Research on Children's Concepts of God and Spirituality and Its Implications on Educational Inequality in Early Childhood Educational Reform in Hong Kong

Abstract

In his 2006–2007 policy address, the chief executive of Hong Kong committed HK$2 billion to enhancing holistic early childhood education through the instigation of a school voucher scheme. The new paradigm of a child-centered curriculum is considered necessary to keep pace with international quality educational developments. The paradigm of spirituality education for young children, which enshrines interconnectedness (Taggart, 2001), is in essence the holistic education that is advocated in child-centered ideology. Religious education, in contrast, is underpinned by teacher-centered ideology and has the aim of transmitting traditional religious values to the younger generation. The article reports on six case studies on three faith schools that suggest that elements of spirituality are embedded in the newly advocated curriculum. The preliminary data collected, however, also suggest that there is a misunderstanding on the part of stakeholders in their view of the conceptualization of spirituality education as being nearly synonymous with religious education. Given these findings, I hope to arouse the public at large to the potential educational inequalities existed alongside the educational reform policy: first, to the parents when exercising their rights under the school voucher scheme; second, to faith schools being distracted from their school mission by a misconception that spirituality education and religious education are nearly synonymous.