The Place of Moral and Civic Values in Recent Educational Reform
Values Education in Hong Kong: Development and Perspectives
Wing On Lee
Hong Kong Institute of Education
Presented at the Values Education National Forum, 2-3 May 2005, Canberra.
Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you very much for giving me an opportunity and honour to share with you in this forum about the situation of Hong Kong. I have to say what I am going to share only represent my own interpretations, but these interpretations were generated from my participation in this area of work on many circumstances over the last ten years. Over the last decade, I participated in the IEA Civic Education Study as the Hong Kong representative and also a member of the international steering committee, and many other international studies on citizenship education and values education. At the level of community involvement, I have also participated in drafting the Guidelines on Civic Education in Schools 1996 and the Civic Education Junior Secondary syllabus. I have been involved in several aspects in educational reform in Hong Kong as a member of the Curriculum Development Council, and have been a member of semi-governmental Committee on the Promotion of Civic Education. I have to say, the sharing this morning is a combination of both my participation experiences in values education development and reflections on those experiences as an academic. I do need to make a note at the beginning that civics, moral and values are really interrelated, at least in the Asian context, and I cannot entirely distinguish them from one another in the process of sharing.
Debates before 1997: Nationalism versus Liberalism
As 1997 came closer, there were more calls for change in the curriculum to reflect Chinese sovereignty in Hong Kong. Moreover, there were more and more calls for strengthening the preparation of the re-identified Chinese citizenry of Hong Kong. In 1994, the cultural subgroup of the Preparatory Working Committee for handover openly declared that:
· Civic education had been under-emphasized in Hong Kong, and, therefore, nationalism and patriotism had been under-valued;
· Following the resumption of Chinese sovereignty, civic education in Hong Kong should aim at building nationalism and patriotism;
· Education in the transitional period should strengthen learning in Geography and Chinese History, as well as the Basic Law; and,
· The Education Department should facilitate the development of civic education as a formal subject in primary and secondary schools (Ta Kung Pao, 13 September 1994).
The government responded by setting up an ad hoc working group to review the Civic Education Guidelines. The task of the ad hoc group was actually more than a review of past Civic Education Guidelines. Instead, it soon became clear that it had been appointed to draft new Civic Education Guidelines that could transit across 1997. This made the whole venture extremely political. Being aware of the political sensitivity of such a task, the government appointed members who could represent a spread of interests and political views. Moreover, the drafting process was made known to the public as far as possible. A representative of the group was assigned to meet with reporters after each meeting, reporting the main points of discussion. The drafting process therefore enhanced the possibility of public “participation”, since people, being informed of the progress, had an opportunity to put forth their views so as to influence the direction of the Guidelines. At the same time, this strategy triggered heated debates on what the direction of Hong Kong civic education should be. The most outstanding debates emerging during the period of Guidelines’ preparation was that of nationalistic/patriotic education versus human rights/democracy education. Interestingly, neither government spokespersons nor appointed members of the working group suggested that student opinion should be gauged or that such an exercise would, itself, be a valuable form of civic education.
In shaping the direction of new Civic Education Guidelines, the PWC’s cultural subgroup openly proposed that civic education after 1997 should be adjusted in order to introduce and popularise the Basic Law and to enhance students’ understanding of Chinese history and culture so as to strengthen nationalism, national identity and national pride among students. A member of the committee, S.K. Lau, also openly expressed that:
The emphasis of civic education after 1997 should be placed on two respects. First is the strengthening of the concept of country and the sense of belonging to the country and nation. Second is the introduction of the Basic Law…. Although democracy, human rights and environmental education are also quite important, they are not urgent for 1997 (Wen Wei Po, 22 May 1995).
Few of the proposals for a nationalistic and patriotic focus in civic education were mentioned without also touching upon democracy and human rights. However, an alleged over-emphasis on nationalism and patriotism, mixed with anti-colonial sentiments, aroused much concern and angry responses in public discussions. There were people expressing entirely opposite view. For example, Choi (1995) reacted first, by distinguishing national education from civic education. She considered that the purpose of civic education was to develop critical thinking for political participation, whereas nationalist education was a kind of irrational or, at least, non-rational identification with the nation. Man (1995) also elleged in her, entitled “Poor Civic Education Philosophy - A Critique of Education Convergence’s ‘Opinions on Civic Education’”, that the equation “civic education = national education = political education” is over-simplistic, because even though that equation could be accepted, we still need to ask what the nature of ‘politics’ is:
Of course, national education includes politics. But what kind of ‘politics’ do you refer to? Should education not leave [sic] the kind of ‘politics’ that allows freedom of expression and participation? Or should we restrict ourselves to the ‘political’ activities defined by the ruling party? We cannot have answers from their opinion paper. But from the explanation in the opinion paper,… ‘politics’ cannot transcend the level of ‘political entity’. In other words, if ‘politics’ is defined by a political entity that suppresses citizens (through unjust constitution and laws), we do not need to mention any personal freedom of expression and participation.
The 1996 Guidelines on Civic Education for Schools: Sanctity of Life as the Starting Point for Civics
A major characteristic of the 1996 Guidelines is the inclusion of a chapter on conceptual framework. This chapter identified three dimensions of civic education. First was the values dimension. The Guidelines argued that common good is based on individual good. It started with an affirmation of the sanctity of life and further argued that such an affirmation set the ground for human dignity and respect, and other related human values like equality and justice. Grounded on the endorsement of such values as human dignity, equality and justice, the Guidelines spelled out the need to develop a social system, which observes human rights and democracy. Moreover, based on a view that individual and common good are interdependent, the Guidelines proposed a complementary view of collectivism and individualism.
A second dimension was the concept of the locality context in civic learning. The Guidelines argued that civic education cannot take place in vacuo, but only in a certain locality context, extending from family, to neighbouring community, regional community, national community, all the way to the international community. The concept of locality context also built on the most intimate social relationship, which is brotherhood or sisterhood, and argued that the extension of the locality context meant the extension of brotherhood or sisterhood to a broader level of human relationship. Thus, the concept of neighbourhood applied to the neighbouring community, regionhood to the regional community, nationhood to the national community, and humanhood to the international community.
The concept of locality context provided a background for the integration of two concepts of citizenship in the document, i.e. social citizenship and political citizenship. The emphasis on the extension of locality contexts related to the concept of social citizenship, as it meant the broadening of social relationships. On the other hand, the locality context device also provided the Guidelines with an opportunity to discuss political citizenship in the context of the national community. The Guidelines argued that discussions on nationalism and patriotism in relation to the locality context were more sensible and appropriate than campaigns to secure for them the major or even the only part of civic education. Placing national community adjacent to the other communities, such as the regional community and the international community meant that the civic learner should not only be aware of the significance of the nation, but also the region and other parts of the world. Proponents of the new approach argued that being aware of the region was significant for Hong Kong citizens, as Hong Kong was going to be a Special Administrative Region. Similarly, they claimed that being aware of other parts of the world was also important as Hong Kong has strong international relationships.
The broad perspective of citizenship was more elaborately expressed in its third dimension, i.e. the dimension of civic experience. The Guidelines further argued that an individual’s civic competence, attitudes and beliefs were significantly related to his/her civic experience. The Guidelines also called attention to the existence of a variety of civic agents in society, such as political associations, social and welfare organisations, cultural organisations, religious organisations and schools, all of which could affect an individual’s civic experience. In the context of educational experience, the Guidelines particularly called on schools to re-examine their school ethos. They were asked to consider whether, in actual practice, they were democratic or not, whether they upheld justice or not, and whether they respected human rights or not.
In an effort to pierce through the various dimensions, the Guidelines proposed a student-centred approach to civic education. According to this, one of the major purposes of civic education, in addition to those of nationalism and patriotism, was to develop critical thinking abilities. Consequently, the teaching and learning processes needed to emphasize reflection and action (Lee & Sweeting, 2001; Education Department, 1996).
Struggles after 1997: Localisation/Nationalisation versus Globalisation
One of the major feature of post-1997 Hong Kong is its educational reform.
The Learning to Learn document suggested that the learning to learn (i.e. effective learning) target is to be achieved through four key learning tasks, namely:
· moral and civic education: to help students establish their values and attitudes,
· reading: to learn broadly with appropriate strategies to learn more effectively,
· project learning: to develop generic skills, acquire and build knowledge, and
· information technology: for interactive learning.
The Curriculum Development Council further published a series of curriculum guides in 2002. In the moral and civic education curriculum guide, five priority values were proposed, namely perseverance, respect for others, responsibility, national identity and commitment. The Guide stipulated that:
These priority values and attitudes are proposed with due consideration given to students’ personal and social development and to the changes in the local context … and global context, with a view to preparing our students to meet the challenges of the 21st century. The values are interconnected and if fostered, should help students to become informed and responsible citizens committed to the well-being of their fellow humans (CDC, 2002a, p. 2).
Nationalisation
It is obvious that national identity is propounded as one of the priority values in the new curriculum, and when elaborating on this particularly value, the Guide says:
The return of Hong Kong to China since 1997 calls for a deeper understanding of the history and culture of our motherland. There is a need to strengthen the sense of national identity among our young people. It is imperative to enhance their interests in and concern for the development of today’s China through involving them in different learning experiences and lifewide learning. Instead of imposing national sentiments on them, we must provide more opportunities for young people to develop a sense of belonging to China (ibid., p. 3).
In addition to revision in citizenship curriculum, the government has also made efforts to enforce national identity education in a wide spectrum of areas. Law (2004) comments that the Chinese Hong Kong government has politicised the school curriculum by enhancing the public’s understanding of China and Chinese culture and strengthening their sense of belonging. This was a clear contrast to the former government’s policy of depoliticisation, delocalisation and deaffiliation from the Chinese mainland in the eighties. Moreover, obvious measures were adopted to develop a “new national identity”, in geographic, cultural, language and political terms.
Geographically, massive student visits to the mainland have been organised. Many of them were organised by individual schools out of their own initiatives, but many others were also subsidised by the government in one way of another, such as from projects approved by the Quality Education Fund. In July 2004, the Education and Manpower Branch (2004b) launched a high profile national education programme as a part of the youth leadership award scheme. The 11-day programme, held in Beijing, enrolled 170 student leaders from local school. The programme covered a series of lectures and visits, introducing to the participants the Chinese government structure, culture and major achievements, including visits to major historical sites. The government also began to subsidise staff and principal training undertaken by major institutions in the mainland, such as East China Normal Universities, Beijing Normal University, and Guangdong College of Education.
Culturally, as the above documentary analysis has shown, there were deliberate additions of China elements in the post-1997 curricula, and many of them are focused on introducing Chinese culture. The above-mentioned Report on China Element (1998) mentioned that Chinese elements have permeated over 100 syllabi of over 40 school subjects. Moreover, Chinese history and cultural are specifically designated as core elements of learning in the personal, social and humanities education key learning area. In school, extracurricular activities relatedto Chinese culture have also been intensified, such as Chinese orchestras and bands, Chinese dance clubs, and kung fu classes (Law, 2004, p. 266).
Globalisation
As mentioned above, Education Commission’s (2000) Learning for Life, Learning through Life attempted to justify its reform initiatives in the globalization context, in the sense that needs to re-orientate its education to face changes brought about by the emergence of the knowledge-based economy and global economy. In this context, it is essential for Hong Kong to nurture the younger generation of global awareness, and to develop a host of skills adaptable to this changing world. The document says: