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This paper delineates the characteristics and transformations of the identities of Hong Kong residents. Various telephone surveys and investigations indicate the dual, hybrid, and flowing identities of the majority of Hong Kong residents despite the Chinese and Hong Kong authorities' effort to promote a national Chinese identity through the so-called civic education. To explore the issue and the reason why there have been dual, hybrid and/or flowing identities of Hong Kong residents, the author formulates research questions, reviews the research literature and telephone surveys on the national identity of Hong Kong, and examines the effects of education policy and measures of national identity since the 1980s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Moral Education has been gaining more attention in recent years, especially with a growing concern for holistic education and humanistic life-centred approaches, and with special reference to the caring for spirituality education in early childhood education. (Ng, 2008; Yeung, 2009; Lau, 2010) Aims or Focus of Discussion: The present paper will start by enquiring what sort of education is needed by young children today. Based on some literature reviews and a recent study of kindergarten education in Hong Kong, some relevant questions are brought for discussions in this paper, esp. the ones regarding the educational needs for spiritual growth among young pupils from kindergarten. Suggestions: It is suggested that education authority and educators should be given more time and resources to promote the care for spirituality education in schools, so that kindergarten teachers would be better trained and equipped for humanistic and holistic education. Conclusion: It is concluded that since spirituality education is part of humanistic and holistic education, kindergarten educators should give more time to care for spirituality education in schools, with special concern for the caring of spiritual needs and growth among young pupils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: "Spirituality Education" of children has gained more concern in recent years, but there is a lack of consensus for its meaning. Some literatures regard Spirituality Education as Religious Education, while quite many literatures have shown a close relationship between Spirituality Education and Humanistic Education, which could be unrelated with Religious Education. What is the meaning of "Spirituality Education" being mentioned by the EKE reformers after all? Is it the former or the later? The Guide to the Preprimary Curriculum (2006) proposed "Lifelong learning" and "Holistic Learning", affirming the need of child-centredness (Humanistic Education) in curriculum. If so, there is a likelihood that "Spirituality Education" has a closer connection with humanistic education than with religious education. It is therefore vital to clarify the meaning of "Spirituality Education" for fostering the current early childhood educational reform. This paper seeks to explore if Spirituality Education has been misunderstood by the early childhood education practitioners with a result that hindering the implementation of educational reform. Focus of Discussion: Through literatures review and the author's interpretation, this paper attempts to demonstrate that Spirituality Education is actually closely related with Humanistic Education and Holistic Education. Spirituality Education shares similar elements with that of liberal studies, in which the concerned areas and aspects of knowledge are widespread. Hence, it is not limited in promoting Religious Education. And pedagogies adopted in Spirituality Education mainly emphasize diversified and critical thinking. The rationales behind Spirituality Education are closely related with that of Humanistic Education and Holistic Education. Spirituality Education has no direct relation with Religious Education which emphasizes direct transmission of religious dogma. Suggestion: In view of the importance of the role of Spirituality Education played in early childhood educational reform, early childhood education stakeholders are encouraged to distinguish the differences between Religious Education and Spirituality Education. The early childhood educational institution should discriminate between them, and to practise their school-based curriculums and pedagogies in accordance with their schools' missions and religious backgrounds. It is hoped that the authorities could tolerate and accept schools with different missions, religious and cultural backgrounds, to provide them opportunities for receiving school vouchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The "Primary school curriculum leadership" scheme was first introduced to Hong Kong primary schools by the Education Bureau in year 2002/03. An additional teaching post which was known as Primary Schoolmaster/Schoolmistress (Curriculum Development) - or PSM(CD), had been created to help the school head to lead internal curriculum development in primary school. This scheme was considered to be a pioneering initiative in Hong Kong as well as the Chinese culture societies. Aims: The paper reviews the curriculum leadership development in Hong Kong primary schools by examining the impacts of the work of PSM(CD) on internal curriculum development and school development in the context of curriculum reform, the challenges and difficulties faced by the PSM(CD)s in discharging their responsibilities, their successful experiences, and provides implications for future development. Comments: PSM(CD)s claimed that to carry out their responsibilities, they needed to perform different roles such as coworker, mentor, innovator, role model, and leader. Furthermore, the most important factors that would hinder their work were school organizational factors, supports of school heads and colleagues, readiness of the school as a whole for change, and personal limitations. Conclusion: This paper argues while some achievements had been made since the introduction of the PSM(CD) scheme, it is also worth our attention to note that this scheme promoted teacher leadership development at the school sites, which eventually contributed positive impacts on whole school development. On the other hand, it is noted that PSM(CD)s would encounter many difficulties and challenges in discharging their duties. There is urgent need to find out solutions to help the newly appointed PSM(CD)s to develop their competences and become a "successful" curriculum leader. This paper also concludes the successful criteria of the work of PSDM(CD) which should be a useful reference for the PSM(CD)s as well as the school heads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 156 years of British colonial rule (1842-1997) finally ended when the sovereignty over Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997. Since 1980, many new policies had been introduced in Hong Kong for the purpose of smoothing the process of handover. Some of the policies were introduced out of consideration for new political circumstances. Others were launched with the hidden agenda of erasing colonial history. The implementation of Chinese as an official medium of communication in the judicial system reflects the former, whereas the change of the Chinese titles of government officials reflects the latter. Many translation issues were involved in these so-called localization policies. In this regard, the change of Chinese titles for government officials in Hong Kong is a subject worthy of study. The Chinese titles of major government officials in colonial Hong Kong were actually taken over from those of Imperial China. Therefore, they are marks of Chinese imperial history rather than British colonial history. However, for the apparent propose of erasing colonial history, these proper Chinese titles were changed to newly coined Chinese titles that are not found in Chinese history. The aim of this paper is to use the issue of translation as an example to demonstrate that in the decolonization process of Hong Kong, as in that of many other colonized countries which intended to break with their colonial past, many decolonizing policies were actually self-defeating in purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]