Since the start of the new century, basic and senior schools have started to encounter curriculum reforms, and vocational education has experienced substantial changes. Based on the changing context in the past 10 or more years, this study examines the issue of school-to-work transition from the perspective of the vocationalization of secondary education in Hong Kong. In addition to providing the results of different studies, three approaches are proposed. These approaches include enhancement of generic competencies through technology, introduction of lost-cost programs in less gender-specific areas, such as business studies, and emphasis on entrepreneurship education.
[Copyright © 2016 James Nicholas Publishers.]

Background: This paper analyses the role of, and approach to, policy referencing and borrowing in Hong Kong’s recent reforms that culminated in the creation of its New Academic Structure and the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education. Main argument: It argues that Hong Kong has gone further than most jurisdictions not just in responding to global influences on education reform, but in taking explicit steps to internationally benchmark its curriculum and assessment, and in involving the global community at multiple levels in the process of education policy planning and implementation. Sources of evidence and method: The paper is based on the documentary analysis of policy documents in Hong Kong, and 23 interviews with key stakeholders in the policy network, including policy-makers, practitioners and community leaders. Discussion and conclusions: While policy referencing and borrowing in the Hong Kong context can, in part, be traced to a colonial legacy, the Special Administrative Region of China demonstrates a collaborative approach to education reform involving local and international engagement that may be relevant to other systems. Its approach was informed by a measured use of policy referencing that involved ‘horizon scanning’ of other systems’ policies and practices; international benchmarking; and engaging international expertise to facilitate implementation.
[Copyright © 2016 NFER.]

English is an important language in Hong Kong, an international city located on the southern coast of the People's Republic of China that, for over 150 years to 1997, was a British colony. This paper describes and analyses changes in teaching methodologies in the English language curriculum formally proposed for Hong Kong junior secondary schools from 1975 to the present day, to study how the curriculum developments reflect interrelated social, political, economic, and cultural factors of the period and the ideology in educational circles that was pre-eminent at the time. It finds that, while the rhetoric of the curriculum has changed in accordance with shifts in socio-economic conditions, the curriculum content and pedagogical approaches implemented in the classrooms have proved more constant across time. The paper suggests some explanations for the resultant curricula tensions.
[Copyright © Lulu Press Inc.].

The New Senior Secondary Education (NSSC) curriculum will launch in 2009 under the new 334 academic structure of secondary school education in Hong Kong. The NSSC is intended to eliminate the backwash effect of public examinations and for the re-planning of human capital for the future of Hong Kong (EDB, 2005a; SAR, 1997, 2000). On the other hand, education of Hong Kong has been criticized as elitist, and Hong Kong culture was described as “survival, affluence and deliverance” (Chan, 1993). Very often, a curriculum reform proposal may not be carried out as it is intended because of the predominant values of a society that resists the reform ideas. The NSSC policy portrays an interesting curriculum decision making process which allows school the flexibility in the subject selections and the allocation of study time on various study components in the curriculum framework. According to a recent report (EDB, 2005B), the visions and goals of the NSSC were well supported by different stakeholders; however, reservations were also expressed on the proposed details of implementation on many aspects. Taken this as an inquiry point, this study attempts to understand how teachers think about the NSSC, and to further explore the overriding values behind the views of teachers on the intended curriculum blueprint. Interview data of 14 senior school teachers were collected. The findings suggested that teachers’ receptiveness to NSS were driven by predominant values on achievement and success, elitist model of curriculum conceptions, concern of school prestige, and teachers’ self interest. An interesting them emerged from the ideas on education. When they were asked about questions on the implementation level, teachers tended to shift to a utilitarian perspective that deviates from their own mission but assimilates with the employers’ expectations and fulfills their self interest. Implications are drawn on the role of government on curriculum policy making and implementation to ensure

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the progress of the curriculum reform in Hong Kong in the implementation phase from 2001-2006, with the agreement and support of heads and teachers on the reform. Design/methodology/approach – Survey questionnaires and focus group interviews were used to collect data from various stakeholders. A stratified random sampling method was employed to select 150 primary schools and 120 secondary schools to participate in the study. Findings – It is found that with the agreement and support of school heads and teachers, there is good progress in the reform items on teaching and learning. Findings of this paper also suggest that teachers who agreed with the reform items made changes with their practices in terms of learning and teaching strategies, catering to learner diversity, assessment for learning, developing students' language proficiency, cross-curricula learning, playing multiple teachers' roles and preparation for the new senior secondary curriculum. This study thus supports most findings from the change literature with its empirical data that educational changes and innovations with the agreement and support of school heads and teachers tend to have a greater chance of succeeding. Originality/value – The paper contributes by examining to what extent findings and views established in change literature elsewhere can be justified and enriched with the case of Hong Kong.
[Copyright © 2011, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.]

This paper reports on a process of curriculum innovation for a pedagogy course with a focus on the perceptual gaps between teacher educators and student teachers. As a collaborative inquiry by teacher educators, it was a response to government-led education reform for a new subject at senior secondary level - Liberal Studies - which aimed to cultivate citizenship with humanitarian values. Observing critical discourse and community learning as desirable pedagogical principles to nurture a new generation of teachers for social awareness and commitment to citizenship, the curriculum innovation began with recognition of student teachers' lack of readiness to embrace such learning orientations due to the pre-university approach to learning for examination performance. The challenges were met with the design of assessment tasks that shaped independent thinking and collaborative inquiry, while building relationships in multiple human and conceptual dimensions. Through analysis of a flow of episodes, the paper captures the meaning of the processes of liberation to learn, and concludes with depiction of a growth model for transformation of relationships amidst a performance-related assessment culture.
[Copyright of Education as Change is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/16823206.2014.882267]

This paper attempts to identify the leadership practices and qualities of school principals engaged in implementing a curriculum reform in Hong Kong. Based on interview data of school principals, this paper shows that the types of instructional leadership practices that school principals adopt and the contextual conditions in which these practices occur are key factors explaining the differential effectiveness of implementation efforts. Six efficacious instructional leadership practices and two contextual conditions critical to their development were identified. This paper reconceptualises instructional leadership as a collective and transformational endeavour, functioning in communities of practice to support school development at different levels.
[Copyright of School Leadership and Management is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13632434.2013.813459]