• Date and Time:

December 13 (Saturday), 2025, 11:00-13:00 in Indonesia

    13:00-15:00 in Japan and South Korea

• Language: English

• Fee: Free

• Registration (Deadline: December 12, 2025):

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/KxTDdvt7Q5GKqUKH11XqKQ

   In recent decades, the role of emotions in education has received growing scholarly attention, particularly in the field of social studies and citizenship education (Zembylas, 2007; Boler, 1999). However, the question of how they should be discussed remains both pedagogically and politically fraught. Emotions shape how students interpret historical narratives, relate to civic values, and imagine their role in society—yet they are often treated as secondary to rational analysis. Rather than viewing emotion as a disruptive force, recent scholarship calls for its integration as a critical mode of knowing and engaging with the world (Boler, 1999; Zembylas, 2007),  the ways emotions are framed and operationalized in social studies classrooms vary significantly across national and cultural contexts. In some systems, emotional engagement—such as cultivating empathy or moral sensitivity—is explicitly emphasized as part of civic learning. In others, emotion is downplayed in favor of harmony, national unity, or rational deliberation. These variations are shaped by differing epistemological assumptions about what constitutes valid knowledge in education, as well as by ontological views on the formation of civic identity and belonging. Thus, to ask how emotions should be discussed in social studies is inseparable from asking where and in what ways they are already being discussed—and contested—across diverse educational landscapes. In Asia, where historical conflicts, rapid modernization, and multicultural dynamics shape the civic sphere, understanding how emotions intersect with citizenship education is both timely and essential.

      The proposed conference, “Emotion and Citizenship Education in Asia: Comparative and Transnational Perspectives,” seeks to bring together educators, researchers, and policymakers to explore how emotional dimensions are integrated, negotiated, and transformed within social studies and citizenship education across the region. The conference will highlight how emotions mediate civic identity, historical memory, and social solidarity in diverse Asian contexts.

Case of Indonesia

Case of JApan

Case of South Korea

CONTACT

Dr. Jongsung Kim (Secretary General of ISSA)

jongsung@hiroshima-u.ac.jp