Contemporary classrooms are a major focus of public debate in contemporary world,
particularly in the current context of Hong Kong where wide-ranging educational
reforms have been undertaken since the early 2000's. In this context of on-going
reform, language education policies have been the centre of a controversial debate
which involves all administrative levels and societal actors, from politicians to
educators, families and youngsters. Thus, official guidelines and public demands are
increasingly emphasizing monitoring of curriculum and pedagogy from a top-down
perspective. As a result, Hong Kong teachers, students and school heads find
themselves under great pressure to apply abstract guidelines designed outside the
confines of the schools with no guidance or consideration on how are they supposed
to be localised in everyday lives of their specific school communities.
Against this background, the aim of this material is to provide a systematic set of
classroom-based naturally occurring data, complementary activities and materials
for educators to reflect upon (Hong Kong's contemporary reforms of its language
education policies, from a bottom-up perspective which takes into consideration real
and localised experiences of teachers and students who are supposed to make such
reforms a reality. This is not an academic book in which classroom data are analyzed
against or in relation to a given theoretical framework; rather, this package attempts
to allow Hong Kong teachers to reflect around the provided classroom materials
under the guidance of a facilitator, on the basis of which further interpretations and
(academic/non-academic) discourses/perspectives available in wider society are
progressively brought into being. Indeed, these complementary perspectives are introduced in a way that seeks consolidation / re-consideration / challenging of initial
interpretations by teachers and, therefore, opens new paths for discussion and
reflection
