This thesis examines the question of what kind of guidance curriculum is
suitable for primary schools in Hong Kong. The call for the development of guidance
curriculum for primary school children in Hong Kong arises from the needs of
students: their need for enhancement of their self-concept, and has been translated
into guidance and educational policy documents, and structural and administrative
changes in schools which allow more time for the development of guidance in
primary schools.
Given that the educational context of Hong Kong is "East meets West," the
researcher posits that, in studying guidance in Hong Kong, both Eastern and Western
traditions in guidance must be taken into consideration. The researcher further argues
that a guidance curriculum that is suitable for the primary school children in Hong
Kong should start by looking at the particular experiences, expectations and tensions
that educators, guidance professionals, teachers, parents and children are facing in the
competing and changing contexts of the Hong Kong society. These expectations and
tensions are very much related to the colossal changes in Hong Kong and are
reflections of various degrees of overlaps between "East" and "West", as well as
"past" and "present".
The researcher has drawn on literature concerning globalization as
hybridization, the Chinese concept of yin-yang and the psychological processes at
work when Western modernization meet with indigenous Chinese culture, to explain
the dynamics of change in the Hong Kong context. This thesis develops a hybrid
framework for studying such changes. The framework consists of open-ended
questions designed by the researcher from the literature, an adaptation of Confucian's
cardinal relationships and Lawton's model for curriculum development
A qualitative case study method is used for this study. Data are drawn from the
author's own experience in a two-week teaching attachment in a primary school, and
interviews with guidance professionals, primary school principals, teachers and
students in three selected primary schools in Hong Kong. A qualitative study is
chosen so that the multiple realities of teaching guidance in schools can be understood
in their naturalistic settings. The boundary of the case is Hong Kong with its
implementation of Hong Kong versions of Radd's (1993) Grow with guidance system.
Three out of the eight Grow with guidance system pilot schools are studied. The
chosen schools differ in student composition, school type, and methods of
implementation of the guidance curriculum.
Data are obtained by individual interviews, the in-depth study of one case
study school by the researcher as participant observer, and content analysis of
guidance materials in the case study schools. Data by these three methods and from
different stakeholders are triangulated, as information obtained is checked against
each other. This study uses multiple forms of evidences and they persuade by reason.
Being a qualitative case study, its purpose is to illuminate but not to generalize. The
criteria for judging the success of this study depend on the richness and accuracy of
data, as well as the coherence, insight and instrumental utility in presenting and
reading the data.
The researcher argues for a hybrid guidance curriculum for the primary
schools in Hong Kong to suit the hybrid contexts in Hong Kong. Data obtained from
content analysis and the case study schools show that the philosophical, sociological
and psychological factors as well as the content, pedagogies, organization for teaching
and practical arrangements of the guidance curricula are hybrid in the Hong Kong
implementation of Radd's Grow with guidance system. The researcher concludes that
a useful guidance curriculum for Hong Kong primary schools must first listen to the
different voices of all stakeholders about the guidance curricula and their "self-other
relationships", for those voices reflect their tensions and reality. Much of their voices
are presented as stories following the Chinese storying traditions. Methods to help
children to deal with tensions and conflicts at personal, school, home and societal
levels include giving up self to follow others [chinese characters omitted, knowing self and others [chinese characters omitted], awareness of
and accommodation of differences [chinese characters omitted]context
analysis, communication using culturally and contextually appropriate ways and
emotional management.
This thesis contributes to knowledge by inventing the concept of "hybrid
guidance curriculum" to suit the hybrid context of Hong Kong. A new hybrid research
methodology is also developed in this thesis which enables the forming of new
categories of "self-other relationships" and new hybrid key concepts for the guidance
curriculum. As such, this study allows for the re-reading of new ideas and practices of
traditions in a modern hybrid society. Moreover, it also highlights the importance of
the development of a reflexive self in which one negotiates one's own positions and
one's relationships with others. In a special case, this study examines the fundamental
issue of adapting and integrating western traditions in a country with different culture
and contexts. Research frontiers, home school co-operation and implications to
teacher educators, practitioners and policy makers in the guidance fields are discussed.
Although this research is basically about Hong Kong, the findings may also be
relevant to other places in the world where modernization has taken place in the
indigenous culture.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/218615 |
| Date | January 2002 |
| Creators | Luk Fong, Yuk Yee Pattie, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Professional Communication |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Yuk Yee Pattie Luk Fong |
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