Week 11 - Cultural and Professional (07/04/12)

Some Easter treats arrived in the post.

This week marks the celebrations of one of the major festivals in the Christian calendar, as Christians around the world remember the death and resurrection of Jesus, throughout the Easter holiday. Although 64% of the residents of Hong Kong affirm no religious affiliation and only 8-9% claim to practice Christianity, Good Friday and Easter Monday remain as public holidays. This week has been particularly interesting as a result of these celebrations, as we have been able to witness two vastly different festivals that are important to the culture that makes up Hong Kong. Ching Ming Festival, also known as Tomb Sweeping Day, is the other tradition that is practiced during the Easter period by Chinese people. This festival involves visiting the graves or burial grounds of people’s ancestors in order to remember and honour them. Chinese people of all ages pray before their ancestors, sweep the tombs and then offer a burnt sacrifice of incense, their favorite food, tea and wine, along with paper to resemble money in the hope that the deceased do not lack any food or wealth. Interestingly, the latest development in technology has also been influencing this historic tradition, as images of iPhones and iPads are being burnt in order to keep ancestors up-to-date. 

Burnt offerings of food and incense being made while the tombs are swept.

Apple products being burnt as an offering to ancestors.

Also this week, Andrew and I were given the opportunity for a guided tour around the Jockey Club Primary School, which is located on our university campus and where we shall be completing our teaching placement after the Easter break. We also met with our class teachers and were provided with some information regarding the classes and topics that we will be teaching. The school educates around 500 pupils with 3 classes per year and employs around 30 teachers. On first impressions, there are some differences that exist between primary schools in Northern Ireland and in Hong Kong. Firstly, there are different teachers for different subjects, much like our secondary school composition, however it is the teacher that moves classroom and not the children. This is quite a foreign concept to me and initially it proposes some concerns about how much time we will actually get to spend with the children, in order to get to know them and understand their specific learning needs and the impact that this will have on preparing lessons for them. Another difference that I am aware of is the structural layout of the school building, as the Jockey Club Primary School has a total of 7 floors and is very open-plan, providing outside access for all classrooms. Professionally, I believe that these differences will provide many opportunities for development with regards to the approaches that I implement in the classroom, to ensure each learner achieves their full potential and that the environmental resources are effectively incorporated into their learning experiences. 

Open-plan structure of the Jockey Club Primary School.

I have been paired up with two teachers, Ms Priscilia Ko and Ms Amy Kwok, who teach 5B and 4B respectively, which translates to a primary 6 and primary 5 class in Northern Irish terms. Both of these classes have approximately 25 students in them, which is a relatively small number compared to the increasing number of children in primary classrooms in Northern Ireland. I am very much looking forward to meeting both classes and taking this opportunity of placement to really learn from the different teaching styles and curriculum objectives that exist in the Hong Kong Education System.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the week and have learnt a lot about the importance of tradition in the make-up of a specific country’s culture. Hong Kong is thoroughly fascinating as it has so many ethnic, religious and political influences, yet all are incorporated no matter how much they differ. I am hoping that throughout our teaching placement, I will have the opportunity to experience how the education system embraces the range of backgrounds that the children originate from and how individual schools prepare their students for citizenship in a multicultural, globalised nation.