The Promises and Challenges of Implementing Humanistic Pedagogy in the Curriculum of Hong Kong Kindergartens

Abstract

This article reports on two case studies of teachers’ managing the challenges associated with gaining acceptance for child-centeredness curriculum practices in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. These teachers intended to respond to the newly published Guide to the Preprimary Curriculum (Education and Manpower Branch, 2006) by adopting a more humanistic pedagogical approach in their teaching and learning practices. The research revealed a gap between what the teachers expected as promises associated with the teaching practices and the actual challenges they faced while implementing the humanistic curriculum. Implications of these findings, both the challenges and the promises, are discussed to provide references for practitioners in the field, namely by explaining what worked for the teachers and what did not when readjusting their ideal school-based curriculums. The reactions of the practitioners to educational reform in England and Sweden are discussed as cross-reference to the findings of the research.