Teacher professionalism in educational reform: the experiences of Hong Kong and Shanghai

Abstract

Beginning in the 1990s, the education departments of Hong Kong and Shanghai began to actively initiate reform with a focus on the quality of education. In reviewing the implementation of educational reform in these two societies, we found that Hong Kong teachers tended to only adopt those policies which they felt were beneficial for students' learning, whereas Shanghai teachers tended to conform more to the state's requirements. Teachers in Hong Kong strongly expressed their frustration over the intensification of their work, while teachers in Shanghai seldom expressed disagreement over the state initiatives. Concerning the meaning of teacher professionalism, teachers in Hong Kong were more able than their counterparts in Shanghai to develop their own interpretations. However, at the same time, teachers' work in Hong Kong was still being monitored by the emerging schooling market, while the work of Shanghai teachers was monitored by the state. Teachers' work in both societies can be interpreted as ‘confined professionalism’. In addition, in both of the two societies teachers' awareness of their professionalism was comparatively weak. Further empowerment in this area is needed.

Keywords:

• Educational reform
• Job intensification
• Schooling market
• Teacher professionalism

Notes

1. In 1997, the Hong Kong Education Commission issued the reform policy ‘Quality School Education’ (Education Commission, 1997), with the goal of raising the quality of education. In 1999, The Chinese Communist Party announced ‘The decision on deepening educational reform and promoting quality education’ to specially address the issues in developing quality education.

2. School self‐evaluation refers to the process by which the school appraises its own performance. Both internal self‐evaluation and external inspection are integral parts of the quality assurance mechanism. The framework of the school self‐evaluation includes four major areas: management and organisation, learning and teaching, student support and school ethos and student performance. There are 23 major quantitative indicators under the four major areas. Through regular review of how effective the policies and school programmes are, the school is held accountable for its performance.

3. For example, the on‐time graduation rate of elementary secondary school students was expected to be 90%, and student criminal cases were to be less than 3/10,000.