Charlene Tan and Kim‐chong Chong, 2007
Singapore, Prentice Hall Pearson Education
$25 (pbk), 169 pp.
ISBN 978‐981‐06‐7895‐1
This is not a book on education of the ‘Asian values’, which was promoted by some politicians in South East Asia to deflect the demand of democratisation in their countries. Asia is a very big region, which is composed of diverse peoples and cultures. Rather, this book deals with values‐education in Asia, written by academics from Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea. Values‐education includes moral, civic, citizenship, multicultural and environmental education.
It is not an easy job to merge such a wide range of articles into a single and coherent whole. In the book, there are 11 chapters, divided into two sections: 1, Concepts and Approaches and, 2, Issues and Challenges. In the Foreword, John Snarey suggests how the book should be read, i.e. in the light of the impact of globalisation on traditional cultures. In other words, the conflicts of values results from the dramatic increases in cross‐cultural contacts through global connectivity and economic interdependence. Furthermore, as a society we may have conflicts between modern and traditional values and conflicts between all kinds of cultural peculiarities in terms of race, religion, language and so on. The book is a collective effort from various countries in Asia to discover ways of how different countries can deal with the conflicting values in their values education.
For example, the conflict between economic development and environmental protection is addressed in Chapter 1 on the cultivation of humanity and Chapter 2 concerning the good life in a consumer society. The issues of holding a society together in culturally diverse societies are discussed in Chapters 6, 7 and 8. Finally, the conflicts between traditional and democratic values are dealt with in Chapters 4, 9 and 10 on moral and citizenship education in China, Cambodia and Japan.
The title of the book highlights ‘critical’ perspectives on values education in Asia. It is ‘critical’ to the extent that some of the perspectives ignored by the policies have been brought up in the book. For example, in Chapter 9, about China's citizenship education, we read that ‘a lack of civil liberty and democracy in Chinese society has been a major obstacle for citizenship education’ (p. 134). In Chapter 6, regarding citizenship education in Malaysia, it is argued that ‘In fact, issues of Special Malay Rights, the National Language, the Sovereignty of the Malay Rulers and the Internal Security Acts, are still considered sensitive and forbidden’ (p. 93).
It is interesting to note that, in the preface to the book, John Snarey highlights two distinctive Asian themes of values education for the non‐Asian world to learn: holism and harmony. The challenging issue of conflicting values is at odds with the idea of harmony. In Chapter 10, on civics and moral education in Cambodia, it is pointed out ‘the tension between the goal of Civic and Morals in creating active citizens, and the predominant Cambodian culture of harmony, conformity and passivity’ (p. 144). Moreover, the value of social harmony should not be an excuse to ignore the factual situations of social injustice in Asia. To foster rational and enlightened citizens, the issues of conflicting values and social justices should be discussed by the students in the curriculum of values education.
The issues raised in the book are not confined to Asia, but the situation might be more interesting there than the rest of the world because there are significant differences in socioeconomic and political development across Asian countries. The essays in the book certainly inform and promote reflections and dialogue among educators, academics and policymakers in Asia and other parts of the world.
© 2010, Chia‐Fan Lin