Numerous studies have noted the difficulties in promoting a common national identity curriculum due to increasing tension between the concepts of local autonomy and national cohesion. Hong Kong's promotion of Moral and National Education provides an interesting case to examine two aspects of this tension -- what national identity education goals…

This paper draws on Basil Bernstein's theory of pedagogic discourse and practice to explain the controversy surrounding civic education in Hong Kong, through the case of a compulsory secondary school subject called Liberal Studies (LS). The distinct advantage of a Bernsteinian approach is that its conceptual grammar cogently captures the…

During the turbulent 2018-19 school year, we researched Hong Kong teachers' perceptions regarding the design and implementation of National Education in schools for students aged 12-17. We seek to make a contribution to understandings of aspects of the cultural, political and social dimensions and contexts relevant to teacher education. 41 civic…

Universal suffrage is an essential component of Western democracy in the twenty-first century, but the role of education in supporting universal suffrage in Hong Kong is a challenge given its fractured political system and governance, societal divisions about political goals, and democratic aspirations within an authoritarian state. This study…

Interactions within classrooms contribute to adolescents' democratic civic development by providing resources fostering students' political understanding. Many teachers participate in social or political groups in their communities and more broadly. These out-of-school experiences inform their classroom practices and are contextualized by national…

This article compares and re-examines citizenship education (CE) teaching and learning in Hong Kong (HK) and Guangzhou (GZ), China. It questions two stereotypical perceptions--that China schools indoctrinate students, and that CE lessons in HK are more open than those in mainland China. Data are drawn from some 30 lesson observations, 1,200…

This paper explores how notions of race, ethnicity, and blood are mobilized in educational texts in Hong Kong. It elaborates how civic identity is racialized as part of a nationalist education operating beneath the surface of expressed commitments to global citizenship, human rights, etc., in curriculum and textbooks. Many have commented on how…

Since Hong Kong returned to Chinese sovereignty, national identity building became an important part of school education meeting some resistance in Hong Kong society. In 2012, thousands of school stakeholders protested against the introduction of the 2012 Guide of Moral and National Education (MNE). These conflicts have influenced teachers'…

We approach Hong Kong's Umbrella Movement, also known as Occupy Central, encountered in 2 days in November 2014 as an exemplar of literacy as placemaking. As a contemporary city-based resistance movement, the creation and subsequent resemiotisation of literacy artefacts were an important element of spatialised practice in asserting a new and…

The dynamic of how civic education is framed during turbulent periods is illuminated through analysis of three Hong Kong official civic education curriculum guidelines (1985, 1996, 2012). Guidelines are publicly available, officially sanctioned statements of purpose that have particular relevance for education professionals and are used around the…

This study examines the construction and meaning of International Baccalaureate (IB) schools as manifested by schools in four locations: Chicago, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, and the United Arab Emirates. Through analysis of schools' websites, we identify three major approaches towards constructing the schools' image: globally acknowledged quality,…

Despite the wealth of theoretical literature on globalization and global citizenship, empirical studies on the topic are lacking, especially in the context of pedagogical needs in relation to global citizenship education. In order to address this gap, a study was conducted in Hong Kong to investigate the attitudes of university students towards…

Cosmopolitanism and its application for education in western societies has been well examined. Yet cosmopolitanism in society and in education has not been systematically explored in many Asian societies. Facing a large number of people from diverse backgrounds, the society and its education system in Hong Kong are troubled by issues similar to…

Hong Kong underwent tremendous changes after the transfer of its sovereignty to China in 1997. This study attempts to explore the changing role of schools in preparing students for future democratic citizenship in the post-colonial era. Different researchers have postulated that schools play a crucial role in the political socialization process in…

This article reports the findings the researchers obtained from a study of prominent civic education teachers in Hong Kong with regard to how they perceived national identification and the nurturing of national identification through civic education in Hong Kong schools. A qualitative method of data collection by in-depth semi-structured…