This paper analyses the learning impacts of a social justice learning unit, which was implemented through three lectures in each of two undergraduate teacher education courses in 2017/18 across two semesters. The design of the unit allows for social inquiry and experiential learning in the undergraduate curriculum. A sequential mixed-methods design was adopted, with pre and post questionnaire and interview data gathered from undergraduate students. We argue that learning and applying social justice concepts through group inquiry and other learning activities on social justice related issues, together with an experiential learning site visit, can facilitate the development of understanding of both the concept and application of social justice, a positive perception towards ethnic minorities and a desire for further learning and engagement in the community. This study would be useful for any university educators who want to teach about and for social justice in ways that may help students to develop an increased willingness for community service. Copyright © 2020 The Author(s).

There is a strong belief that critical thinking should be cultivated in schools. But it is not clear how critical thinking is understood by front-line teachers who are given the responsibility of training critical thinkers. Based on a study conducted in Hong Kong, we found that some school teachers were in favor of a “positive” image of critical thinker who is knowledgeable, prudent, being critical to the critics who are ready to criticize, and being constructive after making criticisms. We try to argue that such a positive portrayal, although uncontroversial from a detached point of view, may not be adequate in the context of Hong Kong where a critical stance toward power holders and established interests is badly needed. Without paying due attention to the “aporetic” dimension, such understanding of critical thinking would make it difficult for students to adopt a critical stance to the prevailing cultural beliefs, social values, political institutions, or economic ideologies that merit the greatest attention.
[Copyright © 2016 The Author(s).]

Civic education is considered as a way to nurture good citizens who work to develop the polity. However, in real politics, education often mirrors instead of shaping the political development. Reviewing civic education of Hong Kong from a historical development perspective, this article explains that civic education has for long been used a tool of governance by the political regimes. This was true not only during the days of colonial rule but is also that after the reversion of sovereignty in 1997. Manipulating civic education as a tool of governance can have far-reaching consequence. In the case of Hong Kong’s civic education, the problems due to neglect, deliberate suppression, and twisting around in different historical phases created the problem for the future. Hong Kong’s civic education is now stuck in a quagmire, and preparing young people to face the sociopolitical challenges becomes increasingly difficult. Finally, this article makes suggestions for reforming civic education in Hong Kong. To conduct this study, a mixed methodology was adopted which comprised both literature review and qualitative interviews with civic education teachers and teachers of the subject Liberal Studies. Selective discourses of the teachers are reported to inform the understanding of the discussion.
[Copyright © 2016 The Author(s).]

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.].

Psychologists have often been interested in the way individuals respond to and interact with the law. Socio-legal scholars have had a similar interest. This led to a stream of research that sought to identify the ‘legal consciousnesses’ of individuals as they experience legal ideas and situations. The study reported here sought to identify the ‘legal consciousnesses’ of a sample of Hong Kong adolescents in a unique socio-political context. The findings suggested that these young people possessed a ‘bounded’ legal consciousness indicated by their consistent support for obeying the law even when human rights were at stake. Nevertheless, they could envisage the possibility of questioning the law. Developmental and gender differences were identified in these attitudes.
[Copyright © 2009 Symposium Journals Ltd.]

This article discusses the influence of Confucianism on civic education, focusing on Hong Kong as a particular case of concern. The development of Hong Kong’s civic education is sketched, highlighting the competitions between the politicized and depoliticized versions of the civic education curriculum. The notion that a depoliticized civic education, supported by Confucian ideals, is necessarily a distinctive feature of Asian civic education, is then critiqued. Finally, the article argues that an eclectic version of civic education, comprising both political and moral components, is warranted. This is what Confucian tenets really mean. It is hoped that the discussion here will help reflect whether Confucian tenets justify depoliticization of education and civic education. This is important given the growing aspiration for democracy and citizens’ participation in civil societies, particularly those whose cultural roots are in the Confucian tradition. Moreover, the authors hope that the dialogues between Confucian traditions and the Western traditions discussed in the article can shed light on some thought-provoking issues of interest to an international readership, particularly as China is becoming more influential globally.
[Copyright © Symposium Journals Ltd 2012.]

Choosing two schools as a case study, the article reports how teaching approaches can differ and explains how teacher style, school ethos, and student expectation can shape pedagogical choice. Impact of the teaching and the difficulties teachers encountered are also reported. Whilst this article is probably one of the first to explore the issue of human rights and rule of law teaching in Hong Kong, the fact that it is a small case study needs to be noted when reviewing the outcomes and conclusions of the study. The writing of this article was supported by the findings obtained from a Quality Education Fund project which aimed at assisting Hong Kong teachers to teach human rights and rule of law as part of Liberal Studies, which is a new senior secondary subject.
[Copyright © Symposium Journals Ltd 2012.]

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 Guidelines on Civic Education in School (1996) for Hong Kong recommend that there should be five foci in school civic education, namely education for democracy, human rights education, education for the rule of law, nationalistic education and global education. After the return of sovereignty to the People's Republic of China in 1997, Hong Kong became the Hong Kong Special Administration Region (HKSAR) and the SAR government has singled out nationalistic education as the sole focus of civic education. This paper is a report of case studies focusing on the understanding and practice of nationalistic education of three civic educators whose understanding is inclined towards education for totalitarian nationalism in Hong Kong secondary schools, using the concepts of indoctrination. The findings show that because of the teachers' inability to separate the nation from the ruling party and their strong mission of sending a positive image of the party to their students, they have tended to adopt particular teaching strategies, which might suppress the students' ability to reflect critically. According to the criteria of indoctrination, namely relationship, intention, content and teaching method, their teaching approaches tend to be indoctrinatory, rather than educational. This is certainly unacceptable to those who believe education is concerned with the development of independent, critically thinking individuals. Hopefully, this paper will enhance the awareness of the potential indoctrinatory nature of nationalistic education of teachers and shed light on the development of school-based nationalistic education aiming at the cultivation of the 'critical patriot'.
[Copyright © 2004 Symposium Journals Ltd.]