Perceptions and teachings of national identity and national education : case studies of Hong Kong's secondary school teachers

Since the resumption of sovereignty by China in 1997, national identification with China has been a priority in Hong Kong SAR government's education policy agenda. Hong Kong has seen an increase of National Education programmes and activities which aim at cultivating a Chinese national identity based on ethnic and cultural terms. Since then, National Education has been promoted as an informal curriculum which is usually comprised of extra-curricular programmes or activities specifically devoted to cultivation of a Chinese national identity. It can be differentiated from formal subject curriculum. In 2010, the Chief Executive announced implementing a compulsory Moral and National Education in all primary and secondary schools. This qualitative multiple-case study research falls in the field of citizenship education and attempts to explore the perceptions and teachings of national identity and National Education of 10 purposive samples of Hong Kong secondary school teachers, since secondary schools prepare students to be a youth citizen. The data collection was done in 2009-2010. The research participants come from different subsidy types (i.e. how much subsidy they get from the government on an annual basis), religious and sponsoring backgrounds (i.e. Catholic, Protestant, Buddhism, Confucius, Taoism, charity, professional and Chinese provincial bodies), and regions (i.e. Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, and New Territories). This study does not generalize findings beyond the sample cases to any population. Rather, it focuses on a sample of experienced, informative and illustrative secondary school teachers' perceptions on the topic. They were selected for their perceived abilities and willingness to provide the most valuable and insightful data that fit the purposes of this study, i.e. perceptions of national identity and National Education (i.e. meanings, aims, contents, pedagogies and evaluation methods).EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo