualism, multiliteracies, and language policy and planning. Her work has received awards from the federal government, national academic associations, and institutions, such as SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowships (2019–2020), SSHRC Doctoral Fellowships (2015–2017), Michael Laferrière Award (2019), and Mitacs Globalink Research Award (2017). Her current SSHRC-funded project, entitled “Plurilingualism and Innovating the Second Language Pedagogy”, explores evolving language beliefs and innovative pedagogical approaches for international students in Canadian higher education.
Zhen Lin, MA, is a doctoral student at Department of Language and Literacy Education, Faculty of Education, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (zhen. [email protected]). Her research interests include bilingualism and biculturalism, immigrant children’s literacy and identity development in and out of school, Chinese as a heritage language teaching and learning, multimodal literacy, and literacy materials. These research directions meet the growing demands of in-depth knowledge about the status quo of learners from the diversity in the contemporary global nexus.
Chapter 7
The Construction of Cultural Identity: National Identity and Collective Forgetting in Japan-South Korea Relations Ria Shibata
Abstract This chapter examines how current generations of Japanese identify with their nation and ‘remember’ the Asia-Pacific War in their historical consciousness. It is argued that n an attempt to protect their moral image, states may highlight certain historical events in the national consciousness while forgetting others. Collective memory of the past is an essential construct in the formation of national identity and can escalate conflicts between nations that have experienced shared histories of violent conflict. The chapter explores how lack of knowledge about Japanese colonial history and exposure to narratives focusing heavily on Japanese civilians’ wartime victimisation may affect their willingness to accept the nation’s responsibility to redress its past and thus become an obstacle to Japan’s reconciliation with its neighbours in East Asia—particularly South Korea. Keywords Collective memory · Collective forgetting · Cultural diversity · Cultural identity · Globalization · Identity national identity · Reconciliation · Japan-South Korea relations
Introduction The effect of globalisation on and its consequences for nationalism and national identity is complex and the findings are mixed (Ariely, 2012). Some scholars claim that globalisation and the culture diversity in a globalised world weaken individuals’ attachment to national identity, while others argue that globalisation reinforces national identity (Calhoun, 2007; Kaldor, 2004; Smith, 2007). There is no doubt that globalisation is a complex phenomenon and its impacts on respective societies
R. Shibata (*) National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature B.V. 2021 J. Zajda, S. Majhanovich (eds.), Globalisation, Cultural Identity and NationBuilding, Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research 23, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-2014-2_7
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are difficult to measure. Ariely’s (2012) meta-analysis concludes that the relationship between globalisation and national identity is not definite. Nonetheless, in recent years scholars have raised concern about the impact of social identity on political polarisation and division. Studies have shown that when groups feel threatened, they retreat to tribalism and atavistic nationalism (Chua, 2018; Clements, 2018a). Chua (2018, p. 2) further stresses that “when groups feel mistreated and disrespected, they become more insular, more defensive, more punitive and more us-versus-them.” The role of identity in prolonging intergroup and international conflicts has gained a great deal of attention in recent decades. The majority of prolonged communal and interstate conflicts around the world are considered to be identity-driven (Lederach, 1997; Tint, 2010). Needs theorists argue that the need for recognition, prestige and respect from others forms an essential basis of an individual’s sense of security (Burton, 1990; Nudler, 1980). A positive personal and collective identity constitutes an integral part of an individual’s well-being. Social Identity Theory reinforces this thinking by stressing that individuals derive a sense of self-esteem and self-worth from their association with an important social group or ingroup (Tajfel & Turner, 1986). For this reason, it becomes critical for a group to maintain its positive image. When confronted with accusations that pose a threat to the social group’s moral status and reputation, individuals may attempt to bolster the group’s moral status in order to defuse the threat (Wohl & Branscombe, 2008). Past empirical studies have revealed that those who identify strongly with the glorification of the ingroup are prone to justify their group’s immoral acts or deny and eliminate that past from their collective memory (Doosje, Branscombe, Spears, & Manstead, 1998). When a group’s identity is threatened, collective memory will be reshaped and valorised to restore the group’s pride and prestige (Volpato & Licata, 2010). Collective memory can be defined as a group’s shared understanding of the past that may not have been personally experienced but which has been socially constructed, transferred and remembered by members of the society through various channels (Paez & Liu, 2011). National and ethnic identities are shaped in large part by these collective memories of struggles and glorious achievements (Volkan, 2001). In an attempt to protect their moral image, states may highlight certain historical events in the national consciousness while forgetting others (Verovšek, 2016). Collective memory of the past is an essential construct in the formation of national identity and can escalate conflicts between nations that have experienced shared histories of violent conflict (Bar-Tal, 2003; Liu & Hilton, 2005). How both the perpetrator and victims ‘remember’ the past is critical to the process of reconciliation and successful resolution of conflicts (Staub, 1998; Lederach, 1997; Minow, 2002; Shibata, 2018). Whether it be colonial occupation, genocide or war, if the injustice is repressed in the perpetrator’s collective memory and left unaddressed, victims’ feelings of humiliation and need for recognition may lead to a prolonging of the conflict (Nadler & Shnabel, 2008). Japan has often been criticised for collective forgetting and downplaying information about its wartime
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atrocities in its official narrative, whether it be the Nanjing Massacre or coercion of “comfort women”.
Identity and Collective Forgetting Social Identity Theory posits that individuals strive to heighten their self-worth by identifying themselves with their dominant social group’s positive image and status (Tajfel & Turner, 1986). Group membership therefore forms a fundamental part of one’s identity. This generates the ingroup versus outgroup, or ‘us’ versus ‘them’ dynamic. Research has shown that when the ‘us’ versus ‘them’ dynamic escalates and becomes utilised as a means for political mobilisation, it can provoke intense popular emotion that can become the basis for political violence and conflict (Staub, 1998). Furthermore, victims’ accusations that one’s ingroup has committed immoral wrongdoings against them undermines and threatens that group’s sense of positive identity. Because historical memory constitutes the fundamental core of a group’s identity, perpetrator groups may choose to ‘forget,’ erase or revise any past that threatens the group’s moral status and places its people in shame from its official discourse (Buckley-Zistel, 2006; Shibata, 2017). Past studies have demonstrated that high levels of national identification can be associated with rightwing political ideologies (Doosje et al., 1998). Extreme nationalists who identify strongly with their ingroup are prone to defend the pride of the nation by instrumentally forgetting the nation’s past injustices or by enhancing the memory of its own victimisation (Bilali & Ross, 2012; Hammack, 2008). Collective forgetting of an immoral past can be seen as the perpetrator group’s tactical decision to defend its group’s pride and bolster national solidarity (Volpato & Licata, 2010). In order to protect their group’s moral status, the perpetrator group may choose to downplay their acts of violence and highlight their own history of victimisation by emphasising how much they have suffered (Bar-Tal, Chernyak-Hai, Schori, & Gundar, 2009; Noor, Brown, & Prentice, 2008, Nurit, Halabi, & Nadler, 2012). As such, threatened identity and conflicting memories of past violence between the transgressor and the transgressed can perpetuate a memory war, and become an enormous hindrance to the process of reconciliation.
The Case of Japan-South Korea Relations More than seven decades have passed since the end of the Second World War, and yet memories of the war and colonial history have continued to cause relations between Japan and South Korea to deteriorate. Conflicts can become prolonged and parties unable to reconcile because of divided memories of the same historical trauma between the transgressor and the transgressed. This is particularly true in the
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case of South Korea and Japan, where geopolitical conflicts over territorial claims become easily exacerbated when historical issues are revisited. What emerges as a significant obstacle to reconciliation between Japan and South Korea is the unresolved historical grievances (Clements, 2018b; Dudden, 2008; Kwak & Nobles, 2013). 2019 polling data based on a joint survey by Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan, and Hankook Ilbo Dailies, South Korea, show that one of the primary sources causing distrust between South Korea and Japan is Japan’s lack of apology for its colonial past. Distrust between Japan and South Korea remain escalated, with 75% of South Koreans feeling that Japan cannot be trusted and 73% of Japanese feeling the same towards South Koreans. As for possible factors that may be driving these negative sentiments, 87% of South Koreans feel that Japan has not shown enough remorse and needs to sincerely apologise for the colonial injustices which occurred between 1910 and 1945. On the contrary, 80% of the Japanese public is ‘apology-fatigued’, claiming that their government has done enough to atone for its past. In order to understand the driving force behind identity politics in both countries, it is imperative to understand how a need to defend the nation’s moral status shapes Japanese historical revisionists’ motivation. Various studies cited earlier reveal that threats to a group’s identity and esteem occur when its collective morality and reputation are questioned (Branscombe, Ellemers, Spears, & Doosje, 1999). When confronted with accusations of the in-group’s immoral act, individuals who identify strongly with the ingroup would attempt to protect the group’s reputation by silencing specific events and averting collective responsibility for the harms committed in the past (Sullivan, Landau, Branscombe, & Rothschild, 2012). Disputes over the “comfort women”, a euphemism used to refer to women who provided sexual service, including those who did so against their will, at Japanese military brothels before and during the Second World War, has been the source of an unending row between South Korea and Japan. In the 1990s, when various social crises eroded Japanese people’s confidence and security, a powerful neonationalist discourse emerged offering the promise of Japan’s renewed pride. The 1990s was also a time of huge political shifts in Japan and various non-conservative political leaders issued historic statements to Asian nations with formal expressions of genuine apology and remorse. This spurred Japanese rightwing politicians and revisionist groups to go on the offensive to counter the trend. One of the efforts included revision of history textbooks. A committee was formed, with more than a hundred members of the Liberal Democratic Party, to publish a new textbook that would clarify that the past war was one of self-defense and liberation of the Asian people, the Nanjing massacre and accounts of the “comfort women” were fabrications. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his conservative allies were not prepared to incorporate Japan’s dark war crimes into the official narratives and identity of the nation. The revisionists campaigned to remove accounts of the “comfort women” from junior high school textbooks based on the claim that there was no such thing as “comfort women”. They were not forcibly recruited by the Japanese army, but were involved in prostitution which was not illegal in prewar Japan. Their unyielding argument was that mentioning “comfort women” in formal school texts would lead to ‘the
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spiritual degeneration of the Japanese state’ (Tawara, 1997, p. 2). The main motivation of Japanese revisionists is encapsulated in Prime Minister Abe’s dialogue with a nationalist novelist, Naoki Hyakuta (Abe & Hyakuta, 2013, pp. 152–154). What is the purpose of teaching the pure and innocent children fabricated lies about “300,000 massacred in Nanjing” or “forced sexual slavery of the comfort women”?... It only serves to make the children become disillusioned by their country, hate their ancestors and become ashamed of their evil conducts. That will lead to an even more horrifying outcome. It will rob them of a sense of pride to live as worthy individuals.
Another attempt to erase the shameful reminder of “comfort women” from Japan’s collective memory was manifested in Prime Minister Abe’s recent effort to negotiate a bilateral agreement to silence the Korean government on this controversial issue for eternity. Since 2011, “comfort women” memorial statues, also known as the ‘Peace Statue’, were erected one after another by Korean civil society groups in more than 50 parks and public places in South Korea and in the diasporas like the United States and Australia, following the unveiling of the first one in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul. These statues became an irksome reminder of the past history that needed to be forgotten. Abe struck a deal in 2015 with the Park Geun- hye administration whereby Japan offered to contribute 1 billion yen ($8.3 million) to a foundation set up by South Korea to help former “comfort women” as part of a ‘final and irreversible resolution’ of the controversy. Under the negotiated deal, the South Korean government agreed to ‘make efforts’ to remove the comfort woman statues and remain silent on this issue for eternity. This agreement became nullified 3 years later by President Moon Jae-in, who succeeded Park, and the foundation which was set up between the two governments to compensate the “comfort women” was dissolved. Moon stated that the emotional damage sustained by victims cannot be resolved through simple exchange between the two governments and that both countries must continue to make efforts to heal the victims’ wounds. Abe’s 2015 landmark agreement, designed to ‘finally and irreversibly’ resolve the “comfort women” issue, was deemed flawed because it did not involve the victims in the discussion and was condemned by the Korean public as a ‘disgraceful act’ that dishonoured and ignored the suffering of the victims.
nalysis of Japanese National Identity A and Collective Forgetting An empirical study was designed to explore to what extent contemporary Japanese people identify with their nation and how they ‘remember’ the history of their own nation’s past transgressions. To develop a comprehensive understanding of these issues, a mixed methods study was conducted to integrate both quantitative and qualitative data. During the first phase in April 2017, quantitative data was obtained from a survey of 147 Japanese university students in Tokyo and Osaka who were asked to participate in an online survey on their perceptions of war history (specifically the Second World War) and Japan-South Korea relations. The age of the respondents ranged from 18 to 30 years old. During the second phase of the study from November
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to December 2017, 20 survey participants were selected for semi-structured in-depth interviews in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the perceptions of contemporary Japanese youth about their nation and its history during the Second World War. Use of both quantitative and qualitative methods enabled a more nuanced insight into the behaviour and attitudes of present-day Japanese who were not directly involved in the nation’s wartime and colonial injustices. The study was designed to explore the following research questions: (1) To what extent do the current Japanese generations identify with their nation?; (2) To what extent do the current generations of Japanese ‘remember’ the injustices committed by their nation during the AsiaPacific War; (3) Does the degree of national identification and [lack of] knowledge of historical injustices impact the ways in which the Japanese respond to the victims’ accusations about the nation’s transgressions?
Findings Japanese National Identity Social Identity Theory posits that the degree to which an individual identifies with the collective—whether it be an ethnic group or a nation—can become a source of individual pride and self-esteem (Tajfel & Turner, 1986). In this study, it was hypothesised that individuals who identify strongly with the nation are likely to deny, forget or justify the nation’s transgressions of the past and thus feel diminished guilt and responsibility (Doosje et al., 1998). In order to get an in-depth understanding of the degree of national identification amongst contemporary Japanese, two scales were used in the survey; Luhtanen and Crocker’s (1992) collective self-esteem scale and nationalism-patriotism scale based on Kosterman and Feshbach’s (1989) study. Participants were asked in the survey to what extent they agreed or disagreed with the five related items in the Collective Self-Esteem Scale (see Table 7.1) and Nationalism Scale (see Table 7.2) on a seven-point scale (1 = strongly disagree and 7 = strongly agree). Luhtanen and Crocker’s Collective Self-Esteem Scale is designed to assess the respondents’ level of agreement in four categories that measure the self-esteem derived from their membership with the key social group. The four categories are (1) private collective self-esteem or how good one’s ingroup is; (2) public collective selfesteem or how one believes other people evaluate their own ingroup; (3) importance of group identity or how important one’s ingroup is to one’s self-concept and (4) membership esteem or how worthy a member of the group one is. As the data in Table 7.1 suggests, a large majority of Japanese survey participants reported an extremely high degree of identification with the nation. Findings showed that 85% are glad to be Japanese; 80% feel that Japan is respected in the world; 83% feel that the nation they belong to is an important reflection of who they are; 81% are proud to be Japanese, and 77% feel they are worthy citizens of the nation. Individuals who identify strongly with the nation perceive its association with the social group to be an integral part of their sense of ‘who they are.’ The participants’ responses based on the collective self-esteem scale reveal that a fairly large percentage of contemporary
5.6 6.8 4.3 14.2
83.3 81.5 76.6
Neither agree nor disagree (%) 4.3
79.6
Strongly agree/Agree/ Somewhat agree (%) 85.2
9.2
14.1
9.9
14.8
Strongly disagree/Disagree/ Somewhat disagree (%) 10.5
Note: Items are scored from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Higher scale scores denote greater collective self-esteem Cronbach’s α = .93 Mean = 5.38, SD = 1.20
2. Japan is a country highly regarded by people around the world. (public) 3. The nation I belong to is an important reflection of who I am. (identity) 4. I am proud to be a Japanese. (private) 5. I am a contributing/worthy citizen of Japan. (membership)
1. I am glad to be a Japanese. (private)
Table 7.1 Collective self-esteem scale Mean/Standard deviation M = 5.70 SD = 1.3 M = 5.30 SD = 1.24 M = 5.42 SD = 1.18 M = 5.46 SD = 1.36 M = 5.35 SD = 1.23
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Japanese identify strongly with the nation and feel that Japan’s image is important for their positive self-image and self-worth. Various Japanese scholars have recently raised concerns about the increasing number of youth endorsing the Japanese Prime Minister’s visits to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, and an upsurge in racist comments exchanged on the Internet. Some scholars have observed that the Japanese, and in particular Japanese youth, are shifting rightward and becoming increasingly nationalistic. On the other hand, some opinion polls have revealed that patriotism is decreasing amongst young Japanese. Nationalism versus patriotism are controversial issues that have been a subject of active social debate. In this study, an attempt was made to understand the nature of national identification amongst the surveyed Japanese participants. Japanese nationalism was assessed using an adapted measure based on Kosternman- Feshbach’s (1989) nationalism-patriotism scale. The aim of this was to understand whether the nationalism exhibited by the Japanese is closer to patriotism or glorified nationalism. Kosterman and Feshbach (1989) defined ‘nationalism’ as a view that one’s nation is superior and should be dominant. They distinguished patriotism from nationalism and defined it as ‘a feeling of attachment to one’s nation.’ The findings presented in Table 7.2 reveal that agreement with a subscale item measuring patriotism towards one’s country, “I love my country, Japan”, was Table 7.2 Nationalism scale Strongly agree/ Agree/ Somewhat agree (%) 1. I love this country of Japan. 96.3 (PAT1) 86.4 2. In view of Japanese economic superiority, it is only right that we should have a bigger say in the United Nations. (NAT1) 45.7 3. The Japanese people are among the finest in the world. (NAT2) 60.5 4. The remarkable growth of Japan after the war is mainly due to the excellence of the people. (NAT3) 5. Japan is the best country in 50.6 the world. (NAT4)
Neither agree nor disagree (%) 0.6
Strongly disagree/ Disagree/ Somewhat disagree (%) 3.1
Mean/ Standard deviation M = 6.07 SD = 1.0 M = 5.46 SD = 1.11
8.0
5.5
8.0
46.2
M = 4.16 SD = 1.47
3.1
36.3
M = 4.43 SD = 1.56
6.8
42.6
M = 4.21 SD = 1.54
Note: Items are scored from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Higher scale scores denote greater degree of nationalism. PAT = item to measure patriotism, NAT = item to measure nationalism Cronbach’s α = .82 Mean = 4.86, SD = 1.34
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overwhelming at 94%. The percentage of participants who agreed with a subscale for nationalism which implied Japan’s national superiority, “In view of Japanese economic superiority, it is only right that we should have a bigger say in the United Nations” was fairly high at 86%. On the other hand, a cruder statement of nationalism, “Japan is the best country in the world,” had only 50% agreement. These findings indicate that although an overwhelming majority of participants feel emotionally attached to and patriotic towards Japan, they are uncomfortable with outright glorification of their nation. There is demonstrable unease when 50% of participants did not agree with items 3 and 5 of the scale, which represent blind nationalism and Japanese racial superiority. In the personal in-depth interviews, too, the majority of the participants showed strong patriotic attachment to their nation and answered that, if they were to be born again, they would choose to be born Japanese. By way of explanation, the participants cited various positive traits and qualities that they find appealing about Japan. Tatsuya: I love Japan because I think it is the safest country in the world. Japanese people are polite, courteous, diligent and responsible. Japan is a clean country and everything is so organised and convenient. There are not many countries like that. Kyoko: I would rather be born in Japan than any other country although I am curious to live abroad and experience other cultures. The Japanese people love peace and place importance on harmony. We have excellent food culture, and the streets are safe with low crime rate. The trains are always on time and the overall quality of services is outstanding.
It should be stressed that although the majority of the participants are proud to be Japanese, their patriotic attachment to the nation is not a driver for any extreme reactions that may endorse Prime Minister Abe’s agenda to amend the post-war constitution or for Japan to remilitarise. 74% of the participants strongly disagreed with the statement, “We should revise the Japanese Constitution in the face of future security threats in the Asian region” and 88% felt that “whatever happens we must avoid war with China and South Korea.” Nonetheless, in past studies, collective self-esteem and high national identification have been found to influence how individuals respond when their ingroup’s positive status and identity becomes threatened (Branscombe, Slugoski, & Kappen, 2004; Doosje, Branscombe, Spears, & Manstead, 2006; Luhtanen & Crocker, 1992). Consistent with these findings, interviewees who reported a high level of national identification and collective self-esteem with Japan reacted self-protectively to threats to Japan’s moral reputation. The following comments by Yoko and Kenji represent their resistance to South Koreans’ incessant accusations about Japan’s lack of apology. Yoko: I am fed up with the way Koreans accuse us about the “comfort women”. I wish they would calm down and try to resolve this in a more civilised way. The Japanese government has already apologised so many times. Kenji: I read that the Japanese government has already apologised enough. Prime Minister Abe included a genuine apology statement in the 2015 bilateral agreement. What more do they want? This is endless. I don’t think they are ever going to be satisfied no matter how many times we apologise.
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Japanese Collective Forgetting Collective forgetting is defined as a process in which “states and citizens selectively remember, misremember, and disremember to silence and exclude alternative views and perspectives that counter the official discourse” (Minarova-Banjac, 2018, p. 3). Collective forgetting is a critical part of defending the pride and respect of the nation. It entails removing any part of its history that undermines the worthy identity of the nation. Japan has often been criticised for repressing information about its wartime and colonial injustices, like the Nanjing Massacre or the coercion of “comfort women”, in its official discourse including history textbooks. Japanese collective forgetting about the “comfort women” is reflected in the in-depth interview responses where the participants were asked to explain how they “remember” about the Asia-Pacific War. Interviewees were asked to share what came to mind when they first thought of “the Pacific War,” including words, thoughts and images. The salience of the victimhood trope in Japanese educational and political institutions (Orr, 2001; Seaton, 2007; Yoshida, 2005) makes it unsurprising that most interviewees thought of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Seijiro: I think of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A horrifying image of people suffering. Hiromi: I associate the war with the suffering of Japanese civilians and images of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and air raids. I have watched different television programmes on the war, but what really influenced my understanding was what teachers taught me in elementary and junior high school during history class. The history of the Pacific War was all about Japan’s war history. That’s why, to me, the Pacific War is about the suffering of the Japanese people. That image is deeply embedded in my mind. Only after I entered college did I learn that the Pacific War was not just about Japan’s suffering.
Interview respondents were then asked who they perceived as victim and victimiser in the Pacific War. For a majority of the respondents, the war was automatically associated with scenes of Japanese civilian suffering. Some interviewees found the identity of the victimiser more difficult to determine; they believed ordinary Japanese citizens had little choice regarding mobilisation into the war, and that only a handful of military leaders were culpable (Fig. 7.1). Toshiyuki: It was just like Germany under the Nazis. The top leaders mobilised the people to believe that the war was sacred and just. Japanese soldiers were influenced by wartime propaganda and went to China, massacred the Chinese and raped the women or used them as ““comfort women”.” It was a top-down decision and the public was forced to obey the military regime. The soldiers were victims of the war, too.
The study findings showed that the main reason why the majority of the Japanese respondents feel such diminished empathy and responsibility towards the war victims is because of their lack of knowledge and awareness about what happened in history. Survey respondents were asked to indicate the extent of their awareness regarding Japan’s colonial history and wartime aggression. A majority of respondents (59%) answered that they were somewhat aware of Japan’s history of
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Q: What comes to mind first when you think of the Pacific War? 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%
Nanjing Kamikaze Tokyo Air Atomic Massacre pilots raids Bombing of Hiroshima
Pearl Harbor
Bataan Death March
Unit 731
Others
Fig. 7.1 Association with the Asia-Pacific War
Q: To what extent are you aware of the history of Japan's wartime atrocities? [i.e. Comfort Women, Nanjing Massacre, etc.] 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Very aware
Somewhat aware
Not really aware
Not aware at all
Fig.7.2 Historical awareness of Japan’s wartime atrocities
colonisation and wartime atrocities, while a combined 32% stated that they were “not really aware” or “unaware”; 9% regarded themselves as “fully aware” of the historical circumstances. The majority response of “somewhat aware” suggests that most Japanese have at least partial knowledge of Japanese conduct during the colonial era and the Second World War (Fig. 7.2). Personal in-depth interviews attempted to understand the process with which the participants came to learn about Japan’s history of colonisation. As Kayoko’s comments imply, respondents felt that classes only hastily touched upon or entirely ignored discussing Japan’s history of colonial occupation. Interviewees commented
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that teachers generally glossed over the topic, and neither the Nanjing Massacre nor “comfort women” were addressed in any depth in classrooms. Kayoko points out that it may be because modern Japanese history is not a central piece of information that would be covered in the high school or university entrance exams. Kayoko: My knowledge of Japan’s history of colonisation and the things that the Japanese soldiers committed during the war is very limited. I had never heard of the “comfort women” issue and it was never discussed in our history class in junior high or high school. Normally, the teacher breezed through modern Japanese history because it is not that important for our entrance exams [high school/university].
When it came to awareness about the history of victimisation of the outgroup represented by the “comfort women” issue, most respondents answered that they hardly remember seeing any information on it in their history textbooks. This is not surprising as it is assumed that these respondents were in junior high or high school from roughly 2010–2016. Due to the persistent efforts of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his conservative allies, by 2006 the term “comfort women” was removed from the main text of Japanese junior high school textbooks. Furthermore, by 2012 reference to “comfort women” disappeared completely from all junior high school textbooks, including footnotes. For many of the young Japanese, the issue surrounding the “comfort women” only became known after wide coverage in the domestic media of the dispute between South Korea and Japan over the 2015 bilateral agreement on “comfort women”. Yoko: I had never heard about the “comfort women” issue until I entered college. I was watching the evening news programme on Nippon Television with my mother and grandmother. I don’t recall reading or learning about this issue in school textbooks. I had the impression that Japanese television was defending Japan’s position and seemed to be introducing only one side, Japan’s perspective. So, based on what I learned from TV, many Japanese would feel that South Korea’s actions were unfair and not abiding by the agreement and rules of international law. The programme emphasised the fact that South Korea accepted compensation from Japan and signed the agreement, and questions why “comfort women” statues are still around.
Kyoko said she was compelled to do further research on the Internet because she could not quite understand why Koreans were so upset. She felt that their reaction seemed a little “extreme” and was curious to delve deeper. Kyoko and Satoko were both perplexed and taken aback by the virulent anger that the Korean public express. With limited knowledge, both felt that the Koreans were overplaying the “comfort women” dispute. Kyoko: When I heard about the Koreans’ furious reactions on television, I wondered what “comfort women” are. So, I googled the term. I think I was able to cover most of the facts, although what I found was, after all, information on the Internet …. I read the Wikipedia entry on the “comfort women” and several other online sources but most denied the accuracy of Korea’s accusations, or even stressed that they were fabricated. Satoko: The first time I even heard about the “comfort women” issue was on television news. All I remember is the rising tensions between Korean and Japan surrounding this issue. I cannot remember any of the details. I couldn’t understand why the Koreans were so overzealous when it comes to this problem. Why were they so angry?...To me, they seem to be exaggerating the whole thing.
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Discussion and Conclusion One of the greatest hurdles for achieving reconciliation in Northeast Asia is addressing the divisive memories of historical injustices between South Korea and Japan. South Korea and Japan share common war experiences—one as victim, and the other as aggressor. The two countries share a conflictual history and neither can project its own national identity without provoking interpretative questions from the other side. The formation of South Korea’s national identity is deeply engrained in its narrative of colonial victimhood in which Japan plays an integral role as the aggressor that inflicted traumatic sufferings on the Korean people. Hence, the agenda of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the Japanese revisionists to reinforce Japan’s national identity by denying its past transgressions as mere fabrication poses a direct challenge to South Korea’s national identity and only exacerbates the conflict between the two countries. Painful memories from Japanese colonial invasion represented by the “comfort women” movement are deeply engraved on the Korean popular psyche and continue to be manifested in public protests against an unapologetic Japan. How the perpetrator acknowledges guilt and makes an effort to atone for the past is therefore critical in healing of the victims’ wounds. This chapter examined the factors that could be driving collective forgetting of wartime injustices in Japanese society today. Need for recognition and positive identity is a fundamental human need (Azar, 1990; Burton, 1990). When confronted with accusations that threaten a group’s moral reputation, individuals who are associated with that group may attempt to bolster its moral status to defuse the threat (Wohl & Branscombe, 2008). Studies have shown that, in the face of a shameful past, perpetrator groups may defend their reputation by deleting or altering accounts of injustices from their official narratives (Bar-Tal, 2003; Hammack, 2008; Volpato & Licata, 2010). Desire to defend national pride has been found to drive collective forgetting of past sins, together with an emphasis on the nation’s history of victimisation. Volpato and Licata (2010) argue that collective amnesia and forgetting is therefore a common phenomenon and a part of nation-building in many post- colonial societies. Consistent with past literature (Doosje et al., 1998), the study’s findings revealed that those who identified strongly with the nation were prone to justify or deny Japan’s immoral acts. Survey data showed a strong negative correlation between national identification and willingness to atone for the nation’s past injustices with r = −.70 and significant at the 0.01 level when two-tailed. This finding implies that those whose esteem hinged on the positive image of the nation were prone to defend Japan’s past and less willing to accept the Korean victims’ accusations. Collective forgetting in Japan is shaped by particular war narratives that are disseminated in society as cultural products and discourse through different institutional channels such as literature, museums, mass media and textbooks (Hammack, 2008, 2010). History textbooks have been used by states and their leaders as powerful instruments to promote particular narratives that would legitimise the nation’s identity and esteem (Apple & Christian-Smith, 1991). As Japan lost confidence in
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Asia’s hegemonic power, the nationalistic leaders challenged the ‘masochistic’ view of Japanese history to restore its national pride. The interviewees’ comments revealing their lack of awareness and knowledge about Japan’s colonial past and the issue of “comfort women” are an outcome of Prime Minister Abe and his supporters’ persistent efforts to eliminate the term “comfort women” from all junior high school textbooks. Abe’s educational reforms aimed at one goal—to omit any dark episodes of the past that may demoralise its citizens. Findings of this research further indicate that Japanese war memory is founded on a discourse that highlights Japanese victimisation and the suffering of its own civilians. It can be said that the traumatic experience of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki forms the heart of Japan’s post-war pacifist identity. How both the perpetrator and victims ‘remember’ the past is critical to the process of reconciliation between South Korea and Japan. This study examined the state of collective forgetting in Japan and how the formation of collective memory is associated with the need for positive national identity. The disparate war memories between Japan and South Korea make it difficult for today’s Japanese to empathise with the victims’ sufferings, let alone understand why the “comfort women” issue evokes such hostility and emotional reaction amongst the Korean public. The virulent accusations from Koreans are perplexing if they see Japanese civilians as true victims of the war. In light of this, efforts should be made to introduce an alternative historical narrative in Japan, whether it be museum exhibitions or popular cultural products, that highlights and acknowledges the suffering of the ‘other’. Presenting the traumatic experiences of the “comfort women” may help Japanese post-war generations to humanise the victims and empathise with their suffering. In summary, the kind of history education that addresses the identity needs and experiences of both perpetrator and victim nations may be one possible way to generate mutual empathy and end the vicious cycle of conflict between South Korea and Japan.
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Chapter 8
Directions for Global Citizenship Education: Lessons from Two Australian Primary Schools Jia Ying Neoh
Abstract Nationalism and globalisation coexist in tension worldwide (Banks, Routledge International Handbook of Multicultural Education Research in Asia Pacific (pp. 9–22). New York: Routledge, 2018). This influenced the way citizenship identities are being constructed. Using Australia as a context, the relationships between nationalism, cultural identity and globalisation was explored through the examination of the key educational policy, the Melbourne Declaration, and a case study involving two primary schools in New South Wales. It was found that at the policy level, a globalist view that focused on sharpening Australia’s economic competitiveness was most prominent. In practice, there was inclination towards an apolitical form of global citizenship education. This meant that there was generally less emphasis placed on developing skills of critical deliberation about the complexities involved in issues that arise from diversity. This chapter concludes by examining the implications of the findings for educational policies and practices. Keywords Cultural identity · Globalisation · Global citizenship education · Inclusive citizenship education · Identity · Nationalism · Nation-building
Introduction In his discussion about the relationships between globalisation, nation-building and cultural identity, Zajda (2009) identified one of the most pressing global question as “Are social, economic, and cultural divisions between the nations, between school sectors, between schools, and between students growing or declining?” (p. 22). He suggested the need to re-examine and reassess current evidences related to the nexus
J. Y. Neoh (*) North Kellyville, NSW, Australia e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature B.V. 2021 J. Zajda, S. Majhanovich (eds.), Globalisation, Cultural Identity and NationBuilding, Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research 23, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-2014-2_8
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between intercultural dialogue, cultural transferability and human rights, and democracy models. Against the backdrop of this question is the current context in which nationalism and globalisation coexist in tension worldwide (Banks, 2018). This highlights the problematic nature of the dominant approach in media and politics that acknowledge the social disadvantage and marginalization of diverse groups, particularly immigrants, but blame them for their failure to integrate (Castles, 2017). Such perspectives overlook the ongoing tensions present in the interplay between individuals as citizens, and the changing contexts of the local, national and global societies. Considering these tensions, there appeared to be no straightforward answers to Zajda’s (2009) question. The context surrounding the question is highly complex, manifested by controversial issues of equality, human rights, power, economic liberalisation and the deep-seated legacy of colonialism and imperialism (Bashir, 2017; Castles, 2017; Kennedy, 2008). There is, however, potential for a more inclusionary vision of citizenship and identity that extend the boundaries and structures of citizenship to accommodate new, often misrecognised, excluded, or underestimated, socioeconomic, cultural and political claims to increase a sense of belonging to the overarching political community and society of the nation-state (Bashir, 2017; Cha, Ham, & Lee, 2018; Kymlicka, 2017). This chapter argues that ‘transformative’ and democratic conceptions of global citizenship education has most potential in finding the delicate balance between ‘unity’ and ‘diversity’ in diverse societies. Using Australia as a context, the relationships between nationalism, cultural identity and globalisation was explored through the examination of the key educational policy, the Melbourne Declaration, and a case study involving two primary schools in New South Wales. It was found that at the policy level, a globalist view that focused on sharpening Australia’s economic competitiveness was most prominent. In practice, there was inclination towards an apolitical form of global citizenship education. This meant that there was generally less emphasis placed on developing skills of critical deliberation about the complexities involved in issues that arise from diversity. From the perspective, a possible answer to Zajda’s (2009) question would be that the social, economic, and cultural divisions between the nations, between school sectors, between schools, and between students would continue to grow.
he Prominence of ‘Identity’ Within the Contexts T of Nationalism and Globalisation The study of ‘identity’ has risen to greater prominence in the last 10 years, promoting an inquiry into the ways that people come to invest emotionally in their self- making, self-construction and self-renewal (Elliot, 2020). The inquiry into ‘identity’ is both a solidary and individualistic pursuit. It is “profoundly individual, subjective, personal and private”, while always “intricately interwoven with sociality,
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culture, tradition, unequal relations of power as well as established ways of being in the world” (Elliot, 2020, p. 3; Pashby, 2018; Shani, 2020). Situating discussions of identity within the context of globalization necessitate the acknowledgement of ‘change’ (Pashby, 2018; Shani, 2020). Globalization is a highly contested notion, ranging from shifts in patterns of transnational economic activities, to ways in which contemporary political and cultural configurations are reshaped by technological advances (Jackson, 2019a; Rizvi & Lingard, 2010; Zajda, 2009). Specific to discussions of identity and citizenship, the examination of the effects of globalisation on notions of homogenisation and hybridisation of cultures, the growth of social networks that transcend national boundaries, the decline of the nation state and one’s notion of time and space (Zajda, 2009) are most relevant. This is because as the world undergoes profound economic, political and social transformations that affect various aspects of life, so are the interpretations and imaginations of the possibilities of life and understandings of who we are – our ‘identity’ (Biesta, 2011; Lingard & McGregor, 2014; Pashby, 2018; Shani, 2020; Smolicz & Secombe, 2009). The dynamism, complexity and contestability in the construction of ‘identity’ must be acknowledged as it continues to challenge notions of identity and citizenship with the reconsideration of the questions “Who are we?” and “Why do we act the way we act?” (Zajda, 2009, p. 20). One complexity of discussing identity is the fundamental political, social and cultural nature of the conceptions of ‘identity’ and ‘citizenship’, as demonstrated by the political currents that dominates the global agenda in the twenty-first century (Shani, 2020; Zajda, 2018). Traditional institutional politics revolve around structure and unity, but this static view of citizenship and identity is being challenged by the vast plurality of identity-politics, extending into race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, citizenship and environmentalism (Elliot, 2020; Jackson, 2019a; Veugelers, 2019). Traditional interpretations of citizenship and identity are often narrowly associated with nationality, status and the legal rights and responsibilities of formal political participation. This interpretation confines citizenship and identity within the political territory of ‘states’ and ‘nations’, focusing on developing national identity, emotional bonds to a community of shared culture and ideology, and establishing national boundaries for citizenship education (Reynolds, 2012; Smolicz & Secombe, 2009). Although accurate, traditional interpretations do not reflect the complexities of citizenship and identity in modernised nation-states (Banks, 2008b; Shani, 2020). Consequently, contemporary citizenship must take a broader view of citizenship as “a way of being in the world” (Veugelers, 2011, p. 473), or specifically, “citizenship as practice” (Biesta, 2011, p. 13). This broader view of citizenship suggests two key implications for understanding identity. First, it reinforces deep connections between citizenship and identity. It deepens and intensifies the traditional interpretations of citizenship in four ways – (1) extending participation beyond the formal political sphere to the social and cultural spheres (Veugelers, 2019), (2) taking into account global, transnational and multicultural perspectives (Banks, 2008b; Kiwan, 2016), (3) navigating the global, national and local spheres of human relations (Jackson, 2019a; Pashby, 2018) and (4) necessitating continuous exploration of the meanings of identity and citizenship in an active and
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participatory manner (Ross, 2007). Consequently, identity goes beyond a status that can be achieved and maintained, to having a clear sense empowerment to engage in a culture of participation, including identification with public issues and recognising their roles and responsibilities in the communities, nations and the global world (Biesta, 2011; Ross, 2007; Veugelers, 2019). This, as Biesta (2011) asserts, “should be a central and essential element of democratic citizenship” (p. 13). Second, while one’s identity are accepted as multiple, extending from local to national to global, this multiplicity of identities and relations are simultaneously rooted in diversity and a sense of belonging. These are sources of ongoing discussions and debates in scholarship related to citizenship education, particularly global citizenship. A key debate revolves around the assumption that globalization assumes a global movement towards global consciousness and ultimately a global identity (Cha et al., 2018; Pashby, 2018). However, the social constructivist nature of identity meant that identities are both relative and culturally constructed, “always dependent upon the existence of an ‘other’, whom one is not” (Shani, 2020, p. 406). In this case, Shani (2020) argues that it is unlikely that a universal global identity could exist. Drawing from Young (1989), Banks (2008a, b) also raised the similar challenge of encompassing diversities, if a universal conception of citizenship was adopted. Applying a universal conception on identity and citizenship can lead to structural exclusion and discrimination if differences had to be suppressed. The above debates can be summarised by two points of consideration for democratic nation-states – First, how to balance unity, involving citizens in constructing a democratic public community with an overarching set of values that all identify and commit to, with diversity, through respecting and acknowledging citizens’ community cultures and knowledge (Banks, 2020; Kymlicka, 2017)? Second, how to prioritise rights and responsibilities, and develop a sense of self, amidst competing contexts of local, national and global life (Jackson, 2019a)? Acknowledging the challenges of attaining a definitive global identity, Shani (2020) draws on Held and McGrew’s (2000) work to highlight four possible views of globalisation on identity – the ‘globalist’, ‘hyperglobalist’, ‘sceptical’ and the ‘transformationalist’. Globalist and hyperglobalist assume the inevitable displacement of local, particular identities by a new global political or cultural identity. It recognises capitalism as the dynamic driving globalisation and the ‘liberation’ of the ‘local’ from national and territorial constraints to adapt to global competitive conditions. In other words, it replaces nation-states’ economic sovereignties with a global one. Contrastingly, sceptics assumes that local, territorialized (national) identities will remain immune to ‘global transformations’. This is reflected in the resurgence of ethno-national movements which believe in the emotive appeal of nationalism and the nation-states’ ability to provide a realistic framework for contemporary world order. These, in Shani’s (2020) view, are problematic as they assume a contradictory relationship between the local (national), and the global. Respectively, they overstate the effects of economic globalisation on state sovereignty and the degree of autonomy that nation states enjoy in the international system. Worse, they ignore the existence of the resulting inequalities that are induced by economic globalisation and does not challenge the neoliberal assumption that
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everyone will benefit from contemporary economic globalisation (Aloni & Weintrob, 2017; Shani, 2020). These views also fail to recognise the full diversity of people present in the various layers of the local and global societies. Particularly for the sceptic view, there is danger of championing exclusionary and homogenising narratives of nationhood to privilege majority ways of belonging while suppressing minority identities and contributions (Banks, 2008b; Kymlicka, 2017). Transformationalist differs from the prior three views in that it sees the process of globalisation and localisation as interrelated. Among the views, the transformationalist is more widely supported in the scholarship of globalisation and citizenship. Drawing on Benedict Anderson’s conception of the nation as an imagined community, some scholars have argued that globalisation, particularly with the growth of the Internet, has made the imagination of ‘deterritorialized diasporic identities’ possible on the global scale (Jackson, 2019b; Shani, 2020, p. 407). At the same time, the significance of territorial based local identities, widely recognised as the fundamental unit of international political and socio-economic life, is not dismissed (Shani, 2020). Drawing on Held et al. (1999), Shani (2020) elaborates that instead of viewing globalization as eroding state powers, transformationalists acknowledges its transformation. For example, while states remain the principal actors within global political order, it no longer claims the exclusive centre of authority and governance. Consistent with democratic views that recognise and embrace the dynamism inherent in diverse societies (Banks, 2015; Bashir, 2017; Neoh, 2017 2019; Westheimer, 2015), transformationalists acknowledge the dynamism of citizenship and identity in terms of the directions and meanings of change, and how the change should be represented. This permits the deterritorialization of localised identities and the co-existence of multiple identities. Bashir (2017) contends that intercommunal conflicts that extend beyond state borders are better achieved through deterritorialized and regional conceptions of citizenship and citizenship education.
I mplications of a Transformationalist View on Citizenship Education and Identity Construction An assimilationist conception of citizenship can be considered inimical to the transformationalist view. An assimilationist conception of citizenship education has existed in most Western democratic nation-states prior to the rise of ethnic revitalisation movements in the 1960s and 1970s (Banks, 2008a; Kymlicka, 2010). Historically, it was associated with exclusionary and homogenizing narratives of nationhood, privileging majority of ways of belonging while playing down minority identities and contributions (Kymlicka, 2017). Most nation-states did this by developing citizens who internalized national values, venerated national heroes, and accepted glorified versions of national histories (Banks, 2018; Kymlicka, 2010). However, such conceptions are obsolete in contemporary societies as many people now have multiple national commitments and live in more than one nation (Banks, 2018).
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Adopting the transformationalist view of balancing ‘unity’ and ‘diversity’ is a more democratic and relevant response in contemporary societal contexts. It uses the intersectionality of the diversity of identities against the backdrop of some commonality as a starting point for critical inquiry into real-world problems (Crick, 2013; Hess & Mcavoy, 2015; Kiwan, 2016). As established earlier, identities are fundamentally political, social and cultural. Consequently, the multiple identities that have been similarly transformed by globalization can frequently clash. However, as with democratic approaches, the transformationalist view sees opportunities in the dynamism, ‘uncertainty’ or ‘change’ in allowing, and even encouraging, the negotiation of diversities. Instead of viewing the future as a singular predesigned social end, transformationalists anticipate the unfolding of the future in the face of profound economic, political, social and cultural change “through the contradictory but mutually dependent processes of globalization and localization” (Cha et al., 2018; Jackson, 2019a; Shani, 2020, p. 426). Unity without diversity will result in cultural repression and hegemony (Banks, 2008a). Consequently, a key challenge and simultaneously, a key goal of global citizenship and global citizenship education in diverse democratic nation-states is to find a delicate balance between diversity and unity. This is ideally done through the provision of opportunities for different groups to maintain aspects of their community cultures, while building nations in which these groups are structurally included and feel an allegiance to (Banks, 2008a; Mouffe, 1999; Shani, 2020; Starkey, 2017). Recognising the fundamental need to revise inherited conceptions of ‘citizens’ which is confined within the boundaries of nation-states, Kymlicka (2017) identified two broad strands for citizenship education within contexts of globalisation: First, focus on how citizens, as members of nation-states, exercise their popular sovereignty and agency. This requires an understanding of how societies determine who qualifies for membership, with emphasis on a multicultural conception of belonging (Kymlicka, 2017). This minimal sense of identity within the national community can contribute to a “functioning, stable and legitimate polity” (Bashir, 2017, p. 25). At the personal level, it involves a sense of solidarity, sympathy and trust among the citizenry (Bashir, 2017). At the civil level, it emphasises the rights and duties that adheres to democratic values, with equal rights in the leading role, and clearly articulating the link between diversity and democracy (Bashir, 2017; Gilbert, Jeon, Stears, & Wardle, 2020; Kymlicka, 2010; Mouffe, 2018). This will help to challenge, and avoid perpetuating a capitalist democracy “articulated with free market, private property and unfettered individualism” (Mouffe, 2018, p. 29) and replace the historically uncivil and undemocratic relations of hierarchy and exclusion (Kymlicka, 2010). Second, extend beyond the boundaries of nation-states to focus on an ethic of respect for human dignity, which is inherently cosmopolitan (Kymlicka, 2017; Starkey, 2017). This focuses on one’s identity as a human. This can be addressed through human rights education, which is applicable regardless of one’s membership in any society, whether one was staying temporarily or even present in a particular society (Banks, 2008a; Kymlicka, 2017). This strand is also associated with the concept of education for cosmopolitan citizenship, which allows educators to
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embrace both unity and diversity in national contexts by recognising diversity at all levels, ranging from the local to the global and engaging with the realities of multicultural schools and communities (Starkey, 2017). While these two strands chart the broad directions for citizenship education in the context of globalisation, they did not emphasise adequately the complexities related to citizenship and identity. These included the competing relationships between unity and diversity in the local, national and global communities (Banks, 2008a; Jackson, 2019a), competing social interests (Crick, 2013), entrenched inequalities, and newly constructed social conflicts and cultural and ethnic diversities that are present in diverse societies (Bashir, 2017; Kymlicka, 2010; Mouffe, 1999), and last, the existence of citizenship education programmes and curricula that teach democratic ideals and values within social, economic, political and educational contexts that contradict democratic ideals such as justice, equality and human rights (Banks, 2020). These complexities present a strong case against a deliberative democracy model that assumes that neutral, impartial and rational dialogues could take place to work towards generalizable interests and legitimate outcomes to the agreement of all participants (Bashir, 2017; Kymlicka, 2010; Mouffe, 1999). As such, the value of deliberation can be discredited by the lack of attention to the complexities of the conditions in which it takes place. To address this, it is necessary to unpack the two strands further to discuss how the complexities can be better addressed through citizenship education to develop democratic competencies for balancing unity and diversity in contexts of globalisation and diversity.
Implications for Global Citizenship Education The discussions above demonstrated the strong links between identity, citizenship and rights, which are in turn strongly associated with territory and nation (Ross, 2007). Consequently, both the moral and political dimensions of the democratic and transformationalist views of citizenship and citizenship education need to be emphasised (Crick, 2013; Gilbert et al., 2020; Mouffe, 1999; Veugelers, 2011). This is because if the link between identity and allegiance to democratic shared forms of life is to be recognised (Mouffe, 1999), then citizens need the moral commitment to democratic values and ethics, including a commitment to equality and justice (Banks, 2020; Kymlicka, 2017). There are moral implications for recognising the different ‘spheres’ of the societies as sites of critical questioning and possibly profound disagreement, and moral obligations to use reasoning, rather than rely on personal preferences, in developing standards to guide personal action (Gilbert et al., 2020; Jackson, 2019b). The political dimension of identity development involves the reconsideration of rights and responsibilities amidst competing contexts of local, national and global life (Jackson, 2019a; Ross, 2007). It relates to understanding and navigating the complexities and contestations present in each context – “the way to know about,
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and thus be part of, the local, the national, the global (and the cultural)” (p. 249), and the inherent struggle for rights in diverse societies (Crick, 2013; Hess & Mcavoy, 2015; Starkey, 2017). The implication for global citizenship education is to help young people understand their rights and responsibilities within different contexts, and how they can relate to, identify with (or against) and negotiate with others in the world (Crick, 2013; Jackson, 2019a). However, it is important to recognise that none of these contexts are known and given but are subjected to studied scrutiny. To achieve these through global citizenship education, a focus on ‘experience’ and ‘participation’ is necessary (Banks, 2008a). Hess and Mcavoy (2015) suggest that experiences of participation are best provided in ‘political classrooms’, where students have deliberative spaces to enter as political equals and experience mutual respect. Although classrooms are unique political spaces where students are unlikely to easily exit uncomfortable situations, as they would have been able to in public spaces, schools still present the potential for students to learn political disagreement and compromise. As Kazepides (2010) succinctly explains “…there has never been an ideal society of education or dialogue nor have there been perfect educational and dialogical institutions and appropriate social conditions in the history of humanity; we are only after an approximation of an ideal” (p. 3). From this perspective, a balanced combination of socialisation and counter- socialisation pedagogies can help students develop the competencies to critically evaluate societal norms and respond democratically global trends (Bashir, 2017; Jackson, 2019a). The pedagogies should facilitate socialisation to the dynamics or ‘norms’ of democratic participation and the development of countersocialisation skills to help students think about the “origins and purposes” of the norms (Westheimer, 2015, p. 3). It needs to go beyond the common practice of a “feel- good celebration” of ethno-cultural diversity, one that focused on encouraging citizens to acknowledge and embrace the array of customs, traditions, music and cuisine in a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural society (Kymlicka, 2010, p. 98). Another approach is to use ‘transformative pedagogies’ that focus on facilitating learning through authentic real-world problems by “engaging with their ‘messiness’ and intersectionality” (Kiwan, 2016, p. 14; Ross, 2007). Through dialogues that value student and teachers’ knowledge, experiences and perspectives, there are possibilities for marginalised perspectives to be heard and the power dynamics involved in knowledge production to be recognised. This provides a starting point for critical inquiry in relation to real-world problems, such as approaches related to authentic learning about the intersectionality of race and ethnicity. Together, the moral and political understandings could contribute to the “global grammar” and “local semantics” of learning within contexts of diversity to help students grasp the dynamic social construct of identity and citizenship, particularly multicultural citizenship (Cha et al., 2018, p. 1). They promote a ‘maximal’ response that encourages critical understanding, questioning and continuous pursuit,
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construction and expansion of notions of equity and justice (Bickmore, 2004; Hess & Mcavoy, 2015; Jackson, 2019a; McLaughlin, 1992; Westheimer, 2015).
Case Study – The Australian Education Context In the last 30 years, globalisation has challenged Australia’s democracy to find more effective ways of conciliating the demands of an increasingly diverse society. This induced a reflection on the Australian identity in the 1990s to consider how changes within the society could better reflect Australians’ view of themselves as citizens (Print, Kennedy, & Hughes, 1999). Australia had to, and still has to consider the necessity of transiting from an identity connected with England, to one in a globalising world of economics in the twenty-first century. Consequently, Australians needed to understand a new notion of citizenship (Davidson, 1997; Print et al., 1999). In response, the federal government started reclaiming CCE in schools (Reid & Gill, 2009). Australian citizenship education has to transit from early motivations of social order, social cohesion, the inculcation of national pride and a sense of nationalism that mainly served the purpose of nation-building and national identity formation, to one that could meet the new demands of modern Australia (Reid & Gill, 2010). In 2008, with the release of the Melbourne Declaration on Education Goals for Young Australians, thereafter Melbourne Declaration, Australian education could be considered to have undergone a significant curriculum reform. The Melbourne Declaration guided the development of the Australian Curriculum (AC), Australia’s first national curriculum. It is significant because it was the first time that all Australian Education Ministers in the states and territories committed to the two key goals of the Declaration, namely, • • • • •
Australian schooling promotes equity and excellence All young Australians become: Successful learners Confident and creative individuals Active and informed citizens
The need for Australian education to respond to the impacts of globalisation was explicit in the Melbourne Declaration, with the acknowledgement of “major changes in the world that [were] placing new demands on Australian education” (MCEETYA, 2008). The response reflected a balance that Australia sought to achieve between maintaining social cohesion and economic progress. Drawing on the Melbourne Declaration, three key implications for global citizenship education, could be identified:
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In response to Rapid increase in global integration and international mobility
Implications for citizenship education Nurture appreciation of and respect for social, cultural and religious diversity and a sense of global citizenship to tap on the “new and exciting opportunities for Australians” (p. 4) India, China and other Asian nations’ growing Develop ‘Asian literacy’ to enhance influence on the world Australian’s abilities to engage and build strong relationships Globalisation and technological change placing greater Encourage young Australians to demands on education and skill development. Rapid complete secondary education and changing nature of jobs available to young Australians, proceed into further training or with skilled jobs dominating job growth and requiring education university or vocational education and training qualifications
Specific to discussions about cultural identity and citizenship, the Melbourne Declaration further identified characteristics of ‘active and informed’ citizens that Australian education should seek to develop: –– act with moral and ethical integrity –– appreciate Australia’s social and cultural, linguistic and religious diversity, and have an understanding of Australia’s system of government, history and culture –– understand and acknowledge the value of Indigenous cultures and possess the knowledge, skills and understanding to contribute to, and benefit from, reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians –– are committed to national values of democracy, equity and justice, and participate in Australia’s civic life –– are able to relate to and communicate across cultures, especially the cultures and countries of Asia –– work for the common good, in particular sustaining and improving natural and social environments –– are responsible global and local citizens Taking the information together, there is strong recognition of the influence of globalisation on notions of citizenship. Broadly, it presented a globalist view of globalisation, focusing Australian education on preparation for participation in the global economy and extending Australia’s powers in the Asia-Pacific region and the world. This continue to support the policy agenda to restructure the Australian Economy that had existed since the 1980s through a deregulation of the economy and the liberation of the import regime (Henderson, 2008). The backdrop of this effort to assert Australia’s ‘new regionalism’ is a complex one. As Henderson (2008) elaborates, while Australia seeks to position as a “responsible” global citizen by committing to human rights issues, conflicts arise from political and cultural differences in the Asia-Pacific region (p. 175). One example is the distinction that neighbouring Asian nations like Singapore asserts about ‘Western’ and ‘Asian’ socio-political views, using it to rebuff Australia’s support for ‘Western’ notions of
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human rights. These complexities inherent in Australian politics help to contextualise discussions about citizenship, nationalism and globalisation in Australia. While the description of ‘active and informed’ citizens described in the Melbourne Declaration suggests the location of the ‘Australian’ identity in both local and global dimensions, the direction and the extent to which Australia was prepared to ‘transform’ in response to globalisation was ambiguous. For example, efforts to balance unity and diversity was evident through the value accorded to diversity present in the Australian society, with an emphasis on the reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, and a commitment to democratic values (Banks, 2008a). However, it appeared to focus largely on the moral dimension of citizenship. The political dimension, which encourages citizens’ ability to engage in critical inquiries, deliberations and complexities, was largely missing. To further understand this, the Australian Curriculum (AC) is a more informative source. The General Capabilities component in the AC aimed at equipping students with competencies to act “appropriately in complex and changing circumstances, in their learning and in their lives outside school” (ACARA, 2015). Relevant to supporting a transformationalist and democratic view of citizenship, the ‘critical and creative thinking’ capability can help students “generate and evaluate knowledge, clarify concepts and ideas, seek possibilities, consider alternatives and solve problems”. This is a key skill to drive the critical inquiry in real life situations necessary in democratic citizenship education (Kiwan, 2016). Other capabilities, such as ‘personal and social capability’, ‘ethical understanding’ and ‘intercultural understanding’ can support the development of a moral and conceptual foundation for engagement with diversity. However, the relevance of these capabilities with supporting democratic participation was not explicit in the policy documents. This section has highlighted the broad directions set out for global citizenship education, and more broadly, citizenship education in Australian education. The impacts of globalisation on Australian education were acknowledged. These directions are, however, very broad and has its limitations in providing a rounded picture of the state of global citizenship education in Australian schools. Recognising that every school has unique contexts and consequently, diverse approaches to citizenship education exists, the following section will draw on a case study conducted in two primary schools in New South Wales, Australia, as platforms to examine the conceptions and practices of global citizenship education. It focuses on understanding how schools prepared students to respond to diversity. The schools’ conceptions of ‘global citizens’ will be discussed in conjunction with their practices to examine the extent to which a ‘maximal’ notion of global citizenship is taught.
School Contexts – Two Primary Schools in New South Wales S1 was a Uniting Church private school located in Sydney’s north. It has an Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage (ICSEA) value significantly above the Australian average. The students’ advantageous socio-economic backgrounds were
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strongly recognised by the school and this was raised as a strong factor that influenced the school’s approach towards global citizenship education. The school’s curriculum follows the structure of the Primary Years Programme (PYP) of the International Baccalaureate (IB) programme. As a Uniting church school, S1 strived to display tolerance, and actively participate in society. The school identified itself as a “school for all”, welcoming students of different faiths, religions, abilities and talents. S2 was a government school located in Sydney’s west. Staff members considered the school as highly multicultural, with more than 80% of the students coming from Language other than English (LOTE) backgrounds. A significant proportion of S2’s students were new arrivals in Australia holding refugee statuses and some were of Aboriginal backgrounds. According to S2’s teachers, many of their students faced language barriers and had little knowledge about Australia, including the workings of the society, laws and cultures. The school’s ICSEA value was significantly low, reflecting the low levels of educational advantage in the school. The principal identified cultural diversity among the students as a representation of multicultural Australia and identified it as the school’s ‘strength’. Acknowledging multiculturalism and diversity in Australia, the two schools showed awareness of the increasing cultural diversity in the Australian society and highlighted programmes or events held yearly to celebrate cultural diversity and promote understanding of different cultures. The schools also highlighted the importance for students to be aware of different perspectives held by different groups of people in diverse societies. The two schools acknowledged the importance of developing global awareness among the students. They identified an outward-looking orientation in the AC and the need for their students to be globally aware. Some similar aspects of global citizenship education in the two schools included understanding and appreciating cultural diversity, and awareness of global issues. These two schools provided two contrasting contexts to examine the conceptions of global citizenship, and global citizenship education in Australian schools. As strongly highlighted by the schools, they sought to design their curricula to meet the needs and interests of their students. Interpreting the different conceptions of global citizenship education can reveal the nuances of global citizenship education in the Australian education context. The following section will discuss the three most prominent characteristics of global citizenship identified by the two schools.
op 3 Characteristics Identified as Important T for ‘Global Citizenship’ Mindedness of Equality, Fairness and Justice The mindedness of equality and fairness was raised in both schools, although this was raised more explicitly and prominently in S1 than S2.
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In S1, there was common acknowledgement that the high socio-economic and “morally strong” student backgrounds provided the students with the opportunities to travel around the world and gain easy access global information. The teachers view this as supportive of the students to become “very, very worldly citizens”. For example, one teacher commented that his students were highly aware of the “good and the bad” in the world and they were very interested to know “how and why” issues of inequalities happened. Consequently, the teachers sometimes chose books related to stories about the fights for rights and/or inequalities around the world to teach in class. S1’s principal also identified the need for her students to understand that the concept of ‘equality’ by recognising that “everyone has a right to be happy and a right to feel welcomed”. Recognising that her students lived in a “very privileged” society, the school strongly encouraged students to “do something for somebody else”. This included participation in various charity and volunteerism programmes. In S2, only the Principal explicitly alluded to notions of equality, fairness and justice. He envisioned his students to be “brave” and would “speak up for those [who] aren’t as knowledgeable or as courageous as them and if they [saw] something wrong, they should have the courage to speak up…..”. However, a focus on developing this trait, was rarely observed in the lessons.
Intercultural Understanding Both schools were explicit in identifying intercultural understanding as an important trait of global citizens. Through S1’s IB programme, values such as ‘empathy’, ‘open-mindedness’ and ‘tolerance’ were encouraged and identified as important for developing intercultural understanding. Drawing on the principles of the IB programme, the teachers identified the importance of being able to make judgements in “any situations”. For example, a teacher highlighted the importance for global citizens to make judgements about “good” and “unfair” situations. He shared that he often discussed “the troubles we [had] in our world” with his students. These included discussions about the war zones of Syria and the extremism of different organisations around the world to help his students make judgements about global issues. This, however, was not reflected strongly in his lessons. More frequently, a key focus was on providing opportunities for students to acquire different perspectives of issues, but rarely to critically evaluate them. In both schools, the presence of multicultural/international events was emphasised as important school programmes that supported students’ development of intercultural understanding. Multicultural days frequently revolved around the introduction of various cultures, including aspects such as food, music and dance. Opportunities to learn about the countries that different students come from was identified to help increase the level of respect students had for one another in S2.
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In S1, a unit of study in Geography provided opportunities for students to learn about Asian countries, such as Japan, China and India. The lessons included opportunities for students to inquire about different groups of local population and cultural practices. There was frequent use of thinking frameworks to encourage students to explore different perspectives about various cultural aspects. However, controversial questions and/or issues raised by students were almost always minimally addressed. The teachers generally focused students on acquiring information and less on critically thinking about them, such as from the viewpoints of ‘fairness’, ‘equality’ and ‘justice’. In S2, efforts to support students of different backgrounds were identified as responsive to intercultural understanding. This was mainly in the form of academic support, such as having an interpreter in the classrooms to support students’ learning.
Knowledge of Australia The knowledge of Australia, including Australian history, preferential voting system, and the federal and state governments, were identified to be important for citizenship. In S1, the study of historical events provided opportunities for students to inquire into the different perspectives and understand how the process that people come to understand historical events could be biased. It was identified as an opportunity for students to consider historical events through the lens of fairness and justice. For example, S1/T1 raised opportunities for students to consider if different groups of people were “treated fairly” during the landing of Captain Cook in Australia. In S2, there was strong inclination towards helping the students understand how they could adapt to the Australian society. Although S2 teachers recognised the value in keeping their home cultures, such as speaking their own languages at home, they identified the importance for the students to have the ability to communicate with others and “know how the world works”.
iscussion – Two Key Takeaways for Global Citizenship D Education from the Case Study The examination of the Melbourne Declaration provided an understanding of the policy directions for citizenship in general and more specifically, global citizenship. The examination of the two case studies provided a more in depth understanding of the conceptions and practices of citizenship education. Together, they helped to provide a more nuance understanding of global citizenship education in the Australian educational context. Two most prominent findings will be discussed in relation to the implications for global citizenship education.
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A prominent finding was the difference that existed between the socio- economically advantaged and disadvantaged schools. There was significantly more importance placed on engaging students in the socio-economically advantaged school in critical thinking about (global) issues from the social lenses of justice and equality, which are the cornerstone of democracy. This was attributed to the backgrounds of the students, which were deemed to have prepared them well for such activities. On the other hand, more focus was placed on socialising students in the socio-economically disadvantaged school to the workings of the Australian society and more broadly, the global society. Additionally, cultural diversity, while widely acknowledged to be important and a valued trait, appeared to be subordinated by the need to acquire the necessary competencies to survive and live in the Australian society, which was new to many of S2’s students. This highlighted the gap created between the financially ‘rich’ and the ‘poor’, and the ‘local’ and the ‘new-arrivals’ in terms of the ways they were prepared to participate in Australia and the global democracy. This is problematic as the “civic opportunity gap” could led to unequal distribution of opportunities to practice democratic engagement and to engage in the transformations required by globalisation, increasing diversity and an uncertain and complex future (Westheimer, 2015, p. 15). A second prominent finding was that the schools generally supported an apolitical and minimal conceptions of global citizenship. While both schools strongly encouraged and engaged their students in acts of charity and collective kindness through emphasis on practising respect and tolerance, there was limited evidence of opportunities to engage students in critical deliberations about issues, and more importantly, why these activities, values and dispositions were meaningful to them as global citizens. It can be argued that without critical engagement to examine deeply the root of social injustices, the effectiveness in helping students engage in social issues in an active and critical way, which is needed in the transformationalist and democratic approach to globalisation, can be limited (Body, 2020; Neoh, 2017 2019; Westheimer, 2015).
Conclusion This chapter used the Australian educational context as a platform to examine the conceptions and practices of global citizenship education and more broadly, citizenship education. The chapter drew on a case study involving two Australian primary schools in New South Wales as contexts to examine the conceptions and practices of global citizenship education. While the results from the case study are not generalisable to all Australian schools, they provided unique contexts to examine more deeply the nuances of global citizenship. The chapter supports a transformationalist and democratic approach towards globalization. It values the importance of acknowledging ‘change’ in the face of increasing diversity and to that, it supports the need for more synergy between the ‘local/national’ and the ‘global’. Instead of viewing the two contexts as mutually
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exclusive, the chapter supports the need to broaden traditional conceptions of citizenship that confine identity within national territorial boundaries, to embrace the ‘transformations’ needed to balance the demands of an increasingly diverse citizenry. Drawing on literature on global citizenship education, three key directions for global citizenship education were identified – (1) develop understanding of the ‘local’/national society to know how one can exercise agency, (2) develop commitment to a moral ethnic of respect for human dignity and diversity at all levels, (3) develop political competencies, including reconsidering one’s rights and responsibilities amidst complex and competing local and global contexts. At the educational policy level, the Australian case study revealed a largely globalist stance towards globalisation, where responses to globalisation were largely economically driven to tap on economic opportunities present in the Asia-pacific region and by the rise of countries like India and China. Culturally, there were some attention to diversity, particularly the support for reconciliation of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Australia. Cultural diversity, while presented as a valuable trait, pales in comparison to economic competitiveness in terms of the emphasis given. In practice, there was inclination towards the de-politicisation of global citizenship education in schools. This meant that global citizenship, or citizenship in general, was largely viewed in terms of awareness of global issues and the different types of diversity present in the local and global society, void of complexities and tensions. Although the schools raised the importance of understanding notions of inequalities and justice in contexts of diversity, cultural and ethnic diversity was most commonly conceptualised and practised in terms of what Kymlicka (2010) termed as “feel-good-celebration” of ethno-cultural diversity. While it acknowledged and embraced the diversity of customs and traditions, it minimised the importance of critical thinking skills that were needed for understanding and acting amidst the complexities of diverse societies. The discussions in this chapter serve as a starting point for deeper deliberations about the directions for global citizenship education in Australia. Indeed, the need to prepare young people for a sense of agency in face of a complex and uncertain future, particularly within the contexts of competing and diverse needs is even more important now. The Covid-19 pandemic situation has exposed the vulnerabilities of many democracies and diverse societies. In Australia and around the world, impending prolonged economic downturn, inherent racism and the normally invisible inequalities are among the many issues that had been exposed and requires intelligent citizenry responses. The need to rethink global economic structures, challenge the dominance on neoliberal perspectives on policy-making and explore how social justice and equality can be strengthened are among some issues that global citizens will be confronted with in the years to come (Low, 2020). An apolitical form of global citizenship education will not be adequate in helping young Australians confront these complexities as Australians, and as global citizens. While change must involve broader policy changes beyond education, there is recognition that educational institutions can serve as ecosystems to help young people develop global citizenship competencies. The implication for educators is
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consider how to incorporate more meaningfully, the moral and political dimensions needed for a transformationalist and democratic form of global citizenship – one that can respond to the challenges of globalisation and diversity in a more just and equitable manner. Importantly, Australian education has to consider how a stronger commitment to democratic values could be developed as the foundation to support the well-being of the Australian and global democracy (Neoh, 2017). Responding these implications could help to provide a more solid foundation for young people in Australia to engage in intelligent deliberations and exercise agency towards balancing unity and diversity and construct a more democratic public community.
References ACARA. (2015). General capabilities – Introduction v8. Retrieved from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/generalcapabilities/overview/introduction Aloni, N., & Weintrob, L. (2017). Introduction. In N. Aloni & L. Weintrob (Eds.), Beyond bystanders: Educational leadership for a humane culture in a globalizing reality (pp. 1–18). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. Banks, J. (2008a). Diversity and citizenship education in global times. In J. Arthur, I. Davies, & C. Hahn (Eds.), SAGE handbook of education for citizenship and democracy (pp. 57–70). Los Angeles: Sage. Banks, J. (2008b). Diversity, group identity, and citizenship education in a global age. Educational Researcher, 37(3), 129–139. Banks, J. (2015). Failed citizenship, civic engagement, and education. Kappa Delta Pi Record, 51(4), 151–154. Banks, J. (2018). Diversity and citizenship education in multicultural nations. In Y.-K. Cha, S.-H. Ham, & M. Lee (Eds.), Routledge international handbook of multicultural education research in Asia Pacific (pp. 9–22). New York: Routledge. Banks, J. (2020). Diversity, transformative knowledge, and civic education: Selected essays. New York: Routledge. Bashir, B. (2017). Beyond state inclusion: On the normalizing and intergrating forces of deterritorialized citizenshiip and civic education. In J. Banks (Ed.), Citizenship education and global migration: Implications for theory, research, and teaching (pp. 23–40). Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association. Bickmore, K. (2004). Discipline for democracy? School districts’ management of conflict and social exclusion. Theory & Research in Social Education, 32(1), 75–97. Biesta, G. (2011). Learning democracy in school and society: Education, lifelong learning and the politics of citizenship. Rotterdam: Sense. Body, A. (2020). Learning in a lockdown: Children, kindness and social change. Retrieved from https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/transformation/ learning-lockdown-children-kindness-and-social-change/ Castles, S. (2017). The challenges of international migration in the 21st century. In J. Banks (Ed.), Citizenship education and global migration: Implications for theory, research, and teaching (pp. 3–21). Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association. Cha, Y.-K., Ham, S.-H., & Lee, M. (2018). Introduction: Multicultural education research in Asia Pacific. In C. Yun-Kyung, H. Seung-Hwan, & L. Moosung (Eds.), Routledge international handbook of multicultural education research in Asia Pacific (pp. 1–6). New York: Routledge. Crick, B. (2013). In Defence of politics India. Bloomsbury Publishing. Davidson, A. (1997). From subject to citizen: Australian citizenship in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Elliot, A. (2020). The rise of identity studies. In A. Elliot (Ed.), Routledge handbook of identity studies (2nd ed., pp. 3–17). Oxon: Routledge. Gilbert, L., Jeon, Y.-H., Stears, M., & Wardle, G. (2020). Moving beyond lockdown: How might citizen action help tackle the public health crisis? Sydney Policy Lab. Held, D., McGrew, A., Goldblatt, D., & Peratton, J. (1999). Introduction. In Global transformations. Cambridge: Polity. Held, D., & McGrew, A. (2000). The great globalization debate. In D. Held & A. McGrew (Eds.), The Global Transformations Reader. Cambridge: Polity. Henderson, D. (2008). Politics and policy-making for Asian Literact: The Rudd report and a national strategy in Australian Education. Asian Studies Review, 32(2), 171–195. Hess, D., & Mcavoy, P. (2015). The political classroom: Evidence and ethics in democratic education. New York: Routledge. Jackson, L. (2019a). The challenges of learning to live together: Navigating the global, national and local. Asia Pacific Education Review, 20(2), 249–257. Jackson, L. (2019b). Questioning allegiance. Oxon: Rouledge. Kazepides, T. (2010). Education as dialogue: Its prerequisites and its enemies. Montreal: McGill Queen’s University Press. Kennedy, K. (2008). Globalised economies and liberalised curriculum: New challenges for national citizenship education. In D. Grossman, W. O. Lee, & K. Kennedy (Eds.), Citizenship curriculum in Asia and the Pacific (pp. 13–26). Hong Kong: Hong Kong Comparative Education Research Centre. Kiwan, D. (2016). ‘Race’, ‘ethnicity’ and citizenship in education:locating intersectionality and migration for social justice. In A. Peterson, R. Hattam, M. Zembylas, & J. Arthur (Eds.), The Palgrave international handbook of education for citizenship and social justice (pp. 3–26). London: Palgrave Macmillan. Kymlicka, W. (2010). The rise and fall of multiculturalism? New debates on inclusion and accommodation in diverse societies. International Social Science Journal, 61(199), 97–112. Kymlicka, W. (2017). Foreward. In J. Banks (Ed.), Citizenship education and global migration: Implications for theory, research, and teaching (pp. xix–xxv). Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association. Lingard, B., & McGregor, G. (2014). Two contrasting Australian curriculum responses to globalisation: What students should learn or become. Curriculum Journal, 25(1). https://doi.org/1 0.1080/09585176.2013.872048 Low, D. (2020). Beyond the pandemic: Efficiency, resilience, justice. Retrieved from https://www. academia.sg/academic-views/beyond-the-pandemic-efficiency-resilience-justice/?fbclid=IwA R1P5WwlMXcXCZWW2YZ9TWbdo4wyGxJwFmtP_zd65bSAgJKC_sNpcPY30Jg MCEETYA. (2008). Melbourne declaration on educational goals for young Australians. McLaughlin, T. H. (1992). Citizenship, diversity and education: A philosophical perspective. Journal of Moral Education, 21(3), 235–250. Mouffe, C. (1999). Deliberative democracy or agonistic pluralism. Social Research, 66(3), 745–758. Mouffe, C. (2018). For a left populism. London: Verso Books. Neoh, J. Y. (2017). Neoliberal education? Comparing character and citizenship education in singapore and civics and citizenship education in Australia. Journal of Social Science Education, 16(3), 29–39. Neoh, J. Y. (2019). The study of the practice of civics and citizenship education in New South Wales primary schools (Doctor of philosophy). The University of Sydney. Pashby, K. (2018). Identity, belonging and diversity in education for global citizenship: Multiplying, intersecting, transforming and engaging lived realities. In I. Davies (Ed.), The Palgrave handbook of global citizenship and education (pp. 277–293). London: Palgrave Macmillan. Print, M., Kennedy, K., & Hughes, J. (1999). Reconstructing civics and citizenship education in Australia. Retrieved from
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Reid, A., & Gill, J. (2009). An arm of the state? Linking citizenship education and schooling practice. Citizenship Teaching and Learning, 5(1), 3–17. Reid, A., & Gill, J. (2010). In whose interest? Australian schooling and the changing contexts of citizenship. In A. Reid, J. Gill, & A. Sears (Eds.), Globalisation, the nation-state and the citizen (pp. 31–46). New York: Routledge. Reynolds, R. (2012). Editorial: Civics and citizenship education in its global context: The complexity of global citizenship dialogues. Education Sciences, 2(190–192), 190–192. Rizvi, F., & Lingard, B. (2010). Globalizing education policy. Oxon: Routledge. Ross, A. (2007). Multiple identities and education for active citizenship. British Journal of Educational Studies, 55, 286–303. Shani, G. (2020). Identity-politics in the global age. In A. Elliot (Ed.), Routledge handbook of identity studies (2nd ed.). Oxon: Routledge. Smolicz, J., & Secombe, M. (2009). Globalisation, identity and cultural dynamics in a multiethnic state: multiculturalism in Australia. In J. Zajda, H. Daun, & L. Saha (Eds.), Nation-building, identity and citizenship education. Dordrecht: Springer. Starkey, H. (2017). Globalization and education for cosmopolitan citizenship. In J. Banks (Ed.), Citizenship education and global migration: Implications for theory, research, and teaching. Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association. Veugelers, W. (2011). The moral and the political in global citizenship: Appreciating differences in education. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 9(3–4), 473–485. Veugelers, W. (2019). Education for democratic intercultural Citizenshi. Rottterdam: Sense. Westheimer, J. (2015). What kind of citizen. New York: New York Teachers College Press. Young, I. M. (1989). Polity and group difference: A critique of the ideal of universal citizenship. Ethics, 99(2), 250–274. Zajda, J. (2009). Globalisation, nation-building, and cultural identity: The role of intercultural dialogue. In J. Zajda, H. Daun, & L. Saha (Eds.), Nation-building, identity and citizenship education: Cross-cultural perspectives (pp. 15–24). Dordrecht: Springer. Zajda, J. (2018). Globalisation and education reforms: Paradigms and ideology. In J. Zajda (Ed.), Globalisation and education reforms: Paradigms and ideology (Vol. 19, pp. 1–15). Cham: Springer. Dr. Jia Ying Neoh teaches in HSIE and Study 1 (MTeach Foundation). Her key research interest is in citizenship education. She is interested in understanding the citizenship curricula of schools, focusing on the preparatory processes of citizenship. Her PhD research focused on the practice of civics and citizenship education, within the context of the HSIE learning area, in NSW primary schools. On a broader level, she is also interested in understanding how teachers’ pedagogies and interpretations of various curricula reflect the links that teachers make between education and the broader society. Much of her research work is based on qualitative case study research, using multiple data sources (Email: [email protected]).
Chapter 9
An Examination of the Role of the Media in the Construction of Gender Identity: Its Impact on the Status and Educational Opportunities of Women in India Deodrin Correa
Abstract The chapter adds to the body of literature in the area of the role of Indian television advertising in the construction of gender identity in developing countries such as India; and provide western readers with current knowledge about any changes in role portrayals that have occurred over time. The chapter also examines the role-set and gender stereotypes portrayals of women, since women in India are said to be emerging as the main target audience for advertisers, due to their high viewership of television. For this research, commercials that appeared during Indian teleserials were obtained from a local Indian video rental outlet and recorded and used for the analysis. The chapter concludes that data analysis demonstrates there is a need to change existing cultural attitudes and practices, which discriminate against women. Only then can women in India and elsewhere become empowered and gender equity and social change can begin to take place. Keywords Gender inequality · Gender identity · Gender stereotypes · Human rights · Ideology · The media · TV advertising · Social justice
Introduction Literacy campaign, involving universal primary education, has a long history in India. First proposed by UNESCO in Paris in 1951, and following the Karachi Plan (1960), it became a directive principle of the Constitution of India, which stated that ‘universal, compulsory and free education must be provided for all children of six to fourteen within then years’ (Zajda, 2005, p. 13). Social, economic and cultural benefits of education were explained in the following terms: D. Correa (*) Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia © Springer Nature B.V. 2021 J. Zajda, S. Majhanovich (eds.), Globalisation, Cultural Identity and NationBuilding, Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research 23, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-2014-2_9
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Literacy is an empowering skill which reduces many fears, of being lost, cheated, manipulated by others. It also increases access to many types of information and can potentially challenge/ reject if necessary what has been learnt through one’s socialisation in an unequal society. It thus provides the potential … for a better life politically, culturally, socially and economically (Evaluation of literacy campaign in India, 1994).
Educating girls is said to be one of the best investments that society can make (UNICEF, 2020). UNICEF report indicates that only 66% of countries have achieved gender parity in primary education. At the secondary level, the gap widens: 45% of countries have achieved gender parity in lower secondary education, and 25% in upper secondary education (https://www.unicef.org/education/girls-education). The benefits of educating girls include: it can help to reduce population growth, poverty, poor health conditions, and overcome barriers set by low autonomy, low social and economic status (World Bank, 2017; UNICEF, 2020; UNESCO, 2020). This persistent and on-going gender inequality has major implications for countries and their policy reforms addressing social justice and human rights (see Stromquist, 2015a, 2017; Zajda, 2020). The UNESCO (2020) document reports that women account for two thirds of the 750 million adults without basic literacy skills. This is due to a number of factors, including inequality and poverty: Poverty, geographical isolation, minority status, disability, early marriage and pregnancy, gender-based violence, and traditional attitudes about the status and role of women, are among the many obstacles that stand in the way of women and girls fully exercising their right to participate in, complete and benefit from education (https://en.unesco.org/themes/ education-and-gender-equality).
he Role of Television Advertising in the Construction T of Gender Identity: Introduction This research focuses, using a semiotically oriented discourse analysis, on the role of the media in the construction of gender identity, as presented in the Indian media – advertising. There is a lack of research regarding the role of television advertising in the construction of gender identity in developing countries such as India. A semiotically oriented discourse analysis (Pearce, 1999) was conducted in order to evaluate the signs of a culture, the ways that the values of our culture are incorporated into the sign-system of a culture, and the ideological framework within which media messages are situated. In particular, this research investigated the following: • The role of the media with reference to advertising in the construction of gender-identity. • The impact in relation to the status and educational opportunities of women in India. • Strategies for improving the status and educational opportunities of women in India.
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There is a deficiency of research regarding the role of television advertising in the construction of gender identity in developing countries such as India. This chapter aims to add to the body of literature in the area of the role of Indian television advertising in the construction of gender identity in developing countries such as India; and provide western readers with current knowledge about any changes in role portrayals that have occurred over time. Thus, this research is also significant from an intercultural perspective. Attention is paid to the gender role portrayals of women in the media, since women in India are said to be emerging as the main target audience for advertisers due to their high viewership of television. This chapter is one of the first major studies of the nexus between the media, and the role of the media with reference to advertising in the construction of gender identity in India today. The significance of this research is underpinned by its focus on • The impact in relation to the status, equality, power and educational opportunities of women in India. • Strategies for improving the status, equality, power and educational opportunities of women in India – against the framework of social justice. By providing an informed analysis on the role of the media in the on-going construction and re-positioning on gender identity in India today, this research will be significant to policy makers and educators, as it is likely to offer pedagogically- informed policy strategies for improving the status, power, equity and educational opportunities for females in India.
he Origins of Gender-Inequality and the Differential T Treatment Towards Females The Hindu religion is predominant in India, consisting of about 80% of the population. Hinduism places a high value on purity and modesty therefore favouring the seclusion of women (countrystudies.us/india/84.htm). In patriarchal societies traditional views on women’s roles and relationships were obtained from the legends and law codes of Sanskrit Scriptures. Some of these views included child marriage, a ban on widow remarriage, and the prohibition against female literacy. Women were considered as a separate and inferior class, and the purpose of their existence centred around child bearing and compliance to her family (Walsh, 1997). It has been written that a woman’s father guards her during childhood, her husband guards her in her youth, and her sons guard her in her old age. It is also written that a virtuous wife should serve her husband like a god, even when he behaves badly, freely indulges in lust, and is devoid of any good qualities (Das, 1991). The biased attitudes regarding females that are embedded in the Indian culture, serve to provide restrictive views about females’ capabilities and their roles within society. The following quote accurately summarises how the birth of a female child is perceived in India:
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In a culture that idolises sons and dreads the birth of a daughter, to be born female comes perilously close to being born less than human. http://www.britishcouncil.org.in/rights/ pressmanual/rightsofwomen.htm).
Such biased attitudes influences parents to keep their female children from attending schools, and limits females’ confidence, aspirations, and expectations (Appleton & Collier, 1995). Thus, the discriminatory treatment of women begins at birth when families are thrilled at the birth of a male child and show disappointment at the birth of a female child. From then on they each receive differential treatment that informs them about their roles in society (Kulshreshtha, 1990).
he Discriminatory Treatment of Females Begins at Birth T and Is Reinforced at School In the school environment, dominant gender ideologies are transmitted through various resource materials and through classroom interactions. According to MacDonald (1981) the message of school texts is embedded with the ideological statement of the dominant minority and the values that it considers essential to transmit. MacDonald (1981) found three main themes, they were, women’s invisibility and passivity with an insistent emphasis domesticity, the under–representation of women in paid work and with a concentration of women in low–status occupations. MacDonald (1981) asserts that the messages that focuses on domesticity are not hidden and are repetitive, suggesting that it are a form of ideological bombardment. Schools are social institutions, and as major agencies of socialisation reflect the goals of society and the curricula serve as instruments of social legitimation and organisation (Lincoln, 1992). Thus, the educational system in India reinforced sex roles by presenting its students with sex-stereotyped images. All the literature in schools perpetuated sex-roles. For example, the status of females is described in terms of their relationship with specific men, that is, they are presented as wives or mothers of kings, scientists, explorers, and so on. They are rarely depicted as leaders, decision-makers, athletes, and adventurers for instance. As a consequence, males and females come to behave in accordance with societal expectations of sex role behaviour (Kulshreshtha, 1990). A study that was conducted in the 1980s which examined textbooks that have been used in schools, found that men and women had been portrayed in gender- stereotyped roles. Men were the main characters in the textbooks and held prestigious positions. They were depicted as intelligent, strong, and adventurous. In contrast, the women were often depicted as weak, helpless, and victims of abuse (Kalia, 1988, as cited in Velkoff, 1998). Research on the dynamics of classroom interaction has found that at primary school, teachers tend to show a preference for boys and interact more with them and value their ideas more highly (Delamont, 1990; Spender, 1989), while at secondary school, teachers tend to pay more attention to boys and are not aware that they are doing so (Stanworth, 1984). Thus, it may well be that, through classroom
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interaction that girls receive the most powerful messages about a woman’s place (Gilbert & Taylor, 1991). Patriarchal relationships are also constructed by and reflected in language. For instance, within the English language itself women are either systematically ignored or subsumed under masculine terms such as, “mankind” and “workman-like” for example. In a similar manner, the English language reinforces the image of women as inferior and weak through terms such as, “effeminate” and “emasculate”, which denigrate the feminine (S.A.C.S., 1994).
Gender-Identity and Ideology Sex refers to the biological differentiation into male and female. Gender refers to the categorization into masculinity and femininity (www.indiana.edu/~lggender/ sex-vs-gender.html). It refers to the social meaning of being a man or a woman. Gender relations refer to the social relations between men and women. These social relations are underpinned by a naturalistic ideology, so that, gender is experienced as something that is natural, inevitable and unchangeable (Game & Pringle, 1983). Game & Pringle (1983) suggested that identities are constructed through social practices therefore; it can be argued that the phenomenon of gender is socially constructed (Zajda & Freeman, 2009). Biological difference becomes magnified to represent an ideology of sex difference, which is referred to as the ideology of gender. This, is used to justify the unequal treatment of women and men. The power of the ideology of gender lies in the way it encompasses fundamental cultural and social values relating to the relations between men and women, as well as the force of history underlying its evolution. The historicity and cultural variations found in the construction of gender relations points to the fact that these are changeable (IWRAW Asia Pacific, 2001). The ideology of gender determines what is expected of us, what is allowed of us, and what is valued in us. The ideology of gender also determines the nature and extent of disadvantage, disparity, and discrimination. The manifestation of gender difference can be found in the construction of roles – what women and men do, relations – how women and men relate to each other, and identity – how women and men perceive themselves. The ideology of gender thus contains norms and rules regarding appropriate behaviour and determines attributes; it also reproduces a range of beliefs and customs to support these norms and social rules (IWRAW Asia Pacific, 2001; Zajda, 2010b). Recent theorists interested in the relationship between the individual and social structure have tended to replace the notion of the individual with that of the subject (Henriques, Hollway, Urwin, Venn, & Walkerdine, 1984). These two concepts are relevant to the notion of sense of self, for while the individual is viewed as being essentially biological the notion of the subject highlights the constructed sense of the individual in a network of social relations (Fiske, 1987). Thus, from this perspective a sense of identity, which is socially constructed, is referred to as
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subjectivity, in contrast to individuality, which is the product of nature or biology: Our subjectivity then, is the product of social relations that work upon us in three main ways, through society, through language or discourse, and through psychic processes through which the infant enters into society, language and consciousness. Our subjectivity is… the product of the various social agencies to which we are subject, and thus is what we share with others (Fiske, 1987, p. 49). Ideology as considered by Dyer (1979) is a set of ideas and representations through which people make sense of the society and world in which they live. Gender ideologies such as femininity and masculinity naturalise gender differences so that they are seen as given and inevitable (Gilbert & Taylor, 1991). In societies where the gender order is patriarchal there exists what Connell (1986) describes as emphasised femininity and hegemonic masculinity. Hegemonic masculinity is the domination of men over women and over other forms of masculinity. It is characterised as being heterosexual and having power, authority, aggression and technical competence. On the other hand, emphasised femininity compliments hegemonic masculinity. It is characterised by compliance, sociability, sexual passivity, accommodating to the interests and desires of men, and the acceptance of domesticity and motherhood (Connell, 1986; Zajda, 2000). Connell (1986) outlined three major structures in relation to gender relations, namely, the division of labour, the power relations between men and women, and sexuality. Gilbert and Taylor (1991) accepted this view of gender order but have included the concept of patriarchy, which has been used in the theorising of women’s oppression and coined the term patriarchal gender order. Rea Zajda (1988) used discourse analysis in her work to examine the construction of the self, gender and identity. She argued that ‘Discourse is concerned with the social production of meaning’. These meanings, she argued, can be ‘embodied in technical processes, in institutions, in patterns for general behaviour, in forms for transmission and diffusion and in pedagogical forms’ (Zajda, 1988, p. 11). In this sense, Zajda (1988) argued ‘it can also refer to not only statements, but social or institutional practices through which the social production of meaning takes place or is embodied’ (Zajda, 1988, p. 11). She was one of the first researchers to examine discourses of the self and sexuality. More importantly, Zajda (1988) challenged the neutrality of knowledge and ideology in language and text.
Ideological Theories: Marx, Althusser, and Gramsci According to Raymond Williams (1977), ideology can be defined in three ways: firstly, as a system of beliefs that are characteristic of a particular class or group; secondly, as a system of illusory beliefs, that is, false ideas or false consciousness which can be contrasted with true or scientific knowledge; and thirdly, as the general process of the production of meanings and ideas. Marxists discuss ideology in relation to social relations (see also Apple, 2004; Zajda, 2010b; Zajda, 2018). They assert that ideology is socially determined and is not individualistic. And, the social
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fact that determines ideology is class and the division of labour (Fiske, 1990; Zajda, 2014). Ideology produces meaning through the use of signs. Signs work to reinforce the second–order meanings in the culture as well as in the user, and maintain the myths and connoted values of the culture. The relationship between the sign, its myths and connotations, with the user, is an ideological one (Fiske, 1990). Signs work to give myths and values a concrete form, thereby, endorsing and making them public. When myths and values are made public they enable cultural identification to take place, that is, they enable the members of a culture to recognize membership of that culture through the acceptance of common, shared myths and values (Fiske, 1990). Ideology has also been referred to as a social practice – in that, it helps us to make sense of the way things are, and it possesses a social and political dimension (Fiske, 1990). Ideology can essentially work to make the existing distribution of power in society seem natural and normal. For instance, there are more men than women scientists in our society. This has been attributed more to the social and ideological differences between masculinity and femininity rather than innate or natural differences between men and women. Science has been used as a means for exercising power over the physical world. Thus, in a society where men exert power in the social world, it seems natural that this power be extended to the physical as well. Thus, unless women scientists are concentrated in areas of caring or nurturing sciences, such as medicine, they are frowned upon and considered as unfeminine or unusual (Fiske, 1990). The theory of ideology as a practise was fundamentally developed by Louis Althusser (1971), who was a second–generation Marxist but who was also influenced by the ideas of Saussure and Freud, and had thus included theories of structure and of the unconscious in addition to Marx’s more economic theories. For Marx, ideology functioned to make the ideas of the ruling class to be accepted as natural and normal. It kept the worker or proletariat, in a state of false consciousness. Marx believed that people’s consciousness of who they are, the sense they make of their social experience, and of how they relate to the rest of society is produced by society, and not by nature or biology (Fiske, 1990). Marx’s theory of ideology as false consciousness had seemed to explain why the majority in capitalist societies accept a social system that disadvantages them. Marx assumed that economic reality was more influential in the long run than ideology, and that eventually the workers would overthrow the bourgeoisie and produce a society that was fair and equal - where one class would not dominate, eliminating the need to keep anyone in a state of false consciousness. He believed that, in a fair and equal society there would be no need for ideology as everyone would have a true consciousness of themselves and of their social relations (Fiske, 1990). However, as the twentieth century progressed capitalism continued to disadvantage and exploits the majority in favour of the minority, and it appeared that the socialist revolution in Russia was not going to spread to the rest of Europe and the western world. To account for this, Marxist thinkers refined Marx’s theory of ideology by announcing that all classes participate instead of just one class imposing
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their ideas upon another class. While it still served to promote the interests of the minority, it was now believed to work from within rather than without – whereby it is said to be entrenched in the ways of thinking and living of all classes (Fiske, 1990). For instance, high-heel shoes do not impose upon women the ideas of the ruling gender (men), but in wearing it women are said to participate in the ideological practise of patriarchy - by appearing as an attractive object and putting herself under the male power of granting or withholding approval. Also, as high-heels limit a woman’s physical activity and strength it is said to represent them as practising the subordination of women in patriarchy. Therefore, a woman wearing high heels as in the above example, reproduces and recirculates the patriarchal meanings of gender that suggest masculinity as being stronger and more active and femininity as being weaker and more passive (Fiske, 1990). According to Althusser (1971), communication is a social process and is therefore ideological – and interpellation or hailing is a key feature of its ideological practice that is ever-present in every act of communication. All communication is said to addresses us and place us in a social relationship. And whenever we recognise ourselves as the addressee and respond to the communication, we thus, participate in our own social, and therefore ideological, construction. All communication interpellates or hails us in some way. For example, a woman wearing a pair of high–heel shoes is said to have recognised herself as the addressee and has thus positioned herself submissively within gender relations, and the man who likes to see the woman wearing high-heel shoes is positioned differently – he is hailed as the one with power (Fiske, 1990). Antonio Gramsci, also a European second–generation Marxist, introduced the term hegemony – which perceives ideology as struggle. He emphasised two elements namely, resistance and instability. Hegemony basically involves the continuous winning and rewinning of the obedience of the majority to the system which subordinates them (Fiske, 1990). Hegemony has to work so hard, as the social experiences of subordinated groups continuously contradicts the picture that the dominant ideology paints for them. While resistances may be overcome sometimes, they are never eliminated. A key hegemony strategy is the construction of common sense, that is, if the ideas of the ruling class is made to appear as common sense, then it would become accepted - and their ideological purpose would be achieved and their ideological task disguised (Fiske, 1990). Critics, using the role of ideology in knowledge construction argue that all communication and meanings have a socio-political dimension, and that they cannot be understood outside their social contexts. This ideological work always favours the status quo – as the classes with power dominate the production and distribution of not only goods, but also of ideas and meaning. The economic system is said to be organised in their interest, and the ideological system derives from it and works to promote, naturalise, and disguise it. All ideological theories tend to agree that ideology works to preserve class domination, however, their differences lie in the ways in which this domination is implemented, the extent of the resistances it encounters, and the extent of its success (Fiske, 1990).
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Ideology as Supra-Individual Cultural Phenomenon The term ideology as supra-individual cultural phenomenon was introduced by as cited in their study of social change and cultural dynamics. Thus, ideology can be viewed as a holistic symbolic system created by social interaction and is evident in recurrent patterns of discourse – which can be studied through text analysis. Ideological symbols are significant elements of discourse as they contain value- ideas such as, human rights, social justice, truth, equality, freedom, etc. As such, they are relevant in the areas of historical and other narratives, and discourses (Zajda, 2010a).
Semiotics According to semiologists, language is a structured system of symbolic representations. We do not live among and relate to physical objects and events – we live among and relate to systems of signs with meaning. We don’t sit on a structure of wood, we sit on a stool. The fact that we refer to it as a STOOL means that it is to be sat on – it is not a coffee table. In our interactions with others we don’t simply use random gestures – we gesture our courtesy, our pleasure, our incomprehension, our disgust. The objects in our environment as well as the gestures and words that we use, obtain their meanings from the sign systems to which they belong (http:// www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/semiomean/semio1.html). Semiotics provides us with a conceptual framework and a set of methods and terms for use across the full range of signifying practices ‘which include gesture, posture, dress, writing, speech, photography, film, television and radio’ (Chandler, 2017). Semiotics can help to make us aware of what we take for granted in representing the world, reminding us that we are always dealing with signs, not with an unmediated objective reality, and that sign systems are involved in the construction of meaning (Chandler, 2017). In advertising, verbal and non-verbal signs are used to produce meaning, which leads to the creation of social relationships, systems of knowledge, and cultural identity. The sign systems that we use are not given or natural. They are a development of our culture and therefore carry cultural meanings and values. They shape the consciousness of individuals thereby forming us into social beings. Meaning is dependent on the ideological and political positions within which language is used and analysts have drawn attention to the way that codes express and maintain existing power relationships. There are no ideologically neutral sign systems – signs function to persuade as well as to refer. Sign systems help to naturalize and reinforce notions of the way things are. Consequently, semiotic analysis always involves ideological analysis. In advertising, various codes serve to reproduce bourgeois ideology, making it seem natural and inevitable. There is no escape from signs. As Bill Nichols (1981) suggests that as long as signs are produced we will be required to understand them.
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Sign – Signifier and Signified The sign is the basic unit in semiotics. It includes, words for example “tree”, visual symbols, gestures and other types of non-verbal communication, and a pattern of sound for example booing or cheering. There exists an agreed understanding of the meaning of signs within various social groups. Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure who is known as the father of modern linguistics suggested that a word has two parts, that is, a sound image and a concept. The sound image part of the meaning is referred to as the signifier and the concept part is referred to as the signified. These two together make up the sign. Signs can have denotations and connotations of meaning. For example, while the red logo bearing the words “Coca Cola” denotes a beverage, the images of young people at the beach suggests connotations of youth, vitality, happiness, freedom, and the United States of America (http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/resources/ resources/exp lang/semiotics.html). Denotation has been referred to as the first order of signification, and connotation/ myth has been referred to as the second order of signification. The function of myth is to legitimise bourgeoise ideology in such a way that the values promoted appear as natural and as common sense (http:// www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/semiomean/semio1.html).
The Media and the Construction of Gender-Identity Femininity and masculinity are not intrinsic categories which pre-exist in each individual. Rather, they are historically and socially constructed and connected categories, which are inscribed in social institutions, processes and practices. If gender differences were innate then they would be absolute (Clark & Page, 2005). Clark and Page (2005) go on to assert that past research demonstrates that – what emerges as maleness or femaleness changes in fundamental ways over time, across cultures and in different socio-economic circumstances. Gender is a social construction and representations of masculinity and femininity are constructed through ways in which men and women are portrayed in film, television, magazines, newspapers, music, news broadcasts and on the Internet. Therefore, the mass media not only has the potential to evoke positive and/or negative changes within society and relations between men and women, but also to influence the status, self-image and agency of men and women, as well as emerging notions of femininities and masculinities. Producers of contemporary media tend to promote particular social roles for both men and women, such as marriage and child-bearing, for example. Even though, in today’s society, not all women feel obliged to get married and start a family – there still exists a wide array of media texts and advertising which centres around the idea that femininity is closely connected to becoming a wife and mother (http://tarrah.blog.com/191785/).
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Previous Research on the Construction of Gender Identity Previous research that have examined role portrayals and the construction of gender identity through the Indian media are outlined here. Mankekar (1999) examined the role of Indian teleserials in the ideological construction of identity, womanhood, nation, and citizenship. An analysis of the narratives revealed that ideal womanhood was signified by the attributes of compliance, modesty, and self-sacrifice. And it was suggested that women identify themselves with these teleserials and use it as a means for interpreting their own lives. Das (2000) examined gender-role portrayals in Indian magazine advertisements. Advertisements from a range of magazines from the time periods of 1987, 1990, and 1994, were collected and analysed across different product types. The results revealed that although the portrayals of men and women were changing over time, that they were still being portrayed in stereotypical roles; and that role portrayals were influenced by the type of product that was being advertised. Ram (2002) employed ethnographic methods to examine how Indian cinema contributed to the construction of gendered identity. It was observed that Indian cinema valorized cultural identity and contained gendered national discourses which viewers could identify with. It was also observed that when viewers actively re-edit film texts, that they, reinterpret it within transnational contexts. Roy (1998) examined the symbols that were used in the representation of women as housewives/mothers in Indian television commercials. Commercials were recorded at random for 1 week during December 1995, and attention was paid to codes of appearance, manner, and the activity of female characters. Results indicated that domesticity was the dominant ideological message of the commercials; and in keeping with the patriarchal ideology, that marriage and domesticity was the ideal goal for a woman.
Television and Advertising Television was first introduced in India via the Doordarshan (DD) broadcasting organization on September 15th, 1959. Doordarshan is now considered one of the largest broadcasting organizations in the world. Currently, there are more than 40 different channels operating with nearly 15–16 television companies broadcasting programmes to India. The major players are Doordarshan, STAR TV (Satellite Television, Asia Network), Zee Television, United Television, CNN, Sony Television, ATN (Asia Television Network), BBC World, SUN TV, Discovery Channel, TNT and Others. It is reported that 105 million homes in India had a television set and the total viewership which was 415 million people and was amongst the highest in the world (Media penetration in India, 2003). The main source of revenue for all the television channels predominantly comes from advertisements. Growing digitalization efforts combined with low data prices enabled about 462 million people to use the internet actively across India. Of these, about 250 million were active social media users (Diwanji, 2020).
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he Role of Advertising in Constructing Desirable Images T of Gender Cultural texts consist of both representational forms, such as, a video clip or a magazine for instance, as well as lived social relations, such as, the experiences of a group of Greek girls in a high school. While these two forms of cultural texts can be analysed separately, they are very much interrelated in everyday social practises (Gilbert & Taylor, 1991). Institutional settings play a part in the gender regime, these include: schools, families, and the work place – where social practises are gender structured. Cultural texts (both representational and lived) are a part of the gender regime in the various institutional settings (Gilbert & Taylor, 1991). Notions of femininity and masculinity are constructed in everyday social practises within institutions, and it is represented at the symbolic level in the mass media as the cultural ideals. The versions promoted serve to provide the basis for women’s subordination. Connell (1986) suggested that the forms of femininity and masculinity that are constructed at the ideological level rested on the premise of the global dominance of men over women (see also Stromquist, 2017). Gender ideologies work to sustain the patriarchal gender order and cultural texts play a crucial role in promoting the dominant forms of femininity and masculinity at a symbolic level (Gilbert & Taylor, 1991; Stromquist, 2015b). Television advertisements can be considered as a part of representational cultural texts which play a crucial role in the struggle over meanings in the popular cultural field. Advertising is an ever-present cultural form that both reflects and moulds our lives (Roy, 1998). Advertisements do not just transmit product information but also social symbolic information that facilitates the shaping of cultural tendencies within society. Advertisements are not created in a cultural void - they are affixed within a culture and all its sub-cultures. Every day individuals, as consumers, are flooded with advertising messages which are loaded with images of gender, types of people, social classes, and other groups, that help to shape our social learning process. Advertising has the potential to mould opinions, attitudes, and behaviour, and is therefore regarded as a major agent of social reinforcement (Roy, 1998). According to Davidson (1992), the role of advertising is not just limited to selling us products and services, but also imparts ways for us to understand the world. Goldman (1992), also argues that advertising is a major social and economic institution whose role is to maintain cultural hegemony through providing us with socially constructed ways of viewing and making sense of our world (see also Zajda & Gibbs, 2009). Advertising is a major cultural form, and as such, is concerned with the promotion of the dominant value system of the culture. It promotes the dominant ideological structures that maintain and reinforce the existing power structures while denying the right of existence to alternative and oppositional ideologies. Advertising perpetuates the dominant ideology by constructing a consensual ideology for all the people in its society. The perpetuation of the dominant patriarchal ideology is a reflection of the interrelatedness between advertising and the broader socio-cultural,
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political, and economic systems of a given society (Roy, 1998; Stromquist, 2015b; Stromquist. In capitalists societies, advertising creates the need for products and services that propose to enhance our lifestyle. However, the main function of advertisements is to persuade the consumer to do or to think something. Thus, it could be argued that, advertisements generate huge economic and cultural power, and impact in dictating norms, values, lifestyles and consumer trends. While the main aim of advertisements is to manipulate the consumer/ receiver into taking a certain action, it also reflects the social relationships common within that culture, and forms values that promote the dominant ideology. Advertisements become a vehicle for ideology by reflecting ideas, beliefs and opinions that are a reflection of the society within a culture. The ideology is generated by the signs that are contained in the advertisement and its message. Thus, the ideology-semiotic relationship is established as ideology makes use of signs to convey its message. Advertisements have not only become a mirror of consumer needs and aspirations, but also a creator of ideals and wants. Consumption is one way of completing the ideal feminine identity. For women that identity is claimed to be centred around the domestic sphere and on being the perfect wife and mother. These ideals require that women become consumers and acquire particular products that will make them appear desirable as a wife (Berger, 1972). The USA is leading the way in the promotion of a new culture based on the American Dream. This influence is evident in the advertisements for various products, ranging from clothing (Nike) to food (MacDonalds) to entertainment (films and music videos), which endorse American attitudes and lifestyles. Their values and morals are being spread to the rest of the world and to the detriment of the cultural identities of many smaller cultures. It exploits receivers by fostering in them a desire to own and to have. Signs or symbols of wealth, power, social mobility or status are used in advertising to establish morals and values. They serve to ensure the possessor’s place in the social hierarchy. For example, designer clothing, whether fake or real, distinguishes people from others, they give social status which would have otherwise been denied.
Conclusion As the above data analysis demonstrates there is a need to change existing cultural attitudes and practices which discriminate against women. Only then can women in India and elsewhere can become empowered and gender equity and social change can begin to take place. Education and relevant policy reforms is the key to eradicating biased attitudes towards women that are embedded in the Indian culture. Men need to be re-educated to accept women as equals; we need to educate parents into realising that female children are not a burden, and that if they were given the opportunity that they would be as capable, or better than male children; we need to eliminate gender bias in the curriculum; and provide appropriate incentives for parents to send their female children to school, and for women to pursue further education.
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The media is accessed by millions of people in the general population, and therefore has the potential to challenge biased attitudes about women, that are embedded in the Indian culture. Advertisements can be used to constructively to bring about affirmative changes in attitudes. The media is a powerful medium in India which helps to affirm peoples’ values, attitudes, and beliefs. Therefore advertisements could potentially be used as a means for promoting the status of women and challenging biased attitudes that are held about women.
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9 An Examination of the Role of the Media in the Construction of Gender Identity: Its… 157 MacDonald, M. (1981). Schooling and the reproduction of class and gender relations. In R. Dale, G. Esland, R. Fergusson, & M. MacDonald (Eds.), Politics patriarchy and practice (pp. 159–177). Lewes: Falmer & Open University Press. Mankekar, P. (1999). Screening culture, viewing politics: An ethnography of television, womanhood and nation in postcolonial India. Anthropological Quarterly, 74(2), 95–96. Media Penetration in India. (2003). Times of India. Nichols, B. (1981). Ideology and The image: Social representation in the cinema and other media. Bloonington: Indiana University Press. Pearce, R. (1999). Advertising: Critical analysis of images. In I. Parker & The Bolton Discourse Network (Eds.), Critical Textwork: An introduction to varieties of discourse and analysis (pp. 79–91). Buckingham: Open University Press. Ram, A. (2002). Framing the feminine: Diasporic readings of gender in popular Indian cinema. Women’s Studies in Communication, 25(1), 25–52. Roy, A. (1998). Images of domesticity and motherhood in Indian television commercials: A critical study. Journal of Popular Culture, 32(3), 117–134. S.A.C.S (1994). The theoretical foundations of community development. Staff Teaching Guide. Spender, D. (1989). Invisible women: The schooling scandal. London: The Women’s Press. Stanworth, M. (1984). Girls on the margins: A study of gender divisions in the classroom. In A. Hargreaves & P. Woods (Eds.), Classrooms and staffrooms: The sociology of teachers and teaching (pp. 147–158). Milton Keynes: Open University Press. Stromquist, N. (2015a). Gender structure and women’s agency: Toward greater theoretical understanding of education for transformation. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 34(1), 59–75. Stromquist, N. (2015b). Women’s empowerment and education: Linking knowledge to transformative action. European Journal of Education, 60(3), 307–324. Stromquist, N. (2017). In search of the good life: Promises and challenges of Buen Vivir for knowledge, education, and gender. In R. Aman & T. Ireland (Eds.), Education alternatives in Latin America: New modes of counter hegemonic learning. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Stromquist, N., Klees, S. J., & Lin, J. (Eds.). (2017). Women teachers in Africa: Challenges and possibilities. London/New York: Routledge. The World Bank. (2017). Girls’ education. Retrieved from https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/ girlseducation UNESCO (2020). Education and gender equality. Retrieved from https://en.unesco.org/themes/ education-and-gender-equality UNICEF (2020). Girls’ education. Gender equality in education benefits every child. Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/education/girls-education Velkoff, V. A. (1998). Women’s education in India. U.S. Department of Commerce, pp. 1–5. Retrieved from the World Wide Web: India. Walsh, J. E. (1997). What women learned when men gave them advice: Rewriting patriarchy in late-nineteenth-century Bengal. Journal of Asian Studies, 56(3), 641–677. Williams, R. (1977). Marxism and literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Zajda, J. (Ed.). (2005). The international handbook of globalisation and education policy research. Dordrecht: Springer. Zajda, J. (2000). I would like to be a caring mother: Family values in Russia. In J. Zajda (Ed.), Education and society. Melbourne: James Nicholas Publishers, Melbourne. Zajda, J. (Ed.). (2010a). Globalisation, ideology and education policy reforms. Dordrecht: Springer. http://www.springer.com/education/comparative+education/book/978-90-481-3523-3 Zajda, J. (Ed.). (2010b). Global pedagogies. Dordrecht: Springer. http://www.springer.com/ education/comparative+education/book/978-90-481-3616-2 Zajda, J. (2014). Ideology. In D. Phillips (Ed.), Encyclopedia of educational theory and philosophy (pp. 399–402). Thousand Oaks: Sage. Zajda, J. (2018). Globalisation and education reforms: Paradigms and ideologies. Dordrecht: Springer.
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Zajda, J. (Ed.). (2020). Human rights education globally. Dordrecht: Springer. Zajda, J. & Freeman, K. (Eds.) (2009). Race, Ethnicity and Gender in Education: Cross- Cultural Understandings. Dordrecht: Springer. http://www.springer.com/education/ comparative+education/book/978-1-4020-9738-6 Zajda, J., & Gibbs, D. (Eds.). (2009). Comparative information technology: Languages, societies and the internet. Dordrecht: Springer. http://www.springer.com/education/ learning+%26+instruction/book/978-1-4020-9425-5 Zajda, R. (1988). ‘The calculable woman’. Discourses of the self and sexuality in the Australian Women’s magazine Cleo. Thesis. Melbourne: University of Melbourne. Dr. Deodrin Correa is a professional educator with strong leadership experience to empower staff, to improve educational outcomes and model ethical conduct. She had established strong links with Monash University to develop best practice and learning for students. In recognition of strong, outstanding leadership and management expertise, she was promoted to Learning and Teaching Leader in 2015. Dr. Correa has published a number of articles, delivered conference papers and PD sessions, and her latest book chapter ‘An examination of the role of the media in the construction of gender identity: Its impact on the status and educational opportunities of women in India’ was accepted for publication in Globalisation, cultural identity and nation-building: The changing paradigms (Spinger, the Netherlands, 2020). (Email: [email protected]).
Chapter 10
Evaluating Research on Cultural Identity Education Globally Joseph Zajda and Suzanne Majhanovich
Abstract This chapter evaluates research findings concerning cultural identity. It critiques dominant discourses and debates related to globalisation, cultural identity, ideologies and the state, and various approaches to constructing national, ethnic and religious identities in the global culture. It examines the ambivalent and problematic relationship between the state, globalisation and the construction of cultural identity and the nation-building process. The chapter also analyses different conceptual frameworks and methodological approaches applicable in the research covering the state, globalisation, nation-building and identity politics. Using several diverse paradigms, ranging from critical theory to globalisation, the chapter, by focusing on globalisation, ideology and cultural identity, evaluates critically recent research dealing with the politics of cultural identity. Keywords Collective identity · Culture · Cultural identity · Discourses of cultural identity · Emotions · Ethnic identity · Ethnicity · Geographic identity · Globalisation · Global culture · Global identity · Identity crisis · Identity politics · Ideology · Institutional identity · Language · Local identity · Multidimensionality of national identity · Multiple identities · Nationalism · National identity · Nation- building process · Patriotism · Passport identity · Religious identity
J. Zajda (*) Faculty of Education & Arts, School of Education, Australian Catholic University, East Melbourne, VIC, Australia e-mail: [email protected] S. Majhanovich Faculty of Education, Western University, London, ON, Canada © Springer Nature B.V. 2021 J. Zajda, S. Majhanovich (eds.), Globalisation, Cultural Identity and NationBuilding, Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research 23, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-2014-2_10
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Researching National Identity: Introduction ‘National identity’, according to Anthony Smith (1991), ‘involves some sense of political community, history, territory, patria, citizenship, common values and traditions’ (Smith, 1991, p. 9). He argued, using a structuralist perspective that ‘nations must have a measure of common culture and a civic ideology, a set of common understandings and aspirations, sentiments and ideas that bind the population together in their homeland’ (Smith, 1991, p. 11; see also Featherstone, 1990). National identity is a type of collective identity grounded in past symbols, memories, and values linked to a specific territory that distinguishes itself from other nations and also projects into the future (Guibernau, 2001; Baumann, 1999). Guibernau (2001) argued that national identity referred to ‘the set of attributes and beliefs shared by those who belong to the same nation’. Accordingly, the political aspect of national identity, when applied to the nation-state, focused upon those state’s strategies – often referred to as ‘nationbuilding’- destined to foster a cohesive, loyal and, up to a point, homogeneous citizenry (Guibernau, 2001, pp. 242–68). Smith (1991) also considered national identity as a multi-dimensional construct and lists five fundamental attributes: 1 historic territory or homeland 2 common myths and historical memories 3 a common, mass public culture 4 common legal rights and duties for all members 5 common economy with territorial mobility for members (Smith, 1991, p. 14). Discourses of cultural identity suggest that national identity is not fixed, but dynamic in nature, affected by forces of globalisation and the media (Santos, 2002; Zajda & Majhanovich, 2020). Santos (2002) argued that the processes of globalisation were a ‘multifaceted phenomenon containing economic, social, political, cultural, religious and legal dimensions, all interlinked in complex fashion’: Single cause explanations and monolithic interpretations of the phenomenon therefore appear inadequate. In addition, the globalisation of the last three decades, instead of conforming to the modern Western model of globalisation – that is, to a homogeneous and uniform globalisation – so keenly upheld by Leibniz as well as Marx, as much in theories of modernization as in theories of dependent development, seems to combine universality and the elimination of national borders, on the one hand, with particularity, local diversity, ethnic identity and a return to communitarian values, on the other (Santos, 2002).
Similarly, Guibernau (2004) argued that national identity was a ‘modern phenomenon of a fluid and dynamic nature’: …one by means of which a community sharing a particular set of characteristics is led to the subjective belief that its members are ancestrally related. Belief in a shared culture, history, traditions, symbols, kinship, language, religion, territory, founding moment, and destiny have been invoked, with varying intensity at different times and places, by peoples claiming to share a particular national identity. Generally, national identity is applied to citizens of a nation-state (Guibernau, 2004, p. 134).
In addition to understanding the nature of cultural identity, Smith (1991) offered a structural analysis of the cultural components of national identity. It included values, beliefs, customs, conventions, habits, languages and practices transmitted to
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the new members, who receive the culture of a particular nation. The process of identification with a specific culture implies a strong emotional investment able to foster solidarity bonds among the members of a given community who come to recognize one another as fellow nationals (Gellner, 1983). Furthermore, they imagine and feel their community as separate and distinct from others (Anderson, 1983). Smith (1995) argued that national identity was affected by globalisation: it would be folly to predict an early supersession of nationalism and an imminent transcendence of the nation. … For a global culture seems unable to offer the qualities of collective faith, dignity and hope that only a ‘religious surrogate’ with its promise of a territorial cultural community across the generations can provide. (Smith, 1995, p. 160)
Globalisation and National Identity As to globalisation and its impact on national identity, Smith (2007) argued that global culture could not erode and replace national culture, as national identity possesses the capacity to withstand the forces of globalisation. He believed that autonomous, self-reflective and self-celebrating communities, nations, and nationalism were ‘still very much alive’ (Smith, 2007, p. 30). Hence, globalisation not only failed to create global identity, but contributed to the intensification of emotions and feelings, with reference to cultural identity, and nationalism. Guibernau (2001) identified five main strategies, employed by the state in its pursuit of a single national identity, capable of uniting its citizens. They were: 1. The construction and dissemination of a certain image of the ‘nation’ often based upon the dominant nation or ethnic group living within the state’s boundaries and comprising a common history, a shared culture and a demarcated territory. 2. The creation and spread of a set of symbols and rituals charged with the mission of reinforcing a sense of community among citizens. 3. The advancement of citizenship involving a well-defined set of civil and legal rights, political rights and duties as well as socio-economic rights. The state by conferring rights upon its members favours the rise of sentiments of loyalty towards itself. It also establishes a crucial distinction between those included and those excluded from the community of citizens. 4. The creation of common enemies, imminent, potential or invented. 5. The progressive consolidation of national education and media systems (Guibernau, 2001, p. 140). The above five strategies are applicable to all nations engaged in their own nation-building project, designed to reinforce a sense of national identity. My research of the nation-building and national identity in history textbooks in the Russian Federation demonstrated that the state, in order to create a single national identity and patriotism in a multi-ethnic state employed preferred images of the past, symbols, rituals and language to reinforce a sense of national identity and patriotism (Zajda, 2017).
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One needs to consider a complex nature of the globalisation construct. There is a consensus among researchers that forces of globalisation are not linear but multi- dimensional. This is re-affirmed by Ariely (2012) who argues that globalisation’s effects on national identity are complex and widely disputed. While some regard globalization as undermining national identity and increasing cosmopolitanism, others suggest that it works in the opposite direction, possibly even reinforcing national feelings in the form of a backlash—or that it impacts different segments in society in dissimilar ways. Ariely (2012) adds another construct to the discourse of cultural identity, namely the multi-dimensionality of national identity. He suggests that in light of the complexity of globalization and the multi-dimensionality of national identity, the conflicting theoretical perspectives and inconsistency of the empirical findings are unsurprising. Different methods of inquiry that employ diverse operationalizations of national identity dimensions with divergent data sources are quite likely to lead to discordant conclusions (Ariely, 2019). Baumann’s (1996) analysis of culture, community and identity in London’s ‘immigrant ghetto’, as an ethnographic case study (numbering some 60,000 people) of internally highly diverse South Asian, Afro-Caribbean, English and various other ethnic or national backgrounds’ (Baumann, 1996, p. 9) explicitly opposed the paradigm of community studies focusing on isolated communities and their ‘autonomous’ culture. He argued for ‘a consistent revalidation of culture as an analytical concept’: Even when focusing on an analysis of discourses, rather than reified cultures, the idea of culture remains essential in order to locate the articulation of the different discursive competences we find. (Baumann, 1996, p. 203).
With reference to globalisation and cultural identity discourses, Joseph Zajda & Suzanne Majhanovich critique dominant discourses and debates pertaining to cultural identity in the global era. They discuss current discourses intersecting cultural identity globalisation, ideologies, and the state, and approaches to constructing national, ethnic and local identities in the global culture. They examine the ambivalent and problematic relationship between the state, globalisation and the construction of cultural identity, and the nation-building process. The chapter also analyses conceptual frameworks and methodological approaches applicable in the research covering the state, globalisation, nation-building and identity politics. Gal Ariely examines the impact of globalisation on national. While some researchers have suggested that globalization prompts a decline in national identity, others maintain that it reinforces national identity. Rather than seeking to offer a novel theoretical perspective, the author examines nationalism ‘from below’ in an attempt to ascertain whether globalisation is related to different dimensions of national identity. The key findings from cross-national surveys analyses demonstrated that higher levels of globalisation are negatively related to patriotism and ethnic identity. The author’s data findings demonstrate that any definitive conclusions concerning the relationship between globalisation and national identity cannot be justified. It may well be that different measures of national identity or globalisation will lead to different findings, especially when considering the evolving and
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changing multi-dimensional nature of national identity. This chapter provides an overview of some findings about national identity and globalisation as reflected in cross-national surveys. The chapter starts with an outline of the key theoretical interpretations of the relationship between globalisation and national identity and a review of the studies that used surveys in order to examine these interpretations. It then explores the multi-dimensionality of national identity and the different aspects that should be considered. The empirical part of the chapter demonstrates how cross-national surveys are used to inspect the relationships between different dimensions of national identity which are measured at the individual level and at the country level of globalisation. It demonstrates that globalisation is related to some but not all aspects of national identity. The final part discusses the implications of the findings as well as the limitations of using such an approach to examine the complex relations between globalisation and national identity. Anatoli Rapoport analyses, on the other hand, the changing meaning of citizenship and identity and a perspective model of citizenship education. He argues that the nexus between citizenship education, identity construction and socialization helps determine a potential framework for the converged citizenship education model. Socialization has been nation-centered since the emergence of nations and nation-states. Rapoport suggests that social reality is a constructed reality that does not naturally exist in a physical world. Human beings create this imaginary reality that gradually turns into a ‘quality appertaining to phenomena that we recognize as being independent of our own volition’ (Berger & Luckmann, 1966). National citizenship turned out to be such a phenomenon. In order to become an institutionalized concept, to be easily recognizable and ubiquitously acceptable, national citizenship had to pass three important stages: habitualization, objectivation, and legitimation. As the twenty-first century progresses, humanity faces an unprecedented set of challenges: increasing interdependence of economies, growing migration and redistribution of the workforce, rapidly changing technologies and a growing gap between nations, cultural unification and cultural isolationism, growing deterioration of the global environment, and rising violence. It has become commonplace to underscore how significantly globalization impacts the development of cultural identity in both positive and challenging ways. Michael H. Lee critiques the latest curriculum revision of the upper secondary Social Studies syllabus and textbook and examines major national messages are conveyed to students. It argues that Social Studies, which serves as a key subject for the National Education programme, is highly instrumental for meeting socio- political needs and nation-building interests. Besides nationality, ethnicity and religion, socio-economic status is also considered an important factor determining people’s identity. The author argues that the revised upper secondary Social Studies curriculum reveals that Singapore is profoundly affected by globalization, which has brought about more intense westernization and its related values on liberalism and individualism. It is even more important for the Singapore government to make use of education to uphold and promote core political ideologies related to cultural identity formation. Apart from discussing the nature of Singapore as a diverse society and some controversies related to the recent immigration policy, the textbook
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turns to address how the Singapore government manage a socio-culturally diverse society. An emphasis is put on how policies would promote the interaction between the government, communities and individuals to foster social harmony in a society with socio-cultural diversity. Instead of adopting an assimilation approach to make the immigrants to adopt the beliefs and practices of the majority group, the Singapore government prefers an integration approach to allow the immigrants to retain their unique identities when they are forging common ground with the majority group. The textbook also takes note of some tensions arising from the integration policy as some Singaporeans do not feel comfortable with the inflow of foreigners, which will reduce job opportunities, cause in prices, traffic congestion and breakdown in infrastructure, and also affect social cohesion because of their different social norms and behaviours. In response, students are reminded the importance of immigrants for sustaining economic development in Singapore with strengthened bond and better mutual understanding between different ethnic groups. Anna Popova research is guided by the cultural-historical concept of cultural mediation (Vygotsky, 1978). From this theoretical perspective, the content of teacher-training textbooks is considered as tertiary artefacts that are internalized and externalized by pre-service teachers. The author examines the role of lichnost (identity) and vospitanie (upbringing). She uses a socio-cultural and historical theory (Vygotsky, 1978) in her research design, as the main theoretical lens to examine the textbooks, especially because of the strength of the concept of cultural mediation. The process of cultural mediation implies that the contact of the learner with reality happens through internalization of the mediating artefacts by gaining its meaning. This implies that the authors of the textbooks construct texts with an intention for pre-service teachers to gain particular meanings of what education is and what it should be like. Yet, mediated action also involves the process of externalization by means of which pre-service teachers will be able to interpret those meanings in certain ways and apply them accordingly. The chapter reports that the changes in the textbooks published from 1970s till 2000 were more linguistic than conceptual, whereas the changes detected in the textbooks published after 2000 are more substantial. Zheng Zhang and Le Chen, by means of both interview data and netnographic data, explore the affordances of material-informed netnography in researching biliteracy learners’ identity making in virtual spaces. Undergirded by New Materialism, this research disturbs traditional interviewing that relies heavily on descriptive language representations of youth’s identity construction. Instead, this research focuses on Canadian and Chinese biliteracy learners’ embodied identity making through cross-border digital story-making in virtual spaces. The authors’ data analysis demonstrates that material-informed netnographic studies could enable the researchers to see the reconfiguration of cyber cultural spaces because of the studies’ symmetrical attention to human and non-human actors, such as time-space entanglement and the material-discursive forces of technologies, apparatuses, online intra-action platforms, and multimodal meaning making, in a discursive sense. Research findings reveal biliteracy learners’ relationship-building with non-human animals, materials, and spaces in the processes of meaning making and identity construction. Findings
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and discussions also relate the affordances of the material-informed netnography in documenting and analyzing the focal participants’ moment-by-moment transformation in thinking, meaning making, and becoming. Ria Shibata argues that Social Identity Theory posits that the degree to which an individual identifies with the collective—whether it be an ethnic group or a nation— can become a source of individual pride and self-esteem. A positive personal and collective identity constitutes an integral part of an individual’s well-being. Social Identity Theory reinforces this thinking by stressing that individuals derive a sense of self-esteem and self-worth from their association with an important social group or ingroup. In this study, it was hypothesised that individuals who identify strongly with the nation are likely to deny, forget or justify the nation’s transgressions of the past and thus feel diminished guilt and responsibility. In order to get an in-depth understanding of the degree of national identification amongst contemporary Japanese. The participants’ responses, based on the collective self-esteem scale, reveal that a fairly large percentage of contemporary Japanese identify strongly with the nation and feel that Japan’s image is important for their positive self-image and self-worth. Jia Ying Neoh suggests that nationalism and globalisation coexist in tension worldwide. This influenced the way citizenship identities are being constructed. Using Australia as a context, the relationships between nationalism, cultural identity and globalisation was explored through the examination of the key educational policy, the Melbourne Declaration, and a case study involving two primary schools in New South Wales. One complexity of discussing identity is the fundamental political, social and cultural nature of the conceptions of ‘identity’ and ‘citizenship’, as demonstrated by the political currents that dominates the global agenda in the twenty-first century. Traditional institutional politics revolve around structure and unity, but this static view of citizenship and identity is being challenged by the vast plurality of identity- politics, extending into race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, citizenship and environmentalism. Traditional interpretations of citizenship and identity are often narrowly associated with nationality, status and the legal rights and responsibilities of formal political participation. This interpretation confines citizenship and identity within the political territory of ‘states’ and ‘nations’, focusing on developing national identity, emotional bonds to a community of shared culture and ideology, and establishing national boundaries for citizenship education It was found that at the policy level, a globalist view that focused on sharpening Australia’s economic competitiveness was most prominent. In practice, there was inclination towards an apolitical form of global citizenship education. This meant that there was generally less emphasis placed on developing skills of critical deliberation about the complexities involved in issues that arise from diversity. This chapter concludes by examining the implications of the findings for educational policies and practices. Deodrin Correa research focuses, using a semiotically oriented discourse analysis, on the construction of gender identity, as presented in the Indian media, with reference to advertising, as there is a deficiency of research regarding the role of television advertising in the construction of gender identity in developing countries
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such as India. The author argues that femininity and masculinity are not intrinsic categories which pre-exist in each individual. Rather, they are historically and socially constructed and connected categories, which are inscribed in social institutions, processes and practices. If gender differences were innate then they would be absolute. Notions of femininity and masculinity are constructed in everyday social practises within institutions, and it is represented at the symbolic level in the mass media as the cultural ideals. The images of femininity and masculinity were designed to promote desired gender identity stereo-types in order to provide the basis for women’s subordination. Gender ideologies work to sustain the patriarchal gender order and cultural texts play a crucial role in promoting the dominant forms of femininity and masculinity at a symbolic level. Television advertisements can be considered as a part of representational cultural texts which play a crucial role in the struggle over meanings in the popular cultural field. Advertising is an ever-present cultural form that both reflects and moulds our lives Advertisements do not just transmit product information but also social symbolic information that facilitates the shaping of cultural tendencies within society. Advertisements are not created in a cultural void - they are affixed within a culture and all its sub-cultures. The chapter adds to the body of literature in the area of the role of Indian television advertising in the construction of gender identity in developing countries and provide western readers with current knowledge about any changes in role portrayals that have occurred over time. Some attention is paid to the role-set portrayals of women in this article because women in India are said to be emerging as the main target audience for advertisers due to their high viewership of television. For this study, commercials that appeared during Indian teleserials were obtained from a local Indian video rental outlet and recorded and used for the analysis. Finally, Joseph Zajda & Suzanne Majhanovich evaluate current research on cultural identity. They critique dominant discourses surrounding cultural identity, set against the current climate of growing social stratification and unequal access to quality education for all. It opens current discourses related to globalisation, ideologies and the state, and approaches to constructing national, ethnic and religious identities in the global culture. Discourses of cultural identity reveal that national identity, affected by forces of globalisation and the media is not one-dimensional, as was the case in structuralist- functionalist research paradigms defining identity in the past, but is multi- dimensional and dynamic in nature. Already in the 1990s, Felix-Ortiz, Newcomb, and Myers (1994) observed that the multidimensional and multifaceted aspects of the complex phenomenon of cultural identity had not been adequately addressed or assessed in research. More recently, Zolfaghari, Möllering, Clark and Dietz (2016) having noticed the limitations of uni-dimensional accounts of culture, provided evidence in their research of an evolving multidimensional operationalization of culture: It shows the multiple and simultaneous sources of cultural values (i.e., Family, Nationality, Urban/Rural Background, etc.) that individuals draw from in order to behave in accordance with their social setting. This contributes to our understanding of how and when individuals adopt multiple cultural identities.
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The above analysis of cultural identity discourses in the global culture shows a complex nexus between globalisation, cultural identity and ideology. Recent research indicates that cultural identity discourses have shifted from one dimensional towards multidimensional cultural identity. Hence, there is a need to position cultural identity research and various discourses surrounding cultural identity research within the context of diverse approaches in research cultural identity discourses, as defined by dominant ideologies, and identity politics.
References Anderson, B. (1983). Imagined communities reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. London: Verso. Ariely, G. (2012). Globalisation and the decline of national identity? An exploration across sixty- three countries. Nations and Nationalism, 18(3), 461–482. Ariely, G. (2019). The nexus between globalization and ethnic identity: A view from below. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1177/1468796819834951. Baumann, G. (1996). Contesting culture: Discourses of identity in multi-ethnic London. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Baumann, G. (1999). The multicultural riddle: Rethinking national, ethnic and religious identities. New York: Routledge. Berger, L., & Luckmann, T. (1966). The social construction of reality: A treatise in the sociology of knowledge. New York: Doubleday. Featherstone, M. (Ed.). (1990). Global culture: Nationalism, globalization and modernity. London: Sage. Felix-Ortiz, M. Newcomb, M. & Myers, H. (1994). A multidimensional measure of cultural identity for Latino and Latina adolescents. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com 10.1177/07399863940162001. Gellner, E. (1983). Nations and nationalism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Guibernau, M. (2001). Globalization and the nation-state. In M. Guibernau & J. Hutchinson (Eds.), Understanding nationalism (pp. 242–268). Cambridge, UK: Polity. Guibernau, M. (2004). Anthony D. Smith on nations and national identity: A critical assessment. Nations and Nationalism, 10(1/2), 125–141. Santos, B. S. (2002). The processes of globalisation. Retrieved from https://www.eurozine.com/ the-processes-of-globalisation/ Smith, A. (1991). National Identity. London: Penguin Books. Smith, A. (1995). Nations and nationalism in a global era. Cambridge, UK: Polity. Smith, A. (2007). Nationalism in decline? In M. Young, E. Zuelow, & A. Strum (Eds.), Nationalism in a global era (pp. 17–32). London: Routledge. Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in society. (M. Cole, John-Steiner, V., Scribner, S. & Souberman, E., Eds.). Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Zajda, J. (2017). Globalisation and national identity in history textbooks: The Russian Federation. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Springer. http://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789402409710 Zajda, J., & Majhanovich, S. (Eds.). (2020). Globalisation, cultural identity and nation-building: The changing paradigms. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Springer. Zolfaghari, B., Möllering, G., Clark, T., & Diet, G. (2016). European Management Journal, 34(2), 102–113.
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Joseph Zajda (Australian Catholic University, Melbourne) is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education and Arts at the Australian Catholic University (Melbourne Campus). He specializes in globalisation and education policy reforms, social justice, history education, and values education. He has written and edited 48 books and over 168 book chapters and articles in the areas of globalisation and education policy, higher education, and curriculum reforms. Recent publications include: Zajda, J (Ed). (2020a). Globalisation, ideology and neo-liberal higher education reform. Dordrecht: Springer; Zajda, J. (Ed). (2020b).Human rights education globally. Dordrecht: Springer. Zajda, J. (Ed). (2020c).Globalisation, ideology and education reforms: Emerging paradigms. Dordrecht: Springer; Zajda, J. (2020a). Globalization, Education and Reforms. In George Ritzer & Chris Rojek (Eds.), Wiley-Blackwell’s Encyclopedia of Sociology; Zajda, J. (2020b). Globalisation and the Impact of Social Change and Economic Transformation in Lifelong Learning in Russia. In M. London (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Lifelong Learning. Oxford: OUP; Zajda, J. (2020c) Globalization, education and policy reforms. In G. Fan & T. Popkewitz (Eds.), Handbook of policy studies: Values, governance, globalization and methodology. Dordrecht: Springer. Zajda, J. & Majhanovich, S. (Eds.) (2021). Globalisation, cultural identity and nation-building: The changing paradigms. Dordrecht: Springer. Zajda, J. (2019) (Ed.). Globalisation, ideology and politics of education reforms. Dordrecht: Springer. Zajda, J. (2018). Globalisation and education reforms: Paradigms and ideologies. Dordrecht; Zajda, J. (2017). Globalisation and National Identity in History Textbooks: The Russian Federation. Dordrecht: Springer. He is also the editor of the twenty-four volume book series Globalisation and Comparative Education (Springer, 2009 & 2021). He edits World Studies in Education, Curriculum and Teaching, and Education and Society for James Nicholas Publishers. His works are found in 445 publications in 4 languages and some 10,800 university library holdings globally. He was awarded an ARC Discovery Grant (with Monash University) for 2011–2015 for a comparative analysis of history national curriculum implementation in Russia and Australia ($315,000). He was elected as Fellow of the Australian College of Educators (June 2013). Professor Suzanne Majhanovich is Professor Emerita/Adjunct Research Professor at the Faculty of Education Western University in London, Ontario, Canada. She has published numerous articles and edited books, and has guest-edited (with different others) five special issues of the International Review of Education. Her research interests include globalization, internationalization and education restructuring, as well as first and second language acquisition and the teaching of English and French in international contexts. She was the senior author of the French text series En français s’il vous plait and also worked at times on contract for the Ministry of Education developing curriculum guidelines for French as a Second Language and International Languages. She has been active in the Ontario Modern Language Teachers’ Association and was awarded a Life Membership in 2000. Before joining a faculty of education, she taught secondary school French as a Second Language and German. She co-edited the special issue of the International Review of Education: Journal of Lifelong Learning (with Diane Napier and Norberto Fernández Lamarra), “New Times, New Voices” based on selected papers from the thematic group on Higher/ adult Education of the 2013 WCCES in Buenos Aires, which appeared as volume 60(4) 2014. Professor Majhanovich also co-edited several volumes on Comparative Education for Sense Publishers. In June, 2013 she was honoured to receive the David N. Wilson Award for contributions to Comparative and International Education from the Comparative and International Education Society Canada (CIESC) at the annual meeting in Victoria BC.
Index
A Abe, S., 111 Abowitz, K.K., 41, 43 Afandi, S., 63 Ali, S., 18 Aloni, N., 127 Althusser, L., 149 Alviar-Martin, T., 52 Ancient Rus, 12 Anderson, B., 39, 41, 127 Andreev, A.L., 83 Antonsich, M., 21 Appadurai, A., 5 Apple, M., 41 Apple, M.W., 148 Appleton, S., 146 Ariely, G., 6, 7, 18, 21, 22, 24, 26, 28, 31, 107, 161 Arnason, J.P., 22 Arnett, J.J., 47 Australian identity, 131 B Baildon, M., 52, 63 Bakhtin, 72 Banks, J., 38, 41–43, 124, 125, 127, 129, 130, 133 Barad, K., 89 Barkhuizen, G., 100 Barr, M., 63 Bar-Tal, D., 119 Bashir, B., 124, 127–130 Bauman, G., 2 Baumann, G., 161
Bekhuis, H., 21 Benedict Anderson, 18 Benson, P., 100 Berger, L., 163 Berger, P.L., 40 Berman, M., 12 Bertens, H., 5 Biesta, G., 125 Biliteracy learners, 88, 90, 92, 101, 103, 164 Blackburn, K., 61 Blank, T., 23 Boellstorff, T., 91 Boldt, G., 89 Bonikowski, B., 18, 31 Bozalek, V., 101 Branscombe, N., 110, 119 Brown, G.W., 19 Bunda, T., 93, 100 Burgess, J., 90, 96, 102 C Calhoun, C., 17, 19 Canada, 9, 13 Carnoy, M., 2 Castells, M., 2, 5, 20 Castles, S., 124 Chandler, D., 151 Cha, Y.-K., 124, 126, 128, 130 Chia, Y., 52, 54 Chik, A., 100 Chua, A., 108 Chua, B., 52, 60 Chua, S., 63
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170 Citizenship, 55, 125, 129, 130 Citizenship education, 38, 43, 46, 48, 65, 128, 129, 133, 136, 163 Citizenship identities, 165 Clark, M., 152 Clark, T., 166 Clements, K.P., 108, 110 Cogan, J., 38 Collier, P., 146 Collins, C., 72 Colonialism, 44 Commodification of the self, 13 Communitarianism, 52, 64 Core values, 64 Cosmopolitan citizenship, 21, 128 Cosmopolitanism, 38 Crick, B., 128, 129 Critical thinking, 55 Critical thinking skills, 63, 65 Cultural-historical theory, 73 Cultural identity, 3, 4, 12, 38, 42, 47, 124, 126, 151, 155, 163, 165, 166 Cultural identity discourses, 167 D Das, M., 153 Davidov, E., 27 Davidson, M., 154 Davidson, R., 21 Davies, B., 102 Decolonization, 41 Deconstruction, 4 Delamont, S., 146 Delanty, G., 38 de Oliveira Andreotti, V., 47 Derricott, R, 38 Derrida, 4 Diasporic identities, 127 Dietz, G., 166 Digital storytelling, 101 Dijink, G., 12 Discourse analysis, 4, 73, 144, 165 Discourses of cultural identity, 4, 166 Discourses of power, 44 Dolbec, P., 90, 91 Dominant discourses, 12 Doosje, B., 110, 119 Dower, N., 40 Dreher, A., 24 Dscourse analysis, 148 Duchesne, S., 78 Dudden, A., 110 Durkheim, E., 41
Index E Earley, A., 90, 91 Ellemers, N., 110 Elliot, A., 125 Erikson, E.H., 38 Ethnic identity, 3, 6, 13, 26, 27, 30 Ethnicity, 130 Ethnic minorities, 63 Ethnic national identity, 21 European Social Survey (ESS), 23 F Fairclough, 73 Featherstone, M., 2 Felix-Ortiz, M., 166 Feshbach, S., 114 Fiske, J., 148, 149 Foucault, 4 G Game, A., 147 Gannon, S., 102 Gaston, N., 24 Gaudelli, W., 38, 41 Gender bias, 155 Gender-identity, 3, 147–148, 152, 166 Geopolitical globalisation, 59 George, C., 63 Gilbert, L., 128, 129 Gilbert, P., 146, 148, 154 Gill, J., 131 Gilpin, R., 1 Global citizenship, 38, 44, 48, 136–138 Global citizenship competencies, 138 Global citizenship education, 47, 130, 133, 134, 138 Global economy, 63 Global identity, 19 Globalisation, 124, 165 Global marketing, 13 Global materialistic culture, 13 Golovanova, N., 78, 79 Gopinathan, S., 52, 54, 60 Gramsci, A., 150 Grigoryan, L.K., 23 Guibernau, M., 6, 7, 17, 160 Guillen, M.F., 30 H Hackett, A., 89 Hack, K., 61 Hadler, M., 21
Index Halikiopoulou, D., 7 Hall, S., 2 Hammack, P.L., 119 Ham, S.-H., 124 Han, C., 52, 63 Harcourt, B., 4 Harnish, J., 41, 43 Heater, D., 41 Hegemony, 150 Helbling, M., 18, 22 Held, D., 19 Henderson, D., 132 Hess, D., 128, 130 History textbooks, 70, 119 Hobsbawm, E., 7, 19 Hochman, O., 22 Ho, L., 52 Holland, D., 71 Holton, R., 7 Holton, R.J., 17, 19 Hooghe, M., 26 Hox, J.J., 24 Huberman, A.M., 92 Huddy, L., 22 Hudon, R., 10 Hughes, J., 131 Human rights, 43 Hutchins, R., 12 Hyakuta, N., 111 I Identity, 38, 88, 101, 102, 109, 116, 119, 120, 124, 125, 127–130, 132, 164 Identity construction, 164 Identity credit cards, 3 Identity enactment, 88, 92 Identity formation, 89, 93 Identity making, 102 Identity politics, 3, 110, 167 Ideology, 125, 148, 167 Ignatieff, M., 31 Imagined communities, 18 Inglehart, R., 18, 21 Institutional identity, 3 Intercultural understanding, 135 J Jackson, L., 125, 127–130 Japanese nationalism, 114 Jeon, Y.-H., 128 Jones, F.L., 21 Jones, P., 72 Jung, J.K., 20, 21
171 K Kaldor, M., 19 Kazepides, T., 130 Kendrick, M., 88 Kennedy, K., 124, 131 Kinnvall, C., 20 Kiwan, D., 128, 130, 133 Klees, S.J., 154 Kosterman, R., 114 Kozinets, R.V., 90, 91 Kristeva, 4 Kuby, C.R., 88, 90, 102 Kulshreshtha, I., 146 Kwak, J.H., 110 Kymlicka, W., 124, 127, 129, 130 L Lanchicotte, J., 71 Leander, K., 89 Lee, H., 54 Lee, K., 61 Lee, M., 124 Lee, W., 52 Lee Hsien Loong, 54 Lee Kuan Yew, 52 Li, W., 88 Licata, L., 108, 119 Lifelong learning skills, 55 Lim, J., 60 Lin, J., 154 Lin, Z., 88 Lincoln, Y.S., 146 Lingard, B., 125 Liu. J., 108 Lovorn, M., 71 Lubbers, M., 21 Luckmann, T., 40, 163 Luke, A., 89 M MacDonald, M., 146 Magnet, J.E., 9 Majhanovich, S., 10, 42, 162 Makarenko, A.S., 79, 82 Mankekar, P., 153 Margetts, K., 78 Markham, A.N., 103 Martens, P., 24 Mass media, 13 Mcavoy, P., 128, 130 McCaughey, A., 78 McCowan, T., 38–40 McGregor, G., 125
172 McKishnie, B., 88 McLaren, P., 5 McLaughlin, T.H., 40 McNiff, S., 101 Meritocracy, 52, 56, 57, 64 Merryfield, M., 47 Meyer, J.W., 21 Miles, M.B., 92 Miller, D., 18 Minarova-Banjac, C., 116 Minorities, 37 Minority identities, 127 Modernity, 30 Moerbeek, M, 24 Moje, E.B., 89 Möllering, G., 166 Mouffe, C., 128, 129 Multiculturalism, 22, 38, 54 Multicultural society, 56, 60 Multidimensional cultural identity, 167 Multidimensionality of national identity, 20 Multi-dimensional nature of national identity, 163 Multiple identities, 128 Myers, H., 166
Index Ozdowski, S., 38 P Paez, D., 108 Page, C., 152 Pashby, K., 43, 47, 125 Passport identity, 3 Patriotism, 6, 22, 30, 42, 43, 114, 161 Pearce, R., 144 Phillips, L.G., 93, 100 Political education, 55 Ponizovskiy, V., 23 Poor, N., 21 Post-modernism, 4 Post-structuralism, 4 Pringle, R., 147 Print, M., 59, 131 Pryke, S., 7 Q Quandt, M., 18, 27
N Nagle, J., 88 National citizenship, 40 National education, 52 National identity, 7, 18–20, 23–25, 27, 30, 31, 53, 60, 64, 108, 119, 120, 125, 161, 162, 166 National identity formation, 131 Nationalism, 21, 22, 27, 30, 39, 41, 107, 114, 124, 131, 162, 165 National myths, 41 Nation-building, 5, 42, 52, 59, 60, 63, 64, 119, 160 Nation-building process, 62 Neo-Marxist critique, 5 Netnography, 90–92, 164 Newcomb, M., 166 Nobles, M., 110 Norris, P., 18, 21
R Racial harmony, 64 Racial identity, 3 Raijman, R., 22, 27 Ram, A., 153 Rapoport, A., 38, 40, 45, 46 Reeskens, T., 18, 23, 25 Reid, A., 131 Reification, 2 Religious identity, 3 Reykowsi, J., 42 Reynolds, R., 125 Rhoten, D., 2 Ricento, T., 9 Ross, A., 129 Roudometof, V., 7, 17, 19 Rowsell, J., 88, 90, 96, 102 Roy, A., 153, 154 Russian Federation (RF), 12 Russian identity, 12 Rust, V., 82
O O’Byrne, D., 39 Öhman, S., 21 Olofsson, A., 21 Osler, A., 43
S SaldanÞa, J., 92 Santos, B., 2 Schmidt, P., 18, 22, 23, 27 Schreiber-Barsch, S., 45
Index Sebba, M., 8 Secombe, M., 125 Semiotics, 151 Seow, B., 63 Sexual identity, 3 Shani, G., 125, 126, 128 Shibata, R., 108 Sim, J., 59, 63 Simonsen, K.B., 22 Singapore society, 52 Singh, B., 52, 62 Slastenin, V.A., 81 Smith, A., 4, 6, 19, 160 Smith, A.D., 18, 19, 42, 44 Smith, C., 4, 19 Smith, P., 21 Smolicz, J., 125 Smythe, S., 88, 102 Social Identity Theory, 108, 112, 165 Somerville, A., 89 Spears, R., 110 Starkey, H., 128, 129 Staub, E., 109 Stears, M., 128 Stromquist, N., 144, 154 Structural-functional paradigm, 4 Sullivan, D., 110 Supranational identity, 21 T Tajfel, H., 108, 112 Tan, C., 54 Tan, E., 60 Tan, J., 52 Tan, K., 62 Tarling, N., 60 Tate, S., 8 Taylor, S., 146, 148, 154 Teng, A., 63, 65 Teo, Y., 63 Terlouw, K., 8 Thum, P., 63 Transnational identities, 95 Tribal identity, 3 Tryapitsina, A., 80, 81 Tsyrlina-Spady, T., 71 Turnbull, C., 60 Turner, B.S., 39 Turner, J.C., 108, 112
173 U UNESCO, 144 Unger, J., 42 V Values, 54 Van de Schoot, R., 24 Vasilopoulou, S., 7 Vaughn, M., 90, 102 Verkuyten, M., 21 Verovšek, P.J., 108 Veugelers, W., 125 Volkan, V.D., 108 Volosinov, 72 Volpato, C., 108, 119 Vygotsky, L.S., 71, 164 W Wardle, G., 128 Weintrob, L., 127 Wertsch, J., 70, 72 Westheimer, J., 130 Williams, A., 21 Williams, R., 148 Wimmer, A., 23 Wohl, M.J.A., 119 Woolfolk, A., 78 Worthington, R., 52 Wright, M., 18, 23, 25, 31 X Xenophobic attitudes, 30 Y Yalden, M., 10 Z Zajda, J., 2, 4, 8, 12, 38–43, 46, 71, 73, 82, 123, 124, 147, 148, 151, 161, 162 Zajda, R., 4, 5, 151 Zembylas, M., 102 Zhang, Z., 88 Zhuojun, W., 7 Zolfaghari, B., 166