ABSTRACT
How people are to live together well in society has been deliberated upon by philosophers and other thinkers throughout history. In relation, people have continuously debated the role of education to socialise young people. These are challenging tasks, as the world changes over time, while educators aim to prepare young people for a dynamic, undetermined future. This chapter examines some key issues of debate related to human living together and education. It elaborates the concentric circles model of human relations, and the work of Martha Nussbaum as undergirding contemporary approaches to moral, civic, and other citizenship education around the world, and for framing common debates over the role of national versus global citizenship priorities in education. The chapter argues that the fundamental challenge of learning to live together is not about how to navigate competing priorities of national, local, and global. Instead, the challenge relates to understanding what is in each of the concentric circles—the way to know about, and be part of, the local, the national, and the global. The chapter articulates the relevance of cultural politics to a moral approach to civic education, and provides an overview of the chapters that follow.
