The Evolution Of School System In Hong Kong: A Cultural Perspective

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the evolution of the school system in Hong Kong from 1841-1997. Among the various educational domains,school system is the most representative one. Often,the school system can reflect the education reality better.With limited natural resources,the development of Hong Kong into an international metropolitan is a miracle in the world's economic history. In the new millennium,the economy in Hong Kong is undergoing a transitional period. The old school system can no longer meet the new challenges. The need for a large-scale transformation has already become a consensus between the government and the community. However,there are divergent views on what transformation is needed and how that should be implemented. None of these views could really touch the gist of the issue. All the controversial discussion on the medium of instruction,curriculum reform,university system,the Sixth Form,quality of education and so on,can all be regarded as an extension of the old problems. In order that all these old problems to be solved,it is crucial to conduct a comprehensive review and investigate the causes of these problems.Initial studies on the history of education in Hong Kong were done mainly by European. Inevitably,the studies were written in English and the observation and analyses were done from a 'Euro centric' perspective. As a result,findings of these studies were biased and these studies were labeled as 'colonial historical scholarship'. On the other hand,studies written in Chinese were just collections of historical documents. The authors did not seem to have their own stance or perspective. Even some authors had their own viewpoints;they were mainly addressing the educational issues from a traditional Confucian perspective.The only appropriate way to understand the history of education in Hong Kong is to grasp the gist of the development of education in Hong Kong. After the British government took over Hong Kong,it had been bringing in western educational thoughts and systems. At the same time,as Hong Kong had been closely related to Mainland China,the education system in Hong Kong was influenced by Chinese culture. The school system in Hong Kong was in fact a product of the integration of Chinese culture,western culture and the local sub-culture in Hong Kong. Hence,only if Hong Kong is taken as the point of departure and an investigation is undertaken from a cultural perspective,can the evolution of the Hong Kong school system in the past over one hundred years be thoroughly examined.Sufficient and accurate documents formed the basis for analysis in this thesis. A critical review of past research indicates that mistakes in utilizing historical documents were not uncommon. The strengths of traditional Chinese researchmethods in history including collection,organization and differentiation of documents were adopted. In addition,Sweeting (1990) adopts the 'New Historical Approach' in compiling the education history in Hong Kong. The emphasis of this approach on the role of 'client' in educational activities served as an important supplement to the traditional methods. In order to exemplify a more holistic picture of the history of school system in Hong Kong,the 'New Historical Approach' was also adopted as a method of analysis. Finally,the Cultural Analysis Approach (Lawton,1989) was taken as a frame of reference when the causes of the development of school system were investigated from a deep cultural perspective.There are six chapters in this thesis. Chapter one is the introduction. It states clearly the purpose of the research and methods adopted. Findings from past research are also reviewed. Chapter two is an overview of the development of school system in Hong Kong. The development of Hong Kong school system in the last century is clearly described with the characteristics at each stage highlighted. Chapter three is an analysis of the Chinese school system. Chapter four is an analysis of the English school system. Chapter five is an analysis of the higher...