Hong Kong as a source for education policy in England

Morris, Paul and Han, Christine (2017). Hong Kong as a source for education policy in England. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Archive. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-852638

In 2007 the Principal Investigator returned to London after working for 31 years in Faculties / Institutes of Education in
Hong Kong and specialising in East Asian education systems. As political parties in England competed to promote their
vision of schooling, he was constantly bemused as to the extent to which their plans for reform were based on the claim
that what they were proposing was a feature of one or all of the high performing East Asian societies that do well on
international tests of pupil achievement e.g. the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), and Trends in
International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). The 2010 Schools White Paper in England and the ongoing review
of the National Curriculum extensively cite practices in Hong Kong to support their policies. Also, agencies now bidding to
get contracts to examine the New Baccalaureate have to demonstrate that they will follow the best practices of high
performing nations.
Some of these claims seem far removed from the reality that the Principal Investigator had experienced both as an
academic, and as someone heavily engaged in policy making in Hong Kong. What is more worrying is that these claims are
largely unchallenged in England. The claims are accepted partly because people generally have limited knowledge of
foreign education systems, and comparative educators have tended to avoid engagement in the public debates relating to
ongoing policy making about how schools should be reformed. The purpose of this study is to help address that situation.
We plan to focus on how policy makers in England portray features of Hong Kong's education system to promote domestic
reforms. We examine the nature of these features in Hong Kong by finding out what the relevant laws or rules are, and by
interviewing people who are directly involved with these education features. This will allow us to find out the extent to which the claims made in England are valid and accurate. It will also allow us to contribute to the ongoing debates in comparative education as to the influence of global and local factors on education reform.

Data description (abstract)

Transcripts of interviews with UK policy advisors on Hong Kong education policy.

Recently England has engaged heavily in external policy referencing to drive its educational reforms. Hong Kong has been a major source of such referencing by virtue of its strong performance on international tests of pupil achievement. Using Hong Kong as a case study; the project will analyse external policy referencing, with England as the ‘borrower’ and Hong Kong the ‘lender’. The aim is to cast a light on the role of external policy referencing in the policy making process, and how policy referencing is operationalised in the England context. The study provides an insight into the contemporary patterns of external policy referencing, and its manifestation in the West and East Asia, and examines the evidence used to inform the process.
The study will undertake a literature review and interviews with stakeholders in both contexts to address the following research questions: (1) What have been the critical features of the patterns of external policy referencing in England since the 1990s? (2) How have policy makers in England interpreted the sources of success of Hong Kong’s education system, and how does this compare with the views of key stakeholders in Hong Kong?

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