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ABSTRACT
The discourse around combining local, national and international languages constitutes an important issue in the global education agenda (Kirkpatrick and Chau Citation2008). Ideas about how trilingual education ought to be designed and implemented vary across stakeholders. This study explores (1) the beliefs which early childhood education (ECE – ECE refers to teaching of young children up to the age of six) principals, teachers and parents exhibit about trilingual preschool education in Hong Kong; (2) the challenges in the trilingual preschool implementation processes, and (3) the mechanisms employed by ECE principals for coping with these challenges. Semi-structured interviews and observations were conducted to collect data from four preschools, and these were supplemented with documentary analysis. Findings indicate that the inconsistent beliefs among stakeholders about the aims of trilingual education and language choice, curriculum design, and instruction (pedagogy and activities) in trilingual preschools are the major challenge administrators-principals encountered impacting the implementation process. Teachers who lack professional knowledge and skills in the provision of trilingual education are also problematic. Moreover, the recruitment of native-speaking teachers of the target language is difficult due to perceived heavy workloads and poor pay. Findings also make evident important implications for policymakers, principals and professional development.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
2 Biliteracy refers to written Chinese and English competence, while trilingualism refers to Cantonese, Putonghua, and spoken English.
3 Beliefs, knowledge, theories, attitudes, images, assumptions, metaphors, conceptions and perspectives are collectively referred to as ‘teacher cognition’ (Borg, Citation2003).
4 Emphasis is put either on meaning or on decoding skills.
5 Non-profit making schools which join PEVS will be given monthly provisional fee subsidy and teacher development subsidy by the Education Bureau. Under the scheme, these preschools charge school fee at a level not higher than HK$34,850 per student per annum (pspa) for half-day session (not higher than HK$69,700 pspa for whole-day class) in the 2016/17 school year. The charge school fee of non-profit making schools is comparatively lower than private independent preschools without any government subsidy.
6 The quality is defined by the judgmental review administered by Education Bureau. There are four levels in the judgmental review: unsatisfactory, acceptable, good and excellent.
7 The professional development programme consists of four main components: (1) vision and mission building, (2) language emphasis, (3) pedagogical development, (4) hands-on experiences in developing language curriculum and instructional materials. The university professionals also introduced some intervention strategies to challenge teachers’ existing beliefs and practices.
8 All informants agreed to be video-recorded during their classroom instruction. To alleviate their anxieties, the researcher explained the purpose of adopting this device before the classroom observations were scheduled.
9 This method involves replaying a video of teachers’ lessons to stimulate commentaries on the teachers’ thoughts.
10 PA_Principal, interview.
11 PB_principal, interview.
12 PD_principal, interview.
13 PD_Putonghua teacher, interview.
14 PC_principal, interview.
15 PA_principal, interview.
16 PD_principal, interview.
17 PB_Putonghua teacher, interview.
18 PC_parent 1, interview.
19 PB_principal, interview.
20 PD_principal, interview.
21 PA_principal, interview.
22 PA_principal, interview.
23 PC_principal, interview.
24 PA_Chinese, interview.
25 PB_principal, interview.
26 PTH stands for Putonghua.
27 A “through-train” school offers both primary and secondary education that ensures the continuity of the primary and secondary curriculum and the medium of instruction for most of the subjects is English.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Angela Choi Fung Tam
Angela Choi Fung TAM has been actively engaged in research projects focused on curriculum leadership, professional learning community, medium of instruction and policy, school-based curriculum and assessment, teachers' beliefs in teaching and learning, Chinese language education and early childhood education.