Global Cities in Practice : The Curriculum and Instruction of Comparative Education in Hong Kong and Macao

As postcolonial societies undergone changes of sovereignty respectively in 1997 and 1999, Hong Kong’s and Macao’s idiosyncratic developments make their unique roles and contributions in the field of comparative education. The comparative education research in Hong Kong, for example, has been attained global attraction for researchers with the establishments of research associations or centres specialized in comparative education (i.e., Comparative Education Society of Hong Kong and the Comparative Education Research Centre at the University of Hong Kong). In comparison, Macao has had a limited contribution to the field of comparative education because of its relatively smaller population and younger tertiary education (Manzon, 2013). However, there are increasing researchers specialized in comparative education are devoting themselves to the field in Macao. Considering the multidirectional cultural flows and the development of vernacular globalization and nationalism, it has become an urgent need to investigate how comparative education is taught as a subject in higher education in the two distinct global cities. The paper aims to probe into the curriculum and instruction of comparative education in Hong Kong and Macao universities. We created the criteria for course selection to broadly cover comparative education related courses. We identified 17 courses from five universities in Hong Kong and Macao. Additionally, we also included 5 courses with the words such as “comparative”, “international”, or “global” in course titles for analysis. Through analyzing course profiles, interviewing course instructors, and conducting a case study of a comparative education-related master program, the paper portrays what is being taught in the field of comparative education, how they are taught, and how the instructors’ characteristics affect teaching courses in comparative education. The preliminary findings show how the comparative education teaching is in practice under the specific geopolitics and higher education systems of Hong Kong and Macao.