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Schooling and pastoral care in Hong Kong

Tsang, Alice SY

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Authors

Alice SY Tsang



Abstract

The theme of this thesis is to pin-point the problems that most Hong Kong school teachers have had to face since September, 1978 following the legislation to enforce 9 years of free and compulsory education, raising the school leaving age to 15.
The essential problems that most Hong Kong teachers have had to face recently are those resulting from the non selective recruitment of pupils, both socially and academically. These are viewed in the context of "social class", which can be studied from two aspects primary social class, according to the occupation of the pupil's father (i.e. middle and working classes) and, secondary social class defined by the pupil's academic performance in schools. (i.e. grammar and technical schools, upper and lower streams). As children of different social classes respond differently in the same situation, the social interaction in school can be explained by either the sub-culture or the adaptation model. This forms the theoretical foundation of this thesis.
The study of this thesis was based on two Hong Kong secondary schools of similar backgrounds. It was a research on the attitudes of the third year boys, their parents and teachers towards the existing pastoral care system in Hong Kong schools. The findings revealed that the pupils' views were more affected by their secondary social class backgrounds while their parents, their primary social class. However, teachers' viewpoints differed mainly because of their qualifications and work load. The message that the findings carry is that the teachers' conditions of service should be improved and more parental involvement in the school process should be encouraged before innovations in the pastoral system can be implemented.
Summing up, the essence of this thesis is to highlight the importance of the teachers' role and their partnership with parents in the caring for school children.

Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024

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