It is evident that issues surrounding a society influx have influenced curricular reform in
both Japan and Norway. The growing need to address a changing population by
incorporating a variety of understandings of citizenship and democracy into education and
society is a reflection of this. Green (1996) claimed that there has been an increasing
difficulty, especially among advanced, Western states, in maintaining social cohesion and
solidarity. He attributed this to “growing individualism and life-style diversity,
secularization, social mobility and the decline of stable communities,” (quoted in Power and
Whitty, 1999: 135). One possible solution points toward clearer educational goals.