| This study investigates the implementation of new senior secondary Liberal Studies (NSS-LS) curriculum in Hong Kong from teacher's perspectives. Since September 2009, a new academic structure for senior secondary education has been implemented and Liberal Studies has become a core subject for all senior secondary students in Hong Kong. To implement this new curriculum, teachers have to learn to make sense of and enact the NSS-LS curriculum in order to deliver the content and issues in NSS-LS to students. In this study, teacher sense-making and enactment processes of NSS-LS curriculum are revealed to see the implementation of curriculum through teacher learning.;In recent education policy implementation researches, the focus of studies has shifted from the traditional top-down, bottom-up or synthesis debate to cognitive perspectives on policy implementation (Coburn, 2001; Datnow & Park, 2009; Spillane, Reiser, & Reimer, 2006). The influences of cognition and sense-making process in policy implementation are put into concern. Also, as the context of policy implementation becomes more complex in recent decades, interest groups, organizations and parties are involved in the policy implementation process. The governance in education sectors is increasingly based on network (Ball, 2008b, 2009a; Goodwin, 2009; Junki, 2006; Rhodes, 1997). The influences of interactions and relationship between different stakeholders are also emphasized in policy implementation research studies. These latest developments in policy implementation researches have laid the theoretical foundation in researching the implementation of NSS-LS curriculum in Hong Kong.;In this study, teacher individual sense-making and collective sense-making processes on NSS-LS curriculum and instruction are revealed by researching NSS-LS teachers in six schools in Hong Kong. Teachers make use of their individual cognition and social cognition to learn to implement this curriculum. Teachers learn individually and collectively in the training programmes provided by non-governmental organizations, universities, Education Bureau and Hong Kong Examination and Assessment Authority. Teachers make sense of NSS-LS curriculum with the ideas and resources shared in the teacher trainings, such as seminars, workshops, and networks, and implement the curriculum with their perceptions and definitions of appropriateness towards the curriculum.;This study discovers teachers are learning and enacting NSS-LS curriculum within the dilemma between ideals and realities in implementation. By strategic interpretations and calculations within the dilemmas, teachers choose to interpret and enact this new curriculum with their traditional teaching and learning paradigm. 'Old wine in a new bottle' is a common strategy played by individual teacher in interpreting the new curriculum. At the collective level, teachers further abandon the ideals and construct their 'brave new world' around examination practices for implementation of NSS-LS. Teachers feel secure with their collective re-interpretation of the curriculum and walk away from the liberating ideals of NSS-LS curriculum. |
