Teachers’ professional identity, educational change and neo-liberal pressures on education in Hong Kong

Abstract

Education reforms underpinned by neo-liberal values have been criticised for bringing an adverse impact on teachers’ professional identity. This article presents a qualitative study of teachers’ professional identity in three historical periods in Hong Kong: Phase 1: 1965–84; Phase 2: 1984–97; and Phase 3: the post-1997 period. By juxtaposing the systemic narratives against the work life narratives of 23 teachers, the study finds the manifestation of the perils of neo-liberal pressures on education in three themes of educational change in Hong Kong: (1) the changing structural conditions of the teaching career; (2) the changing nature of teachers’ work; and (3) the changing nature of educational change. The article concludes by suggesting possibilities to counteract neo-liberal pressures on education with the preservation, reclamation and renewal of teachers’ ‘student-focused’ professional identity grounded on teachers’ moral agency.

Keywords:

• teacher professional identity
• teachers’ work
• neo-liberalism
• periodisation of educational change
• informed agency

Acknowledgement

This article is one of the outcomes generated from the project ‘Teachers’ Professional Lives: Managing Professional Roles’ funded by the Hong Kong Institute of Education.

Notes

1Aided schools are government funded. Private schools are not funded by the government and have discretion to set the school fee to be charged. Schools under the DSS are funded by government subsidy and have discretion to set the school fee to be charged.

2Steward had early retirement in 1997, and rejoined the profession with a teaching position in another school until his normal retirement in 2006.