An interdisciplinary subject, liberal studies, was introduced as a compulsory and core subject into the New Senior Secondary Curriculum in Hong Kong in 2009 with the purpose of expanding students’ knowledge base and increasing their social awareness through investigation into a variety of issues. However, transforming curricular innovations into real classroom settings and maintaining them is a complicated process. This study aimed to investigate, during its first round of implementation, teachers’ pedagogical practices in 21 local schools through in-depth interviews and documentary analysis. The results reveal that the school administrators and teachers were more likely to adapt their teaching approaches and teaching materials than their teaching content and assessment. Both good practices and examination-oriented practices in the process of curriculum implementation were evident in this study. These findings contribute to our understanding of the implementation of an interdisciplinary curriculum in examination-oriented systems and inform the practitioners of school-based practices of curriculum implementation.
[Copyright © 2016 De La Salle University.]

Education for sustainable Development (ESD) in Hong Kong schools is administered by the Environmental Campaign Committee (ECC) through its core education programs, mainly the Hong Kong Green School Awards (HKGSA) and Student Environmental Protection Ambassador Scheme (SEPAS). This is supported partly by the SAR Government Education and Development Bureau (EDB) which seeks the permeation of ESD through the formal curriculum but is seriously hindered by the curriculum structure. Research recently conducted by the authors reveals that there are still questions to be answered regarding the readiness and willingness of schools to engage with ESD. In China, on the other hand, ESD is being promoted mainly through its Green School Program administered by the State Ministry of Education (MOE) and sponsored by the State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA). This chapter provides an in-depth description and comparison of the history, development, and the theoretical framework of ESD for schools in Hong Kong and Mainland China.

Liberal Studies will be a core subject in the new senior secondary curriculum to be implemented in 2009 in Hong Kong. The subject is very new to many pre-service and serving teachers who will be taking up teaching in this subject specialty. The present study is intended to be an exploratory one, with the aim of learning about how pre-service teachers majoring in Liberal Studies in a Postgraduate Diploma in Education programme offered by a local university make decisions when planning for lessons in the subject. The findings show that three factors played a key role in these teachers’ instructional decision making – disciplinary backgrounds, curriculum considerations, and considerations of how to represent knowledge for students. The findings will contribute to an understanding of the professional learning needs of Liberal Studies teachers.

This article aims to investigate teacher insights on curriculum integration in liberal studies (LS), particularly under the existing Advanced Supplementary Level (ASL) Curriculum, which is to be phased out in Hong Kong 2012, and the New Senior Secondary (NSS) Curriculum, which has been implemented since September, 2009. In comparing the existing ASLLS curriculum with the NSSLS curriculum under the “334” curriculum reform, interconnectedness in learning is highlighted, and learning linkages within and beyond LS are emphasized (Curriculum Development Council and Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority, 2007). Studies have suggested the importance of curriculum integration in LS (Maritain, 1971; Henderson and Smith, 2002; Lacy, 2002; Graham, 2004). ASLLS panel heads from six secondary schools in Hong Kong were interviewed in 2007/2008 academic year to investigate the concepts and practices of curriculum leaders regarding LS curriculum integration. Finally, teacher concerns over NSSLS curriculum integration were identified.
[Copyright © 2010 Common Ground, Wai Lun Anthony Leung.]

This paper investigates the concerns of teachers and the work of small class teaching (SCT) for integrated learning in Liberal Studies (LS) in the current New Senior Secondary (NSS) curriculum implemented beginning in 2009 in Hong Kong. The interconnectedness of learning in the NSS LS has been highlighted, with emphasis on linkages in learning within and beyond the subject. Relevant literature on the debate of class size reduction generally reveals the benefits of SCT. Several studies further indicate that students benefit from integrated learning in a small class setting. Other studies on group work format have recommended various approaches to integrated learning in a small class setting. Therefore, facilitating students with quality integrated learning in a small class setting for LS is crucial for its successful implementation in Hong Kong. An international study reported that the Hong Kong school system is regarded as ‘sustained improver’ and ‘good to great’ performance stage. Therefore the findings of this study in Hong Kong could provide valuable implications for school teachers, teacher educators and policy makers all over the world.
[Copyright © 2014 James Nicholas Publishers]

Drawing on findings from the extensive questionnaire survey and intensive case studies we conducted in Hong Kong secondary schools, this paper examines the interactions, tensions and gaps among the various stakeholders' visions, concerns and priorities as identified in the ongoing school reform. We examine the classroom dynamics of teaching and learning, the interactive pedagogical relationship involved, as well as the embedded institutional complexity in the schooling process, in order to understand what underlies the curriculum policy and education reform within the mainstream system. In view of the paramount significance of its evolvement in actual operation, we argue that education reform ought to be taken pragmatically but programmatically as the complexly embedded cultural process in which all the local practices and values of its stakeholders operate in the same cultural space. By conducting research on that interlocking cultural process, we also identify new options for Cultural Studies when education is taken seriously as the core of our intellectual project.
[Copyright of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2011.534579]

This study explores whether the deficit approach to understanding youth, which has been widely critiqued in contemporary youth studies, could still be a dominant paradigm in an emerging curriculum which emphasises multiple-perspective thinking. The analysis compares the representations of youth in selected reference sources at different levels of curriculum- making of the liberal studies (LS) secondary school curriculum in Hong Kong. These include: (1) the official website of the curriculum, (2) the textbooks and (3) the teachers' verbal accounts. The findings indicate that the curriculum contents at the institutional level (the LS official website) do not really favour a deficit representation of youth, but that the contents at the program level and at the classroom level do intensify that deficit representation. The findings shed light on the discourse of youth in education regimes and inform future research.
[Copyright of Discourse is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2012.692960]