Find out more philosophy

A citizenship education philosophy the publishers follow is to help empower readers to find out more.

The way readers can find out more is through the links, chapter content backgrounders and other resources in this educational publication – its web, documentary film on DVD and associated booklet published in the first quarter 2007. Students in particular can learn to apply the philosophy as they learn from social science concepts in this work to guide teachers. Those concepts are reflected in key understandings drafted by Mike Taylor, a social studies teacher educator at the College of Education of Victoria University of Wellington. Those key understandings, interpreted in the chapters of the Kansai through Kiwi eyes film documentary DVD, edited by cameraman Steve Walker, are a jumping off point for students, teachers and other citizens to find out more.

Find out more is a tool for the social inquiry called for in the New Zealand curriculum – “through social inquiry, students ask questions, gather information, and examine the background to important societal ideas and events”.

The empowering philosophy flows through the approach of the Centre for Citizenship Education (CCE), a New Zealand charitable trust whose policy and professional development work builds on decades of publishing experience of Asia Pacific Economic News Ltd (APEN). This experience is reflected in many publications about places, cultures, governments and economic worlds, particularly of Asia and the Pacific.

APEN’s work since 1990 included publication, in consultation with New Zealand’s Parliamentary Service, of the DecisionMaker Guide to Parliament and Government, whose sixth edition has been accessible and used freely by thousands of visitors to decisionmaker.co.nz.

The philosophy of helping citizens to find out more was early evident in the 1970s social studies text Sione comes to New Zealand, a Samoan migrants’ story, co-authored by one of the founders of CCE and APEN, Anthony Haas.

The citizenship education philosophy was given expression in recent editions of the DecisionMaker Guide to Parliament and Government by former New Zealand Governor-General Dame Silvia Cartwright (subsequently head of New Zealand’s National Commission for UNESCO) when she wrote: “”Just as we expect our democracy to work for us, we have to work for our democracy. This means taking part in the decision making process. This means voting, participating in public life and contributing to the business of our nation”.

Many of the more than 100 Japanese and New Zealanders who share in the credit for creating Kansai through Kiwi eyes can be invaluable sources for finding out more. To be practical we have included websites for some who can help people find out more for their studies and visits to Kansai, its New Zealand sister cities, its schools and homestay families and individuals who welcome Kiwis.

Find out more!

17 March 2007