Abstract

This research brings together two areas of substantive concern to schools and societies. Citizenship education is the first of these areas. Societies must prioritise preparing young people for their citizenship responsibilities, and schools play a key role in preparing young people for citizenship. This role is often referred to as the ‘civic mission of schools’. Hong Kong, as a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China, is a unique environment in which to consider this mission. Since its return to China in 1997, the Hong Kong government has been developing its own form of democracy, which relies fundamentally on an active citizenry. Developing participatory citizenship, therefore, is a key aspect of the civic mission of schools that involves the ‘teaching’ aspect, including teaching and learning with formal and informal curricula, and the ‘practising’ aspect, which treats a school as a miniature political community, where learning is achieved mainly through the actual participation of students in school governance. Arguably, unless the students learn in a structure that offers them experience of the principles of citizenship, such as participation in governance, the effect of civic learning of students remains questionable. The key issue is how to achieve this participatory culture in schools.

The answer involves investigation into the second substantive area: student

participation in school governance. Hong Kong launched school-based management (SBM) in the mid 1990s, enabling schools to introduce a participatory element into their governance. This project investigates the extent to which Hong Kong schools support the development of a student participatory culture against the backdrop of SBM. It will explore whether and how school governance can contribute to nurturing participatory citizenship. This study is important in many respects. First, it will enrich the literature on participatory school governance and the relationship between nurturing participatory citizens and the democratisation of school governance. Specifically, the facilitating and hindering factors will be identified. Second, it can be useful to education policymakers in formulating policies that promote participatory citizenship among young people. Third, the results will offer valuable references to school practitioners in promoting participatory school governance. By simultaneously considering the civic mission of schools and school-based governance, this study creates a new area of research for further development.