The promises and challenges of implementing humanistic pedagogy in the curriculum of Hong Kong kindergartens

This paper reports on two case studies of teachers managing challenges associated with gaining acceptance for “child-centredness” curriculum practices in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. These teachers intended to respond to the newly published “Guide to the Pre-primary Curriculum (2006)” by adopting a more humanistic pedagogical approach in their teaching and learning practices. The research has revealed a gap to what the teachers have expected to be promises associated with the teaching practices and the actual challenges they faced while implementing the humanistic curriculum. Implications of these findings, both challenges and promises, were discussed to provide references for practitioners in the field by explaining what has worked for the teachers in the case studies and what has not when readjusting their own ideal school based curriculums.