Reflections on the Umbrella Movement: Implications for civic education and critical thinking

Abstract

The 2014 Umbrella Movement was one of the most significant social and political events in recent Hong Kong history. This paper offers some initial reflections on the connections between the movement and broader issues related to civic education, critical thinking, and theories of education. First, it is suggested that the movement closely resembles a form of civic education known as ‘action civics,’ offering an alternative pedagogy that might encourage more authentic civic participation. Second, the movement raises questions about how the teaching of critical thinking can be made more practically relevant to modern citizenship. Third, the deep political polarization associated with the movement indicates that civic education and critical thinking training need to pay attention to cognitive biases that affect political ideology. Finally, the Umbrella Movement reflects the failure of democratization in Hong Kong and coincides with increasing political pressures on the local education system. We discuss how political reality connects to issues about democratic education, critical pedagogy, and the idea of political neutrality in education.

Keywords:

• Umbrella Movement
• Hong Kong
• civic education
• action civics
• critical thinking
• cognitive biases
• democratic education
• critical pedagogy
• neutrality

Acknowledgment

Thanks to Liz Jackson and Timothy O’Leary for their comments on an earlier draft.

Notes

1. The situation might have improved with the introduction of Liberal Studies as a mandatory subject in the local curriculum in 2009, but its implementation is still marred by inadequate professional development for teachers and a deeply entrenched exam culture (Fok, 2016). Many secondary school students have expressed the view that Liberal Studies did not play an important role in their participation in the Umbrella Movement (Yuen, Leung, & Lu, 2016).

2. For a different interpretation of the data, see Bashir (2015).

3. However, the description of political neutrality in the code is more about separating work duties from activities related to political parties.

4. Perhaps Hong Kong school teachers do recognize the difficulty in maintaining neutrality. Even though most of them endorse political neutrality in school, the same survey mentioned earlier shows that only 8.4% agree with the statement ‘the school should stay away from politics.’

5. See Crittenden (1980) for further discussion of neutrality in the context critical pedagogy.