Controversies in Medium of Instruction Reform (eBook)

The book is an in-depth and comprehensive analysis of the case of language in education reform and language policy controversies of Hong Kong over the initial two decades after 1997. It is a scholarly monograph of conscientious educators and researchers who have been active during the education reform, collaborating with different parties on school development and classroom teaching experiments. This book provides a multiple-perspective investigation into the education and language matters. Besides socio-political perspectives, this book also emphasizes the frontline educational and practical perspectives. The book explores the benefits and effective methods of mother-tongue and multi-lingual teaching that have emerged in the period.  Based on the problematic experience of language purism and bifurcation in the reform, the book argues for an inclusive multilingual education policy with mother-tongue as the core. This book provides potential solutions and good practices to tackle the complex issues brought about by medium of instruction policy reforms in post-colonial times.

Professor Shek Kam Tse was Associate Dean and Director of the Centre for the Advancement of Chinese Language Education and Research in the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong. For many years, he has provided a consultancy service to several organizations, including the Chinese Education Centre of the Netherlands Government, the Ministry of Education in Singapore, the Education Bureau of the Hong Kong Government, the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau of the Macao Government and five international universities. He was bestowed the Eminent Scholars Award in 2018 by Singapore Centre for Chinese Language and the Dick Wolf Memorial Award by IEA in 2007. His research interests include the learning and teaching of Chinese as a first or second language, early childhood Chinese language education, bi-lingual reading and medium of instruction. He has published more than 70 books, 300 research articles and book chapters.

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The book is an in-depth and comprehensive analysis of the case of language in education reform and language policy controversies of Hong Kong over the initial two decades after 1997. It is a scholarly monograph of conscientious educators and researchers who have been active during the education reform, collaborating with different parties on school development and classroom teaching experiments. This book provides a multiple-perspective investigation into the education and language matters. Besides socio-political perspectives, this book also emphasizes the frontline educational and practical perspectives. The book explores the benefits and effective methods of mother-tongue and multi-lingual teaching that have emerged in the period.  Based on the problematic experience of language purism and bifurcation in the reform, the book argues for an inclusive multilingual education policy with mother-tongue as the core. This book provides potential solutions and good practices to tackle the complex issues brought about by medium of instruction policy reforms in post-colonial times.