This article investigates types of citizenship education in selected schools in Hong Kong with different overarching affiliations (pro-China vs. pro-democracy). After examining schools’ policies (e.g., sister school of China school), we selected four pro-China and two pro-democracy schools. As a highly diverse society, citizenship education in Hong Kong is key to the formation of a ‘good citizen’. To better understand what a ‘good citizen’ means in this context, we interviewed ten teachers, four principals and four vice-principals at six secondary schools. We focused our interviews on key themes around citizenship, schools influence and media influence. These interviews showed that laissez-faire school staff reported acting as facilitators who emphasized knowledge, social concerns and norms of ‘good citizens’ to their students. Mediate diversity staff reported helping students integrate different perspectives. School mission staff reported supporting student engagement via citizen responsibilities and political processes; while pro-China schools emphasized a national China identity, pro-democracy schools emphasized an international view. Staff from all of these schools reported that media negatively influenced students’ values and perspectives. To reduce students’ confirmation bias (only seeking evidence to support the pre-existing views), teachers in all schools taught critical thinking skills and media literacy. The data showed that understanding how schools can nurture student-citizens amid teachers’ concerns around negative media influence can help inform instruction and policies in schools regardless of their affiliation. Copyright © 2022 Intellect Ltd.

Experiential learning can take many forms, but in all cases, teachers play a necessary role in the process. Consequently, nurturing teachers to be critically minded reflective professionals is paramount. This study uses two case studies to identify both the difficulties encountered when offering experiential learning to learners and the advantages to be gained from the process. One case study involves a teacher guiding Hong Kong students in experiential learning which took place at a national level in Mainland China. His approaches aligned with Justice Oriented and Charity Oriented. The second case study concerns a teacher who herself undertook experiential learning at a global level in Africa. Her approaches aligned with Personal Development Oriented and Justice Oriented. Their journeys are described in order to add to the fairly recent knowledge field regarding experiential learning and to help teachers become more skilled at managing experiential learning, particularly outside the local context. We suggest to add facilitating and hindering factors into the two dimensional typologies of experiential learning for civic education. The new three dimensional typologies of experiential learning would provide a more comprehensive conceptual framework to guide teachers and researchers in organizing and conducting experiential learning activities and studies. Copyright © 2021 Association for Moral Education.

This preliminary study gathered principals’ and teachers’ views of Hong Kong’s citizenship education as well as the ways it could be facilitated for democratic purposes. On some measures the views of both groups were compared while principals were asked what they did to facilitate democratic citizenship education. The findings revealed principals were more positive than teachers in regard to their schools and citizenship education, and attempted to provide teachers with the autonomy to facilitate civic teaching. Teachers perceived more strongly than principals that the Chinese national government has influenced their schools’ attitude to citizenship education and they showed less confidence than principals in the possibility of nurturing students’ patriotism. Copyright © 2021 AERA21.

In polarized and pluralistic societies, schools are critical for nurturing students towards becoming informed, active citizens. This study of 18 school staff (teachers, principals and vice-principals) at six secondary (high) schools showed three paradigms through which they cultivated students to become good citizens while navigating media influences. School staff in the laissez-faire paradigm were facilitators that emphasized knowledge, social concern, and conservative characteristics of “good citizens.” By contrast, staff in the mediate diversity paradigm inform students and share balancing information from other perspectives. Lastly, staff in the school mission paradigm support student engagement in citizen responsibilities and political processes. All staff reported that media influenced students’ values and perspectives, and sought to reduce students' confirmation bias by fostering their critical thinking skills and media literacy. Understanding how school can nurture citizens can inform instruction and policies. Copyright © 2021 CESHK.

At present, there is a growing concern about cultivating virtue among youngsters in Hong Kong. Although moral and character education have been put on the education agenda, it is important to ensure that teachers have sufficient efficacy in moral and character education. Unfortunately, limited empirical evidence for this has been found within the Hong Kong context. Using a sample of 647 moral and character education teachers from 21 secondary schools in Hong Kong, this study examined teacher self-efficacy and its relations with teacher engagement and teacher emotional labour. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to assess the construct validity of each scale. Structural equation modelling was used to test the theoretical model, indicating a good model fit. The strongest predictor of teacher efficacy for moral education was teachers’ personal teaching efficacy. The findings are discussed with implications for future practice and research. Copyright © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

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’ attitudes towards MNE and curriculum choices. Employing the Model of Teachers’ Perceptions of Moral and National Education, this research investigates the factors affecting teachers’ perceptions of MNE, as a national identity building curriculum. The findings indicated that “perceived other support for MNE,” “perceived non-monetary cost–benefits,” “perceived concerns of MNE,” and “comparison with the previous system (Moral and Civic education)” were the significant predictors for teachers’ receptivity of MNE. The results suggested that if teachers were supported by others, they were more likely to support MNE; and they were less likely to support the implementation of MNE when teachers had serious concerns about it. The results recommended adding media and socio-political factors into the Model of Teachers’ Receptivity to curriculum changes. The discussion will employ identity grafting (Lee in Managing Chineseness: Identity and ethnic management in Singapore, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2017) as a point of comparison to identify the theoretical implications of MNE. Copyright © 2020 Springer Nature B.V.

Currently, the challenges deriving from the complex and dynamic socio-political context in Hong Kong influence principals’ and teachers’ relationships and interactions. Academic autonomy in Hong Kong secondary schools is not simply granted by the principals, it is influenced by the society, school conditions and key stakeholders. This study employed qualitative methods to examine how principals negotiate the political context surrounding citizenship education and how these practices influence the civic learning in schools. The results revealed that in school citizenship education, when principals lacked a clear vision of citizenship education, most teachers were compliant and avoided discussing controversial political topics with their students. Such teachers had less autonomy and consequently less self-efficacy. When principals mediated the diverse needs of students and balanced the different expectations of school stakeholders, there were both compliant and critical teachers. Teacher autonomy and self-efficacy were also affected by the current socio-political context in Hong Kong. When principals had a clear school civic mission, the results differed across schools. These findings suggest that principals have to reflect on their own understanding of the purposes and perspectives of citizenship education significantly to meet the multiple demands of a complicated and turbulent socio-political environment. Copyright © 2020 The Author(s).

Citizenship education has been implemented in Hong Kong primary schools in the name of moral, civic and national education (MCNE). In the context of the backdrop that schools have been granted autonomy for implementation, this chapter explores teachers' perceptions of the implementation of MCNE in Hong Kong primary schools. The findings indicate that Hong Kong teachers in general hold an eclectic attitude towards MCNE. With these prevailing attitudes, MCNE was loosely defined and flexibly implemented. Although the whole-school permeation approach was considered ineffective, teachers did not support MCNE as an independent subject due to an overcrowded curriculum and assessment issues. Some teachers illustrated that the issues that arose in the implementation of MCNE were related to time and resources, the marginalization of MCNE, professional development training, and a contradiction between the teachings of schools and parents. Despite the many issues that have arisen in the implementation of MCNE, the findings suggested MCNE could be taught through history (including Chinese history) which could help strengthen students' knowledge of the world community and the country, and prepare students to live in the complex real world. Copyright © 2021 selection and editorial matter, Kerry J. Kennedy; individual chapters, the contributors.

Given substantial school autonomy in Hong Kong, different school leadership practices can yield different school environments for teachers, different degrees of teacher empowerment, and different civic teaching approaches. Principals can influence their school environment in civic learning and allocate resources to support civic education. Considerable attention has been given to the concept of ‘leading for learning’ (Goker, 2006) but there has been little attention given to civic learning in schools and how it might be facilitated by principals (Xu and Law, 2015). Given the volatile and uncertain external environment that students as future citizens face, civic learning must now be considered a priority. Kennedy, Li and Chan (2015) and Kennedy and Li (2017) have shown that school level factors can influence students’ civic learning, although the results are somewhat mixed, clearly this requires further investigation. This study extends this line of research by examining how principals create school civic teaching environments and how these influence teachers in their roles as civic educators. The results showed that the complex historical-cultural and socio-political contexts of Hong Kong have influenced school leadership when it comes to teaching civics, and the researcher has highlighted three main patterns of school leadership needed for civics teaching. When school leadership lacked a clear vision of citizenship education (pattern 1), most teachers were compliant and avoided dis-cussing sensitive political topics with their students. When school leadership mediated the diverse needs of students and balanced the different expectations of school stakeholders (pattern 2), there were both compliant and critical teachers. When school leadership had a clear vison of the school’s civic mission (pattern 3), the results differed across schools. These findings implied that principals have to significantly shift their understanding of the purposes of citizenship education

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.