The effective teaching of the English language is regarded as an essential element in the creation of a culturally vibrant, economically sound and socially stable ASEAN community. The ASEAN region is populated by a culturally diverse collection of peoples with very different and complex linguistic histories, some of which included a strong English component. This paper examines the opinions and understandings of teachers of English in eight of the ten ASEAN nations. It arose out of a research study of English teaching in ASEAN being conducted jointly by Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia and CfBT Brunei. Although the teachers differed in their levels of competence in English and in their experience of local, national and international culture, they shared a remarkably similar story in attempting to provide the best instruction they possibly could to their students. As non-native speakers of English, they shared the responsibility of representing not only the English language but also the culture of first language English speakers to their non-native speaking students. The conflicts and tensions of their roles were identified and examined. The study concluded that teachers need support in their intercultural role as well as in their pedagogical responsibilities. Teachers reported that their students had little knowledge or appreciation of the ASEAN community or of the importance of their own capacity to speak English in it.

Learning is enhanced when it occurs within a positive environment where the learners feel a sense of passion and excitement about what they are learning. A joyful learning experience creates new neural pathways in the brain and enhances the acceptance of content. Learners learn more quickly and more deeply when their emotions are touched and the learning experience is accompanied by the positive feelings and reactions of their teacher and other fellow learners. This paper considers the factors and classroom processes that lead to positive learning sentiment and explores the way a teacher can create a suitable collaborative and democratic learning space.

The capacity people have to adapt to change is influenced by a number of organizational and personal factors. The government of Thailand, in collaboration with the university sector, is developing ICT facilities and processes in universities which are expected to have a great impact upon educational processes. University staff expected to embrace ICT have reacted in a variety of ways to the introduction of ICT which should, by this stage, be transforming academic, administrative and teaching programs. This paper reports on a project at a regional Thai university which collected data on staff skill levels in and attitudes towards ICT. It presents and analyses survey data on competence levels in a range of ICT skills required for scholarly work and teaching and on the levels of anxiety and enthusiasm staff had towards the use of ICT in their work. The results showed that poor skill levels in ICT are significantly associated with higher levels of anxiety in staff regarding ICT use. Skill levels in ICT were not significantly related to staff age, subject specialization, gender or years of teaching experience but they were related to access to a home or office computer. Negative attitudes towards ICT were significantly related to higher levels of anxiety. In a second part of the project, interviews with staff who typified extremes of positive or negative attitudes to ICT confirmed the polarization in skill levels and attitudes towards ICT. Cultural factors proved to be important moderating influences upon willingness to engage adequately with the new technology.

Moral education is a foundational yet contestable matter in any society. Debates about moral education help to define the parameters of true and right conduct in a society. The contestable nature of moral education curricula in Indonesia perhaps indicates the critical importance of character development in national and cultural formation and in the continuous creation and recreation of national identity. This study of the nature of moral education in junior secondary schools in the Yogyakarta region used a qualitative focus group approach. Teachers, lecturers, and trainee teachers were selected to be formed into five focus groups designed to provide a deeper analysis of the conflicting understandings of the nature of morality and of the expression of that morality in the curriculum. The findings showed several areas of contradiction and confusion in moral education in schools, including differences in religious and secular conceptualizations of morality and differences between those who wanted to promote or exclude intercultural understandings of morality within the state. Keywords: moral education, character education, morality, Pancasila, Indonesia

Citizenship is an identity-category which nation-states develop, both to define the rights and duties of their members, and to encourage social cohesiveness and loyalty. However, under the relentless impact of globalisation, conventional values of citizenship are being reinterpreted. This paper attempts to redefine citizenship within changing social and economic contexts. With intensifying globalisation and increasing mobility of its citizens who travel frequently beyond the state's borders, city-state Singapore provides an opportunity to examine the complexities it has faced, as it seeks to consolidate and globalise its economic operations. Citizens find their lives increasingly influenced by factors extraneous to their state. The resulting ‘crisis of citizenship’ is hence raised and evaluated.