Cultivating morality in the Asia-Pacific: Influences, issues, challenges and change (original) (raw)

2017, Journal of Moral Education

The Asia-Pacific and moral education The Asia-Pacific is characterised by geopolitical and economic heterogeneity, ethnic, linguistic and religious pluralism. Geographically, it covers a huge area, commonly interpreted as around the Pacific Ocean and including East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania. It comprises vast, wild, interior landscapes and small island archipelagos, often subject to natural disasters. Its peoples are connected by old trading routes and contemporary migrations in search of economic betterment. They may live in some of the most populous cities on earth, or in tiny, remote villages. Culturally, the region has ancient histories, yet is newly developing, with Western socio-cultural influences on its own distinctive, indigenous and deeply-rooted values and traditions. Religion may play a central, institutionalised role, be an implicit, underlying ethos and structure, or, if seen as challenging to political ideology, may be persecuted. Many nation states are post-colonial or relatively recently created, as a result of wars or disputes; contested boundaries contribute to ongoing regional tensions. Politically, systems range from one-party states to emerging and fully-fledged democracies in various forms. Economically, the region is developing rapidly, vibrantly and competitively, drawing on massive natural and human resources, and taking full advantage of modern and post-modern technologies to forge new industries, and infrastructures for communities and cities, with improved communications within and between countries of the region and globally. The twenty-first century has been widely predicted to belong to the Asia-Pacific. So it is fitting that JME readers are offered this access to some contemporary academic work in moral education in the Asia-Pacific region. Moral education in this diverse region both reflects and seeks to influence this human, cultural and ideological diversity, taking account of individual, family, national and political aspirations, amidst the challenges of accelerating regional and global change. Each education system, those who devise and administer its policies and institutions, and those who engage in practices of teaching and learning, have to confront and manage controversial sociocultural issues in the development of societies and the participation of citizens. Some countries of the Asia-Pacific, especially those in East Asia, have long traditions of moral education in formal and informal learning, and continue to accord considerable weight and importance to it in the educational structures, curricula and practices of schools and colleges. From the early 1970s, due to historical, cultural and linguistic links, JME published articles from Australasia, and, towards the end of that decade, articles written by scholars in East Asia-initially from Korea, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore-were included in almost every volume. It was not until 1990 that an article from China, which explicitly recognised that 'moral education in China is the weapon of ideological-political indoctrination' (Li, 1990, p. 170) was included. Over the years, connections with scholars-especially in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan-were established, which led to close cooperation and in-depth work resulting in the seminal JME special issue 'Moral Education in Changing Chinese Societies' (Li, Taylor, & Yang, 2004; see pp. 406-409). Since then, in a rapidly developing economic region, there have inevitably been changes to the socio-cultural contexts, educational curricula, pedagogy, and ideological perspectives on the