Teachers’ perceptions of preparing “good citizens” for the democratic development: Hong Kong case

ABSTRACT

Universal suffrage is an essential component of Western democracy in the twenty-first century, but the role of education in supporting universal suffrage in Hong Kong is a challenge given its fractured political system and governance, societal divisions about political goals, and democratic aspirations within an authoritarian state. This study examines the views of teachers regarding the effectiveness of Hong Kong’s current citizenship education in cultivating students’ citizenship towards the development of a democratic society. The results revealed that current citizenship education does help students foster some characteristics of good citizenship, but doubt its efficacy towards the development of democratic principles such as universal suffrage. Hong Kong is unlike many post-colonial states and Hong Kong teachers face specific challenges in terms of democratic development. While this study focuses on Hong Kong, its results are relevant to educators in other places who face similar challenges and issues under polarised and pluralised societies.

KEYWORDS:

• Universal suffrage
• democratic society
• good citizens
• citizenship education (CE) and critical thinking skills (CTS)

Acknowledgments

Tables 2A and 3A in this paper presented differently from previous papers which have published in Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education (paper title: Constructions of civic education: Hong Kong teachers’ perceptions of moral, civic and national education) and in The American Journal of Chinese Studies (paper title: Hong Kong Teachers’ Perceptions of “Protest Participation” as a Characteristic of “good citizenship”) respectively. I have obtained the permissions from the journals’ editors for publishing these results (shown in Table 4A)

The source of the paper (Teachers’ Perceptions of Preparing “Good Citizens” for The Democratic Development: Hong Kong Case) is from the author’s PhD thesis (Hong Kong primary teachers’ perceptions of moral, civic, and national education in preparing students to become “good citizens”: A mixed methods study). The same dataset was not only used in the authors’ previously published papers but will be also shared in other papers which may be published in the future. Some of these related publications and submitted publications from the PhD thesis have been enlisted in the reference list. The author would like to thank the editors and reviewers for their constructive and critical comments on refining this paper. The author also would like to thank Professor Kerry Kennedy, Dr Jacqueline Chan, and professor Chi Kin John, Lee for supporting the preparation of this article.

The author is responsible for the choice and presentation of views contained in this paper titled “Teachers’ Perceptions of Preparing “Good Citizens” for The Democratic Development: Hong Kong Case” and for opinions expressed therein, which are not necessarily The Education University of Hong Kong, and do not commit the respective Organisation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Koon Lin Wong

Koon Lin Wong, Linnie research interests is about school leadership for civic learning. Linnie developed A Two-level Conceptual Model of the Effects of School Leadership on Civic Teaching that is used to understand how principals negotiate the political context surrounding civic education and how these practices influence the civic teaching environment in schools. The ultimate goal is to identify the kinds of citizenship education that enable students to understand different perspectives and build a mutually respectful society. Linnie has participated in various research projects over the past ten years (such as participatory citizenship, applied learning, curriculum reform, work-based learning, Hong Kong refugee, teachers’ perceptions of citizenship education, school leadership for civic learning) and has been involved in international projects (such as research undertaken on a UNESCO project on out of school children, comparison of higher education study for Asia-Pacific region students, teacher preparation programmes in Mainland, China). She has served as a reviewer of international and local academic journals.