Universal individuals: national education in a globalized age

Are there differences between the pedagogical approaches of East Asian and European cultures regarding the question of how to navigate the complex relations of the universal and the particular, the communal and the individual? By no means an abstract question, it calls for thought in what seems to be an increasingly volatile age: from political and social division and polarisation, divergent forces of localization, globalization, and glocalization, increasing efforts to acknowledge and recognize different histories and traditions in expanding intercultural communication processes while simultaneously not losing sight of the global challenges that humankind must respond to without much time for hesitation, it seems that conventional approaches to national education need to adapt. As a critical response to certain stereotypes regarding the apparent relations of sociality and individuality in countries traditionally influenced by (Neo-)Confucianism, this suite of papers gathers positions from colleagues working in East Asian contexts and in the UK to explore these and related problems from a variety of viewpoints.