Education reform phenomenon: Global trends and local lessons

In response to the emerging challenges in the 21st century, there have been numerous education reforms worldwide in the last two decades. From the case of Hong Kong, this speech aims to address the key features and trends of education reform phenomenon commonly happening in different parts of the world. It will help international educators, policy-makers, researchers and change agents to understand the complicated dynamics and issues involved in the formulation and implementation of systemic reform, including (1) conflicts and diversities among stakeholders, (2) constraints with limited resources for reform initiatives, (3) knowledge poverty and ignorance in practice of reforms at different levels, (4) conflicts and time competitions among a wide range of parallel changes, and (5) paradigmatic gaps in planning and implementing reforms. Without addressing these issues, many education reforms with good intentions finally failed in “reform syndromes” and “bottle necks” in the last decades. This speech will draw global implications from the local lessons for future research and policy development on education reforms. Copyright © 2017 The Education University of Hong Kong.