Pak-sang Lai and Michael Byram, 2012 Newcastle upon Tyne, Cambridge Scholars Publishing US$59.99 (hbk), 257 pp. ISBN 978-1-4438-3531-2
Citizenship education, rather than indoctrination, is of inestimable importance in learning objectives throughout the world. Today’s society is in dire need of a citizenry that is morally aware and socially active. The educational process to achieve that goal, however, is affected by social and political factors within each country. This case study is both interesting and necessary as it illustrates the issues China and Hong Kong are facing as they attempt to assimilate their educational programmes in the area of moral education. The study focuses upon the integration of Hong Kong into China after the sovereignty change in 1997. The challenge is to identify the process of democratisation and globalisation within the paradigm of ‘one country two systems.’ Pak-sang Lai and Michael Byram have studied citizenship development as it relates to nation formation in the HKSAR (Hong Kong Special Administrative Region) by analysing educational processes in one secondary school, called ‘Long River School.’
The authors have organised their discussion on whether citizenship in Hong Kong can be both democratic and national into nine chapters where they investigate how citizenship education can be both democratic and national. The main focus of the book is ‘Long River School’ case study which is presented in chapters 4–6; these chapters are framed by historical and conceptual background in chapters 1–3; by the discussion of a conception of citizenship (education) that is both democratic and national in chapters 7 and 8, where chapter 7 presents theoretical contributions (with the emphasis on the works of the nationalism experts A. D. Smith and B. Anderson), while chapter 8 contains a comparison between Singapore and Hong Kong.
In the first chapters the authors state the objectives of their study, followed by the historic, political, and cultural background for HKSAR that makes Hong Kong a unique example for their research. ‘Citizenship education in Hong Kong attempts to pursue a dual purpose: developing a democratic citizenship and the national identity locally, and secondly showcasing this experimental territorial democratic self-governing region as a model for the re-unification of China and Taiwan’ (p. 2). Lai and Byram investigate the difficulty faced by the community in establishing democratic principles to national identity. This is a theme that is carried throughout their study. In following chapters reforms to civic education within the curriculum after 1997 are described. An important element of the study is the comparison with examples of citizenship education in different societies (e.g. Australia, the USA, Singapore, Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia). They emphasise various concepts and theories concluding with the model of a ‘multi-levelled or multi-layered’ citizenship as a means of examining the challenge of ‘one country two systems’ citizenship where ‘uniformity or heterogeneity of values occurs at different levels’ (p. 7).
In subsequent chapters the authors examine the specifics of citizenship development in HKSAR at the ‘Long River School.’ The ethnographic study and fieldwork began in late January 2003 and was concluded early in 2004. ‘Unlike its Asian counterparts, Hong Kong’s civic education seems to reflect more the effects of school than the influence of the government’ (p. 59). The developed curriculum of the ‘Long River School’ is compared with the mainland patriotic model and is defined as a ‘territorial national model.’ Lai and Byram indicate that ‘the school was anxious to teach students about democracy not as a Western concept but as an indigenous, communal as well as universal value’ (p. 92). They noted that ‘students could try democratic governance in their schools years’ fostering an environment that respect students as ‘autonomous learners’ within an atmosphere that encourages independence in learning that also has an element of developing a sense of national pride. So the students are involved with what J. Dewey called ‘democracy in action.’
In their concluding chapter, Lai and Byram synthesize their empirical and theoretical findings of the case-study. Discussing ‘ethno-national development of national identity locally’ they give a review of the results of the present school case referring to ‘Smith’s “common, mass public culture”’ and Anderson’s ‘imagined community’ (p. 123). They point out that active citizenship in HKSAR emphasises a ‘learner-centered approach in which students reflect on values and attitudes towards life events they experience’ (p. 209). The authors make a significant observation that the role of school is both to socialize and to encourage a sensitivity to the role of citizens. The authors believe that in contrast to Singapore and its centralized governance of the government leadership developing active citizenship and critical patriotism ‘Hong Kong is destined to achieve eventual democracy as it allows active participation that is optimistic for active citizenship development’ (p. 207).
This study has much to recommend to educators involved with citizenship and moral education from different countries. It gives empirical evidence that citizenship education can be both democratic and national, providing a conceptual analysis of the framework as well as methods of national citizenship education in Hong Kong.
To date the ‘Long River School’ continues the implementation of a civic education programme that follows 1996 guidelines. Given that the case study was done in 2003/04 I think it might be helpful to collect some fresh data on the revival of Chinese ethnic consciousness in particular, discussed in chapter 5 (p. 92): e.g. ‘When asked whether they would identify themselves as Hong Konger or Chinese after re-union with China, they noted the ethnicity in the Hong Kong identity’ (p. 94). I suppose it might be of interest to observe how the current students answer these questions in 2012, 15 years after the sovereignty change, while Long River School is still running the discussed civic education programme.
© 2012, Tatiana Golikova