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This paper examines the nature and socio-political functions of Hong Kong's 'Chinese history curriculum' during colonialism and since decolonization and argues that these functions have resulted in a curriculum characterized by rote-learning and geared towards social control. Students are initiated into the traditional, orthodox view of Chinese history and prescribed moral judgements. Consequently, there is little chance for independent thinking on the part of students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese history (a subject entirely separate and distinct from 'history') has long been the most politically sensitive subject in Hong Kong's school curriculum. Previous studies have analysed the policies of the colonial and postcolonial Governments towards this subject. Here, we examine the role played by the Chinese history subject community (comprising teachers, academics and officials in the Government's educational bureaucracy), and look at the way in which this has operated as an autonomous interest group. We conclude that the influence of this subject community has been a key factor limiting the extent to which the local educational authorities have been able to develop a coherent policy in relation to history education in general, and the teaching of national history in particular. Specifically, advocates of the maintenance of Chinese history as a separate subject within the school curriculum have been able, by associating themselves with the post-1997 agenda of 'patriotic education', to effectively hoist the local educational bureaucracy with its own petard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1997, Hong Kong's reintegration with China has been founded on the principle of 'One Country, Two Systems', which serves to guarantee the sustainability of the capitalist system in Hong Kong under the rule of the socialist motherland. This paper is an intra-cultural and inter-regional comparative study of the curricula of two systems (socialist and capitalist) under one country, using the junior secondary History curricula in Shanghai and Hong Kong as a case study. In addition to tracing the differences and similarities, divergences and convergences in the junior secondary History curricula of the two systems, the paper also generates proposals for the future improvement of History education in both cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In post-Mao China, wide-ranging reform programmes have affected almost every sphere of life. History education has been no exception, and in addition to attempts to revise teaching, learning and assessment methods, there have been preliminary forays into textbook pluralism and gradual devolution of curriculum development. History education professionals, however, are fully cognisant of their subject''s ‘sensitivity’, and reforming goals and content of both the preactive and active curriculum has thus been a cautious endeavour. This chapter explores the progress of reform through the ‘officially authorised’ historical narratives and teaching goals specified in national curricula. It focuses primarily on the junior secondary curriculum, as primary school History has recently been absorbed by Social Studies, and senior secondary education is neither compulsory nor universally accessible. It is argued that while curriculum objectives and syllabus content remain largely circumscribed by ‘traditional’ views of history as moral-ideological education and by contemporary political imperatives, curriculum developers are also influenced by professional academic and pedagogical concerns, and by efforts to justify the status of History in an increasingly crowded curriculum. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this article, the author, who is the editor of this periodical, presents a report about publication and financial performance of different issues of the journal in 2017. Topics include the March issue that focused on China covering topics in areas like History, Geography, and Business Studies; the September issue that highlighted Literacy Across the Curriculum, and Visual Literacy; and significant increase in copyright returns in 2017.