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Preparing students for citizenship? : civic education in Hong Kong secondary schools

Situated in the post-war socio-political milieu, there has been a poverty of citizenship education in Hong Kong schools for more than three decades. The political changes of decolonization and reintegration with mainland China pose new challenges to political education in Hong Kong. Starting with a concern over the programme of civic education in Hong Kong secondary schools, the present study addresses the question of the role of schooling in transmission of social-political orientation to the students. Drawing upon the theoretical perspectives and findings of political socialization studies, Neo-Marxism, and critical studies of colonial education, the present study conceptualizes school as an agent of political socialization and analyzes the current objectives, contents, organization and implementation of civic education programmes, as well as the formal and informal curriculum at work in six secondary schools in Hong Kong, in particular with reference to the very nature of 'citizenship' itself and die notion of 'civic education'. Albeit with the civic education movement in the 1980s onwards, civic education in schools still fail to provide our further citizens with the necessary political orientation and competence in democracy and national identity to prepare for the change in political system. Instead, the role of school performs socializing and stabilizing functions to the status quo. This dissertation further discusses the theoretical significance on the debate about the role of schooling in political socialization and in the constitution of adolescent political culture and of political order. Practical implications concerning political education in Hong Kong are discussed in addition to a critique and evaluation of civic education programmes in schools.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:242088
Date January 2018
CreatorsTse, Thomas Kwan-choi
PublisherUniversity of Warwick
Source SetsEthos UK
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Sourcehttp://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/104947/

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