National identity has been a sensitive and controversial issue in Hong Kong. During its colonial period, national identity was barely mentioned or touched upon in the curriculum and public discourse, as Hong Kong was a territory adjacent to its giant motherland, while being a territory under a colonial sovereignty. Also, while politically Hong Kong was under a foreign soeverignty, its daily subsistence had to be supplied by its motherland, and even the quota of people to be allowed for boarding from across the boarder had to be agreed by the two governments. That is, although Hong Kong was politically under one soverignty, it was de facto co-ruled by two sovereignties. Culturally, while the English language was official language, the daily lingua franca was Cantonese, and Chinese was recognised as an official language as a result of the Chinese language campaigns in the seventies. Hong Kong's handover to the Chinese sovereignty made the issue of national identity surfaced. While politically, Hong Kong returned to Chinese sovereignty, its long-standing colonial history has created a Hong Kong identity among Hong Kong people. Hence, the identity of Hong Kong became a complicated issue, ranging to four types of idenities: Chinese, Chinese Hong Konger, Hong Kong Chinese and Hong Kongers. This paper discusses the complexities of national identity in Hong Kong, and their implications for citizenship education in the territory.

Change is endemic to Hong Kong, particularly in the new era when the Chinese government overtakes the sovereignty from Britain after one-and-a-half centuries of colonial rule. According to the Sino-British Joint Agreement signed in 1984, Hong Kong people can live under ‘One Country, Two Systems’ for a period of fifty years. Both of the capitalist and communist systems have exerted influence in the formation of the new government for a period of fifty years. As education policy changes significantly under the purview of the Basic Law, traditional curricula are no longer adequate for the rapid changing political scenario. Politicians and educators are seeking new directions in shaping our education agenda. Civic education, which has never been important in the curriculum in the past, is gaining attention as people are finding ways of harmonizing nationalism, capitalism, communism and patriotism in the new era. The use of Chinese instead of English as the first language of instruction also causes significant change in education. With the influx of migrants from China, there is a call for adjustment programmes for new migrants and the deprived. Affective education, such as personal and social education, guidance and counselling, moral education and sex education is gaining importance particularly. It is timely for us to modify the curricula for the needs of society and potential development of students. It is also interesting for education researchers to look into the development of the new curricula, particularly the effectiveness of the personal and social education developed in the new era.

On 1 July 1997, Hong Kong became a Special Administration Region of the People Republic of China. The implementation of the “One country two systems”, a unique concept and a pioneer practice in the world, began. What does the identity of citizen under “One country, two systems” mean to student-teachers in Hong Kong? The new Civic Education syllabus for Junior forms is to be implemented in Sept. 1998. (Civic Education Standing Committee, 1997) Its objectives and contents embrace a comprehensive range of values, knowledge and skills; emphasizing the local, national and global contexts and the role of the citizen in each. To what extent did these foci fit in with student-teachers’ conceptions of citizenship? A survey by questionnaires of 280 Social Science elective student-teachers in an Institute of Education in Hong Kong was conducted in Dec., 1997, followed by semi-structured interviews of 14 student-teachers in the sample. Analysis of the survey and interview results revealed the characteristics of student-teachers’ conceptions of citizenship and the factors in shaping them. Their interest and concern relating to the promotion of Civic Education was also explored. The implication on Civic education curriculum development in teacher education was then discussed.

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.
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This qualitative multiple-case study research attempts to shed light on controversies associated with National Education in Hong Kong by exploring the perceptions of National Education of secondary school teachers. Since the resumption of Hong Kong's sovereignty by China in 1997, national identification with Chinese has been a policy priority. There has been an increase of National Education which aims at cultivating a Chinese national identity. This study used convenient sampling method on 10 purposively chosen sample of experienced Hong Kong citizenship education teachers, with in-depth interviews as data collection method. The findings reveal that teachers perceive National Education with different aims and teaching methods, and knowledge transmission is highlighted in National Education. There are patriotic, affective, critical thinking approaches, experiential learning and reflective teaching in National Education. Apart from arguing for different pedagogies and assessments in teaching National Education, this paper also calls for recognizing global identity and global citizenship education.
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