Civic education in Israel: Between national-ethnocentricity and universalism

The ever-present practices of citizenship take on myriad and protean forms: 'citizenship is not universal or unified; it is discursive, heterogeneous, dynamic, fragmented and historically changeable'. The unique circumstances of Hong Kong in which the transfer of sovereignty from Britain to China initiated an entirely new series of citizenship practices even as others were cast as superfluous to the production of the legitimate citizen. Similarly, South Africa's emergence from apart-heid made possible new considerations for 'safe speech' within educational and governmental institutions. Formal declarations of citizenship education make possible an array of citizenship practices, identities, and values that occur in both formal and informal spaces. As a means for understanding and expanding upon the international forms of citizenship education, the chapter begins from the production of the neoliberal citizen within a context of globalization. The former provides a window to the values and principles that assert themselves globally even as they emerge from local contexts.