In the last ten years or so, the governments in many countries have paid more attention to citizenship education. In fact, citizenship education has become an important element in the primary and secondary schools curriculum of these countries. In Hong Kong the government has paid special attention to citizenship education since the mid-1980s when it was decided that China was to regain the sovereignty of Hong Kong from 1997. In addition, the promotion of citizenship education was also necessary as a result of the start of the process of democratization in the early 1980s. To facilitate the implementation of citizenship education in Hong Kong, two official documents were published to provide guidelines for schools principals and teachers. There are different views regarding the nature and the dimensions of citizenship education. According to Lawton (2000), there are at least two views concerning the definitions of citizenship education. They are (1) passive citizenship view of training for conformity and obedience and (2) educating the future citizenship for active participation in a democratic society. Heater (1990) suggests that citizenship education has three dimensions: elements (identity and loyalty, virtues, legal or civic status, political and social rights), geographical levels (local, nation-state, regional or world) and outcomes of education (knowledge, attitudes and skills). More recently, researchers such as Lee (2004) have also suggested to examine citizenship education from an Asian perspective. The aim of this paper is to examine the problems and controversies related to the implementation of citizenship education in Hong Kong from a comparative education perspective. Examples of these problems include the low status of the subject, the lack of training of teachers and the very crowded curriculum which restricts the inclusion of more subjects such as citizenship education. One further problem is that under the 'one country - two system' there are heated

In many Western countries such as the United States, Britain and Canada multicultural education has attracted the attention of many researchers. The reason is that the tide of immigrants to these countries has produced a more diverse student body. The presence of these immigrant students has generated problems for teachers and school administrators. Promotion of a spirit of tolerance and helping them to adjust has become important goals for teachers in schools in these countries. Authors such as Banks, Sleeter and Grant have documented various aspects of multiculturalism and multicultural education in the context of Western countries. The conceptualisation by Banks(1997) of multicultural education as a broad interdisciplinary field with five interrelated dimensions are quite well known. In Hong Kong the influx of Mainland Chinese to the territory since the early 1990s has been a prominent feature. As similar to the cases in many Western countries, these newly arrived people from Mainland China to Hong Kong have generated problems of integration with local people and of adjustment to the new environment. Lee(1998) has investigated the issue of new immigrants moving to Hong Kong from Mainland China. He found evidence that the new immigrants in the 1990s are no longer as economically vibrant as those in the 1960s and the 1970s and they are more dependent on social welfare provisions. This helps to offer one explanation for the social exclusion of new immigrants. The problem of adjustment encountered by immigrant children has also aroused the attention of many parties, including teachers and social workers. Researchers have documented the life of these children in Hong Kong. Though these children are of the same race as those of the local school children, the background and culture of the former is quite different from the later. For instance in Hong Kong the traditional version of Chinese character is used. However in Mainland China the simplified version of Chinese character

Teaching practice in schools is a vital part in teacher education in Hong Kong. This paper aims at reporting a study of a number of student teachers of Economic and Public Affairs (E.P.A.) practised teaching in secondary schools in Hong Kong. Some of the secondary schools use English as medium as instruction but most of them use Chinese as medium. Questionnaires were administered to student teachers to collect information and views about their field experience in those schools. Interviews were also conducted to collect more in-depth information and data. Information regarding the kinds of support from regular teachers in their practising schools, the instructional approaches employed, the types and sources of instructional materials used, the extent of student involvement in classroom activities, and the problems encountered in preparing and conducting lessons etc. were investigated. Results of the study shows that most of the student teachers of E.P.A. under study inclined to receive more support from regular teachers in schools, highly rated their effective uses of instructional materials, rated their E.P.A. lessons as student-centered, attributed teaching and learning difficulties to classroom management problems, and indicated reliance on textbooks as the main source of teaching and learning information was minimal. Suggestions for improvement in organizing teaching practices and enhancement of the effectiveness of field experience in the subject Economic and Public Affairs in schools were also made.

Educational reform has long been a complicated and controversial issue. Hence its difficulty has always been highlighted and discussed. The aim of this paper is to address the issue in the context of Hong Kong. In Hong Kong recently, the government has introduced a series of measures which will change the educational system of hong Kong in a fundamental way. Basically in this paper the most recent reform proposals are analyzed and past attempts of reform will also be considered. The conclusion drawn is that the government has not learned mistakes committed in the past. In particular, the sources of resistance to change have not been reasonably taken into consideration. If this is so, the reform will not likely to produce positive outvcomes. It is hoped that the analysis would help to highlight the problems which should be seriously considered by policymakers in other countries.

Textbooks have long been very important tools for the relevant subject teachers in Hong Kong. But very few teachers and researchers have discussed and investigated the role of textbooks in the teaching of Economic and Public Affairs (EPA). The aim of this paper is to highlight important aspects of the characteristics of EPA textbooks in Hong Kong and examine the ways that teachers have used EPA textbooks. In Hong Kong the shortage of time means that teachers often rely on textbooks to help them to present the teaching points to the students. This should not constitute a hindrance to the teaching process if textbooks are well written and teachers are aware of the limitations of textbooks and appropriate steps are taken to overcome these limitations. But when the case of EPA teaching and learning is examined it is found that the situation is deplorable. One of the reasons is that EPA textbooks have not been written in such a way that enquiry learning is promoted. After a content analysis of EPA textbooks is made, it is found that most writers of EPA textbooks are concerned with providing great amount of information to the students. Few attempts are made to give students the opportunity to probe and reflect on the controversies associated with the issues in public affairs in Hong Kong. Moreover, the issue of depth versus breadth is also aroused. In short, the writers of textbooks consider that breadth is more important than depth. Hence few single issues are discussed in greater depth in EPA textbooks. This shortcoming of textbooks can be overcome if teachers use EPA textbooks more appropriately. But due to shortage of time most teachers just overwhelmingly follow textbooks and they are not willing to supplement the use of textbooks by other resources and materials. Worse still, in many cases the teaching and learning of EPA is reduced to underlining and short explanation of important and key sentences in textbooks. The issue should cause concern among textbook writers,

The objective of this paper is to discuss the results of two case studies conducted in two Hong Kong primary schools where there are a large number of Newly Arrived Children (NAC) from China. In the last twenty years or so researchers in many countries have paid more attention to multicultural education as the number of immigrant children in schools in these countries has risen. Though in Hong Kong the NAC are also Chinese, their background and culture is quite different from that of local children. Focusing on the aspect of citizenship education, the researcher will undertake qualitative studies to examine the strategies adopted by these schools and the problems encountered. It is hoped that the research will help to foster the understanding of various aspects of citizenship education in these schools.