Abstract
Since Hong Kong returned to Chinese sovereignty, national identity building became an important part of school education meeting some resistance in Hong Kong society. In 2012, thousands of school stakeholders protested against the introduction of the 2012 Guide of Moral and National Education (MNE). These conflicts have influenced teachers’ attitudes towards MNE and curriculum choices. Employing the Model of Teachers’ Perceptions of Moral and National Education, this research investigates the factors affecting teachers’ perceptions of MNE, as a national identity building curriculum. The findings indicated that “perceived other support for MNE,” “perceived non-monetary cost–benefits,” “perceived concerns of MNE,” and “comparison with the previous system (Moral and Civic education)” were the significant predictors for teachers’ receptivity of MNE. The results suggested that if teachers were supported by others, they were more likely to support MNE; and they were less likely to support the implementation of MNE when teachers had serious concerns about it. The results recommended adding media and socio-political factors into the Model of Teachers’ Receptivity to curriculum changes. The discussion will employ identity grafting (Lee in Managing Chineseness: Identity and ethnic management in Singapore, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2017) as a point of comparison to identify the theoretical implications of MNE.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 221–246 |
Journal | Journal of Educational Change |
Volume | 22 |
Early online date | 28 Jul 2020 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 31 May 2021 |
Funding
The source of the paper (A Proposed Model for Teachers? Perceptions of National Identity Building Curriculum in Post-Colonial Hong Kong: Factors and Challenges) is extracted from a PhD thesis (Hong Kong primary teachers? perceptions of moral, civic, and national education in preparing students to become ?good citizens?: A mixed methods study) written by the first author. The same dataset was not only used in the authors? previously published papers but will be also shared in other papers which may be published in the future. Some of these related publications and submitted publications from the PhD thesis have been listed in the references. The authors would like to thank the editors and reviewers for their constructive and critical comments on refining this paper. The role of the first author is to write and conceptualize the paper while the role of the other authors is to provide feedback on the draft. The authors are responsible for the choice and presentation of views contained in this paper titled ?A Proposed Model for Teachers? Perceptions of National and Moral Education: A National Identity Building Curriculum in Post-Colonial Hong Kong? and for opinions expressed therein, which are not necessarily those of UNESCO and The Education University of Hong Kong, and do not commit the respective Organizations.
Keywords
- Citizenship education
- National identity building
- Nationalism and patriotism
- Teachers’ perceptions
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Education