Keepers of the sacred flame: Patriotism, politics and the Chinese history subject community in Hong Kong

Keepers of the sacred flame: Patriotism, politics and the Chinese history subject community in Hong Kong

• Kan, Flora University of Hong Kong
• Vickers, Edward University of London
• Morris, Paul Hong Kong Institute of Education

Cambridge Journal of Education, 37(2), 229-247, 2007

Routledge

2007

• G Curriculum, Teaching & Learning: Specific Disciplines
  • GF Humanities & Arts

Foreign Countries Administrative Organization Patriotism History Instruction Asian Culture Educational Policy Educational History Political Attitudes Hong Kong

• Hong Kong

• 1997.7 onwards

• Secondary Education

Chinese history (a subject entirely separate and distinct from 'history') has long been the most politically sensitive subject in Hong Kong's school curriculum. Previous studies have analysed the policies of the colonial and postcolonial Governments towards this subject. Here, we examine the role played by the Chinese history subject community (comprising teachers, academics and officials in the Government's educational bureaucracy), and look at the way in which this has operated as an autonomous interest group. We conclude that the influence of this subject community has been a key factor limiting the extent to which the local educational authorities have been able to develop a coherent policy in relation to history education in general, and the teaching of national history in particular. Specifically, advocates of the maintenance of Chinese history as a separate subject within the school curriculum have been able, by associating themselves with the post-1997 agenda of 'patriotic education', to effectively hoist the local educational bureaucracy with its own petard.
[Copyright of Cambridge Journal of Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03057640701372525]

• English

Journal Articles

• 0305764X

• 10.1080/03057640701372525

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/bibs/80098f4a

2010-09-24