Social developments and school music education: the struggles in Hong Kong

This paper explores two current issues in the educational policies and practices of Hong Kong that have been shaped by the emergence of the nation-state and the return of Hong Kong's sovereignty from the UK to the People's Republic of China on 1 July 1997. Since this time there have been two great challenges facing music education. The first concerns how to incorporate diverse cultures, including Chinese music, into a Western-orientated music curriculum; and the second is to find a way to cultivate national identity and democracy through music education. The data presented here were collected via in-depth, semi-structured individual interviews with music teachers, school heads and assistant school heads across 40 primary and secondary schools between 2006 and 2007. The findings can be explained by referring to the shortcomings of multicultural education and the underdevelopment of democracy in Hong Kong's education system.     

School self-evaluation for development: The case for and reflections on a training programme

Abstract

This paper explores the case for schools conducting their own self-evaluation to serve the dual purpose of professional development within schools and accountability demands from external sources. The paper is in three parts. The first outlines the argument and benefits for schools conducting their own case study evaluation of their curriculum policies and practices, indicating how this approach is both similar to and different from external case study of schools. The second describes a training programme designed and implemented by the author to support schools in conducting evaluations that are valid, credible and useful. The third presents the participants' and author's reflections on the training and its outcomes and, through an example from one of the schools involved, illustrates what school self-evaluation looks like grounded in the actual experience of undertaking the process. From the evidence presented, the paper concludes that educational professionals, with appropriate support and training, are more than equal to the task of conducting credible and valid case study school self-evaluations.     

Managing change in an integrated school--a Hong Kong hybrid experience

Following the world trend of inclusion in education, many schools in Hong Kong have started including students with special needs in the regular classrooms. Given the unique educational context of Hong Kong as 'East meets West', and given that inclusion is essentially a concept from the West, this paper argues that Hong Kong's integration has its unique hybrid features. This paper reports the experience of one primary school in the process of change in areas of stages of integration, leadership and whole school approach, during a two-year implementation period. Change processes at the school, classroom and individual levels are discussed. A case study methodology is used so that unique characteristics of the school in its naturalistic settings can be captured. Data were obtained from observation, documentary analysis, individual and group interviews of different school stakeholders: the principals, parents, teachers, resource teachers, and guidance personnel. Implications of findings to schools in Hong Kong and other countries facing similar issue in parallel and mixed cultural settings are discussed.     

One Hong Kong,Two Histories: 'History' and 'Chinese history' in the Hong Kong school curriculum

Hong Kong's school history curriculum is unique worldwide in that it consists of two entirely separate subjects--'History' and 'Chinese History'--which differ not only in content, but also in terms of their pedagogy and their assumptions concerning the nature of history as a discipline. The distinct subject of 'Chinese History' was first created in the 1950s, largely in response to the colonial government's desire to limit the politicisation of local schools. However, there was subsequently little interference by the government in the development of curricula for the 'two histories'. The pattern of curriculum development for history in Hong Kong over the past few decades does not support conventional theories concerning the impact of colonialism on education. On the contrary, it suggests that the relationship of colonialism to curriculum development may in Hong Kong's case be better understood in terms of a mutually convenient collaboration between the government and local educational élites.     

Challenges to Values Education in Hong Kong School Music Education

This study deals with the issue of incorporating values education in music education in Hong Kong's primary and secondary schools. It includes the development of the state's cultural and national identity since its handover from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China (PRC). Thirty primary and secondary school music teachers were interviewed in order to understand how notions of “musical values” and “non-musical values” have been addressed in the curriculum. In particular, this study focuses on music teachers' perspectives on teaching world music, traditional Chinese music, the PRC national anthem, and non-musical values. This paper questions the effectiveness of existing curricular and pedagogical attempts to encourage the students' musical experience and extra-musical education. It concludes that values education must have clear conceptions of “values”, “musical cultures”, and “national identity” in order to maintain unity amidst the intensifying plurality of ethnicities and cultures in Hong Kong.     

From inspection to quality: Ways in which school inspection influences change in schools

Inspection is employed by most European education systems as an instrument for controlling and promoting the quality of schools. Yet there is little research knowledge about how inspection drives the improvement of schools. The study reports on surveys to principals in primary and secondary education in six European countries to attempt to clarify how school inspection impacts on the improvement of schools. Based on an analysis of principals’ perceptions the evidence suggests that inspection primarily drives change indirectly, through encouraging certain developmental processes, rather than through more direct coercive methods. Inspectorates that set clear expectations and standards have an impact on the increased utilization of self-evaluation and on developing the capacity of schools to improve in a variety of ways.     

Exploring the Politics of Blame: School inspection and its contestation in New Zealand and England

This article examines how New Zealand's Education Review Office (ERO) and England's Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) attempt to construct school failure as the clear responsibility of schools in order to gain ideological power as agents of accountability. These 'politics of blame' are contested in both settings by an alternative 'contextual' claim which seeks to take account of broader social and political constraints on schools. It is argued that whereas New Zealand academics have been distrustful of the ERO's agenda, English school effectiveness and school improvement researchers have often provided support for OFSTED's politics of blame. However this relationship represents a double-edged sword for OFSTED because some school effectiveness/school improvement researchers also partly support the contextual claim. The article concludes that the politics of blame and their contestation will continue to be important in these settings and elsewhere.     

权力下放、绩效责任与学校自我评估

权力下放与校本管理运动赋予了学校一定的自主权,但权力和责任必须相称.享有一定自主权力的学校,必须承担起学校发展成败和教育品质高低的责任.但有了权力,又具备绩效责任意识的学校并不必然就是一个不断提升自我能力而创造未来的组织,它还必须拥有自我评估、自我完善的机制与能力.赋权、问责与增能的有机结合才是学校转变为学习型组织和实现可持续发展的动力和途径.     

Democracy,Citizenship and Extra-musical Learning in Two Chinese Communities: Hong Kong and Taiwan

This paper presents a comparative study of extra-musical learning in the music classes of the schools of Hong Kong and Taiwan, where education is geared towards democracy and citizenship at a time of unstable national identity for both communities. Taiwan has been undergoing a process of indigenisation since 1945, whilst Hong Kong's sovereignty was returned to the People's Republic of China after 1 July 1997. This paper argues that the transmission of extra-musical learning is essentially a response to the particular needs of these two Chinese historical-social contexts, which require their music curricula to be securely grounded in the ideology of a culturally based education for 'citizenship'. Despite different approaches to western-based musical knowledge in schools, Hong Kong and Taiwan attempt to promote a sense of national identity and an essentially Confucian set of moral values as a central goal of school music education. The promotion of ethno-cultural nationalism in Taiwan's music education is regarded as a democratic goal for the Taiwanese state, though in practice, the educational systems of both Taiwan and Hong Kong are coloured by the global context.     

Lessons learned? School leadership and curriculum reform in Hong Kong

This paper examines the processes of implementing curriculum reform in schools. Specifically, it investigates how schools learn lessons from previous experiences of reform and apply them when challenged by new reforms. The context for this study is Hong Kong's New Secondary School Curriculum (NSSC), with particular reference to the subject of English Language. Research into the enactment of change over the last decade tells a story of weak leadership and management by policy makers, schools leaders and teachers. Key areas of weakness – poor management of change by school leaders, teachers' lack of understanding of the changes, and weak teacher collaboration – were pinpointed as reasons for the dismal results of curriculum change. This study investigates whether these areas of weakness were also in the implementation of the NSSC. Data collection comprised semi-structured interviews in nine secondary schools. The study reveals that lessons had been learnt from the previous experiences of implementing reform, and suggests that the capacity of schools to learn from a historical perspective should be taken into account in curriculum planning.     

Irish teachers,starting on a journey of data use for school self-evaluation

With much of the literature on school self-evaluation (SSE) stressing the importance of data use, this article explores how teachers in Irish post-primary schools are coming to terms with this new challenge. Since 2012, all schools in Ireland are required to engage in SSE for the purpose of improving student outcomes. For the first time, teachers and school leaders are being asked to systematically gather and analyse various types of data, devise improvement plans and implement improvements. Despite such demands, the compulsory education system in Ireland operates within a low-stakes accountability environment, with an absence of published school league tables and no consequences for poor school performance. It is also interesting to explore the introduction of a school improvement process that requires data as evidence for self-evaluation, but where very little data currently exists compared to other jurisdictions and where the discourse of data use in schools is relatively new.This article outlines the experience of 13 post-primary schools that were supported by the DCU Centre for Evaluation, Quality and Inspection to complete an SSE process, during which, each school gathered and analysed a range of data. This study is part of a larger action research project which explores various aspects of the implementation of SSE in schools, including models of support and continuing professional development for schools. This article looks specifically at the use of data by the schools involved. The key research questions ask: what data was gathered by the schools and what was the attitude to and experience of data-use among teachers? In doing so, this article explores some of the current research questions in relation to data use in schools. Overall, the findings indicate that schools gathered a range of data, which was mainly quantitative due to a focus on quantitative target setting. Despite a generally positive attitude to the usefulness of data and the skills learned, participants did not appear convinced that they would be involved in data use on an ongoing basis.     

Using data on school strengths and weaknesses for school improvement

This paper examines evaluation data use practices of a network of schools implementing an internal, independent, school self-evaluation process for more than a decade. This network currently uses data on its strengths alongside data indicative of its weaknesses, collecting and utilizing both positive and negative data for improvement and accountability purposes. We conducted multiple formal and informal interviews with 24 school management members and teachers, and gathered and analyzed 50 school documents in order to understand how the network used evaluation findings for school improvement. We identified types of data use described in the literature (instrumental, conceptual, and symbolic), and propose a complementary type of use we termed “reinforcement data use”. Our findings suggest that identifying strengths is one of the valid goals and outcomes of evaluation, shedding light on its potential to enhance school ethos, and to promote a positive attitude toward evaluation processes and their subsequent effects.     

Diversity and progress in school accountability systems in Australia

School education in Australia is a complex interplay between federal and state governments, and between government and non-government schools. This article explores the supervision of schools in Australia through school accountability systems. Utilising publicly available documents a systematic analysis of the state and territory systems for government schools is provided. It is a paper that attempts to document rather than critique school accountability, although a conceptual framework utilising contractual, moral and professional accountability is used to analyse the different accountability processes reported upon. Contractual and moral accountability is supported by most systems, whilst there is potential to foster professional accountability in only two systems. Fostering professional accountability is important because this is where the internal motivation of teachers helps to drive school improvement. When compared to leading-edge systems, Australian accountability systems are lacking in judgements on teaching practice in individual classrooms, and the use of sophisticated measures of learning and value-added analysis.     

Investigating the role of bilingual teaching assistants in Hong Kong: an exploratory study

Background:?Recent government initiatives in Hong Kong have focused on raising the participation of students from South Asian backgrounds in mainstream schools, to encourage their further integration into Hong Kong's educational system and society. These students' learning in mainstream schools takes place within the context of the central curriculum and, thus, students face the challenge of learning Chinese as an additional language. Mainstream schools sometimes provide additional support, including the provision of bilingual teaching assistants to address the specific needs of the students from South Asian backgrounds.

Purpose:?This exploratory study aims to investigate the roles of bilingual teaching assistants in Hong Kong.

Method:?Interviews were held with two bilingual teaching assistants from the South Asian community in Hong Kong who were working in a mainstream secondary school. Teachers from the school were also interviewed. Open-ended interview questions focused on perceptions of the roles and responsibilities of bilingual teaching assistants in Chinese-language-medium classes. The data were analysed to identify any emergent patterns and themes.

Findings:?The research findings indicate that the bilingual teaching assistants from the South Asian community not only took on the role of helping the learners from South Asian backgrounds in Chinese language acquisition, but also acted as cultural mediators between mainstream school culture and the culture of the South Asian community in Hong Kong.

Conclusions:?This small-scale exploratory research study suggests the importance of the role of bilingual teaching assistants in promoting equal access to quality education for ethnic minorities in Hong Kong.     

Policy promise and the reality of community involvement in school-based management in Zambia: Can the rural poor hold schools and teachers to account?

Community participation in school management—and in hiring and firing of teachers in particular—has been actively advocated as an effective reform to improve school and teacher accountability in the Global South. This paper examines whether such reform functions in practice as suggested in theory, drawing on the findings of a case study of community schools in rural Zambia. Using the concept of the ‘context of practice’, efforts have been made to understand the local meanings of community participation in school management rather than that of the central government or development partners. Such analysis illuminates the important roles that local economic and cultural capital, complex cultural norms and unexpected micro politics play in shaping the way parents and communities are actually willing and able to participate in school management, and how these issues influence school and teacher accountability. The findings also underscore the difficulty that teachers face when attempting to respond to the local demands, especially in the context of grossly inadequate resources being allocated to them by the state. The paper concludes by arguing, first, that community management of schools in Zambia was an unfunded and unclear policy that shifted financial responsibility to already marginalized rural communities and, second, that direct hiring relationships between parents and teachers will dilute the importance of the political accountability of the state to ensure quality education for all.     

Church,State and Education: Catholic education in Hong Kong during the political transition

Roman Catholic schools represent an important sector in Hong Kong's education system, both in terms of number and historical significance. As in many colonies in other periods of history, the Roman Catholic Church, in addition to other Christian Churches, had a partnership relationship with the colonial government in the provision of education in Hong Kong. Was there any change in this relationship during the political transition to 1997? Did the prospective return of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China (PRC) affect Catholic educational policies? This article examines these two questions in relation to the experience of other places in the world and in relation to the special nature of the Catholic Church in Hong Kong, namely its link with the Vatican and its relations with China where Church schools no longer exist.     

Chinese children with ASD in Hong Kong (SAR): development of inclusive practice

The advancement of inclusive educational provision in the Asia‐Pacific region has been guided by international research. As one example, Hong Kong has developed a unique and cultural response to inclusive practice within the region. This paper reviews Hong Kong's development of inclusive education practice for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It provides an account of how services in education have developed for Chinese children with ASD, from diagnosis to school placement, and how the students are supported. A number of challenges for the region are discussed including those related to pedagogy, mentoring, placement, support and the need for culturally appropriate professional learning.     

Teaching within and against the circle of privilege: reforming teachers,reforming schools

Three decades of neo-liberal education in western countries, particularly English-speaking countries, have not served most children well. The evidence is mounting that the neo-liberal experiment has been a failure on many grounds, not least because of its deprofessionalizing effect on teachers. The disciplinary effects of neo-liberal policy frameworks on education remain powerful, but there are numerous teachers and schools who have resisted the regime of managerialism and accountability. This paper celebrates such activists. It argues that the internal focus on the delivery of instruction and test-taking inside schools ignores the point that the major influences on the school performance of children exist outside rather than inside the school. The paper argues that young people who have been ‘othered’ and put at a disadvantage by the neo-liberal education system deserve to be treated in a more dignified, engaged and respectful manner than seems to be the case within the ideology of accountability and top-down managerialism.     

Setting expectations for good education: how Dutch school inspections drive improvement

With decentralisation becoming increasingly widespread across Europe, evaluation and accountability are becoming key issues in ensuring quality provision for all (Altrichter & Maag Merki, 2010; Eurydice, 2004). In Europe, the dominant arrangement for educational accountability is school inspections. The purpose of this research is to identify and analyse the ways in which school inspections in The Netherlands impact on the work of schools. The results of 2 years of survey data of principals and teachers in primary and secondary schools show that inspection primarily drives change indirectly, through encouraging certain developmental processes, rather than through more direct and coercive methods, such as schools reacting to inspection feedback. Specifically, results indicate that school inspections which set clear expectations on what constitutes “good education” for schools and their stakeholders are strong determinants of improvement actions; principals and schools feel pressure to respond to these prompts and improve their education.     

Should I Stay or Should I Go? Comparing Teacher Mobility in Florida's Charter and Traditional Public Schools

Currently, we know very little about the mobility decisions of charter public school teachers and how these compare to the decisions made by traditional public school teachers. In addition, it is unclear whether the teachers who leave charter schools tend to be weaker or stronger than their peers. Using statewide administrative data, I begin to answer these questions by studying the magnitude and nature of teacher turnover in Florida's charter public schools compared with turnover in the state's traditional public schools. It appears that Florida's charter school administrators may be better able to recruit and retain teachers with high academic skills than their traditional counterparts. In addition, the mobility patterns exhibited by Florida's charter school teachers differ from those exhibited by traditional school teachers in important ways, including greater sensitivity to accountability measures and less sensitivity to salary considerations.