Holding policy-makers to account: Exploring 'soft' and 'hard' policy and the implications for curriculum reform

Holding policy-makers to account: Exploring 'soft' and 'hard' policy and the implications for curriculum reform

• Kennedy, Kerry John Faculty of Education Studies, Hong Kong Institute of Education
• Chan, Jacqueline Kin Sang Faculty of Education, Chinese University of Hong Kong
• Fok, Ping Kwan Faculty of Education, Chinese University of Hong Kong

London Review of Education, 9(1), 41-54, 2011

Routledge

2011

• D Curriculum
  • DB Development & Evaluation
• R Educational Policy & Administration
  • RC Educational Planning & Decision Making Process, Educational Administration
• R Educational Policy & Administration
  • RE School Management, School-Parents Relationship

Curriculum Development Educational Practices Educational Change Teacher Attitudes Governance Case Studies Program Implementation Educational Policy Accountability Academic Achievement Models

• Hong Kong

• 1997.7 onwards

• Unknown or Unspecified

Curriculum implementation as both an educational practice and a policy conundrum has been the focus of academic research since the 1970s. A new perspective is taken in this article by borrowing from the literature on policy implementation in multilevel systems of government. The concepts of 'hard' and 'soft' policy are used to show that policy-makers choose from a range of strategies and it is these choices rather than teacher attitudes that may account for the level of implementation of a policy. A case study of curriculum implementation in Hong Kong is used to show how 'hard' and 'soft' policy can be identified in practice.
[Copyright of London Review of Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14748460.2011.550433]

• English

Journal Articles

• 14748460

• 10.1080/14748460.2011.550433

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/bibs/dbbf8b4d

2011-06-10