A Conceptual Framework for the Practice of Civic Education in the United States

Towards a Model for International Transfer

Abstract

This paper considers civic education (citizenship education) as a system that can be transferable from one country to another. Although civic education in the United States has been the subject of much research, it has hardly ever been analyzed in comparative perspective with Japan and assessed in terms of international transfer. In the past Japanese researchers have often attempted to transfer educational practices in the United States to Japan. In this context, however, international transfer is intended to mean the internationalization of education. Such transfer is an important issue in the field of comparative education since the civic education system in practice in the United States suggests the possibility of transfer across borders and beyond the territorial limits of its originaldesign.