The study on which this article is based aimed to discover the meanings of international education at the high school level from the perspective of students and parents in Japan and Indonesia. Two research questions are addressed: How do Indonesia and Japan balance their international education policy in relation to the need to foster globally competent workers, global citizenship, and nation-building? What are the respective meanings of international education for students and parents? A policy analysis was undertaken based on documents as well as class observations, and individual and group interviews with international education students and parents. The study found that while both the Indonesian and Japanese governments have attempted to build human capital with global competence and national identity, they have utilized different strategies. While Indonesian and Japanese students and parents found similar meanings in university preparation, there were different meanings regarding national language usage, social responsibility, self-identification, life after university, and neo-colonialism.

This study discusses a dynamic endeavour to form national character in citizenship education through a chronological exploration of the experiences of Japan and Indonesia within two dimensions: administration and curriculum. Nationalization, localization and internationalization perspectives were applied. Despite their striking differences in national character, both countries have envisioned a role for nationalism in their citizenship education curricula since the earliest stages. Given Indonesia’s heterogeneity, national character has transitioned over time from an independent-spiritual period to development and consolidation, democratic/local initiative, and religious-patriotism/national standardized. Japan’s more homogeneous national character has transitioned over a longer duration from a westernized/modernized period to Confucian/emperor-centred, democratic and peace building, public oriented, and love for country and region/re-patriotism. National character has changed dynamically according to national goals and priorities, reflecting the countries’ respective historical backgrounds. These aspects resulted in the unique national character of each country’s citizenship education, specifically concerning globalization.

This study explores the university students’ awareness of the Circular Economy (CE) through the identification of knowledge, attitudes and behaviors (KAB). A quantitative method is applied by adopting the SDG survey questionnaire of Cifuentes-Faura that was developed using the 5Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Refurbish, Repair and Recycle) of the CE concept to measure the students’ KAB towards CE. A total of 110 students studying economics-related courses from two Indonesian universities participated in the survey and the statistical program SPSS 20.0 was used for data analysis. The study found that the students’ awareness of the circular economy is higher in terms of knowledge (85.5%) than attitude (55.5%) and behavior (68.2%). In a way, the results of attitude and behavior show that students tend to buy new things instead of reusing/renting or repairing them. The female students' knowledge of CE is higher than male students, whereas their attitude and behaviour show similar results. Additionally, there is a correlation between knowledge and attitude, attitude and behavior, and knowledge and behavior, which means that the variables influence each other.

The objective of this study is to examine implementation of the international education (IE) policy (under the so-called Undang-Undang Sistem Pendidikan Nasional (the Law of National Education System) and its legal derivatives) at high school level in Indonesia by investigating the policy text and its dynamic practices concerning the IE policies at both public and private schools. The study employs qualitative case study methodology combining data collection methods which include individual interviews to key resource persons and documents analysis at national, local and at school levels. Using the Vidovich policy framework, the study explores how national executive, legislative and judicial (states) bodies interact in formulating IE policy and how the policy has impacted at school level. Two schools of public and private that implemented international curriculum were selected as case studies. The study finds that the IE policy that was initially formulated at national level by relevant state authorities/agencies has however resulted in weakening role of the state due in part to its centralized feature (despite its decentralized implementation claim). Consequently, in the stage of its implementation at school level, providers of IE and their champions as non-state actors play significant roles. The study indicates importance and significance of relevant state authorities at local government level in the framework to offer effective supervision on the IE policy implementation.