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 discussion of market in education is controversial and often value-laden. This paper aims at exploring the attempts made by the government of Hong Kong to develop a vibrant private sector in school education through the Direct Subsidy Scheme. The scheme allows participating schools to draw funds both from tuition fees and government subsidy on the one hand and promises greater freedom in school operation on the other. This paper will discuss how the scheme was first coined and its significant development. Attention will be paid to how the development of the scheme may have affected the landscape of school education in Hong Kong. Focus will be placed on how it may have an impact on equality of education, class, social mobility and the nature of education. It is hoped that this will become a case to help the reflections on the complexities relating to introducing market to education.
[Copyright © 2006 Biblioteca Virtuală ASE.]

This article reports the findings the researchers obtained from a study of prominent civic education teachers in Hong Kong with regard to how they perceived national identification and the nurturing of national identification through civic education in Hong Kong schools. A qualitative method of data collection by in-depth semi-structured interviews was engaged. Original quotes are given whenever necessary so that readers can understand how the arguments in the article were derived and can arrive at their own conclusions. The teachers in general believed that national identity is ethnicity-based. But they agreed that national identity should coexist with other local and global civic identities. All of the teachers agreed that their schools worked assiduously in nurturing national identity. However, they also pointed out that a top-down compulsory national education programme, aimed at glorifying the nation, would not work in Hong Kong. Alternatively, students would accept civic education with a fair representation of the nation that allowed for critical judgment.
[Copyright © 2014 Symposium Journals Ltd.]