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.]

In Hong Kong, except for Art and Craft and Physical Education, official approved school textbooks for pupils and handbooks for teachers are widely used in primary schools. When Art and craft primary teachers in Hong Kong plan for their lessons, they can only follow the official curriculum prepared by the Curriculum Development Council of the Education Department of Hong Kong. Thus, the official curriculum plays a very important role in guiding the primary Art and Craft teachers in planning their taught curriculum. In the first part of this chapter, a brief historical account on the introduction of art education in Hong Kong is given. Then, the chapter examines the developmental trend of the aims of the planned Hong Kong Primary Schools Art and Craft Curriculum from the 1950s to the 1990s. Finally, it discusses both the external and internal factors that influence the art education in Hong Kong.
[Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

One of the roles of music teacher education is to produce music teachers with proficiencies in delivering music education at different educational levels. The impact of the development of IT in education in Hong Kong has been tremendous. The Hong Kong Education Department and the teacher education institutions are urging teachers in every discipline (including music) to apply the technology to a certain proportion of teaching and learning. Teacher proficiency requirements in IT have been developed quickly. As such, the philosophy that has prompted the inclusion of technology in music teacher education must be evident. The paper aims to investigate some aspects of the philosophy behind promoting IT to a level of such importance. A paradigm shift has come about in the approaches of teaching and learning from teacher-centered to student-centered for a range of reasons including the advent of IT. The teacher has to take on more of a facilitator role in stimulating students to learn how to learn rather than teaching what to learn. This aligns with the advocacy of flexible and life-long learning which are prevailing thoughts in the education world nowadays. These generic values are to be considered with the more unique values of IT in music teacher education. A new philosophy could imply more drastic changes in education in the near future. This could affect music teacher education as well as music education. The issues of how far a philosophy will induce quality learning and whether this application of IT could equate to quality teaching are to be considered. In a world which calls for reflective thinking as well as quality assurance and excellence, it is hoped that this paper will contribute to the discussion on the philosophy of the application of IT in music teacher education.
[Copyright © 2001 Aichi University of Education.]

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.]