Asian Education and Development Studies

Liberal Studies’ role in civic education: an exploratory study

Timothy Wai Wa Yuen, Yan Wing Leung, Sally Jie Qing Lu,
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Liberal Studies’ role in civic LS’s role

in civic
education: an exploratory study education
Timothy Wai Wa Yuen, Yan Wing Leung and Sally Jie Qing Lu
Department of Education Policy and Leadership, 59
The Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong,
People’s Republic of China
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Received 5 May 2015

Revised 11 June 2015
Abstract Accepted 20 October 2015

Purpose – Liberal Studies (LS), as a compulsory subject for senior secondary students (S4-6) who sit
for the Diploma of Secondary Education, was introduced in 2007. There has been increased discussion
about merits of the subject. This paper was written based on a study the researchers conducted with
LS teachers and students to probe the role LS may play in relation to civic education. The paper aims to
discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach – The study employed a qualitative methodology and a series of
in-depth interviews were carried out with real LS teachers and students to tap their views about LS
from their lived experience.
Findings – Findings suggest that LS, if conducted appropriately, can be one of vehicles of civic
education particularly in such matters related to enhancing social awareness and the ability to partake
in public affair debates. It can also be of potential use to nurturing civic virtues in support of
democratic discussion. On the other hand, its relationship with real social and political participation by
students was not confirmed.
Originality/value – This paper represents one of the first to explore about LS’s possible role in
civic education with real grounded data. The paper will be of reference value to readers interested
in civic education and teachers, students and policy planners of the subject.
Keywords Civic education, Civic virtues in support of democratic discussion, Liberal Studies
Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction
Liberal Studies (LS), a compulsory subject for senior secondary students (S4-6) who sit
for the Diploma of Secondary Education, was introduced in 2007. A student has to
obtain a pass grade in the subject before they can be considered for a publicly funded
first degree place in the tertiary institutions of Hong Kong. LS is a subject and as such it
is meant to help develop the students in different ways, including that of lifelong
learning and future career development. But LS is also unique as it is meant to
transcend the traditional confines of subject boundary and enable students to become
informed, rational and responsible citizens of the local, national and global community
(CDC and HKEAA, 2007, p. 4). The latter in particular underlines the fact that LS may
have a role to play in civic education. Indeed, previous civic education guidelines
(CDC, 1985, 1996) did explain that subjects in the formal curriculum can well be a part
of civic education in schools. This paper was written to contribute to the discussion about
LS’s possible role in civic education which recently has increasingly attracted attention.

2. LS: a brief introduction of the subject

Liberal Education was first introduced as an optional subject for secondary schools in
Asian Education and Development
the 1990s to broaden students’ perspectives and enhance their social awareness. Studies
When the secondary school system in Hong Kong was reconstructed as a 3 + 3 + 4 Vol. 5 No. 1, 2016
pp. 59-70
system in 2009, LS was reintroduced as an inter-disciplinary subject for mandatory © Emerald Group Publishing Limited
2046-3162
study (Fung and Yip, 2010; Fung and Howe, 2012). Comparable to liberal arts DOI 10.1108/AEDS-05-2015-0014
 AEDS education in Western countries, which usually focusses on university level students,
5,1 LS is studied by senior secondary students and the subject has a distinct focus on
current affairs. LS is composed of three learning areas (self and personal development;
society and culture; science, technology and environment) and an independent enquiry
study. It aims at arousing students’ social awareness (Morris and Chan, 1997; Fung
and Howe, 2012) and triggering a transformation of the school curriculum from
60 a teacher-directed to a student-oriented framework. An enquiry approach is encouraged
and this is reflected in the assessment objectives of both internal and public
examinations. There are two components for the subject’s public assessment:
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public examination (80 percent) and school-based assessment (20 percent). Both indeed
emphasize assessing students’ understanding, appropriate thinking skills and ability to
judge and arrive at their own conclusion (CDC and HKEAA, 2014).

3. An introduction of the present study

The paper reports a part of the findings of a study the researchers conducted in the
period 2014-2015. The project was funded by the Hong Kong Institute of Education
(HKIED) and was meant to be an initial exploratory study on the subject LS from the
perspective of civic education.
The project aimed at addressing the following research questions:
RQ1. In what ways can the teaching of LS contribute to the implementation of civic
education?
RQ2. What impacts does LS have on the civic qualities of secondary students and
how do such impacts come about?
RQ3. What are the facilitating and hindering factors if LS is to serve as a vehicle of
civic education in secondary schools and how do such factors affect the process?
Qualitative methods were adopted in this project. LS teachers and students (each
assigned a fake name) from five different schools (labeled as School 1-5) were invited,
through convenience sampling and social connection, to semi-structured interviews.
Apart from obtaining answers to questions listed in an interview guide, such interviews
provided room for respondents to pick up any pertinent themes they deemed important
but not included in the interview guide. This was important to “unearth” the story many
grounded theorists considered important. To enhance the reliability of the data collected,
the research protocol of HKIED was followed and this comprised:
• non-disclosure of the respondent’s name;
• non-disclosure to the public of the soundtrack of the interview;
• non-disclosure of the name of the school in which the respondent works/studies; and
• pull out at will in case of excessive sensitivity.
All interviews were taped and transcribed. In analyzing the data, the researchers
shared the data and exchanged views in case of disagreement about the meaning of the
data and the original sound tracks were referred to in order to iron out the difference.
Informed by the constant comparative method (Glaser and Strauss, 1967; Strauss and
Corbin, 1990), all narratives were compared in order to look for emerging concepts,
theories and patterns. Joint decisions were made on certain matters, including the
interpretation of the data and the point of data saturation. This helped to avoid
excessive subjectivity in inference in the process of theory building.
 4. Literature review LS’s role
Civic education in Hong Kong: the legacy and the gap to fill in civic
The development of civic education in Hong Kong has been affected by the political
changes it went through in its modern history. Colonization, internal riots,
education
political changes in China and the subsequent reunification with China impacted
and circumscribed the development of civic education enormously. What follows
is a brief account of such development outlining, in particular, factors and constraints 61
that came with different historical epochs.
During the days as a British colony (1840-1997), the British colonial administration
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was overwhelmingly concerned with stability and legitimacy. The political struggle
between the Kuomintang of Taiwan and the Communist Party from 1949 through the
mid-1960s created a tense social atmosphere in the colony. Civic education of a political
nature was deemed explosive and a threat and the colonial government resolutely
depoliticized schools (Morris and Chan, 1997; Morris and Sweeting, 1991). The teaching of
politics and the discussion of political issues were suppressed while social awareness and
concern about current issues and policy debates were played down in favor of academic
pursuit. This depoliticizing trend continued through the 1970s and was reinforced when
the Cultural Revolution of China led to turmoil and chaos in Hong Kong.
The Sino-British Agreement reached in 1984 restored China with the sovereignty over
Hong Kong on July 1, 1997. Hong Kong people were promised self-rule and a government
constituted by elections. In 1985 the Guidelines on Civic Education in Schools (CDC, 1985)
(hereafter called “1985 Guidelines”) was released. However, it was conservative and weak
in its political content (Tse, 1997; Leung and Lau, 1999). In 1996, the new Guidelines on
Civic Education in Schools (CDC, 1996) (hereafter called “1996 Guidelines”) was issued.
Civic education started to call for the understanding of politics and government as well
as, among other things, the learning for democracy. (Leung et al., 2000). This indeed was
sensible given that the development of representative government in preparation of
self-rule was underway. However, the 1996 Guidelines, promulgated a year before the
handover, was never truly implemented as the new government after 1997 has shifted its
overall concern to promoting national identity and patriotism (Education Commission of
the HKSAR, 2000; CDC, 2000, 2012; Yuen and Mok, 2014).
Concluding from the above, it can be discerned that civic education may need to be
reinforced if the ultimate goal is to support the building up of a democratic system
which the Basic law of Hong Kong stipulated as the goal of development. As a result,
what sort of civic education is needed to support the building up of a democratic
system in Hong Kong?

Civic education for a democratic system

The discussion about the civic education required for supporting a democratic system
is not new in the literature. Of course, the exact nature of such civic education can still
be contentious. While there is a strong call for democratic school governance and
collective decision making to give students the lived experience of democratic
institutions (Power and Scott, 2004; Yuen and Leung, 2010; Raby, 2008), there is a
widely supported proposition that young people in a democratic system should be
aware of the controversial social issues and be trained to confront the divergent views
and make informed judgments.
Hess (2004), in line with the thought of Westheimer and Kahne (2004), emphasized
that democratic education should comprise training young people to be aware of and be
able to discuss controversial political issues as such controversies are bound to arise in
 AEDS a democratic system marked by plurality. It was further argued that in such teaching
5,1 the teachers should address the worries about indoctrination. Lau (2012) also supported
that there is a need for training informed and responsible citizens who are capable of
debating, and ultimately deciding current issues of public policy. In the UK, the
teaching of controversial issues has been listed as a part of the education for citizenship
and the teaching of democracy in schools (DEFF and QCA, 1998). Shiveley (2014)
62 explained that school subjects, such as Social Studies, can be one of the vehicles for
teaching good citizenship for democracy because, if taught properly, they can help the
nurturing of young people who can make informed and reasoned decisions on public
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matters against a diverse background. It was further explained that a citizen should:
think critically; be able to compromise; be open-minded; communicate effectively;
appreciate differences; and be able to make decisions.

Civic virtues in support of democratic discussion

Another discernable trend in the current literature about civic education and
democracy is that there is an increasing awareness of the need of civility when
divergence of views is confronted during the course of discussion and participation.
Shils (1997), for example, explained that civility is basically respect for the dignity of
other people who may have an opposing opinion or unlike mind in a democratic society.
The opposite of civility may comprise being rude, harsh and condescending. Boyd
(2006) argued that civility, instead being conservative or repressive, is actually an
important pillar of a democratic and pluralistic society. It was further explained
that civility comprises, but should not be reduced to, simply manner, politeness,
respectfulness and courtesies in interaction. These attributes on the surface reflect
a deeper meaning of civility: the recognition of common civic membership with shared
rights and responsibility despite the unlike minds. The surface layer of manner and
respect, on the other hand, help reduce the tension and cement the root of common civic
membership upon which the liberal notion of tolerance can be possible. Moore (2012)
deplored that the decline of civility in public discourse and among school students
has reached an alarming level and came as a result of ideological group differences
that have been exacerbated by the mass media. It was further argued that for civility
to return, school students should be nurtured. While they can disagree over issues,
they must not resort to using personal attacks, incendiary language and deploying
false claims against their adversaries. Accordingly, teachers should have an
obligation to model the civility needed and ensure that their own political views do
not contribute to incivility. Equally important, teachers, when teaching about
political issues of a divisive nature, must instruct students that they have to remain
calm and civil regardless of how much they oppose a contrary view and they should
never target a person. On a more philosophical ground, Shukla (2014) declared that
the search for social justice, against which most dissent and controversies arise,
is never a meaningful defense on behalf of incivility. Forsaking civic friendship
will only perpetuate social discord against which the search for social justice vows
to eliminate.
It should be noted, even in works not devoted to the discussion of civility, the
concern about the manner and disposition one should have when confronted by issues
involving contradicting judgments is clearly evident. DEFF and QCA (1998, p. 59), for
example, asked for the discussion of socio-political issues as an important part of civic
education but stated clearly in its expected learning outcomes such thing as “work with
others to meet a challenge of shared significance through negotiation, accommodation,
 and agreed action” and “use imagination when considering the experience of others […] LS’s role
and reflect on viewpoints contrary to their own.” It is clear that the emphasis was put in civic
on respecting and not deriding contrary views; and of having an open instead of a
closed mindset. Shiveley (2014), as another example, while asking for young people to
education
be able to take part in discussion of controversial social and political issues critically,
also asked for: their being able to compromise; to be open-minded; and to be able
to appreciate differences. Oxfam (2006) included in the ground rules for young people to 63
take part in debating controversial issues such attributes as: no interrupting; show
respect for others’ views; use appropriate language; ensure everyone is heard; and there
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is a reason behind a view.

For the sake of facilitating the discussion in this paper, we use the term “civic virtues
in support of democratic discussion” to include both the civility concern and those
attributes considered crucial for discussion in a pluralistic society.
“Civic virtues in support of democratic discussion” should be understood against a
pluralistic society with civic friendliness as a binding force. It manifests itself,
particularly when confronting unlike minds, both positively as a set of required
attributes: having an open mindset, politeness, respectfulness and courtesies in
interaction etc.; and negatively as a set of taboos: personal attack, deriding, using
incendiary languages; deploying false claims; and silencing contrary voices etc.
We consider a person civil when they can demonstrate such civic virtues in
support of democratic discussion and we assert that civil political discussion is the
foundation of democracy.
The reading of this paper should also be understood against the fact that the
discussion of controversial social and political issues by young people are becoming
inevitable and that it is a matter of engaging and not dodging such discussions as a part
of civic education. Campbell (2007) remarked that even if open discussion has been
disallowed inside the classroom, students will engage in it outside of it. Indeed, the
internet and mass media are now the platforms of social consciousness, discussion and
mobilization. They are so pervasive that any attempts to depolitize the students through
depolitizing the curriculum may not work anymore. In the Hong Kong context, the youth
social and political participation and discussion of socio-political issues have been
increasingly evident. We will now examine whether subjects in which controversial
issues are probed can prepare young people to engage in the controversial issues in an
informed and civil way. This is why our study, against the context of Hong Kong and
focussing on LS, a subject that engages students in controversial issues, can contribute to
the literature. This is particularly so as it is one of the first studies that investigate on
basis of views by students and teachers of LS.

5. Findings
In this section we report our findings under the three research questions:
RQ1. In what ways can the teaching of LS contribute to the implementation of civic
education?
The most spectacular contribution of LS to civic education, according to the discourses
of the teachers and students, is that it raises the social awareness of the students.
Student T (School 3) narrated: “LS has led us to get into contact with current issues
of the society.” Student K (School 1) explained: “The unit ‘Hong Kong Society’ is
particularly important in enhancing our social awareness. We have to read Hong Kong
news and we read the commentaries as well to grasp the major arguments. This is
 AEDS required by LS.” How important is LS as a driver to enhance students’ social
5,1 awareness? There were students who said before doing LS they did not have either the
interest in or the habit of following news about Hong Kong. Some students indeed said
LS helped to break the apathy they inherited from their families toward social issues.
Student S (School 2), for example stated: “My family is by habit politically and socially
apathetic. We didn’t talk about social and political issues. We seldom read newspapers
64 at home. But, things changed with the study of LS which requires us to follow the
issues and cases (of the society).”
In teaching LS, teachers use newspapers and mass media widely and this contributes
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directly to raise students’ awareness about social issues. Student A (School 1) recalled:
“One of my (LS) teachers brought to the classroom copies of many different newspapers
and let us read the cover stories there.” Student G (School 4) said: “There are
different newspapers every day. Sometime, English newspaper is adopted. This aims at
encouraging students to read news.” Different students also talked about the use of a TV
current issue series in their LS classes and believed that it is useful in bringing to class
hot social and political issues that can be analyzed and discussed. Teacher Z (School 4)
explained that, as an LS teacher, he would encourage his students to analyze issues from
different perspectives, teach them how to think with contradicting views and make their
own judgments. In the process, the use of different newspapers was crucial.
It should be clear that the social awareness expounded above was meant to extend
to the political realm. It is not a kind of depoliticized social concern. Student S (School 2)
explained: “I think LS allows us to know the society and politics better […] There are
classmates who have changed their target of tertiary study from business to politics
due to the interest aroused.” Student H (School 4) expressed: “We deal with different
political issues in LS.” Indeed almost all students interviewed expressed their concern
about major political events such as the National People’s Congress’ decision about the
election of the Chief Executive and the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong. Teacher P
(School 1) explained that LS encouraged students to read the news and this included
news of a political nature. This was inevitable as politics was the management of public
affairs. Teacher S (School 1) followed up by saying that this was indeed the authentic
learning education reform in Hong Kong is targeting. The covering of politics thus just
mirrors what is going on in the society.
LS does not just help the students keep abreast of controversial issues happening in
the society. It actually engages students in the critical discussion of such controversial
issues as, in such discussions, students often are informed of different viewpoints and
perspectives. Almost all students interviewed expressed that they went through lots of
controversial issue discussions in their LS lessons and that they tried to grasp different
perspectives pertaining to the issues during the course of their discussions in order
to arrive at their conclusion. In one of the interviews, students told us that their teacher
encouraged them to discuss about political reforms when the government tried to
collect public opinions on such matters. As part of their task, they were required to send
their discussion results to the government.
RQ2. What impacts does LS have on the civic qualities of secondary students and
how do such impacts come about?
In the literature review, it is argued that citizens in a democratic system must be socially
concerned, able to take part in the discussion of controversial issues, but at the same time
demonstrating social virtues in support of democratic discussion. This section follows
this concept about civic qualities to keep our discussion wieldy and with direction.
 In our interviews with LS students, we found that the following are common LS’s role
attributes in their conceptions about qualities of good citizens: social awareness and in civic
concern, mutual respect, tolerance, respect for rule of laws (some emphasizing justice as a
necessary element), critical thinking, moral judgment, love of the society and willingness
education
to express one’s view. Though these personality traits can be helpful to the flourishing of
democracy, it is arbitrary to suggest they come as a result, or even partly as a result, of
LS, or to even suggest that there exists certain form of causal relationship. Thus in the 65
following we shall focus on those attributes our informants explained are directly tied up
with the teaching and learning process of LS.
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The narratives we obtained from our study suggest that the teaching and learning
related to LS may help the building up of informed citizens who thereby can have the
capacity to tackle controversial issues and arrive at their own judgment.
First, LS gives students’ background information about the social and political
systems of Hong Kong upon which controversial issues can be examined. Student F
(School 4) mentioned that LS describes what the (socio-political) system is like and
induces students to analyze the strength and weakness of the system. This view was
widely shared among the students.
Second, LS brings to the attention of students the important issues and the different
views and perspectives relating to those issues. Student M (School 4), for example said
that: “LS nurture us to look at social issues from different perspectives.” How does this
become possible? The reasons are many-fold. To begin with, LS does not ask for an
absolute “true answer” and the questions asked in public examination encourage
students’ to synthesize from different views to arrive at a conclusion. Student K (School
2) narrated: “Preparing for examination and doing related exercises help us to grasp
different perspectives to the same issue as basically the examination asks us to be able
to consider different perspectives, analyze them, and arrive at a judgment.” The way a
LS teacher conduct their classes also counts. Student Z (School 1) explained: “My LS
teacher doesn’t teach according to a book. He picks up news articles related to the issue,
share them in class, and discuss the different perspectives with us.” The students’ view
was actually shared by teachers. Teacher T (School 3) explained that teaching of LS
was not following a book and should aim at discussing current issues from different
perspectives. The use of different newspapers and other forms of media was a must.
Third, LS provides students with the basic concepts so that they have the analytical
tools for examining social and political issues. Student F (School 3) explained:
“The concepts taught in LS class become my analytical tool for social analysis.” Almost
all the students pointed out that LS also gives them plenty of opportunities to polish
such analytical skills. These comprise, among other things, making inferences from
data and analyzing controversial issues from different perspectives. Teacher Y (School
2) remarked that his job comprised encouraging students to transcend the mere
emotional discussion of controversial issues to a discussion that engaged the concepts
he taught.
As suggested in the literature review, there is increased concern about the importance
of civic virtues in support of democratic discussion. We should now turn and look at
whether LS students can remain civil in the course of studying socio-political issues
which are divisive. If students can remain respectful, open-minded and reasonable when
they engage views contrary to their own, LS may well be a training field of civil citizens.
Some discourses collected from students are supportive of this. For example, Student A
(School 1) narrated: “LS asks for examining an issue from different perspectives and
hence we will encounter views contrary to those we hold. This may be a way to
 AEDS understand how to open our eyes to and respect opposite views.” Two teachers in
5,1 particular talked about this. Teacher H (School 5) explained that her students did not
become emotionally charged in the discussion of political issues and disagreements did
not affect their friendship bonds. Their disagreements seemed to end with their lesson as
they knew they were doing an academic study. Teacher Y (School 2), on the other hand,
expressed that his students were calm and accommodating when discussing political
66 issues as they knew they were not that knowledgeable. It could be different when it came
to social issues of a livelihood nature.
Indeed, we also find the pedagogies adopted by LS teachers important. Student S
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(School 1) said: “Our teacher allows us to express our own views (over controversial
issues) in class but we need to provide evidence to support our views. We all speak up
and at the end we synthesize to reach our conclusion.” Student A (School 1) followed up:
“My view is the minority view but my teacher still encouraged me to speak up and all
views were heard.”
RQ3. What are the facilitating and hindering factors if LS is to serve as a vehicle of
civic education in secondary schools and how do such factors affect the process?
As expounded above, LS can be a vehicle of civic education as it can be a part of
civic education and can have an impact on the civic qualities of the students. In view
of this, a number of factors were identified which can have either a facilitating or a
hindering effect.
First among the facilitating factors is the open mind of the teachers. It allows the
students to analyze and conclude with such freedom that they would not be suffocated by
an excessively determined teacher or need to worry about reprisals by a teacher holding
an opposing view. In our interviews with students, the general view was that teachers
would not dictate the conclusion of discussion and one student even said: “The teacher’s
voice was only one among many in his lesson.” Indeed almost all teachers interviewed
expressed that LS should encourage student to articulate their own views which would be
respected in class. Conducive pedagogies come next to be considered. Apart from bringing
in updated issues and different perspectives and the adoption of discussion in class, it is
important that the teacher emphasize it is the thinking, synthesizing and concluding with
reasons that are considered valuable in the teaching and learning process. We further
observed that public examination is of great importance. The above factors can work
because they are framed by a supportive curriculum and public examination design.
Interviews conducted in this study indicated that the conception shared among teachers
and students was that LS treasures not “a correct answer” but the ability to “arrive at a
reasonable answer after reviewing different views.” Teacher M (School 2), for instance,
said that LS examination requires students to effectively synthesize from contradicting
views. In addition, the examination result a student receives will depend on this. The
students we interviewed shared the general view that the markers of LS public
examination papers are professional and would not make decisions on grades with respect
to a favored political view.
While a relatively enlightening school ethos can be a help, under certain conditions,
a school ethos can also be a dampening factor. Two such possibilities were found in our
study. In one case, the students believed that their school had a very strong political
inclination and this made the school biased in the subscription of newspapers. They
read newspapers in schools that mainly did not contradict the inclination of the school
and this might make a balanced exposure to different perspectives difficult. In another
case, a student shared the experience she had with a former school she attended.
 She explained: “The school is very conscious of examination results. We didn’t spend LS’s role
much time discussing. We studied notes prepared by the teacher and we used a lot of in civic
time to drill for examination.”
education
6. Discussion
The contribution of LS to civic education, as expounded in the Findings section, is
indeed premised on favorable underlying factors: a liberal school ethos, open-minded 67
teachers and pedagogies that emphasize discussion. If these factors do not exist, the
positive effect LS has on civic education may be weakened. Though being exceptional,
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there were complaints by individual students that they found their teachers to be
bookish or trying to persuade them to a political view.
It should also be noted that social and political awareness and the subsequent
discussion of pertinent controversial issues are actually a mirror of the requirement of the
subject and particularly the need of public examination. The utilitarian consideration of
the students was found in this study to have an impact on the conclusion students put up
at least during examinations. Students F and S (School 2), for example, explained that
examination results counted more than anything for them. They studied controversial
issues from different perspectives as they knew this would be required in the public
examination that determined whether they would have a place in the university. They
said that they knew it was an academic game and they would thus apply the concepts
which were needed for a higher score. They even said that they would take up a stance
contrary to their own personal views in answering a question if they felt that would lead
to a better or richer answer that could bring them a higher score.
More important, we should not come to the easy conclusion that discussion of
controversial social and political issues will necessarily lead to social and political
participation. Indeed the data we collected from this study suggested the contrary.
Students made a difference between the study of LS, an academic study, and
participation, a social action. From their discourses, we learnt that their real participation
depended more on the arousal of the specific event. Some of the students interviewed did
join the public rallies during the Umbrella Movement. However, none of them pointed out
LS had an important direct effect on their participation as that was basically triggered by
the event, namely, the decision about the election of the chief executive and particularly
the use of tear gas against protestors. For those students who participated in the
Umbrella Movement, they did not think LS was an important factor behind their
participation. They pointed out that, even without LS, they would have access to
controversial issues, including those relating to the Umbrella Movement, through social
and mass media. A student pointed out that, without LS and the different perspectives it
brings, students can be easily brainwashed by mass media which is politically biased.
Another student pointed out that, as young people often shut themselves off from
contrary views in the social media (such as Facebook), LS is important as it presents
controversial issues to the students in a more balanced way. Some students believed that
their study of LS made them more analytical during the course of participation but such
analysis can work out in different ways. While a few students pointed out that their
participation in the Umbrella Movement gave them a chance to understand the abstract
concepts, including rule of law and democracy, in a substantive and consolidated way; a
student indeed argued that his encounters made him doubtful whether Hong Kong
people, lacking political knowledge and having only political arousal but not enduring
political interest, are really ready for full democracy – a conclusion opposite to what his
view had been at the beginning of the process.
 AEDS Will major political events have an impact on the teaching and learning of LS?
5,1 If affirmative, is the impact positive or negative? The Umbrella Movement, a loosely
organized pro-democracy political movement, took place at the end of 2014 when our
study was being conducted. It was found in our study that the movement was
perceived to have both a positive and a negative impact on LS. On the one hand, the
movement provided an incentive to study the politics of Hong Kong and the concepts
68 covered in LS as they became nearer to everyday life. Besides, there was a real context
against which the concepts could be examined. A teacher explained that the movement
provided a context for examining concepts like the rule of law and social participation.
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On the other hand, regular classes could be disturbed by students’ boycott of classes.
In addition, some parents, fearing that their children might be involved in the
movement, became sensitive and exerted pressure on schools which made LS teachers,
who were teaching controversial issues and politics, difficult.

7. Conclusion
Our study suggests that LS, while being one of the subjects in the senior secondary level,
can be a potential contribution to civic education of Hong Kong. LS can enhance the
students’ social and political awareness; enrich their understanding of politics; and offer
them ample opportunities to engage in analysis and discussion of controversial issues.
In addition, LS, with its focus on examining controversial issues from different
perspectives, can provide the room to train up the student in terms of civility and other
civic virtues, such as open-mindedness and willingness to make sensible compromise,
which are needed for peaceful negotiation and settlement of differences in public affairs in
adulthood. These are important for the civic education that aims to prepare people for
living in a democratic system – which the Basic Law vows to be the long-term goal. But
thoughts should be given on how civic virtues trained in LS classes, in an academic
context, can be transferred to the interactions in the real socio-political context in which
emotional involvement can easily be overwhelming. If benefits LS can offer to civic
education are to be reaped, facilitative factors must be built up. Such factors should
comprise but not limited to: dedicated teachers who are professionally trained,
well-prepared, reasonable and open-minded; the adoption of a discussion-based pedagogy;
the refraining from indoctrination; and firm support for different voices to be heard in the
classroom. Behind all these factors, as public examination is of paramount importance in
the Hong Kong education context, it is fundamental that the LS curriculum and LS public
examination must continue to treasure informed analysis and independent judgment of
the students. Finally, we have to caution readers that our study was a small-scale study
with an exploratory nature and excessive generalization based on it would not be advised.

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About the authors

Dr Timothy Wai Wa Yuen received his first Degree from the University of Hong Kong and his
Doctorate from Durham University. He has worked as a School Teacher, an Economist and a
Teacher Trainer for the former colleges of education and the University of Hong Kong. He now
serves as an Assistant Professor in the Hong Kong Institute of Education with research
interests in: citizenship/political education and education policies. His recent publications can be
found in Intercultural Education, International Journal of Educational Management, Compare,
Citizenship Teaching and Learning, International Studies in Educational Administration and
Citizenship, Social and Economics Education: An International Journal. Dr Timothy Wai Wa Yuen
is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: tyuen@ied.edu.hk
Dr Yan Wing Leung received his PhD in Civic Education from the University of Sydney.
He serves as an Associate Professor and is the Co-Director of the Centre for Governance and
Citizenship of the Hong Kong Institute of Education. His research mainly focusses on civic
education, human rights education, national education, values education, civic missions of
schools, political socialization, students’ participation, civil society and educational policies.
Dr Leung has published widely in international, regional and local journals. He has been involved
in many internally and externally funded projects and consultative work with schools.
Sally Jie Qing Lu received her Master’s Degree from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and
her first Degree from Beijing Polytechnic University. She served as a School Teacher in
both Hong Kong and China before working as a Research Assistant at the Hong Kong Institute
of Education. Her main research interests include: task-based language teaching,
Confucius-heritage culture, the English curriculum in China and blog-based learning.

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