Contesting Education and Identity in Hong Kong

Book excerpt: This text examines the intersection of youth civic engagement, identity, and protest in Hong Kong, through the lens of education. It explores how education and identity have been protested in Hong Kong, historically and today, and the mark that such contestations have left on education. Many people, particularly outside Hong Kong, were astonished by youth participation in the Umbrella Movement of 2013–2014, and the anti-extradition law protests in 2019. These protests have caused people to consider what has changed in Hong Kong over time, and what education has to do with youth civic engagement and political expression. This book provides an academic, theoretically oriented perspective on the intersection of youth identity and education in Hong Kong. Coming from an educational (and philosophical) orientation, Jackson focuses on areas where greater understanding, and greater potential agreement, might be developed, when it comes to education. This book will be of interest to educational policy makers, curriculum specialists, and educational scholars and students in liberal studies, social studies, civic education, comparative and international education, multicultural education, and youth studies.