Abstract
This study reveals the perceptions of over one hundred Hong Kong teachers who were asked to reflect upon the implementation of Liberal Studies in secondary schools in response to the latest government review of the subject’s curriculum. Questionnaire-based surveys and semi-structured interviews were conducted to probe the participating teachers’ perceptions and suggestions in such areas as the subject’s objectives, content and assessment, with the ultimate goal of tracing the subject’s developmental trajectory. The findings indicate that, whilst the teachers appear to have faith in Liberal Studies’ objective to develop students into critical and independent thinkers, they feel that the pedagogical challenges with which they have been confronted have influenced their teaching motivation and support for the subject’s mandatory status in secondary education. Further, the potential tension between the challenges they have encountered in reality and the ideal outcomes envisaged by policymakers raises the question of how Liberal Studies can move forward in giving teachers a greater role in educational reform. Recommendations for relieving that tension, as well as the findings’ implications for future research on curriculum development in Hong Kong and elsewhere, are also discussed.
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Notes
The ongoing NSS Liberal Studies curriculum review began in April 2014. The proposed changes recommended by the EDB, CDC and HKEAA as a result of the first round of consultation can be found at http://334.edb.hkedcity.net/doc/eng/schoolsurvey_medium_term2/Q_LS_Eng.pdf or in script [#, *, @] in Table 2 in this manuscript.
The data collection of these two research projects also involved documentary analysis of newspaper articles and government reports. However, due to space limitations, only the data acquired from the interviews and surveys are presented in this paper. For further details, refer to Fung (2016) and Fung and Lui (2017).
The Liberal Studies curriculum review was still ongoing at the time of writing, and was expected to be completed by July 2015.
The one-off curriculum grant, which was earmarked at HK$320,000, was approximately equivalent to the combined annual salaries of a contract teacher and teaching assistant.
It is argued that the government’s initial purpose in offering a subsidy to Liberal Studies was to facilitate its early stage of development. Once the subject was on the right track and in full swing, the government withdrew the subsidy to avoid privileging it over other subjects (Fung and Yip 2010).
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Fung, D., Lui, WM., Liang, T. et al. The way forward for the development of Liberal Studies: how teachers perceive its introduction and implementation in Hong Kong secondary schools. Asia Pacific Educ. Rev. 18, 123–134 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-017-9471-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-017-9471-z