Caught between Fantasy and Reality: Confucian Values and Dilemmas of Education Reform Confronting Hong Kong's Secondary Teachers

In Chinese society, there are two Confucian teachings that have become guiding values for many teachers and have had profound influence on their educational practices for nearly 2,500 years. These values are "yin cai shi jiao" and "you jiao wu lei." The direct translation of yin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of educational reform 2007, Vol.16 (1), p.10-26
Main Authors: Tam, Frank Wai-Ming, Lai, Manhong, Lam, Ka-Ka
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Confucianism
Educational Change
Educational Opportunities
Educational Practices
Fantasy
Foreign Countries
Hong Kong
Ideology
Questionnaires
Secondary School Teachers
Teacher Attitudes
Teacher Characteristics
Teaching Methods
Values
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Summary:In Chinese society, there are two Confucian teachings that have become guiding values for many teachers and have had profound influence on their educational practices for nearly 2,500 years. These values are "yin cai shi jiao" and "you jiao wu lei." The direct translation of yin cai shi jiao is "to carry out teaching based on the material." The direct translation of "you jiao wu lei" is "to teach without classification." There appears to be a mixture of policy ideologies in the recent education reform in Hong Kong. On one hand, the territory was still implementing the neoliberal reform initiatives that were inherited from the United Kingdom in full strength. On the other hand, part of the new reform proposal was the agenda to improve the equality of educational opportunity within the system. The latter can be seen as trying to fulfill the Confucian ideal of "you jiao wu lei," and the former appears to have an effect of pushing schools toward the ideal of "yin cai shi jiao." However, when these two ideals are combined within the school setting, the result can have a strong impact on the work and psychology of secondary school teachers, and this is the issue that the present article mainly focuses on. In particular, it looks at the consequence of this reform after 2 years of its implementation. Three main questions are addressed in this article. First, how do the teachers perceive such a reform, and how was the reform acted out in the social fabric of everyday school life? Second, if there were difficulties in implementing the reform, what was the nature of the difficulties? (Contains 5 tables.)
ISSN:1056-7879
DOI:10.1177/105678790701600102