Abstract
Adopting a poststructuralist critical lens, I analyze a recent incident of invalidating a “problematic” question in the history examination paper of the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination, a university entrance examination in Hong Kong. This paper is divided into three parts. A general context of history education in Hong Kong, including the role of the institutions (viz. the Government, i.e. the Education Bureau and the quasi-official body, i.e. the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority, hereafter HKEAA) is first provided, followed by a summary of the incident of invalidating the “problematic” question in the History examination paper. In the second part, I analyze the divergent official and quasi-official discourses adopted by the Government and the HKEAA respectively to examine how the “problematic” question has been debated, and to expose the models of teaching/learning history (viz. the imperialistic view vis-à-vis the liberal view) that are imposed by such public discourses. In the third part, addressing the axiological assumptions underlying this paper, I draw on the theory of “deconstructive historical consciousness” termed by Munslow (1997) to propose an alternative model of managing the incident to (i) nurture examination setters’/markers’ awareness of their professional growth; (ii) foster teachers’ awareness of teaching value-laden topics as positive washback; and (iii) cultivate students’ humanistic growth for soul-searching, itself a lifelong sense-making process to harbor hope for being more understanding and accommodating towards individuals, the society and the world.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Past and Present in the Humanistic Education
KEYWORDS
History, Examination, Education, Discourses, Deconstructive Historical Consciousness, Hong Kong
