Education or globalization: The 21st century curriculum development in Hong Kong

The paper discusses the current school curriculum of Hong Kong with reference to the education development in our society, to generate a thesis about the direction of education. The methodology includes: (a) documentary analysis of curriculum reform documents, key education policy documents and policy documents. (b) Interview with 5 experienced teachers on the teaching job and student learning. Content analysis was performed based on triangulating the data. Some findings are gathered: (a) the “Learning to Learn” (CDI, 2000) curriculum was only too passively reactive to the current globalization tide, in which competition, productivity, and efficiency (OECD, 1998; Wallerstein, 1979; Zajda, 1998) are the values. It identified a standard “global outlook” (CDI, 2001) our future young generation should model to cope with the challenges of the 21st century. (b) the curriculum connected harmoniously with the traditions of Hong Kong education, which was commented as “predominantly a highly utilitarian means to economic and vocational ends” in a external review (Llewellyn, 1982). When the curriculum reform was in full swing, the auditing systems were in place to transform school into an economy activity. This paper reexamines education and how we can respond to lead our future towards the goal of education, but not globalization.