One school, two curricula : options for curriculum within a direct subsidy scheme (DSS) school in Hong Kong

Abstract

This is a comparative study of curriculum choice within a Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS) school in Hong Kong. Research studies reported that local families are showing and increasing interest in international education. In response to the demand of parents and students, some DSS schools exercise the privilege of the scheme. In additional to the local curriculum, they adopted a non-local curriculum, the International Baccalaureate (IB) to satisfy the needs in the education marketplace of Hong Kong. DSS schools applied marketing strategies in education as a neoliberal response to the free-market. Education consumerism is being practiced when parents and students are acting as education consumers and DSS schools are acting as the service providers. The major focus of this research is to identify the changes upon the implementation of IB in a DSS school and to analyse the implications of the changes within the school. Two research questions are raised: (1) What are the internal effects of offering curriculum choice in a local DSS school? (2) Is offering a curriculum choice leading to higher quality education in the school? The researcher confirmed the demand of qualities in international education from the interview with local parents and believed that intra-school competition took place as curriculum choice is being offered within the school under study. Two social implications – social stratification and ability tracking are evidenced in the data. Both implications cause education inequality to take place within the school.