Educational reform in Japan and Hong Kong: A comparative study of curriculum decentralization

Educational reform in Japan and Hong Kong: A comparative study of curriculum decentralization

• Wong, Naikei

2004

• D Curriculum
  • DA Objectives & Outcomes
• P Social Context of Education
  • PB Comparative Education

Curricula Teaching

• Hong Kong
• Japan

• 1997.7 onwards

• Primary Education
• Secondary Education

This study is concerned with aspects of decentralization of curriculum development, a complex educational phenomenon, in Japan and Hong Kong. By introducing fieldwork and the case study research method, it hopes to yield a general understanding of the above phenomenon as reflected in the contexts of selected programs in curriculum reform, namely, (1) Project Learning and SBeD in Hong Kong, and (2) Integrated Learning in Japan, at junior levels of secondary school. In its research design, the objectives are to investigate and compare the broad trends and features in the rationale, practices and processes, and implications of reform in the locations studied. Trends of decentralization of curriculum development, in recent curriculum reforms in Japan and Hong Kong, indicated a strong policy interest in promoting specific essential skills and qualities through partial devolution of curricular control to schools. Most of these programs have multiple educational aims directed at either particular policy emphases or local school conditions, or both.
The practices and processes designed to bring about this change toward decentralization of curriculum development differed in the cases of Japan and Hong Kong. At the policy and system level, the levels of government involvement and commitment were not the same. Japan, through a combination of direct measures at the initiation stage and a longer-term policy of minimalist intervention, legitimized schools' autonomy over curriculum development decisions in the reformed programs, while Hong Kong, being traditionally less centralized and less effective with the power-coercive approach in curriculum planning, adopted more indirect strategies of exhortation and inducement while allowing schools full freedom over their own approach and priorities toward the specific reformed school curricula. In terms of school support systems, Japan seemed to be less prepared with the provision of practice guidelines, professional support and financial subsidies. Schools in Hong Kong were comparatively at some advantage in view of greater government involvement in supplying external information and resources. At the school level, practices tended to be diverse, though they generally reflected a propensity among schools to exploit, within permitted policy contexts, their autonomy over curricular objectives and content, teaching and organization of their reformed programs. In most cases, school's curricular interests focused on integrated skills and local issues with an emphasis on disengaging activities from academically-oriented learning (particularly, in Japan). Apart from time and material constraints, outcomes in my subject schools in the case study were affected by teachers' initiative, student quality, and presumably school leadership.
Fieldwork In the case study serves an exploratory function of providing hitherto unavailable information, particularly at the school level, about the implications and problems from the phenomenon in question. Further studies of a broader scope could be undertaken to assess such areas as effectiveness of implementation and support mechanisms, and the long-term development of the curriculum reforms.

MPhil

University of Hong Kong

Hong Kong

• English

Dissertation Theses

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/en/bibs/9ff0ff9f

2010-12-16