How to Balance Critical Thinking with National Identity? An Examination of Hong Kong's Liberal Studies Textbooks

Critical thinking and national identity are widely recognised as essential competencies for the twenty-first century, yet how curriculum design can meaningfully integrate the two remains unresolved. Hong Kong's Liberal Studies set out to develop both simultaneously, but fell short of either goal in practice. Drawing on textual analysis of five Liberal Studies textbooks, this study identifies three structural failings: 1) a fragmented knowledge base that undermines the cognitive prerequisites for critical inquiry; 2) a systematic neglect of evidence evaluation and logical reasoning that reduces critical thinking to a formal exercise; and 3) a locally-centred narrative that erodes national identity by framing Chinese Mainland as an implicit "other". These findings suggest that the curriculum's failure reflects the absence of genuine critical thinking instruction rather than any fundamental tension between the two goals. Building on this diagnosis, the study proposes that textbook development should be anchored with national identity formation, providing explicit instruction in argumentation and evidence literacy, and channel critical thinking towards constructive civic engagement for cultivating students who reason independently and identify genuinely with their country.