Rethinking Schooling for the 21st Century

top in a ‘flawed democracy’ category, followed by Korea, India, Indonesia, the
Philippines, Mongolia, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka. The rest fall under either the
‘hybrid’ or ‘authoritarian’ regime category.
The coding result for ‘civil liberties’ seems to indicate that concepts sensitive to
established political authorities may be either symbolically flagged or ignored
altogether in education policy and curricula. The absence of references to ‘civil
liberties’ is observed in relatively democratic and ‘authoritarian’ countries alike.
As noted with respect to the category ‘gender equality,’ we should therefore
avoid rushing to interpret the absence of references to a certain concept as a
deliberate omission of a sensitive issue. It is necessary to look carefully at the
constituent components of the key concepts embedded in SDG 4.7 to make
sense of the coding data.
As pointed out in the discussion of Trend 4, most countries make no reference to
‘participation in civic protest’, ‘engagement in debates on socio-political issues’,
and ‘action on issues of global reach’ (see Appendix II-13.iii). 19 This absence of
references to ‘activism’ makes a sharp contrast with the prevalence of ‘civic
engagement’ under the category ‘responsible lifestyle’ across most countries
(see Appendix II-13.ii). 20 The ‘civic engagement’ sub-category is to be coded when
there is a reference to ‘participation/skills to participate at the local, national,
global levels; active citizenship; civic engagement; constructive participation,
serving the community, volunteering’. Although terms such as ‘participation’,
‘active citizenship’ and ‘civic engagement’ can be deployed in ways that signify
endorsement of critical engagement with social, political and environmental
issues, the coding results seem to suggest that the service to the community and
being a good community member are facets of citizenship that receive particular
emphasis.
Trend 7:
Culture and heritage rate a frequent mention in education
policy and curricula in most countries
A very high or high weightage is given to ‘culture and heritage’ in most countries
(with the exceptions of China, Bangladesh and Malaysia) (see Appendix II-10).
Most references relate to national traditions, customs and language. In contrast,
‘global-local thinking’ and concepts of transnational interconnectedness and
interdependence are weakly covered in most countries.
19 Indonesia and Viet Nam have a moderate weightage and Korea, Nepal, Iran and Afghanistan
have a low weightage on ‘engagement in debate on socio-political issues’; Korea, Afghanistan
and Lao PDR have a low weightage on ‘action on issues of global reach’; and Nepal and
Afghanistan have a low weightage on ‘participation in civic protest’.
20 ‘Civic engagement’ carries a high weightage in all but six countries (low in Sri Lanka, Nepal,
Thailand; moderate in Kyrgyzstan and Cambodia; and very high in Mongolia).
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Chapter 2: Key Findings and Insights