School-based integrated curriculum: An integrated music approach in one Hong Kong kindergarten

Abstract

The implementation of a school-based integrated curriculum enables schools to plan a balanced, flexible and coherent curriculum in order to reduce subject specification, especially in kindergartens. Despite kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) being encouraged to integrate music content across subject areas, these boundaries still exist and prove challenging. This instrumental case study shows how one kindergarten teacher attempted to integrate other subjects into the music curriculum through movement and games, and encourage children's creativity. Eight detailed observations of music lessons and an interview with the kindergarten teacher depict her efforts at integration. Findings show that some progress was made and that the support of the principal was pivotal. They also suggest ways in which kindergarten teachers might begin to incorporate more creative integrated approaches to music education and have some applicability to other kindergarten settings where transmission approaches tend to dominate and teachers want to encourage music integration and children's musical creativity.

“That’s just impossible in my kindergarten.” Advocating for ‘glocal' early childhood curriculum frameworks

“…These misalignments between what national curriculum frameworks in Singapore and Hong Kong propose, on one hand, and what their respective societies actually demand, on the other hand, trigger important challenges for the various stakeholders involved in kindergarten education (Chan, 2016; Lau and Grieshaber, 2018; Lim-Ratnam, 2013). For example, while teacher educators are expected to teach about globally accepted ECE theories and practices in their courses, many often complain that such training will not be applicable by students in local settings.…”

“…In recent studies, many scholars have accepted that the NEL and the Guide should be implemented accurately in kindergartens, hence adopting Western ECE notions without critically assessing their applicability and suitability in the local context, and have emphatically argued that more efforts should be made to better train kindergarten teachers and educate parents so that Western-based pedagogies become the norm (e.g. Bautista et al., 2016; Chan, 2016; Lau and Grieshaber, 2018; Leung, 2020; Lim-Ratnam, 2013). In contrast, our argument in this article is that efforts should be also made to revise the curriculum frameworks themselves, as discussed in the following section.…”

“…story time, music, art and craft, physical activities, mother-tongue lesson, outdoor play, learning-center time, phonics). While the thematic approach is widely used, teachers are typically the ones who decide which theme/topic will be selected (Lau and Grieshaber, 2018). The most prevalent and frequent instructional format is that of one-size-fits-all whole-group activities (Chen and Liang, 2017), during which children have limited accessibility to materials, resources, or tasks of their choice.…”

Collective Teacher-Researcher Inquiry: Localizing School-Based Curriculum Development in Diversified Hong Kong Schooling Contexts

“…Research endeavors were made to explore the links between practitioners' career development and SBCD (e.g., Lee, 2017;Loh & Tam, 2017). Findings suggest the structural and socio-cultural challenges that practitioners encountered in schoolbased curriculum decision-making (e.g., Lau & Grieshaber, 2018;Lee et al, 2018;Yang & Li, 2018). There are also a few studies that document how nurturing reflective and collaborative practitioners could counteract the impacts of centralized curriculum planning (e.g., Yuen et al, 2018;Zhan et al, 2016).…”

“…Methodologically, the case study approach was predominantly used to study various aspects of SBCD in Hong Kong, such as leadership (e.g., Law et al, 2010;Lee & Dimmocks, 1998), challenges and tensions faced by practitioners (e.g., Lee, et al, 2018), and SBCD as a reflective practice (e.g., Yuen et al, 2018). Interviews prevailed as data collection methods (e.g., Lai et al, 2014;Loh & Tam, 2017;Yuen et al, 2018;Zhan et al, 2016) whilst a few applied observation (e.g., Lau & Grieshaber, 2018;Yang & Li, 2018). For example, Zhan et al (2016) used in-depth interviews with document analysis to study how teachers implemented Liberal Studies and found that teachers tended to adapt their teaching approaches and teaching materials instead of content and assessment.…”