School Curriculum and Youth Political Participation in Hong Kong

Article

Young Conduit for Engagement? 26(2) 1–18 © 2017 Sage Publications and School Curriculum and YOUNG Editorial Group SAGE Publications Youth Political Participation sagepub.in/home.nav DOI: 10.1177/1103308817711533 in Hong Kong http://you.sagepub.com

Trevor Tsz-lok Lee1 Stephen Wing-kai Chiu2

Abstract Learning about political issues through the new core subject of Liberal Studies (LS) in senior secondary education in Hong Kong has become ‘socially problematic’ amid mounting concern of politicians and pundits who see a link between such learning and the recent waves of student protests. Using data from in-depth interviews with senior secondary students in Hong Kong, we explore how politically disengaged and engaged youth experienced their LS learning and how they perceived and made sense of the relationship between LS learning and political participation or its absence. Our findings indicate that while there appear to be circumstances that give rise to diversified learning experiences, LS has little bearing on youth political participation or otherwise.

Keywords Civic education, politicization, youth activism, liberal studies, Hong Kong

Introduction

There has been an underlying struggle in many Asian educational systems over attempts to depoliticize schools by designing civic education exclusively for incul- cating moral and cultural values (Lee, 2004; Murphy and Liu, 1998). Civic education in Hong Kong is no exception, but its peculiar historical and social contexts have shaped students’ conceptions of citizenship in distinctive ways (Kennedy et al., 2008; Tse, 2006). In the post-colonial era, Hong Kong’s education system has experienced waves of significant reforms, including in the area of civic education, in order to meet emerging political and economic challenges at both the global and

1 Department of Sociology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. 2 Department of Social Sciences, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. Corresponding author: Trevor Tsz-lok Lee, Department of Sociology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. E-mail: [email protected] 2 YOUNG 26(2) local levels (Morris et al., 2000; Tse, 2005). A main thrust of the recent education reforms is the introduction of Liberal Studies (LS), on top of Chinese language, English language and Mathematics, as a new core subject under the senior secondary education since 2009. This reform is especially important as LS becomes a compul- sory subject of the only public examination—the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education examination—at the end of secondary education. Its examination results are used as part of university entrance requirements. In a sense, LS serves the function of civic education in that it ‘aims to broaden students’ knowledge base and enhance their social awareness through the study of a wide range of issues’ (CDC and HKEAA, 2007: 1). While Western democratic societies tend to grapple with questions about the educational effects on generational civic decline and citizen apathy (Galston, 2001), public attention in Hong Kong is directed towards a different agenda. Learning about a wide array of topical political and controversial issues through LS has become ‘socially problematic’ amid mounting concern of pro-establishment politicians and pundits who see a link between such learning and an upsurge in student protests in recent years. The outbreak of large-scale protests in late 2014, often referred to as the ‘Umbrella Movement’, fuelled further controversy. Thus far, however, little empirical evidence exists to support or refute the widespread perception of LS as an essential ingredient in transforming students into actively engaged participants in politics. This article draws on a qualitative analysis of data regarding how young people perceive the politicizing effect of LS in order to explore the ways that the curriculum and pedagogy of LS influence students to engage and disengage from politics.1 With such evidence, we may be in a better position to reframe overall discussion about inherent tensions in the post-colonial policy of civic education, and the sources of youth political participation in a specific local context where the depoliticized education system and deeply rooted examination-oriented culture coincide with the emergence of vibrant civil society.

Civic Education and Youth Political Engagement

Adolescence is a critical period when youth develop their civic and political identities, and education plays a key role in developing youth’s notion of citizenship and their orientation to political participation (Erikson, 1994; Levine and Lopez, 2004). School-based civic education imparts to young people the knowledge, skills, attitudes and resources necessary to understand democratic principles and participate in normative politics (Fraillon et al., 2012; Galston, 2001, 2003; Niemi and Junn, 1998; Torney-Purta, 2002). The level of students’ citizenship participation can also be effectively mediated through school curricula, pedagogical climates and extra-curricular activities, among other types of civic education (see, e.g., Geboers et al., 2013, for a synoptic review). In the cross-national analysis of 38 countries, Lin (2014) found that civic knowledge was positively correlated with students’ perceptions of classroom openness to discussion on social and political issues. Classroom climates for discussion allow students to acquire not only civic and political knowledge but also interactive skills and critical thinking skills, which are deemed as the core skills of citizenship (Campbell, 2008; Hess and McAvoy, 2013; Torney-Purta, 2002). Lee and Chiu 3

In some cases, however, school learning may be negatively associated with youth political participation. For instance, political distrust and inefficacy have been found to be stronger among students than non-students (Niemi and Klingler, 2012). Civic education, with its political literacy component, might undermine students’ sense of political efficacy in that students may conceive of political decision-making as requiring technical knowledge, and, thus, the lack of ‘technical’ expertize becomes the justification for their low degree of political participation (Condor and Gibson, 2007). In addition, Lopes et al. (2009) longitudinal study demonstrates that while civic education equips students with political knowledge, students’ decisions on whether to take part in or opt out of political activities may depend on their individual cost–benefit estimates. In recent years, however, there has been an increasing concern that political participation should not be ‘narrowly’ defined only as acts of participation in normative politics (e.g., voting, affiliation with a political party, campaigning) (Lam, 2004; Manning and Edwards, 2013; Verba et al., 1995). Indeed, a plethora of youth studies shows that youth political engagement in the twenty-first century is no longer con- fined to electoral politics nor a normative conception of polarity between apathetic and activist youth (Fisher, 2012; Harris et al., 2010). The emergence of identity politics, ‘life politics’, and New Social Movements influence youth to pursue indi- vidualized and everyday forms of political engagement such as donating money, signing a petition, boycotting, protesting via the Internet, everyday practices to a cause, attending a cultural event with political content and participating in a legal protest (Delli Carpini, 2000; Theocharis, 2012; van Zoonen et al., 2010). Notably, Manning and Edwards (2013, 2014) found little association between civic education and normative political participation but when the scope of analysis was extended to address diverse modes of youth political expression, civic education became highly relevant. Campbell (2008) contends that an open classroom climate is likely to be associated with students’ disapproval towards unconventional acts of political participation. However, Ehman’s (1980) study shows that despite its positive effect on developing political trust and interest, open classroom climates may lead students to have a decreased sense of political efficacy yet an increased degree of political skepticism, as in-class discussion on controversial issues may reveal inadequate and failed government responses to the public’s demands. Students’ exposure to the adult-centred world through community service engagement may also stimulate critical reflection on compliance with adult norms (Youniss et al., 1999). In his study of active youth organizations in Hong Kong and Singapore, Han (2015) found that, in contrast to the didactic approach in schools, an alternative, non-formal citizenship education occurred between the members of those organizations and the wider youth community, especially through the internet, which in turn fostered active youth citizenship in both societies. Taken together, there is a complicated process underlying how and why young people are engaged or disengaged from political activities. In this process, a school curriculum plays a role of enhancing political knowledge. It can either foster political participation or lead to political distrust and inefficacy, which, in turn, allows one to make a conscious decision to become disengaged from politics. Relatedly, an open classroom climate is also salient in bringing students together to discuss and debate political and civic-related topics. This is to some extent in line with the concept of ‘community of practice’ proposed by Wenger (1998). Classroom climates 4 YOUNG 26(2) for discussion provide a pedagogic site for students to build and sustain a learning community through which ‘newcomers’ may first listen to others’ ideas and perspectives, and when identifying enough to speak, they form the identity of group mem- bership, and become increasingly capable of interacting and discussing with others. Such learning practice is expected to have a profound impact on the possession of a political knowledge base and the development of political attitudes and identities among the youth.

Civic Education in Hong Kong: The Socio-historical Context

Different from a conventional model of national citizenship in the West, social and political relations in Asian societies have been differently defined in the ‘Asian- Pacific’ context, which rendered citizenship education in the region with some innate cultural features, such as an emphasis on morality but not politics, and on collectiv- ism but not individualism (Lee, 2004). Modern Asian citizenship is subject to some degree of negotiation between its own local practice and global trends (Lee and Kennedy, 2006). An increased focus has also been placed on the transition to moder- nity in state structure and reformulation of citizenship discourses and education in Asian societies (Vickers and Kumar, 2015). Hong Kong society shares part of the ‘Asian model’ which, together with its own local context, created a distinct set of problems in citizenship. Civic education in Hong Kong has not been an independent subject that requires standardized examination assessment. It has instead been implemented, within a decentralized school system, through co-curricular and cross-curricular efforts in the local schools, on which the actual curricular and pedagogical practices rest to a large extent (Bray, 1997). Similar to most other colonies, Hong Kong’s civic education policy during the colonial era has generally taken the highly depoliticized and moral foci (Leung and Ng, 2004). During the colonial transition that followed the signing of the 1984 Sino-British Agreement, the implementation of decolonization policies came to be coupled with the emerging vibrant civil society (Morris and Chan, 1997). A few curriculum reform measures took place, including the initiation of new school subjects such as Putonghua, revised policies on the medium of instruction, and a new set of guidelines on civic education to strengthen the infusion of democratic values, human rights and civic responsibilities in preparation for the political transition to Chinese sovereignty (Bray, 1997; Lee, 1999). Emphasis on civic education in post-handover Hong Kong can be understood as an integral feature of the post-colonial policy to, on one hand, continue developing human resources to meet the needs of economic growth in the current global knowledge economy and, on the other hand, to pursue greater integration with China now that Hong Kong is under Chinese sovereignty (Mathews et al., 2007). The post- handover regime was stepping efforts to depoliticize yet nationalize the school curricula in different ways, such as the subject of History which plays a significant role in affecting the sense of citizenship and national identity formation among the youth (Vickers and Kan, 2005). The teaching of ‘LS’ at junior secondary level with textbooks covering the current affairs, history, culture and other topics of Hong Kong Lee and Chiu 5 is another example of an attempt to nurture the youth’s awareness of cultural ties and shared history with the Mainland China (Vickers, 2011). Nevertheless, it is fair to say that the civic education using a cross-curricular approach ‘served a largely symbolic function’, which reflects the colonial legacy of the policy tendency not to overstate citizenship learning (Morris and Vickers, 2015: 319). Indeed, the reform effort has been criticized for failing to reduce knowledge– application gap in students’ civic learning (Tse, 2004). This ‘learning outcome’ may, in one respect, align with the post-colonial political and ideological agenda to cultivate the spirit of uncritical patriotism that glosses over engaging youth in political activities (Leung and Ng, 2004; Vickers and Kan, 2005). This may reinforce the transient nature of the local student attitudes in general. According to International Civic and Citizenship Education Study 2009, the expected participation rates in protests as well as political activities as adults among Hong Kong students were lower than the international averages (Schulz et al., 2010). However, it is undeniable that the wider society in the post-handover era has been inundated with growing social discontent and political instability (Lau, 2002). Notably, in line with the global trend, Hong Kong’s youth in recent years have been increasingly involved in post-materialist politics rather than normative ones (Cheng, 2014; Wong and Wan, 2009). The orthodox view that focuses exclusively on ‘lawful’ acts of political behaviour of the local citizens is no longer able to understand the emerging political activism (Lam, 2004). Tensions have grown in recent years between the official education projects intended to foster patriotism and nationalism and the identity of ‘Hongkongese’ in the newly emergent indigenous culture (Fairbrother, 2008; Ma, 1999). With a longstanding ambivalence towards national belonging in Hong Kong, many tend to refrain from trusting the conceptions of national identity from the Chinese authori- ties, while others connecting themselves to the Chinese nation with a new form of identity based on the market logic (Mathews et al., 2007). Hong Kong–Mainland integration was one of the undercurrents that intensified social, economic and political polarization in the society, and which escalated the identity tensions (Morris and Vickers, 2015). The tensions are particularly manifest in the furore over ‘national education’, a plan to incorporate the subject of Moral and National Education into the curriculum of all primary and secondary schools. When proposed in 2010, this caused a public outcry over the ‘brainwashing’ of students. The proposal was subse- quently shelved in 2012 following a wave of public protests (South China Morning Post, 11 September 2012).

Moral Panic over Politicizing Effect of Liberal Studies

Since its inception in 2009, LS can be seen as part of continuing efforts in educational reform to enhance students’ development of civic literacy, among other laud- able educational objectives such as developing multi-perspective skills and critical thinking skills (CDC and HKEAA, 2007). It has been considered in the local society as an innovative reform effort to transform the classroom learning from the traditional didactic pedagogical approach to student-centred, issue-inquiry approach. As one of the six modules in the curriculum, ‘Hong Kong Today’ covers the topics of 6 YOUNG 26(2) the rule of law and socio-political participation. Teachers are advised to ‘pay attention to the government’s response and evaluate the impact of the responses on governance, the maintenance of the rule of law, and the promotion of socio-political participation among Hong Kong residents’ (EDB and HKEAA, 2013: 36). Nevertheless, the coverage of political topics in the LS curriculum touched a sen- sitive nerve during an especially turbulent political period for Hong Kong (Cheng, 2014; Lo, 2014). There was a concern about the washback effect—a common term in applied linguistics and educational studies that refers to a reinforcing effect of an examination on teaching and learning—as the LS examination framework requires students to take a stance on political issues (Tan, 2014). There has been growing media coverage in recent years given to claims that LS was raising students’ civic and political awareness, and creating a new generation who ‘dare to think and act’ and are more willing to protest against injustice (Foreign Policy, 18 November 2014). A prominent example is the emergence of the student activist group ‘Scholarism’, founded in 2011 by a group of secondary school students who advocate for democracy and political reform. In 2012, Scholarism organized large-scale rallies against the proposed national education curriculum (South China Morning Post, 11 September 2012). The controversy over the politicizing effect of LS continued to brew as local political turmoil labelled the ‘Umbrella Movement’, the civil disobedience movement of unprecedented scale to push for universal suffrage which took place starting in late September of 2014 and that involved protesters occupying some major streets in Hong Kong for weeks. Ever since the idea of ‘Occupy Central’—a campaign that encouraged citizens to block the Central District to pressure the government on universal suffrage—was initiated in 2013, Beijing-loyalist groups have played the increasingly active role in mobilizing more voices against the campaign and its supporters (Kan, 2013). In particular, the LS curriculum’s emphasis on political content was loudly attributed to the rise of youth activism, which in turn led to the massive turnouts of youth in support of the movement (Hao and Zhu, 2015). The pro-establishment lawmakers and politician insisted that the educational authori- ties should overhaul the curriculum in several ways, including depoliticizing the subject by trimming the political content in the curriculum, and changing it from the core subject to an elective one (Foreign Policy, 18 November 2014). Not surpris- ingly, this view that LS posed a threat to social and political stability immediately triggered rebuttals from teachers and veteran activists among the proponents of LS (South China Morning Post, 27 October 2014). Nevertheless, neither side has been able so far to produce systematic, convincing arguments substantiated by reliable evidence about the effects of the LS curriculum on students’ political orientations and behaviour. Given the foregoing theoretical and empirical backgrounds, therefore, the need clearly exists for research that explores how civic and political learning through the curriculum and the teaching methods of a school subject influence youth political participation in the Hong Kong context. We are well aware that youth political engagement is not determined by schooling alone. Socio-economic status (SES), gender and age, among other socio-demographic factors, are the main determinants of voter turnouts and political participation (Converse, 1972; Verba et al., 1995). It is found that, for instance, political participation is significantly higher among men Lee and Chiu 7 than women, among those with high SES than their low SES counterparts (Burns, 2007; Verba et al., 1995). Among the youth, digital media is also an important plat- form in stimulating political participation (Gibson, Lusoli and Ward, 2005). While these factors are taken into account in this study, however, the key question that remains is how a formal school curriculum plays a role in youth political engagement—especially from the perspective of young people themselves.

Data and Methods

To answer this question, we draw on data from two qualitative studies that were conducted separately by two researchers. The first study was carried out between 2010 and 2013, which consisted of semi-structured in-depth interviews with 36 senior secondary students from 15 schools. The sample included a mix of females (52.8 per cent) and males (47.2 per cent), ages ranging 15–20 years (mean age 17.94 years, SD = 1.013) with varying records of academic achievement. According to their parents’ educational attainment and occupational status (Condron, 2009), 20 students were considered as middle-class and 16 as working-class. Middle-class students had at least one parent with a post-secondary education and at least one parent working in a professional or managerial position; working-class students’ parents had at most completed secondary education and worked in blue-collar or lower-level white-collar occupations, or were self-employed. Incidentally all the respondents claimed that they had seldom engaged in (online or offline) political discussion, political campaigns, signing a petition, protests or any activities related political parties or social movement groups. As mentioned previously, as a result of Hong Kong’s long history of a depoliticized education policy and overall political landscape, the mainstream students tend to be politically inactive with little or no experience of political participation. In the second study, semi-structured in-depth interviews with 20 core members of the student activist group ‘Scholarism’ were conducted between 2013 and 2014. The students’ ages ranged from 17 to 20 years (mean age 18.60 years, SD = 0.940), all at senior secondary school; nearly half (45.0 per cent) of the students were female; and nearly half (47.6 per cent) were middle-class. Of approximately 120 members of Scholarism, 30 were considered the core members, who were proac- tively involved in Hong Kong’s recent major protest movements, including the so-called ‘Umbrella Movement’ (The Standard, 2016, 21 March). They were considered to be student activists. Table 1 summarizes the demographic characteristics of the two qualitative samples. Local research ethics committee approval was obtained before the start of both studies. The snowball sampling procedure was used in both studies to recruit students through personal network. Informed consents were obtained from all participating students. The students in both studies were asked to describe their learning experience of LS and elaborate on their views on the relationship between LS and their political attitudes and behaviours. They were also asked about their views on politics, their previous experiences of political dis-/engagement and the possible factors identified by themselves. The interviews, with most lasting around one hour and half, were audiotape-recorded and transcribed. Notes were also taken 8 YOUNG 26(2)

Table 1. Demographic Characteristics of Two Study Samples

Study 1 Study 2 N = 36 N = 20 (interviews with politically (interviews with politically disengaged students) n (%) engaged students) n (%) Gender Female 19 (52.8) 7 (35.0) Male 17 (47.2) 13 (65.0) SES Middle-class 20 (55.6) 9 (45.0) Lower-class 16 (44.4) 11 (55.0) Age (years) 15 1 (2.8) – 16 1 (2.8) – 17 8 (22.2) 1 (5) 18 17 (47.2) 11 (55.0) 19 6 (19.4) 3 (15.0) 20 2 (5.6) 5 (25.0) Source: Authors’ own. during and after each interview. The excerpts used here were taken verbatim from the transcriptions after our Cantonese-to-English translation, except that all names used are pseudonyms. The two researchers worked together as a team in the process of coding and data analysis using an inductive approach (Charmaz, 2014). As discussed earlier, it is important to recognize a non-conventional form of political activities such as attending a protest and joining a social movement group. In this study, thus, the term ‘political participation/engagement’ was broadly defined as engaging in any ‘activ- ity that has the intent or effect of influencing government action—either directly by affecting the making or implementation of public policy or indirectly by influencing the selection of people who make those policies’ (Verba et al., 1995: 38). The data between the two samples were analysed and compared in order to address the underlying research question of how LS influenced youth political participation or otherwise. After preliminary data analysis was completed, the researchers shared the main findings with a few school teachers and students through informal meetings in which they were invited to comment on the research. Most of the feedback confirmed that the observations of this study largely captured how student experience in LS learning relates to political participation.

Results

In the following, the possible politicizing effects of LS among politically disengaged and engaged students are examined separately, with regard to three main domains of learning experience in LS: curriculum knowledge, classroom climates Lee and Chiu 9

Table 2. Learning Experiences in Liberal Studies Between Politically Disengaged and Engaged Students

Domains of Learning Politically Disengaged Experience Students Politically Engaged Students Curriculum Tend to feel aloof from Tend to project mixed knowledge political topics feelings (e.g., empathic, cynical) onto political topics Open classroom Attend more to exploring Attend more to rethinking climate multiple perspectives to daily views on current affairs analyse problems Learning orientation Tend to be Tend to be examination-oriented examination-oriented Source: Authors’ own. for discussion and learning orientation. The similarities and differences of the learning experience in LS between politically disengaged and engaged students are summarized in Table 2.

Politically Disengaged Students

One notable pattern that emerged from the interviews with politically disengaged students was that many of them linked the imperatives of LS learning to their political disengagement. LS had helped them develop a more robust and in-depth understanding of controversial political issues and disputes. However, most of those students with a higher level of political knowledge chose to stand aloof from political topics. Despite his lower-class background, Tak-ming was a high-achiever from a local elite school, who performed well in LS. He felt that he had gained a better understanding of different social and political issues through LS learning. He was taught to think critically and independently, and avoid adopting one-sided political opinions, values and attitudes, not to mention shunning ‘involvement in radical actions’. Tak-ming stated clearly that LS did not arouse his interest in political participation. On the other hand, however, he acknowledged that enhanced political knowledge enabled him to reassess his understanding of some political concepts that he was previously taught:

We’ve probably learned from the history lesson of what civilization, Plato, Socrates, or whatever was discussed that democracy is the most desirable model of governance, and then we would say that we want democracy, universal suffrage, etc… But now [I] may not [think so]. We will think about why (in some places) there is no democracy. Apparently, democratic governance of a place has its limitations as well. So now my attitude [towards democracy] has become somewhat more skeptical.

According to the experience of the interviewed students like Tak-ming, disengagement was not entirely attributed to youth apathy. Instead, after the acquisition of political knowledge through the LS curriculum, some students could make a conscious decision to stay aloof from politics. 10 YOUNG 26(2)

Another domain of LS learning experiences shaping the students’ political attitudes is an open classroom climate, where differing political views are encouraged to be discussed. As one would expect, some students with an interest in political topics would bring their own viewpoints into classroom discussions. As discussed earlier, internet use plays an active role in youth political attitude and participation (Delli Carpini, 2000; Theocharis, 2012). Tsz-hong was an academically average student from a low-performing secondary school in Tin Shui Wai—one of the city’s most impoverished areas. He lived in a single-parent family, with a father working as a security guard. During the interview, he revealed that his knowledge of local politics had largely sprung from ‘Hong Kong Golden Forum’, a popular Internet forum among the youth in Hong Kong, where the political views expressed are generally considered ‘radical’. For instance, the pro-Beijing media have seen it as instigating youngsters to become ‘radical hooligans’ in the recent spate of protests against mainland visitors (Liang, 2016). To answer the test questions in LS, Tsz-hong sometimes used some viewpoints from the Forum that he thought were ‘sharp and very thor- ough’ as a reference. Tsz-hong added, however, that ‘in fact, teachers did not want us to develop radical tendencies but to be more neutral and rational in our approach’. In his experience, LS classes offered open discussion, where students could put forward their diverse political agenda stemming from different values and attitudes, but when the views expressed during classroom discussion became too narrow, his teacher would try to guide them to consider different angles. Meanwhile, amid all the debate and the tumult on the Internet, Tsz-hong would always remind himself of the importance of self-reflection. This echoes with Yang and Chung’s (2009) finding from a study of Taiwanese junior high school students that the teaching of critical thinking in civic education increased students’ level of tolerance of diverse views and willingness to examine their own possible biases. Hong Kong’s education system has been highly examination-oriented (Biggs, 1996). Similar to their orientation to other academic subjects, most of interviewed students often held an examination-oriented attitude towards LS learning. Tak-ming like most other interviewees had no interest in discussing current affairs after school. He admitted, ‘[N]ormally [we] would not talk about political issues, unless [we have to do so] for the examination papers.’ Examination-oriented learning indeed remains an accurate portrayal of the experience of many local senior secondary students. Most students we interviewed, especially those from the middle-class families, remained aloof and distant from the contents of the syllabus which entails developing an understanding of social and political affairs. Although she performed well in LS, Kwan-ting’s attention to current affairs, like that of most of her classmates, was limited to newspaper clippings, in-class discussion and schoolwork as required. Her educated mother would encourage her to watch television news to improve her LS learning but she remained to be uninterested in public issues and current affairs. She would never read a newspaper unless she was asked to do so. She further explained that unless some significant news was deemed as potential topics for examination questions, she would not initiate discussion about politics with her classmates, teachers or parents. Indeed, students’ motivation to learn about current affairs often depends on whether topics are directly related to the school test. It can be conceived as the consequence of the washback of the local examination framework on learning and Lee and Chiu 11 teaching but in the opposite direction to that expected by the pro-establishment politicians (as discussed earlier, they worried that the examination framework would foster students’ interests in political participation). Many respondents like Kwan-ting emphasized that the classroom practice of LS involved ‘drilling’ them, through school assignments and tests, into a mode of analysis that addressed multiple points of view; balanced the positive and negative aspects of an issue and offered a rebuttal to each argument. Kwan-ting also learned from the LS class that when analysing a problem, it was necessary to consider the roles and justifications held by different stakeholders. In this respect, her mother’s advice became one of her ‘points of reference’: ‘I would talk about the examination questions with my mother, to see how she would answer… everyone has a different angle.’ Multi- perspective thinking skills became only an instrumentality for obtaining a good grade. The LS learning did not effectively arouse students’ interests and awareness about current political issues.

Politically Engaged Students

From the in-depth interviews with the core members of Scholarism regarding how they experienced LS learning, it was found that political knowledge acquired through the LS curriculum could increase or impede a tendency towards political participation even among so-called student activists. Through the learning of the meanings of ‘political participation’ as well as through discussion on rationales for specific protests, Yan-wah started to understand the legitimacy of protest demands:

My perception towards protests then changed as I came to learn that citizens have the right to participate in political activities. I also understood that to be a good and responsible citizen, we must listen to the claims from various stakeholders, including the government and the protesters, and make our own judgment based on given social and political issues.

The heightening of political knowledge led to personal empathy towards the protesters’ grievances in general. However, most of the Scholarism members we interviewed said that the LS learning failed to directly motivate them to participate in protests. Rather, at many times, the learning made them more likely to be circumspect about taking part in overt political activities. Some perceived protest politics as ‘useless’, which caused them to be rather cynical about political participation. One female respondent Hung-kei had an experience that her LS learning of politics- related knowledge generated a higher sense of political cynicism:

The fact that mass protests failed to force the government to reverse its plan to build the extraordinarily expensive high-speed rail systems really made me doubt the potency of any political action against the government to express our opinion. All the public consulta- tions seemed to me like window dressing by the government to pretend to listen to the people’s voice.

It is important to note that such political cynicism may work to both reduce and reinforce participatory political action depending on whether or not it is aligned with perceived unfairness (Klandermans et al., 2008). For some respondents from 12 YOUNG 26(2)

Scholarism, acquiring more politics-related knowledge through LS learning, mass media and the Internet, among other types of political socializing agents, tended to increase their sense of political inefficacy and cynicism, and, hence, became hesitant to turn what they learned into political actions. As compared to their politically disengaged counterparts, through an open classroom climate provided by LS classes, those politically engaged students underwent a more intense process of self-reflection on their personal political views. Two respondents from Scholarism, both from a middle-class family background, ascertained that they were motivated by their ‘persuasive leftist’ teachers to participate in protest politics. It is conceivable that the LS classroom is susceptible to manipulation by using alternative teaching practices, in orienting students towards political partisan- ship (Leftwich, 1987). Ng (2009) argues that school teachers in Hong Kong can serve, at least potentially, as effective socializing agents in transforming younger generations into socially and politically engaged citizens. However, we should not overstate the significance of teachers’ role as a vital transformative agent in political socialization. In addition, what the respondents revealed was that few students were captives of one-sided political dissemination. The respondents mentioned how their teachers regularly opened whole-class discussions on current affairs, where they learned to think in depth and from different perspectives. Similar to politically disengaged students, most of the respondents from Scholarism also held an examination-oriented attitude towards LS learning. Embedded in a wider educational culture in Hong Kong, as noted earlier, the ‘practical need’ to teach to the test drove how students were taught in LS classes. Even those from Scholarism admitted during the interviews that their LS learning experience often involved a narrow focus on specific examination skills. It may, in turn, leave some potential politicizing effects of LS untapped. Another female respondent Siu-mei remarked, ‘In LS classes, you were taught about one thematic topic every school term, and also some skills such as data collection. It was hardly linked to political participation.’ In fact, none of the respondents explicitly attributed their decision to join Scholarism to the influence of LS learning. Over half of them had never participated in any protest before joining Scholarism. In most cases, the active participation in politics seemed to be activated through previous participation in social movements and through social contacts with activist leaders. The findings must, however, be interpreted with several caveats in mind. Firstly, the data may not be representative of the youth population in Hong Kong. This study is based on two small student samples, which is intended to describe the politicizing effect of LS in an exploratory way. Both samples, especially those from Scholarism, can by no means be generalized to all the local students. Another limitation of the findings is the extent to which LS is a good indication of how a school curriculum plays a role in student politicization. Despite its significance in the reform of senior secondary education, LS is the only subject that emphasizes the development of political knowledge and awareness (students are also required to take other three core subjects and two or three elective subjects). In addition, there is also a limitation of the ability of this study to acquire sufficient data for a systematic analysis of gender and SES differences, among other structural inequalities, in the LS effect. Although the analysis of demographic factors is not the purpose of this study, Lee and Chiu 13 the findings provide some pointers for further investigation. For instance, female or higher-SES students, politically engaged or not, seemed to be more likely to be highly examination-oriented, and pay little attention to a link between classroom learning and political participation outside the classroom. Yet, extreme caution must be taken when interpreting demographic differences based on only a few selected cases. It deserves attention in future research, especially with international and comparative perspectives, to explore the politicizing effect of a school curriculum among different demographic groups of young people.

Conclusion

In this study, we have investigated how both politically disengaged students and politically engaged students experienced their LS learning and how they perceived and made sense of the relationship between LS learning and political orientation and participation. A main finding is that the students perceived the curriculum and pedagogy of LS as having little bearing on their political participation or otherwise. Importantly, the interview data indicate why a school curriculum did not have a discernable effect on student politicization, which was not as simple as it might seem to be (Manning and Edwards, 2014). Indeed, although LS helped most of the students, politically engaged or not, enhance politics-related knowledge, few were motivated to turn their political knowledge into action. However, it should not be understood simply as a consequence of the enduring state of political apathy among students in local schools. From some interviewees, enhanced political knowledge facilitated a more conscious decision to disengage from politics. Others, after learning more about non-democratic political realities in Hong Kong, developed cynical views towards political participation. It is particularly striking that greater knowledge about politics brought about a prevalent sense of political cynicism and ‘disenchantment’ with politics, as a dimension of alienation, even among the members of Scholarism. Relatedly, an open classroom climate in LS classes helped students to develop in-depth thinking and multiple perspectives, through which they more tended to adopt a moderate and circumspect orientation in analysing politics. While school teachers, if particularly committed politically, could be the key players to motivate students towards political activism, our findings demonstrated that any attempts by teachers to engage in political manipulation of the classroom would likely be constrained by the curriculum approach that requires students to avoid being partial towards controversial topics. In addition, examination-oriented learning culture also made students’ interests more instrumental in learning political and social issues. The limited politicizing effect of LS among the students may come as no sur- prise to most social researchers who conceptualize youth political participation as a complex process shaped by a number of structural and individual factors that go beyond, but are closely related to, classroom practice (Lopes et al., 2009). When considering the sources of youth activism, we should take into account the impact of both formal (e.g., schooling) and informal learning (e.g., experiences in protests) for the development of youth as activists. Hong Kong’s youth today are inevitably exposed to politics-related information to varying degrees. They are naturally one of 14 YOUNG 26(2) the key target populations for social movement mobilization where there is a vibrant civil society. As discussed earlier, it is no longer realistic to politically ‘isolate and purify’ them to the same extent as achieved through the depoliticized schooling of the colonial era. Considering this context, this study has demonstrated that although LS has provided pedagogic strategies engaging students in the discussion of contemporary political and social issues, there appear to be circumstances that give rise to diversified learning experiences. How the politicizing effect of these pedagogic strategies is realized closely relates to daily classroom practices, teachers’ political orientations, examination-oriented learning attitudes, and social and political views that students themselves bring to the classroom and other learning situations. School curriculum may influence youth political participation but there is never a one-sided process, as alleged in recent debate.

Acknowledgements We thank all the anonymous reviewers for their careful reading of our manuscript and their insightful comments and suggestions. We offer special thanks to Michael Chao for his important support in data collection. We are also grateful to all the informants for their openness and willingness to participate.

Funding Information This work was supported by the Research Grants Council through the Public Policy Research Projects with the grant number 4003-PPR-09; and the Public Policy Research Centre, the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Note 1. The term ‘politicization’used in this study refers to a process whereby people become attentive and/ or engaged in politics. Politicization does not always imply political participation, while the two are closely related. One can be politicized but then made conscious decisions to disengage from politics.

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Authors’ Bio-sketch

Trevor Tsz-lok Lee is an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research interests focus on social inequalities in education and social mobility, youth civic and political participation, and career and transition development.

Stephen Wing-kai Chiu is chair professor in Sociology, Department of Social Sciences, The Education University of Hong Kong. He completed his PhD from Princeton University and has been focusing his research on the sociological study of Hong Kong from a comparative and historical perspective. His current projects include topics such as education, social stratification and inequality, social movement, cultural industries, youth identities and traditional Chinese medicine. This article was completed while he was co-director of the Hong Kong Asia-Pacific Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.