Under 'One Country, Two Systems', 'good citizens' ‐ as supported by pro-democratic positions ‐ and 'good citizens' ‐ as promoted by the Chinese government ‐ are seemingly in contradiction with each another based on their values and ideologies in Hong Kong. The competing values of citizenship are demonstrated by deep divisions within Hong Kong society, with pro-democratic groups advocating democratic values and initiating societal transformation, and their pro-establishment counterparts highlighting patriotic values and sustaining the status quo. From an educational perspective, teachers take on an essential role in the implementation of education policies designed to cultivate students who are 'good citizens'. This research employed a mixed-methods approach to examine Hong Kong teachers' perceptions of 'good citizens' based on their affinity with democratic and patriotic values. The findings indicated that rather than conflicting, patriotic values tended to be complementary to democratic values. Moreover, critical patriotic citizens with multiple identities who participate rationally and constructively in social and political activities might be more likely to facilitate democratic development in Hong Kong. These findings have implications for policy-makers responsible for the citizenship education and preparation of future citizens living within polarized and pluralistic societies, and they highlight the value of learning to live together in a complex world. Copyright © 2019 Intellect Ltd Article.

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 world to characterize educational initiatives. Our focus is on guidelines written during periods in which there was colonial hegemony by the United Kingdom (1985), an attempt to promote liberal democracy by the Hong Kongese (1996), and an assertion of Chinese nationalism (2012). We argue that guidelines about civic education are similar across these times of political turbulence. There are shifts in the content of the guidelines, but fundamental differences are not made explicit. The documents are not aligned with a theoretical framework of colonialism, liberal democracy, or Chinese nationalism, but rather, they are pragmatically oriented. The guidelines are signifiers of attempts to achieve normative stability. Copyright © 2019 College and University Faculty Assembly of National Council for the Social Studies.

The relationship between history education and political education in Asian societies is an underexplored topic. Politics have deeply shaped the development of history education in Hong Kong, as in many other societies around the world. Hong Kong history education reforms have been criticized for providing a new form of national political education. This study examines how politic education can be found in the Hong Kong history curriculum as 'latent content'. To do so, it provides a qualitative content analysis of all textual data used in 'Chinese history' and 'history' textbooks in secondary schools in Hong Kong which discuss or portray political content, focusing particularly on the themes of identity shaping and assimilation. Before focusing on the Hong Kong situation, this paper first explores how history education is a political topic in general. Then Hong Kong's complicated political legacy is described in relation to one of the unique features of history education there: the concurrence of two subjects, 'history' and 'Chinese history'. Current debates about the reform of history education in Hong Kong and the limitations of current history education in Hong Kong are examined in the next part, using data from textbooks. Our analysis shows that 1) national identity is prioritized over local identity in the textbooks, and 2) the textbooks mainly reflect a Mainland-based majority perspective and justify assimilation in history, resulting in a lack of recognition of the many different minority groups of Mainland China, of which Hong Kong people may see themselves as part. Based on the analysis, we argue that history education in Hong Kong provides a narrow political education that can impede some crucial education goals in Hong Kong.
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Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyse and evaluate the implementation of an empathy model of experiential learning in real-life sites, with the help of NGOs, for developing students’ active citizenship in two Hong Kong Chinese secondary schools.Design/methodology/approach - This study employs a case study in which teachers and the researcher engage in planning, implementing and evaluating an experiential learning unit which combines together both classed-based learning activities and experiential learning activities provided by NGOs in real-life settings. Qualitative interview findings are collected from teachers and students.Findings - Incorporating experiential learning activities in thematic learning units provided by NGOs for the active citizenship of students can facilitate teachers to develop student learning outcomes of empathy and perspective taking derived from authentic experience. In particular, teachers’ reflect on how to facilitate Chinese students’ reflect on disadvantaged people and ethnic minorities. This action research study recommends that students’ conceptual understanding of concepts such as poverty and ethnic minorities should be developed before they participate in NGO’s experiential learning activities, so that the experiential experiences can add something on what they have already learnt.Originality/value - This study found some useful implications for exploring ways for teacher development by applying an experiential learning model in combination with classroom-based learning for active citizenship. This research study recommends implementing pre-experiential conceptual building activities and post-experiential classroom-based enquiry and reflection activities to help students consolidate their learning experiences through verbal and written reflection, as well as on what actions that they can take. Copyright © 2019 Emerald Publishing Limited.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between the civic mission of schools and students on participation in school governance through an empirical study. It articulates the importance of school mission on nurturing citizenship of high school students.Design/methodology/approach - The research used a mixed method with questionnaire survey in the first phase and qualitative interviews in the second phase. Quantitative data were obtained from a survey completed by 3,209 students and 495 teachers (including principals) from 51 secondary schools in Hong Kong. Qualitative data were collected from 41 individual interviews with principals and teachers and 17 focus group interviews with 56 students in five case study schools.Findings - Both students and teachers believed that good citizenship qualities should include students’ participation in school governance. Schools in general took up the civic mission to nurture good and participatory citizens. A mission of nurturing students to become good and participatory citizens made a significant and positive contribution toward achieving students’ actual participation in school governance. However, students’ actual impact on major school policies was minimal. A paradox existed whereby students, knowing their influence over managerial issues was much circumscribed, still gave it a higher rating than their teachers.Originality/value - The paper contributes an empirical model for school leaders to develop school vision for promoting student participation in school governance. Based on a large-scale research supported by public funding, the paper contributes an empirical model for school leaders to develop school vision for promoting student participation in school governance. It further adds to the literature on relationship between citizenship education, civic mission of school and student participation in governance. Copyright © 2019 Emerald Publishing Limited.

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 examines the views of teachers regarding the effectiveness of Hong Kong's current citizenship education in cultivating students' citizenship towards the development of a democratic society. The results revealed that current citizenship education does help students foster some characteristics of good citizenship, but doubt its efficacy towards the development of democratic principles such as universal suffrage. Hong Kong is unlike many post-colonial states and Hong Kong teachers face specific challenges in terms of democratic development. While this study focuses on Hong Kong, its results are relevant to educators in other places who face similar challenges and issues under polarised and pluralised societies. Copyright © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

This paper gives some preliminary analysis on the linkage between perceptions of national identity and national education. A pilot-tested questionnaire has been sent to all civic education team teachers in Hong Kong secondary schools, numbering at about 458 in mid-2018. Through quantitative analysis such as factor analysis, it is found that some possible types of national education can be found, which add on the previous literature on teaching nationalism. This study shall be useful for understanding how teachers perceive their national identity and national education in this post-materialistic and globalized world but full of nationalistic imperatives from the policy makers. Copyright © 2018 HKERA International Conference.

Purpose: National identification among young people and the issues about how national education should be conducted have been the significant topics when the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region was entering its third decade of the establishment. This paper was written based on data the authors obtained upon participation in a project organized by the Centre for Catholic Studies of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The project was carried out after the official curriculum, known as the Moral and National Education Curriculum Guide, was shelved due to popular resentment. The project aimed at capturing the timely opportunity for substantial resources available for school-based operation of moral and national education and developing an alternative curriculum about teaching national issues and identification for Catholic Diocese and Convent primary schools to adopt. This paper aims to investigate the nature of this Catholic Project and examines the extent to which it is a counterhegemonic project or one for teaching to belong to a nation (Mathews, Ma and Lui, 2007). It assesses the project's possible contribution to citizenship and national education in Hong Kong, since the withdrawal of the Moral and National Education Curriculum Guide.Design/methodology/approach: The authors of this paper worked in an education university of Hong Kong and were invited to be team members of this Catholic Project. The role comprised proposing topics for teacher training, conducting seminars, giving comments to teaching resources, observing and giving feedback to schools that tried out the teaching and designing/implementing an evaluative survey and conducting follow-up interviews with involved parties such as teachers and key officials of the Catholic Centre. Given this, the research involved can be perceived as action research. This paper was written up with both the qualitative and quantitative data the authors collected when working the project.Findings: This paper reported a Catholic

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to compare the curriculum developments of civic education in three emerging Chinese societies: China and two Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macao, which are increasingly under the impacts of globalisation in this information world.Design/methodology/approach: The analytical method is used and the following are identified: active and global civic education-related learning units and key themes and main contents in official curriculum guidelines and updated textbooks related to civic education.Findings: A major finding is that elements of both active and global citizenship, such as participation in the community and understanding about the world and thus forming multiple identities, can be found alongside their emphasis on enhancing national citizenship. Thus, ideas of global citizenship and multiple levels of citizenship from local, national to global start to develop in these three Chinese societies.Social implications: The implications of such findings of both active and global citizenship, as well as multiple identities, found in these three Chinese societies could be huge for informing civic literature and sociological point of views, in particular, pointing to the next generations receiving a broadened and transcended notion of multiple levels of citizenship, apart from local and national citizenship.Originality/value: The significance of this paper is that it argues that ideas of active citizenship in terms of community participation and global citizenship have been found in China, Hong Kong and Macao civic education curriculum and textbooks because of the expectations placed on students to compete in a globalized world, though national citizenship and patriotic concerns have been primary concerns. Globalisation makes the world society by impacting on these three Chinese societies for active and global citizenship, though they still retain their particular curricular focusses. Copyright © 2019 Emerald Publishing