The Development of Identities in Hong Kong: Global-National Citizenship Education in Secondary Curricula, 1985–2024

• In Event: Global Citizenship in Motion: Critical Pedagogies of Race, History, and Decolonization

Abstract

This qualitative longitudinal study examines how global and national conceptions of citizenship have influenced citizenship education in Hong Kong’s secondary schools from 1985–2024. Through document analysis, we examine the alignments and divergences from global citizenship education (GCE) and the national model promoted by the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Our findings reveal four distinct phases: national reintegration using global language (1985–1999); pluralism and inquiry-based pedagogy (2000–2014); national allegiance under global ethics (2015–2019); reframing of global values within a nationalist framework (2020–2024). Our study illustrates how both global and national citizenship identities are constructed in a highly globalized yet politically contested context, offering insight into how states reconcile competing identity discourses through curriculum.

Authors

• Isabelle Rose Coloma, Stanford University

• Xiangqian Yu, Stanford University