From Citizenship Education to National Education : Perceptions of National Identity and National Education of Hong Kong’s Secondary School Teachers

The attempt to formalise National Education in Hong Kong public schools in 2012 has raised much furor and continued debate. Aiming at cultivating a Chinese national identity among Hong Kong students, National Education continues to be a controversial subject. This book sheds light on the perceptions of secondary educators on their own national identity and their perceptions of National Education. By providing a fresh perspective and up-to-date, first hand data, this book analyses how and what is taught in citizenship education based on how political, social and personal influences shape a teacher’s perception.

This book makes a timely contribution to understanding perceptions on national identity and National Education, with both of them have become controversial topics in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China. In a so-called globalization era, national identity and National Education, with the latter having an aim of fostering a Chinese national identity in education, have been significantly pushed ahead by the Hong Kong SAR government since the early 2000s as a response to the return of sovereignty to China in 1997. Teacher perception matters to what they select and how they teach in the schools. By incorporating fieldworks of teacher interviews, observation and documentary analysis, this book argues for a multi-layered conception of identity, different aims, contents and diversified methods of National Education should be recognized. This book is likely to become a useful account of teacher perception on national identity and National Education in citizenship education literature, and it will be relevant to policymakers, teachers, trainers and researchers.

Chapters include,

1.       Different meanings of national identity of teachers and aims, contents and methods of National Education
2.       From Citizenship Education to National Education in a Chinese society
3.       Implications for understanding National Education in a globalization era: mixed identification, multi-layered identities, knowledge transmission, and ‘global identity’