Liberal studies (LS) textbooks used in Hong Kong public secondary schools have incurred controversy regarding perceived biased contents; however, what appears uncertain are what techniques the textbooks used to incite hostility towards the mainland of China and encourage students to participate in violent acts in Hong Kong. The present study used Michel Foucault's order of discourse theory, particularly the "division and rejection" framework regarding the power of discourse to analyze five popular LS textbooks. The findings reveal that the textbooks depict a division between the fabricated irrational image of the mainland and the rational image of Hong Kong. Specifically, the textbooks paint Chinese patriotism as irrational while encouraging the student readers to reject their Chinese identity. The textbooks also create a division between altruistic and capable civilians and passive, silent ones, with the morality of the former being connected to violence and radicalism. In this way, the textbooks produce a discourse of hostility towards the mainland and the people in the mainland while encouraging violence. Copyright © 2022 Routledge.

Textbooks play an important part in teaching and learning mathematics. However, textbook research on spatial ability has so far received little attention. In this study, we investigated whether school mathematics textbooks provide enough opportunities for primary students to learn three-dimensional shapes and help them acquire spatial ability. Three mathematics textbook series used in Hong Kong were analysed through content analysis. Findings showed each series of textbooks contained five domains for introducing solid figures, which included real-life examples, understanding concepts, measurement, finding laws, and developing spatial ability. The development of spatial abilities was mainly shown in the production of three-dimensional graphics. What students experienced in the learning of 3-D shapes was relatively narrow. Geometric graphics were mainly limited to the conventional shapes at the early stage. Activities to explore three-dimensional graphics were insufficient. It was suggested that combining the surrounding world of children with geometry in the classroom was not just a criterion for textbooks but also the focus of classroom teaching. The flexibility of teachers’ adoptions of textbooks is also worthy of further investigation. Copyright © 2021 by the authors; licensee Modestum.