Indoctrination and nationalistic education

There is always an on going debate on whether nationalistic (patriotic) education is compatible with the practice of civic education with an emphasis on preparing critical thinking citizens. After the return of Hong Kong's sovereignty to the People's Republic of China, the urge to promote nationalistic education within civic education is increasing rapidly as the national identity and sense of belonging to China among Hong Kong people is weak. This paper argues by case studies of some civic educators in secondary school that teachers with an understanding of 'education for totalitarian nationalism' tend to adopt teaching strategies which probably lead to indoctrination -- for example -- the use of biased sources of information, exposure to the 'bright side' only, refraining from discussion of the 'dark side', and restricting divergent views in the teaching of controversial issues. This practice of nationalistic education is contradictory to the aim of civic education to prepare critical thinking citizens.