Transcript What’s Wrong with HKSAR Education Reform? Topic 7 EDD5213

EDD5213
Education Policy and Practice in HK
Topic 7
What’s Wrong with
HKSAR Education Reform?
Critical Discourse Analysis of
Education Reform for
Lifelong Learning in HKSAR

The discourse economy HKSAR education
reform for Lifelong Learning



Different policy discourses occupy different
position in the economy of discourse
Critical discourse analysis reveal which group of
policy statements has assumed dominant and
totality position in the economy of discourse and
which group has been marginalized to position of
silence
In short it reveals “the historical specificity of what
is said and what remains unsaid.” (Ball, 1990, p.3)
Critical Discourse Analysis of
Education Reform for
Lifelong Learning in HKSAR

What has been said?


The totality of policy objective of Lifelong Learning for
Instrumental Economicism
The totality of policy measures of Quasi-Market
mechanism
Critical Discourse Analysis of
Education Reform for
Lifelong Learning in HKSAR

What has not been said?


The silence in the policy objectives of Lifelong Learning for
social inclusion
The silence in the policy measures of





Substantive equality of educational opportunity
Building collective intelligence capacity
Building relation of trust and social inclusion
The silence on the policy objective of Lifelong Learning for
political empowerment
The silence in the policy measures of



Democratic learning for citizenship
Building capacity for co-operative action of citizens
Building capacity for citizen action and agency
Critical Discourse Analysis of the
Quality-Education Reform in HKSAR

The totality of the techno-scientific conception of
quality in education

Quality in education outcome: Acquisition of




Skills and competences, which can be standardized, quantified,
calculable, predictable and controllable
Skills and competences, which are employable, marketable and
convertible in money terms
Skills and competences, which are governable
Quality in learning and teaching processes



Students are materials, which can be value-added
Teachers are workers, who can be benchmarked
Teaching and learning are processes, which can be audited in
“time-motion” terms
Critical Discourse Analysis of the
Quality-Education Reform in HKSAR

The totality of the techno-scientific conception of
quality in education

Quality in school organizations




School organizations are structures, which can be standardized
and benchmarked
School organizations are processes, which can be audited with
standardized indicators
School organizations are cultures, which can be measures with
school ethos checklists
Assumption of prefect causality in education enterprises in
techno-scientific conception of quality in education
Critical Discourse Analysis of the
Quality-Education Reform in HKSAR

The silence in the empathetic-practical conception of
quality in education

Quality in education outcome: Attainment of




Practical efficacy in interaction with fellow beings
Empathetic understanding in social interactions
Social identification and integration in particular human
communities
Quality in learning and teaching processes



Teachers as professionals working in communal bonds of
intellectuality, practicality and trust
Teachers and students are in professional-client relationships,
which are bonded by empathetic understanding and trust
Teaching and learning are practical interactions of uncertainty,
which can not be lock-stepped into calculable and controllable
processes
Critical Discourse Analysis of the
Quality-Education Reform in HKSAR

The silence in the empathetic-practical conception of
quality in education

Quality in school organizations



Schools as communities of empathetic understanding and
caring between the elderly and offspring
Schools as professional communities of intellectuality,
practicality and trust
Assumption of education as an uncertain practice of
Reflective Practitioners (Schon, 1983)
Critical Discourse Analysis of the
Quality-Education Reform in HKSAR

The silence in the emancipatory conception of quality
in education

Quality in education outcome: Capacities to




To excel beyond the current state of being
To speculate
To better the status quo
Quality in learning and teaching processes



Teachers are transformative intellectuals working for the
betterment of the status quo and the coming generation
Students are potentials to be excel
Teaching and learning are experimental, surprising and risktaking processes of liberating speculative spirits
Critical Discourse Analysis of the
Quality-Education Reform in HKSAR

The silence in the emancipatory conception of quality
in education

Quality in school organizations



Schools as liberating communities of human potentials
Schools as communities of praxis
Assumption of education as risk-taking praxis of speculative
or even revolutionary spirits
Critical Discourse Analysis of the
Quality-Education Reform in HKSAR

The Consequences of Monolithic Version of Quality
in Education



Constitution of “One-dimensional Man” (Marcuse, 1964)
Constitution of one-dimensional School
Value-added, low-trust and no-surprise schools
Constitution of one-dimensional society
Richard Elmore’s Criticism on the
Performance-Based Accountability


Distinction of education reform from inside out and
outside in
Reform from outside in



Surveillance-evaluationism: Reform by measuring students
achievements
Discipline-managerialism: Reform by disciplining schools
Parentocacy-consumerism: Reform by exit and choice
Richard Elmore’s Criticism on the
Performance-Based Accountability

Reform from inside out


Distinction among standards set by policy, professional
performance of schools and achievements of students
The idea of reciprocity of accountability


Expectation of enhancement of performance from the authority
of the accountability system
Responsibility of the authority to provide the service-delivering
agent and personnel the additional capacity necessary to meet
the increasing expectation
Richard Elmore’s Criticism on the
Performance-Based Accountability

Reform from inside out

Two key constituents of reform from the inside out

The instructional core




The knowledge and skill of the teacher in relation to the content
The knowledge and skill of teacher in relation to the student’s
mastery of the content
The knowledge and skill of the student in relation to the content
and student’s knowledge of the teacher’s expectations around the
content
The way in which the content is refracted through the
understanding of the teacher and student
Richard Elmore’s conception of Instructional Core
Knowledge of the
expectation of
Teacher
Knowledge
& Skill
Knowledge
& Skill
Student
Knowledge
& Skill
Mastery
Content
The refracted
content
Richard Elmore’s Criticism on the
Performance-Based Accountability

Reform from inside out

Two key constituents of reform from the inside out

The capacity for the organization of the instruction core
Intellectual, cultural, financial and other material resources
necessary for carrying out the instructional core provided by
different parties concerned





Governmental authorities making and implementing the New
Accountability policy
School administration
Teachers
Students
The community at large
EDD5213
Education Policy and Practice in HK
The End of My Lectures
and
The Beginning of Your Policy Practices