Global Citizenship Education in Hong Kong Schools: What Can Be Taught?

This chapter discusses the status of Global Citizenship Education (GCE) in Hong Kong schools. It explores Hong Kong school teachers’ reactions to the new social and educational contexts in which they operate, particularly how new initiatives such as Basic Law and National Security Law education play a part in remolding decisions that teachers have to take on the frontline. Looking closely at how teachers chose the topics and made plans for teaching accordingly, we find that GCE topics are largely limited to the economic, environmental, and social domains, while topics once commonly taught, such as human rights, civil society, and civic participation in Hong Kong, have been omitted. Global issues are now reframed through the lens of national education in Hong Kong; teachers feel obliged to make references to national security and Chinese social development, thereby withdrawing from the need to address the underlying tension between the goals of GCE, which promotes inclusivity, global awareness, and international cooperation, and the promotion of the national outlook through education, which emphasizes loyalty to the nation-state and national identity.