Educating “Good” Citizens in a Globalising World for the Twenty-First Century

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