Teachers’ belief-and-practice gap in implementing early visual arts curriculum in Hong Kong

ABSTRACT

Hong Kong, as a capitalist society, has an achievement-driven education system. Visual arts have become a marginalized learning area, especially in early childhood education. Although ‘art and creativity’ is one of the six learning domains for early childhood education in the kindergarten curriculum guide in Hong Kong, product-oriented and craft-based art activities are commonly practiced in kindergarten classrooms. This study observed 33 classrooms and interviewed 29 teachers for a total of 409 minutes to discuss issues surrounding the early childhood art curriculum in Hong Kong and the difficulties teachers face responding within the context. Through the triangulation of observations, interviews, and documentation analysis, the teachers indicated that they are facing a dilemma regarding teacher-directed and child-centred orientations towards teaching children visual arts. To sustain the ‘third space’ of early childhood visual arts education, three main areas are considered: (a) introducing visual arts as an alternative narrative in early childhood curriculum, (b) considering that children’s creative behaviours are performative, and (c) positioning teacher education in relation to the visual arts.

KEYWORDS:

• Early childhood education
• visual arts
• belief-and-practice gap

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Suzannie K. Y. Leung

Dr. Suzannie Kit-ying Leung is Assistant Professor of Department of Curriculum and Instruction, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research interest focuses on teacher education and children’s learning in visual arts. Her academic works explored the possibilities of different forms of visual arts in Hong Kong kindergarten settings and her works were recognized by several overseas practice-led journals. She is the author of articles inBritish Journal of Educational Technology, Early Education and Development, Journal of Education for Teaching, Young Children, Asia-Pacific Journal of Research in Early Childhood Education, etc.