This dissertation describes a study of the policy process in Hong Kong focussed on the New Senior Secondary School (NSS) reforms set within the framework of wider systemic changes to the sector. Amongst this suite of reforms, the School-Based Assessment (SBA) initiative has been one of the most controversial. Specifically, there have been two significant changes in the SBA policy in English Language public examination: (i) moving from compulsory SBA to allowing schools to opt out within the assessment cycle in 2006; and (ii) the withdrawal of the proposal for SBA to replace the public oral examination in 2008. This dissertation focuses on the decision making processes at work advancing these two policy changes as it moves through the policy process and asks: what is the role of teachers in this process, and how do they engage as policy actors in different moments of the policy process? Conceptually, the study draws on the policy work of Hodgson & Spours' (2006) concerning multiple policy trajectories and Vidovich 's (2002) levels of policy text production. Methodologically, the study adopts mixed methods to investigate my broad research question. A questionnaire survey was conducted to study the perception and reaction of English teachers during the above changes. Documentary analysis was undertaken to understand the anticipated and actual participation of teachers in the holistic and NSS reform initiatives. Interviews were conducted with key informants to understand the policy-making processes inside the related committees. The insights gathered from these three methods were then synthesised to draw a set of conclusions about the policy process in Hong Kong, and the role of teachers in this process. The findings suggest that teachers are largely passive in the policy process even when they encounter an unpopular policy. However it is also evident from my findings that teachers' participation is also circumscribed through a series of strategies deployed by other policy actors - notably the education officials - during various phases of the reform. The effect is to minimize what is viewed as interference from teachers in order to achieve the anticipated reform targets and schedule. In short, the government dominated the reform process in turn contributing to difficulties amongst teachers as frontline implementers. This study concludes with a series of recommendations that include teachers' strategic involvement in the policy process so as to strengthen their professional autonomy and maximise the reform effectiveness

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This thesis analyses proposals for reform of the education system in Hong Kong (the Policy). Using textual analysis, the thesis has identified two paradoxical lines of reform. The first and central line identifies the priority of the education reform. It emphasises the inner qualities of a person that intrinsically motivate lifelong learning. The Policy envisages that students will construct their personal knowledge through integrated learning experiences that make use of problems and issues in daily life and in the workplace. However, although the resulting educational change would be a paradigm shift, the Policy proposes low-status implementation strategies. The second line of reform expects schools to supply flexible and competitive knowledge workers to the businesses in Hong Kong. The proposed reforms emphasise workplace generic skills and propose highstatus assessments of Chinese, English, and Mathematics at di fferent stages in the school system. This would reduce the envisioned paradigm shift to a series of tests in core curriculum subjects. The thesis recommends that, at student leveL a model of social construction of collective knowledge is needed to capitalise on student diversity. Integrated learning experiences should focus on social and psychological principles. At school organisational leveL professional development should give priority to on-site activities based on horizontal teacher teams. The purpose is to construct the collective background knowledge that is needed to apply the formal professional knowledge required to actualise the priority of the education reform. At territory level, innovative projects in pioneering schools could create useful background knowledge but it would be difficult to transfer this knowledge to other schools. Key personnel from these projects could work as consultants, sharing their experience with other schools. An exchange system is needed to match consultants to the needs of schools. This could also extend career options for school educators.

Curriculum leaders are key agents of the recent curriculum reforms in Hong Kong. They are appointed in individual schools and their role is to make sure different reform measures and policies are functioning well and by and large leading to quality school curriculum. To convey these measures and policies to schools and schoolteachers, a key approach recommended by the authorities is to engage in action research as a means of professional and curriculum development. The purpose of this thesis is (i) to explore the attitudes which Hong Kong curriculum leaders have toward action research and (іі) to examine their perceptions of self which are formulated as a response to the education and curriculum reforms, in an era characterized by the term "postmodern". From a postmodern perspective the whole project of reform and its means-end logic can be seen as modernist, for it is assumed there is a "promising” vehicle for whole-person development and emancipation that will deliver predetermined outcomes. However from a postmodern perspective, norms are not to be found in foundations. To curriculum leaders, there is always the conflict between the official expectations of government bodies/policy makers and the actual problems they find in work. Thus, their selves are in danger of getting more and more fragile, more and more fragmented. This thesis provides research evidence not only of the attitudes curriculum leaders have toward action research, but also how they speak, think and act toward the project of education, how they perceive the critiques and merits of the education and curriculum reform, and how they conceptualize and put forth themselves as leaders for curriculum change. Methods used in this thesis include: first a survey research administering the Attitudes Toward Research instrument (ATR) with a large cohort of curriculum leaders who participated in one of the training programmes that aimed for advancing their work, and second an in-depth exploration, through a dialogical method of informal chats and interviews, with five of them. Survey results suggested: (i) curriculum leaders in general favoured using research in their work; (іі) apart from what the policy makers promoted as a "communal" sense of research significance for professional development, practitioners were concerned too with a "pedagogical" sense of research significance (which fits well with postmodern thinking) for providing individual solutions for teaching and learning challenges; and (ііі) policy makers need to have an alternative, wider concept of the purpose of action research, to empower curriculum leaders to believe more their own efforts of understanding and criticizing the present education context and to develop their own approach to reform. Informal chats and interviews suggested: (i) although the five curriculum leaders were very different in their life experience and perceptions of self working as curriculum leaders, they all encountered difficulties in leading curriculum change in schools and classrooms; and (іі) curriculum leadership was difficult. In order to spread leadership practices among the school, it is necessary for school leaders, as well as curriculum developers and policy makers, to disseminate curriculum information to schools and the wider public in terms of free and rich communication. The thesis makes recommendations on how reform policy might be conveyed to schools, curriculum leaders and teachers in a postmodern age.

This thesis investigates the benefits of not-for-profit education for disadvantaged learners in Hong Kong. The economic success of Hong Kong is seen by many as a miracle of the 156 years’ British colonial governance. Hong Kong’s world-class education system, which combines British meritocratic education traditions and Chinese conventional philosophies on hard work and respect for examination high fliers, has led to rapid and sustained economic development. However, those who do not fit into the mainstream selective education system are damagingly marginalised. Not-for-profit education providers are increasingly being used to try to repair some of this damage, but their effectiveness is not known. Statistical data on, for example, student enrolment, completion and graduation, courses offered and subsidies spent, do not completely and comprehensively reflect the broad number of ways in which these courses may make a difference. Using the conceptual framework developed by the Centre for the Wider Benefits of Learning, this thesis draws on twenty-three in-depth life story interviews with four disadvantaged learner groups – young people who are ‘not in education, employment, or training (NEET)’, ‘economically marginalised’, ‘older adults’, and ‘new immigrants from mainland China’. The analysis of these interviews uses a learner’s capital and capability model and shows that different disadvantaged learners derive different kinds of benefits and capital gains from different not-for-profit education. Youth NEET perceived the highest gains in identity capital and economically marginalised learners reported the highest gains in human capital. Older adult disadvantaged learners perceived the highest gains in social capital and new immigrants from mainland China found human capital gains most important. Different disadvantaged learners also benefitted from different kinds and different levels of unexpected learning benefits which are seen as ‘surplus’ to their learning. Government subsidies and assistance through student loans and charity funding mean that not-for-profit courses are provided at lower cost than private provision. Moreover, since it is not government-provided, participants who have had a bad experience of government-provided compulsory education may feel they have a better chance of success with non-government courses. Not-for-profit education also tends to be able to offer more flexible provision which helps the disadvantaged learners who often have complex family and personal circumstances. The implications of this research suggest that more can be done to optimise the social benefits and utilities of not-for-profit education in Hong Kong. In particular, the newly developed qualifications framework should flexibly include and recognise the contribution of not-for-profit education for the disadvantaged. ‘Individual Learning Accounts’ might also promote citizens’ participation in lifelong and life-wide learning. Lastly, a new governing body, a Lifelong Learning Board, should be introduced to coordinate, administer and develop lifelong learning in Hong Kong.