Hong Kong: Social justice and education for justice-oriented citizens in a politicized era

Hong Kong has become a politicized city after its sovereignty being handed back to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1997. In an era characterized by social injustice in the politicization process, the authors reiterate the importance of nurturing justice-oriented citizens through revising the citizenship education curriculum and making good use of social justice pedagogies in the citizenship education classroom. This chapter begins with an introduction of the political context of Hong Kong before and after its handover from Britain to the PRC. This is followed by highlighting some key issues of social injustice in Hong Kong and some incidents with regard to social justice concerns that recently occurred in the pursuit of social and political justice by the general public. Adopting the concept of three types of citizenship as proposed by Westheimer and Kahne (Am Educ Res J 41(2): 234–269, 2004) –personally responsible citizens, participatory citizens and justice-oriented citizens –the authors attempt the chronological conceptualization of four phases of development of citizenship education in Hong Kong. The chapter concludes by specifying the importance of nurturing justice-oriented citizens as a matter of urgency for holistic personal development, especially in the rapidly changing social and political context of Hong Kong. Copyright © 2016 The Author(s).