Before the return of sovereignty of Hong Kong to China in 1997, Hong Kong had always been described as "a borrowed place, a borrowed time." The society was highly depoliticized that little attention was paid to civic education before 1980s. But in response to the social, political, and constitutional changes caused by the return of sovereignty, the Hong Kong Education Department had published two Guidelines on Civic Education in Schools in 1985 and 1996. The intention was to equip the youth of Hong Kong to face the challenges ahead. This chapter compares the two Guidelines with reference to aims and objectives, ideologies, conceptual framework, and focus of the content. It can be concluded that at least at the curriculum document level, civic education in Hong Kong has made a big step forward, in responding to the social and political challenges. But a lot has to been done on implementation so as to make the practice in schools successful.
[Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

This paper discusses the development of civic education curriculum in Hong Kong and outlines the changes of its nature in different historical phases. How civic education curriculum of Hong Kong responded to differential social needs in both the colonial era and after 1997 is examined. Important curriculum documents are analyzed to facilitate the discussion. How civic education in Hong Kong evolved from teaching students to identify themselves with a city to identify themselves with a nation and a globalized world is highlighted.

Civic education has been re-surging in Hong Kong schools since the process of re-integration with China, which was began in the 1980s. During the process, two sets of guidelines on civic education have been issued, generating much impact on the curriculum development of schools in the related area. This chapter adopts a case study approach to develop a focused and in-depth study of a secondary school, which is renowned for its achievements in implementing civic education in local context. Various research instruments and methods, including questionnaire survey, focused interview and content (documentary) analysis are used to study the changes in the school context as well as the inhibiting and facilitating factors in the process of implementing civic education through the Whole-School or Permeation Approach. It is expected that the findings could generate revelatory impact on the future betterment of civic education in secondary schools.
[Copyright © 2007 International Cultural Research Network Press.]

The development of civic education in Hong Kong can be categorized into three phases: before 1985, after 1985, and post 1997. Despite the fact that civic education has a long history in Hong Kong, it is criticized that it has never been successfully implemented. Civic education is described as a sort of subject political education before 1985. Since the Sino-British Joint Declaration was signed in 1984, education has become politicized and two guidelines on civic education were introduced in 1985 and 1996, respectively. This chapter intends to study and describe how civic education has been developed in specific social and political contexts of Hong Kong. It also points out that civic education beyond 1997 should focus on nationalistic education, human rights education, and education for democracy.
[Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

《德育及國民教育科課程指引》(下稱《指引》) 其中一個大缺失是假設香港是一個同質的華人社會，對於居港非華裔人士來說，藉國民教育來培養他們對中華人民共和國的身份認同和世界公民的視野，比培養對中華人民共和國的認同更有意義。由此可見，《指引》根本上是完全忽略了居港非華裔人士的需要，不利於建構一個多元文化的社會。簡單來說，國民身份認同可從兩個面向凝聚。其一是從文化入手，即以大地山河、代象深厚的歷史；文化和傳統來建構，稱之為「文化國民身份認同」(Cultural national identity)，另一個面向是「政治國民身份認同」(political national identity)，是公民對國家的憲法和政治體制的認同，例如在民主國家，公民因能藉著參與來影響國家的施政，因而產生認同和歸屬感，可稱為「公民國民身份認同」(civic national identity)，意指「不適任何文化及傳統上的差異，國民都有同等權利參與和影響國家政策」，而這樣產生的認同有利於多元文化社會的凝聚。對於培養國民身份認同，上述的文化身份認同和政治身份認同兩者都同樣重要，缺一不可。
[Copyright © 2012 by Enrich Publishing Ltd.]

The civic mission of schools in nurturing political literature, critical thinking and participatory citizens has always been played down in Hong Kong schools. On one hand, teaching civic education has never been ranked high in the education agenda. On the other hand, because of the conservative nature of schools, students are rarely encouraged to participate in school governance for the enhancement of their citizenship development. Funded by the General Research Fund (GRF) in Hong Kong, the authors conducted a quantitative survey on students’ participation in school governance and their citizenship development in 2013 to explore 1) students’ conception of “good citizens”; 2) the level and scope of student participation in school governance; and 3) the facilitating and hindering factors influencing student participation. This paper is a report on the simple statistical results of the survey findings. With reference to Westheimer and Kahne’s typologies, the findings revealed that the students had an eclectic understanding of citizenship, with higher scores for Personally Responsible Citizen and lower scores for Participatory, Justice Oriented and Patriotic Citizen, reflecting a conservative orientation. Concerning the implementation of school civic mission through student participation in school governance, it was found that students were rarely allowed to engage in important school matters, such as formulation of school rules and discussion of the school development plan. Our findings also revealed that schools were more inclined to inform students and consult them rather than confer real participation and powers to them. The paper concludes that the current practice of student participation in school governance does not facilitate the nurturing of active participatory citizens, particularly of a Justice Oriented nature, and this is urgently needed for the democratic development of Hong Kong.
[Copyright © 2014 JSSE.]

香港於1997年7月1日回歸祖國，成為以一國兩制原則運作的一個特別行政區，港人的國籍身份一夜間由英國(海外)轉變成為中國香港。培育學生樂於接受其中國香港國民身份，成為了香港教育界的一個新課題。隨著教改的推動，特區政府於2001年提出“培養學生的國民身份認同”為課程宗旨之一，並明確這是“德育與公民教育”內五個核心價值之一。但按近年多份本地調查結果和學者研究，香港青少年對中國香港的國民身份認同程度依然偏低；特區政府于2010年《施政報告》中提出設立《德育及國民教育科》，卻引起了2012年暑期的反國教風波。此文的目的是回顧和分析香港推行國民身份教育的困難，並就日後加強香港的國民身份教育作出一些建議。
[Copyright © 2014 by author and Hans Publishers Inc.]