Perspectives on the cultural appropriacy of Hong Kong's target-oriented curriculum (TOC) initiative

Perspectives on the cultural appropriacy of Hong Kong's target-oriented curriculum (TOC) initiative

• Carless, David Robert Dept. of English, Hong Kong Institute of Education

Language, Culture and Curriculum, 12(3), 238-254, 1999

Routledge

1999

• P Social Context of Education
  • PC Society & Education
• D Curriculum
  • DB Development & Evaluation

Chinese Cultural Differences Curriculum Foreign Countries Language of Instruction Chinese People Hong Kong

• Hong Kong

• 1997.7 onwards

• Primary Education
• Secondary Education

The management of change has long been recognised to be a complex and challenging process. The literature has revealed few success stories and many examples of curriculum innovations being adopted half-heartedly or not at all. Set against the increasing world globalisation of which education is apart, the cultural aspects of innovations are being increasingly discussed in recent years. This paper focuses on the cultural dimensions of a major curriculum reform in Hong Kong, the Target-Oriented Curriculum (TOC) initiative. The main principles of TOC and its early implementation are discussed. A number of the main features of TOC are analysed with particular reference to their cultural appropriateness for the Hong Kong context. The thesis underlying the paper is that cultural issues need to be more carefully considered in the policy and adoption stages of the innovation process. In English Language teaching, it may be necessary to reflect more deeply on the suitability of the export of Western-based learner-centred, communicative or task-based approaches to other milieux where such approaches may not be commensurate with the local cultural context.
[Copyright of Language, Culture and Curriculum is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07908319908666581]

• English

Journal Articles

• 07908318

• 10.1080/07908319908666581

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/bibs/ebb8bcf2

2010-11-24