ABSTRACT
The topic discussed in this Special Issue, namely how to theorise democratic citizenship education research in non-Western contexts, presents an even more challenging task by engaging contested concepts such as democracy and citizenship. The authors conceive this Special Issue as a contribution to the discussion on researching and theorising democratic citizenship education in non-Western contexts with the aim of using such research and theorisation to cross-culturalise the field of comparative and international citizenship education. The examination and theorisation of citizenship and citizenship education in both Western and non- Western contexts is partially an outcome of the research methodologies used. Citizenship education framed by such discourses takes on a 'civilisatory' role, that of trying to construct a modern, rational citizen. Overall, the chapter demonstrates how multilateral organisations that disregard local knowledge and traditions transmit dominant, Western-based discourses of citizenship, and argues that decolonial theory can be used to uncover the operation of such discourses.
