Culture Matters in School-Based Curriculum Development: A Case Study of Chinese Kindergartens in Hong Kong

• In Event: Millennium Hotel Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: Readings of Culture and Norms in/Around Classrooms

Abstract

Hong Kong launched its millennium curriculum reform in 2001, and school-based curriculum (SBC) development (SBCD) was included as one of the main methods. Informed by the cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT), this study aims to understand how and why SBCD took place in two Chinese kindergartens in Hong Kong, with a focus on the effects of local culture. The evidence from interviews, observations and documents indicated that (1) SBC in the two cases supported the retention of Chinese cultural values; (2) the two cases learned from diverse models and approaches to support the inheritance of Chinese cultural values during SBCD; and (3) cultural conflicts and fusion occurred in the learning purposes, learning virtues and curriculum approaches during SBCD in the kindergartens.

Authors

• Weipeng Yang, Singapore University of Social Sciences

• Hui Li, University of Hong Kong