In Hong Kong, the Guidelines on Civic Education for Schools (1996) recommended nationalistic education as one of the five aspects of civic educatioin. As an aspect of civic education, nationalistic education should serve both a cognitive mission of "preparing critical thinking, responsible, participating, multidimensional citizens" and an affective mission of "instilling the sense of national identity, love and loyalty to the nation state and patriotism". These two missions are in potential conflict. In order to achieve both missions, an appropriate balance between cognitive and affective teaching approaches is necessary. Two commonly adopted affective approaches used for the affective function are positive and negative approaches. This paper is an exploratory report of case studies on the use and misuse of affective approaches in nationalistic edcuation by some civic educators in Hong Kong secondary schools. It was found that in-depth and systematic reflection was needed to balance the two potential conflicting missions. Moreover, it was also found that if handled inappropriately, a positive approach might lead to bias and indoctrination while the extreme manifestation of a negative approach might even lead to 'education for hatred'. Both are contradictory to the cognitive function of preparing critical thinking citizens.
[Copyright © 2003 Pacific Circle Consortium for Education.]

This article argues that the development of civic education in Hong Kong can be divided into three phases chronologically: (1) before 1984: “depoliticization” by the state and the school; (2) 1984-1997: “politicization” of the intended curriculum; and (3) 1997 onwards: “re-depoliticization” of civic education and official confirmation of nationalistic education. In general, for phases one and two, the development is described as moving from de-politicization to politicization, in response to the political development of Hong Kong from a British colony towards the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of People's Republic of China. The article continues by exploring the third phase in detail with reference to the official document: Learning to Learn: Life-long Learning and Whole-person Development and the official speeches of the Chief Executive, Tung Chee Hwa. A phenomenon of re-depoliticization of civic education is identified, together with a strong upheaval of nationalistic education. This leads civic education “back to square one"—"re-depoliticized”. The article concludes by highlighting that the development of civic education in Hong Kong is a typical example of how civic education reflects the political context of the society.
[Copyright © Nanyang Technological University & National Institute of Education.]

Government and Public Affairs (GPA), a political subject with public examinations, was founded in mid1980’s. It was part of the attempt to prepare Hong Kong people for the development of representative government, which would be needed for self-rule after her reunification with China in 1997. This article reports GPA teachers’ perceptions of the prevailing social ethos after the change of sovereignty. The teachers explain how they will teach politics amidst an increasingly difficult social environment, marked by conservatism and promotion of nationalistic sentiment on the one hand, and by political divisions and sensitivity towards political teaching on the other. The teachers’ top priority becomes that of good public examination results and partly because of this a highly teacher-centred mode of teaching is commonly adopted. Teachers are aware of the risk of indoctrination in political teaching. However, this is only considered a problem relating to the government’s attempt to influence people’s mind, and the teachers never think of themselves as possible indoctrinators. Besides, many of them believe that they should share their beliefs with students. Though the teachers in general support democracy, paradoxically, excessive commitment to the belief is found in some cases to bring forth pedagogies of an authoritative nature.
[Copyright © 2007 Symposium Journals Ltd.]

The Guidelines on Civic Education in School (1996) for Hong Kong recommend that there should be five foci in school civic education, namely education for democracy, human rights education, education for the rule of law, nationalistic education and global education. After the return of sovereignty to the People's Republic of China in 1997, Hong Kong became the Hong Kong Special Administration Region (HKSAR) and the SAR government has singled out nationalistic education as the sole focus of civic education. This paper is a report of case studies focusing on the understanding and practice of nationalistic education of three civic educators whose understanding is inclined towards education for totalitarian nationalism in Hong Kong secondary schools, using the concepts of indoctrination. The findings show that because of the teachers' inability to separate the nation from the ruling party and their strong mission of sending a positive image of the party to their students, they have tended to adopt particular teaching strategies, which might suppress the students' ability to reflect critically. According to the criteria of indoctrination, namely relationship, intention, content and teaching method, their teaching approaches tend to be indoctrinatory, rather than educational. This is certainly unacceptable to those who believe education is concerned with the development of independent, critically thinking individuals. Hopefully, this paper will enhance the awareness of the potential indoctrinatory nature of nationalistic education of teachers and shed light on the development of school-based nationalistic education aiming at the cultivation of the 'critical patriot'.
[Copyright © 2004 Symposium Journals Ltd.]

Citizenship responsibilities have been measured in different ways. Little attention has been paid to how adolescents as future citizens construct these responsibilities. This paper will report on a project concerned with adolescents in Hong Kong and how they understood the responsibilities of ‘good citizens’. Drawing on data from the IEA Civic Education Study, all items relating to student conceptions of the ‘good citizen’ were re-analyzed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. A 3 –factor model was identified showing adequate fit to the data. This model suggested that students identified obligations and duties as the main responsibilities of citizens.

The assumption of most western literature on civic education is that its purposes are largely linked to the democratic regimes and their maintenance. But as time goes on, global experience has witnessed the emergence and prosperous development of civic education in many non-democratic societies. It seems to suggest that civic education does not have to be identical with Western liberal democracy. Since non-democratic regimes view citizen preparation as important, what kind of citizen do they produce? In what ways is it different from democratic civic education? The purpose of the study is to explore how civic education is influenced by regime type though comparing the scholars’ representation of good citizen in three Chinese societies (Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mainland). The societies in which there are explicitly different regime types (democracy, hybrid regime, and authoritarianism) in order to highlight the significance of any possible variations. Document analysis of date related to civic education from three databases will provide us a clear understanding of ideal good citizen under democracy, hybrid regime, and authoritarianism.

Since the retrocession of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, the Hong Kong SAR government and key curriculum developers have been determined to make use of the school curriculum (formal and informal) and in particular, the two history subjects, 'Chinese History' and 'History,' to promote a national identity among students. This study shows that a Chinese national identity in ethnic, cultural and historical terms has been promoted through 'Chinese History.' At the same time, through the other history subject, 'History,' a Hongkongese identity that includes both an international and a national dimension has also been made possible. However, it is argued that in promoting a sense of national identity through the school curriculum, the government has turned the curriculum to a form of nationalistic propaganda. In addition, the emphasis on national identity would create tension between Hong Kong students, students from China and ethnical minority students.
[Copyright ©2014 National Academy for Educational Research.]

According to the Olympic Charter, "Olympism is a philosophy of life, exalting and combining into a balanced whole the qualities of body, will and mind. Blending sport with culture and education, Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on effort, the educational value of good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles". Sport is viewed as a mini society where participants experience the success and failure; the joys and tears; and the ups and downs of life. For children, the overall aims of education for the 21st Century in Hong Kong should be "To enable every person to attain all-round development in the domains of ethics, intellect, physique, social skills and aesthetics according to his/her own attributes..." (Education Commission, September 2000, p.30). In the early childhood curriculum, physical education is integral in fostering young children's total development. Early childhood educators always provide an educationally appropriate program to enhance young children's whole person development. This paper serves two purposes. First, it demonstrates how Olympic sports are highly related to Civic Education for young children. Secondly, it suggests educationally sound strategies for early childhood educators to develop a preschool physical education curriculum with emphasis on the development of young Hong Kong children's civic capacities.