This paper starts with a broad historical overview of educational reforms and then focuses on those specific to civic education. Lastly we look at the implementation of policy, and examine the effect of the current political climate in the Special Administrative Region (SAR) on civic education.
[Copyright © 2002 Pacific Circle Consortium for Education.]

This chapter describes the study as it was conducted in Hong Kong in two case study schools. The first is a new school located in a recently developed area close to the mainland border. The second is a long established school, operated by the Anglican Church. The results suggested that the goals promoted by the government were not a strong feature of the schools’ implemented programs. Although the planned goals of civic education in the first school reflected the national policy, in practice, the emphasis was on prescribing correct attitudes and the maintenance of order and discipline. In the second school, there was no continuity between the school's goal and the national policy; however, there was a strong continuity between the school's goal and the perspectives of all stakeholders.
[Copyright © 2001 Elsevier.]

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.]

This article argues for reconstructing Hong Kong’s civic education in the post-national education era, and puts forward some rethinking on conceptual, curricular and pedagogical matters. This article starts with a brief critical review of the development of school civic education in Hong Kong to set the context. This is followed by a discussion of the MNE controversy. It points out that the shelving of the mandatory subject and reversion to depoliticized school-based civic education is inadequate to address the needs of civic education in Hong Kong. Finally, this article argues in favour of the type of civic education that aims at cultivating politically literate, critically thinking and actively participating citizens, with particular reference to the Civic Education Guidelines from Civil Society. This set of unofficial Guidelines proposes that Hong Kong’s civic education has to be reconstructed both in conceptual, curricular and pedagogical terms accordingly. Hopefully, this article will shed light on the development of civic education in societies that are facing similar challenges in the process of democratization and an upheaval of civic consciousness of the citizenry.
[Copyright © 2015 Intellect Ltd Article.]

Using an autoethnographic approach, this paper reviews and examines how I went through my professional development journey to develop as a curriculum planner and manager by engaging in critical reflective practices to enhance the quality of teaching and learning in the era of Curriculum Reform in Hong Kong. A series of carefully selected critical incidents relating to school-based curriculum development were examined to witness how I approached a brand new primary Social Studies area of study and developed it as a distinct multi-disciplinary school-based curriculum. The curriculum documents, learning and teaching materials, students' work, personal reflective writings as well as personal communications with parents and students were collected for thematic analyses. By reflecting on the critical curriculum development and implementation incidents, a school-based curriculum development model evolved. This helps shed light on how school practitioners, irrespective of their positions or teaching experiences, to engage fruitfully and continually in the professional development process to develop as an effective curriculum developer and manager in schools. The experiences also inform teacher educators as well as school practitioners the salient characteristics and needs for a teacher to grow up as a reflective practitioner.
[Copyright of Reflective Practice is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14623943.2015.1023279]

Since the return of sovereignty to China in 1997, national identification with China has been a priority in Hong Kong SAR government’s educational policy agenda. Hong Kong has seen an increase of national education activities which aim at cultivating a Chinese identity with emphasis on ethnic and cultural dimensions. By using case studies with in-depth interviews on selected samples of Hong Kong’s secondary school teachers, this study analyzes how do they perceive their national identity and how do they teach national education. The findings reveal that under the proclamation of Chinese national identity, there are differences in connotation emphases on their own national identity given by the respondents and they have different teaching strategies on national education. These findings have implications for understanding the meanings of national identity and national education in Hong Kong in a globalization era.