Sociology

Purpose:
Through the study of the Liberal Studies reform in Hong Kong, this paper aims to investigate to what extent the curriculum reform makes a difference in the achievement gap between middle-class and lower-class students. Specifically, it examines the variation of the ‘class gap’ between Liberal Studies and other traditional core subjects in terms of the public examination results, and the major mediators underlying the class effect on the results.
Methodology:
Data from a survey of 1,123 students from 15 schools who studied the new curriculum between 2009- 2010 and 2011-2012 in Hong Kong were analyzed using hierarchical multiple regression models.
Findings:
Students’ class background, mainly indicated by parental education, continues to make a substantive contribution to the achievement gap.
Practical implications:
Given that Liberal Studies' examination is compulsory for university entrance, the sensitivity of this reform to existing educational inequalities has a significant impact on students’ chances of entering local universities.
Originality/ value:
Sociologists have long observed the class gap in education, and this paper adds an important exogenous source, a curriculum change, to the analysis. The Liberal Studies reform has provided a unique opportunity to examine the potential effect of a curriculum change on the class gap. In addition, in view of the absence of empirical evidence in this topic, this paper is an effort to build the evidence base for understanding the reform outcomes.

While the primary emphasis of her educational policy has long been on examination-oriented, high-end achievements contributing to economic growth and market demand, the implementation of Liberal Studies (LS) as a core subject in Hong Kong’s recent reform for senior secondary curriculum can be seen as the cornerstone of the reform efforts towards so-called progressive education. Through the systematic analysis of the LS reform implementation, this study aims to provide a more complete understanding of different conditions and possibilities for integrative forms of curriculum and pedagogy. The analysis is framed by Bernstein’s theory of pedagogic practice. The results of interviews with 36 students and 10 teachers, supplemented by the survey data, clearly show that there is an apparent discrepancy, as well as compromise, between the policy rhetoric and overall experience of the actual implementation in the local schools from students and teachers, through pedagogic recontextualisation.

Drawing on the case of Hong Kong’s recent curriculum reform, this study examines how the micro-educational processes of social class inequality are related to curriculum and pedagogy. The underlying question is: are there any curriculum-specific cultural advantages or disadvantages exhibited by students of different classes that contribute to differential achievement? The introduction of “Liberal Studies” as a core subject under Hong Kong’s new senior secondary education in 2009 shows the major attempt of a more thorough overhaul of local curriculum development moving towards so-called progressive education. Intuitively, one can expect that while tradition-oriented subjects and centralized examinations remain to be the main part of the senior secondary curriculum, the progressive features of the curriculum reform are likely to create new conditions and possibilities for educational competitions between classes. This study revisits the work of late British sociologist Basil Bernstein to decipher the organizing principles of how the transmission/ acquisition process in Liberal Studies is class- biased, and how it affects student achievement. Based on interview data, the results show that class differences in how students study Liberal Studies are evidently manifested by their (mis-) understanding of specific pedagogic context and practice for study materials, mode of learning, testing and so on. Middle-class students tend to understand, in different ways, various forms of pedagogic context, and thus engage themselves in pedagogic practice effectively, as compared to their working-class counterparts.

Despite its viability having been challenged, social class has remained the central analytical tool in understanding social inequalities, particularly in education. (Johnston 2007; Lareau 2008; Wright 2008) The question of how curricular and pedagogical reform in school is interrelated to the larger structure of the class and power relations has been relatively under-researched. The global trend of curriculum development and pedagogical strategies has been contested between academic rigor of knowledge (“traditional”) versus experiential, constructivist learning and skills acquisition (“progressive”). In Hong Kong, under the new senior secondary academic structure that remains based on traditional educational vision to a large extent, the new core subject Liberal Studies entails considerable elements of progressive education, characterized by cross-curricular framework and issue-enquiry approach. The particular pedagogic challenge of this subject is to enable students to make connections and manage ambiguities from subject to subject, and between school and everyday life knowledge. With the insights from Basil Bernstein’s theory and the sociology of knowledge, this paper attempts to explore how these reform-minded practices in classrooms amplify, maintain, or attenuate relative advantages and disadvantages among students from different class backgrounds. Are middle class students able to retain their relative advantages in this new subject and likewise, would the reform efforts foster or hinder the working-class students’ prospects for educational achievement?

Learning about a wide array of topical political and controversial issues through Liberal Studies (LS) in senior secondary education has become “socially problematic” amid mounting concern of politicians and pundits that purport to associate such learning with recent waves of student protests in Hong Kong.  Today’s “Occupy Movement” stirred up even further controversy over whether LS is attributed to raising a crop of new generation of politically and socially aware youngsters, who “dare to think and act” and are willing to protest against injustice.  Thus far, however, little empirical evidence exists to support or defy the politicizing effect of LS on student activism.

Based on a qualitative analysis of student perspectives on the politicizing effect of LS, this paper discusses possible ways that the curriculum and pedagogy of LS influence students to engage and, perhaps more often, disengage in protest politics.  The discussion is particularly placed in specific local context where the depoliticized education system and deep-rooted examination-oriented culture coincides with the emergence of vibrant civil society.

Statement of the problem
Factors contributing to changes in perceptions of career decision-making difficulties (CDMD) over time are examined among Chinese Grade-12 students. Perceptions of CDMD are related to a range of developmental, contextual, and situational factors (Gati & Saka, 2001). Graduating high-school students are most likely to have a higher level of CDMD when they entered the critical stage of leaving school and make transition into a new stage with many unknowns. First, it is hypothesized that high-school students at the point of fully completing their last year of study would show increased CDMD, relative to an earlier point of time. Second, it is hypothesized that students with higher levels of career interest congruence, differentiation, consistency and flexibility are less affected at the transition point as shown by a lesser increase in the CDMD (Holland, 1997; Darcy & Tracey, 2003). Thus, interest-related variables are hypothesized to be inversely related to the difference in CDMD over time. Third, it is also theoretically tenable to suggest that a higher level of self- efficacy beliefs fosters career exploration and expectation, thereby lessening an increased CDMD at the time of leaving school (Betz & Luzzo, 1996). It is thus hypothesized that self- efficacy beliefs are inversely related to the difference in CDMD over time.
Participants
Participants were 111 Grade-12 students from 4 schools in Hong Kong (46 males and 65 females; ages ranging 18-21 years, mean = 18.53, SD = .796). Data collection is on-going and a larger data set collected from additional schools will be available at the time of the 2017 APA Convention.
Procedure
Data were collected, via both an online platform and a paper-and-pencil survey method, at two time points during the 12th-grade year, first at baseline (November to December in 2015) and then at the follow-up (time before the release of their public examination results, i.e., end of June 2016). Informed consent was obtained from all participants.
Measures
The Personal Globe Inventory (PGI; Tracey, 2013), consisting of 334 items representing Holland s (1997) RIASEC model and Prediger s (1982) two bi-polar dimensions, was used to measure interest-study congruence, interest differentiation, interest consistency, interest profile elevation, competence-study congruence, and competence profile elevation. The Lack of Readiness (LR) scale of Career Decision-Making Difficulties (CDDQ; Gati et al., 1996) was used to measure the CDMD in readiness. Both PGI and CDDQ evidenced their validity and reliability respectively in previous studies (Gati et al., 2000; Leung, Hou, Gati, & Li, 2011; Tracey, 2013). In the post-test, only the LR scale of the CDDQ was administered.
Analysis
A paired-samples t-test was conducted to compare the differences of CDDQ  LR between the two time points. Next, the Ordinary Least-Squares (OLS) multiple regression analysis was used to investigate the relations of interest-related variables and competence-related variables on the difference of CDDQ - LR.
Page 2 of 3

Results
The paired-samples t-test showed that there was a significant increase in CDDQ  LR from the baseline (M = 4.36, SD = 1.32) to the follow-up (M = 4.90, SD = 1.24); t (110) = -3.202, p < .05. The results of the multiple regression analysis indicated that, while controlling for socio-demographic variables and competence-related variables, interest differentiation and interest profile elevation were significantly inversely related to the increase. The regression model explained 34.2% of the variance.
Conclusions
The results have ascertained the importance of cultivating highly differentiated interests as well as having a high level of interest in various areas in preparing young people to cope with difficulties and situational distresses in the school-to-work transition. Theoretical, research, and practice implications derived from the findings will be discussed.

1. Objectives or purposes
The main purpose of this study is to explore the contributions of social contextual variables (i.e., gender, age, grade level, socioeconomic status) and personal-level variables (interest-related and competency-related variables) to career decision-making difficulties of Chinese High school adolescents in Hong Kong.

2. Perspective(s) or theoretical framework
Theories and research on career development have placed a strong emphasis on understanding how personal-level variables affect vocational behavior. For instance, career theories have postulated on how self-concept, self-efficacy, and personal traits such as interest, values, and personality influence career choice and development (see Leung 2008 for a review). Research studies based on the trait-factor and person-environment (P-E) models showed that a good P-E fit was associated with work satisfaction and motivation, better physical and psychological health, and positive outcomes on well-being. Conversely, low P-E fit was found to be associated with job stress, anxiety, absenteeism and turnover (Holland, 1996; Tinsley, 2000).

There are, however, theories and models of career development that argue for the salience of contextual variables in understanding career behavior (e.g., Gottfredson, 1996; Leung, 1995; Novakovic and Fouad, 2012). These models
attempted to extend and integrate intra-individual factors in the wider social contexts in explaining career development and choices. These social-contextual factors refer to structural variables such as age, gender, race, ethnicity, and family’s socioeconomic status that are beyond the control of an individual. Social-contextual factors and personal-level factors interacted in wider social structures in a dynamic fashion shaping career development outcomes.

Difficulties in career decision-making have been used in the literature as important career development outcomes. In this study, it was hypothesized that (1) in accordance with the theoretical arguments of contextual models of career development, the career decision-making difficulties of Chinese high school students should vary according to key demographic characteristics (gender, socio-economic status; (2) on top of social-contextual factors, personal factors, including interest-related and competency-related variables affect career decision-making difficulties; and (3) the effects of contextual variables are stronger than those of personal-level variables, given the salience of a collectivistic values in Chinese communities (Leung et al., 2011).

Statement of the problem
The objective of this study is to analyze the influences of immigrant status on the development of life skills competencies, school connectedness, and meaning in life for native Hong Kong adolescents and adolescent immigrants who recently moved to live in Hong Kong from the Chinese mainland. Academic self-efficacy, career self-efficacy, personal-social self-efficacy (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994), connectedness to teachers and peers (Goodenow, 1993; Libbey, 2004), and presence of meaning in life (Steger, Frazier, Oishi & Kaler, 2006) have been identified as effective psychosocial resources in youth development (Yuen, et al.,2014). These factors are also instrumental to the adaptation of immigrants who relocated across borders. Accordingly, it is hypothesized that there are differences between Hong Kong native adolescents and immigrant adolescents in how socio- demographic and psychological factors affect the development of life skills competencies, school connectedness, and meaning in life.
Participants
Participants were 7,819 high school students in Hong Kong (4,422 males and 3,397 females. Age range 14 21 years; mean age 17.33 years, S.D =1.07). In the sample, 7,375 students were  Hong Kong-native  defined by the permanent resident status (having resided in Hong Kong for at least 7 years) and 444 were identified as  newly arrived immigrants  without permanent resident status (i.e., they needed to meet residency requirement before they could gain permanent residence status).
Procedure
The participants completed career-and-life-related assessments within the academic year of 2015-2016 using a web-based platform of a large-scale project for the youth s career and life planning in Hong Kong.
Measures
Outcome measures used in this study were the Life Skills Development Self-Efficacy Inventory - short form (LSD-short form; Yuen, et al.,2016), the School Connectedness Scale (SCS; Yuen et al.,2008), and the Chinese version of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ; Steger, Frazier, Oishi & Kaler, 2006).
Analysis
One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine differences between native and immigrant students on life skills competencies, school connectedness, and meaning in life. Ordinary least squares (OLS) multiple regression analysis was made in the  immigrants only  and  natives only  subsamples separately to examine the effect of socio-demographic factors and perceived academic abilities to life skills competencies, school connectedness, and meaning in life, controlling for the effect of socioeconomic backgrounds, and compare equality of coefficients from the two subsamples.
Results
The results showed that the mean scores were significantly higher among Mainland Chinese
Page 2 of 3
 
immigrants than among native Hong Kong students for all variables except  connectedness to peers  and  search for meaning in life  In comparison of the regression coefficients between natives and immigrants using the z Test (Paternoster et al., 1998), the effects of perceived academic ability and age on connectedness to teachers among immigrants were significantly higher than those among natives. The age effect on connectedness to peers among immigrants was also significantly higher than that among natives. The effect of perceived academic ability on search for meaning in life was significantly higher than that among natives.
Conclusions
The findings of this study have implications for the creation of supportive learning environments that help with the psycho-social adjustment of Chinese immigrant students. Theoretical, research, and practice implications would be discussed.

Learning about political issues through the new core subject of Liberal Studies (LS) in senior secondary education in Hong Kong has become ‘socially problematic’ amid mounting concern of politicians and pundits who see a link between such learning and the recent waves of student protests. Using data from in-depth interviews with senior secondary students in Hong Kong, we explore how politically disengaged and engaged youth experienced their LS learning and how they perceived and made sense of the relationship between LS learning and political participation or its absence. Our findings indicate that while there appear to be circumstances that give rise to diversified learning experiences, LS has little bearing on youth political participation or otherwise.

This paper revisits the development of Basil Bernstein’s theoretical armories and reinvigorates its relevance to social class analysis in education, while identifying some of the challenges and promises in doing so. The main arguments are grounded in an empirical analysis of the recent Liberal Studies reform in Hong Kong’s senior secondary education. An extended discussion of using a Bernsteinian approach to pedagogy-specific class explanations is developed: (a) transition of code modalities between stages of education; (b) differentiated pedagogic identities in the middle class; (c) pedagogic grammars of specialized habituses; and (d) possibilities for an interruption in the process of social reproduction. It is concluded that continuing to build on
Bernstein’s legacy will allow us to achieve a more nuanced understanding of the ways that class works through different
pedagogic contexts in order for the conception of an interruption of class reproduction to be useful in guiding transformative practices in it.

China's economy has grown drastically in recent decades.  At the same time, income inequality has been growing markedly.  Under the constant change in the function of institutions during this economic reform, the sentiment of trust in the society has weakened considerably.  Based on recent data from Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, collected in 2013 by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, we address two questions on the sentiment of trust during the period of economic reform. Does the sentiment vary across different types or organization?  Do those who earn high income, the benefactors of the economic reform, have higher level of trust towards the system?  Using factor analysis, we found that trust towards various organizations can be grouped into five factors depending on type of organization: government, media, business, public utility, and social organizations. We further found that high-income earners have less trust towards government and media, yet more trust towards social organizations.  The implications of these findings are discussed.