In this paper, I have inquired into the issue of identity in civic education in Hong Kong in the face of the 1997 political handover through an incident of my personal experience. This is a narrative self study in which the perceptions of civic educators of the issue of identity education for 1997 were revealed. The story of preparing a Catholic civic education project has helped show the complexity of the issue of identity education in Hong Kong. Three major observations were made in the inquiry. First, there was a general acceptance among civic educators of the pluralistic identities of Hong Kong Chinese. Second, the contention aroused over the issue of identity in Hong Kong during the transitional period did not lie in its plurality, but in the relative importance to be assigned to each of the identities, in particular to the national identity of Hong Kong Chinese. Third, a major concern over nationalistic education was focused on the approaches to be adopted in inculcating national identity.

There have been three revisions of the HK Secondary School English language syllabus in the last 25 years, one in 1975, the next in 1983, and another currently underway. Changes in syllabus aims are analysed and evaluated for general context-compatibility by using a framework devised by Skilbeck (1982) and applied by Clark (1987) and Morris (1995) which takes into account changes in the sociocultural context. Between 1975 and 1998, English syllabus aims have been largely compatible with the socio-economic context. That is, they have moved from typifying "reconstructionist" to "progressivist" value systems. More specifically, in 1975, ELT aimed at providing opportunities for social mobility through developing minimal English oral proficiency and literacy for all children under 15. By 1983 social change through education was still a prime aim, and English syllabuses aimed to achieve functional competence in explicit, socially important domains of use. By 1998, the aims of the "Target Oriented Curriculum" already implemented in primary schools, typified "progressivist" values which are claimed to be more personally oriented. ELT in today's complex HK context aims at English development as a part of healthy whole person development.
[Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

The objective of this paper is to discuss the results of two case studies conducted in two Hong Kong primary schools where there are a large number of Newly Arrived Children (NAC) from China. In the last twenty years or so researchers in many countries have paid more attention to multicultural education as the number of immigrant children in schools in these countries has risen. Though in Hong Kong the NAC are also Chinese, their background and culture is quite different from that of local children. Focusing on the aspect of citizenship education, the researcher will undertake qualitative studies to examine the strategies adopted by these schools and the problems encountered. It is hoped that the research will help to foster the understanding of various aspects of citizenship education in these schools.

Researchers in comparative education have suggested different ways in which their field of study can be enhanced by considering units of analysis at different levels rather than focusing on a single level such as the nation-state (Bray and Thomas, 1995; Torney-Purta and Barber, 2011). The study reported here seeks to contribute to this area of interest to comparative researchers. It does so by identifying groups for comparison that are not predefined in advance of any analysis but which emerge during the analytic process itself. Drawing on data from ICCS 2009 (Schulz et al., 2010), the intentions of 14-year-old students in five Asian societies to participate in future civic related activities are analyzed with a focus on the students’ responses to specific questions. The results show that there is considerable variation within each of these societies when it comes to type of future civic engagement. At one end of the spectrum are groups of students who are classified as “Radical Participators” while at the other there are the “Minimal Participators” and there are other clusters of students in between. Groups such as these exist in each society, although not in the same proportions. The implications of these results are discussed, especially with reference to how comparative research can be enhanced by identifying groups through person-centered analytic techniques.
[Copyright © 2015 The Author(s).]

There have been discussions on what is and whether we have 'global citizenship', since the focus of citizenship education has always been on the nation-state's political sovereignty and on citizens' rights and responsibilities. Nevertheless, globalization has challenged the notion of citizenship and citizenship education. Schools and NGOs in Hong Kong have engaged themselves in global citizenship education after the education reform in early 2000. This paper attempts to characterize global citizenship education in Hong Kong, which shows learning themes such as moral obligation to the world, "learning to live together" through understanding and respect for other peoples and cultures, and concerns for peace and human rights. Hence, as a dynamic process, the school-based curriculum such as project learning and civic education has continually revised their goals.