Teacher Commitment Trends: Cases of Hong Kong Teachers from 1997 to 2007
“This article was published in Teaching and Teacher Education, Vol 25, Issue 5, Choi P. L. and Tang S. Y. F., Teacher Commitment Trends: Cases of Hong Kong Teachers from 1997 to 2007 , Pages 767-777, Copyright Elsevier (July 2009)”.
This paper examines the commitment of Hong Kong teachers in the decade after the political transition in 1997, when large-scale education reforms were launched. The life history method was employed to explore teachers’ self-appraisal of their commitment levels in their career course and factors contributing to such trends.
Findings affirm the previous view that teacher commitment involves the interplay of personal, workplace and education systemic factors. Furthermore, the findings also illuminate how these factors interplay differently to effect sustained/increased or decreased commitment. ‘Love for students’ is argued to be a crucial personal factor which counteracts unfavorable external conditions to sustain teacher commitment.