Continuity and change in the meanings of citizenship - A case study of the primary education curriculum in Hong Kong, 1967-2002

Since the introduction of the Social Studies Syllabus in Hong Kong in 1967, there have been changes in the meanings of citizenship in the primary social education curriculum in accordance with changing contexts. But at the same time, the curriculum content has also been designed to maintain certain mores and values that are conducive to the wellbeing of society. Hence, out of the current of change, there has been an undertow of continuity in curriculum content. This paper adopts the conceptual model of "Multidimensional Citizenship" (Cogan and Derricott, 1998, 2000) to analyze how various concepts and meanings of citizenship in the primary social education curriculum in Hong Kong from 1967 to 2002. It is expected that the paper can add new dimension and enrich the repertoire for the study of citizenship in Hong Kong. Copyright © 2005 Pacific Circle Consortium for Education.