"Chinese" is an ambiguous term, depending on whether it is taken to describe a political, linguistic, or cultural entity. While the term has often been considered to represent a politically and culturally homogeneous national identity in recent decades, this article aims to challenge this notion by examining the characteristics and practices of nationalistic education in Hong Kong since 1945. It explores how national identity has been interpreted by different Chinese states over time through different educational policies and practices. Focusing on the evolution of nationalistic education in three phases, this article presents a detailed account and analyses different nationalist narratives over six decades. It describes how different political forces define themselves and come to terms with what are often dual or competing national identities. Historical examples illustrate the challenges in policies and practices of nationalistic education.
[Copyright © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group]

Internationally there have been serious efforts to identify effective modes of delivering civic education for preparing youth for the future challenges of citizenship. This article addresses the research question, 'why is an independent subject not preferred in civic education by Hong Kong civic education teachers?'. It starts with a brief review of international debates and of the development of civic education policy in Hong Kong. Then it moves on to discuss why teachers tend to reject civic education as an independent subject based on the findings from an interview informed research study. The findings reveal that teachers' misunderstandings of the nature of civic education are the major reasons. Treating civic education as comprising educational activities involving the nurturing of attitudes, values and skills of students with little content knowledge, the teachers consider that civic education is best accomplished through, for example, extra-curricular activities and not as a subject that demands time slots in the school timetable. It is argued that these misunderstandings will have negative impacts on the effectiveness of civic education, which is unfavourable to the nurturing of democratic cultures necessary for the development of the democratic system in Hong Kong and has to be rectified. Lastly, some recommendations for rectification that relate to civil society are discussed. Hopefully, this article can shed light on the understanding of the preferences towards the modes of implementation of front line practitioners in schools internationally, since this phenomenon is common in some other nations.
[Copyright © Symposium Journals Ltd.].

In 2009-11, the researchers were engaged in the Basic Law Education (BLE) Project financed by the Quality Education Fund of the HKSAR Government. The project aimed at providing Liberal Studies teachers curricular and pedagogical support in the teaching of the Hong Kong Basic Law, human rights and law-related concepts. As part of the project, the human rights friendly ethos of the participating schools was studied. The research methodology comprised both a questionnaire survey, using the Indicators and Evaluative Checklist for Human Rights Friendly Environment in Schools, and in-depth focus group interviews with groups of students and teachers who had participated in the survey. Human rights education is an important part of civic education in the 21st century and it can best be supported by a human rights friendly school ethos. This paper makes use of the research findings from the study and explores, with the help of a case study, why and how a school can promote a human right friendly school ethos and the complications that may arise. The paper can be of reference value to researchers and civic educators who are interested in human right education. It can also be of help to school leaders and teachers who are trying to develop a human right respecting school environment which is now universally required.
[Copyright © World Education, Science, Research and Counseling Center].

In this paper, human rights education is defined as ‘education that helps to shape a culture of respecting and protecting human rights, according to the international human rights standards. That is, to cultivate citizens who live in accordance with the principles of human rights and are willing to take actions to protect their own and other citizen’s human rights when the rights are being infringed’. Any discussion of human rights education in Hong Kong, should focus on both the school and community sectors. The Education and Manpower Bureau (EMB) and the Committee on the Promotion of Civic Education (CPCE) of the Home Affairs Bureau (HAB) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAP) are responsible for human rights education in schools and community respectively. In both sectors, human rights education is considered an aspect of civic education. In this paper I critically review the development of human rights education in the context of civic education and then explore some challenges and possibilities ahead in both sectors.
[Copyright © 2007 Asia-Pacific Human Rights Information Center.]

This article discusses how a newly established senior secondary school in Hong Kong tried to actively engage students in the school decision-making process. It first explains how democratization could come about, the actual measures adopted, and the initial success achieved. Then the article proceeds to explain how challenges, such as conflicting interests of the students and tension between students and the administration, surfaced when the school became more established, grew in size, took in more students, moved into a bigger campus, and subsequently needed to face the public examinations. In conclusion, the article discusses changes in school governance that could be helpful in meeting the challenges. Institutionalising student participation, such as forming a student council, is discussed together with other useful changes. It is hoped that this article can be useful to people interested in the democratization of school governance, and the impact on school democratization of such factors as institutionalisation and increasing school size.
[Copyright © 2010 Commonwealth Council for Educational Administration & Management (CCEAM).]