Research Methods

The Project will adopt both quantitative and qualitative research methods. There are three main components:

(1) Policy Analysis:

System-level policy documents related to citizenship education and school-based management will be reviewed. Key policymakers will be interviewed in order to expand our understanding of the policy documents.

(2) Surveys of School Leaders, Teachers and Students:

For the survey of school leaders and teachers, all secondary schools in Hong Kong will be included. In each school, school leaders, including the supervisor, the chairperson of the board of directors, the principal, the vice principals, the heads of civic education committees, LS panel heads, teachers responsible for the Student Council, counsellors, leaders of extracurricular activities, and Disciplinary Master will be included. For the student survey, 10% of Hong Kong secondary schools will be selected by stratified sampling. Two classes in each school, one Form 2 class and one Form 5 class will be sampled. The surveys aim to investigate the respondents’ understanding of “good citizens” and democratic school governance, their opinions on students’ participation in school governance, the actual situations of students’ participation in school governance in their school, the facilitating and hindering factors of students’ participation in school governance and impact of participation in school governance on students’ citizenship development, etc.

(3) Case Studies of Schools:

Case studies of three schools will be conducted, comprising schools with different levels of student participation as revealed from the findings of survey, particularly those related to school missions and policies for citizenship development, forms and scope of participation and impact of participation on students. This will provide the research team with the opportunity to understand the factors that both facilitate and hinder the development of participatory cultures. Data of the case studies would be collected through analysis of school policy documents; interviews with school leaders, relevant teachers and students; observation of meetings and other relevant school interactions; checklist on school ethos; and analysis of chat room dialogues.