From the perspective of Daoism: Teachers’ narrative of behavior management in Hong Kong secondary schools

Hong Kong schools are concerned with students’ behaviourial problems. This article examines how teachers narrated about the strategies adopted for improving students’ behaviour. Interactionist perspective was taken to explore how teachers defined the situation in which they participated. Interviews and classroom observation were conducted. Sixty teachers were involved. Eighteen classrooms were observed. The influence of Daoism, emerging as one of themes from the data, was prominent, as its principles were incorporated into the teachers’ belief in behaviour management. The findings showed that the influence of Chinese culture in Hong Kong schools is prominent while approaches to behaviour management based upon western societies and theories are “imported”. Implications for the promotion of culturally responsive programmes for behaviour management are drawn.