Routledge Contesting Education and Identity in Hong Kong (Citizenship, Character and Values Education)

This text examines the intersection of youth civic engagement, identity, and protest in Hong Kong, through the lens of education. It explores how education and identity have been protested in Hong Kong, historically and today, and the mark that such contestations have left on education. Many people, particularly outside Hong Kong, were astonished by youth participation in the Umbrella Movement of 2013–2014, and the anti-extradition law protests in 2019. These protests have caused people to consider what has changed in Hong Kong over time, and what education has to do with youth civic engagement and political expression. This book provides an academic, theoretically oriented perspective on the intersection of youth identity and education in Hong Kong. Coming from an educational (and philosophical) orientation, Jackson focuses on areas where greater understanding, and greater potential agreement, might be developed, when it comes to education. This book will be of interest to educational policy makers, curriculum specialists, and educational scholars and students in liberal studies, social studies, civic education, comparative and international education, multicultural education, and youth studies. Review "A powerful portrayal and thought-provoking assessment of the complex relations between education, identity formation, and civic engagement in Hong Kong. In this insightful book, Jackson critically analyzes the most important controversies since Hong Kong’s return from Britain to China in 1997, centering on Hongkongers’ longstanding struggles over local, national and global identities in a global age, and carefully evaluates student- and youth-led social movements for greater freedom and democracy in education and society. Jackson prudently scrutinizes why and how politically sensitive school subjects have become an ideological battlefield between Hong Kong and mainland China in general, and between localists and nationalists in Hong Kong in particular. She vividly demonstrates how the post-1997 school curriculum has been politicized to promote China’s positive image and foster nationalistic sentiments, rather than pro-Hong Kong feelings or multiculturalism. A must-read for researchers, scholars, students, and policymakers in Hong Kong studies and in the general field of politics, identity and education." - Wing-Wah Law, Professor, Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong "At a time when the youth of Hong Kong are struggling to come to terms with how to sustain the only life they have ever known, this book brings a globally informed perspective to bear on the emerging challenges of identity and civic education. Jackson demonstrates how the problem of cultural diversity and national identity is played out in a more complex manner than elsewhere due to the challenge of integrating differences between two Chinese systems. The book adds to the study of civic education in a changing world." - Gerard A. Postiglione, Chair Professor in Higher Education, University of Hong Kong "As a scholar with philosophy background, Liz is particularly good at teasing out the paradoxes and conundrums related to the controversial school subjects such as history and liberal studies, recent student movements, the national education question, the local-national-global tensions, and the issue of multiculturalism... This is a must-read book if you wish to know how education and identity in Hong Kong is struggling for its directions at a crossroads." - Wing On Lee, Executive Director, Institute of Adult Learning and Series Editor of Citizenship, Character and Values Education About the Author Liz Jackson is Professor of International Education at the Education University of Hong Kong. She is also the President of the Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia and the former Director of the Comparative Education Research Centre at the University of Hong Kong.