The Implementation of "Soft" and "Hard" Policy on the School Curriculum: Teachers' Perspectives

Abstract

The use of legal structures to force compliance has been termed as 'Hard' policy. 'Soft' policy is derived from international law and has been used to analyze the European Union policies. 'Soft' policy is non-binding in character. It attracts actors' adoption of newly installed policies through persuasions, communications, guidelines, sharing of resources, meetings, etc. As contemporary society changes, 'hard' policy has its limitation in the implementation of new policies. 'Soft' policy fills this gap and brings along a different perspective for implementation. By using the example of the current curriculum reform in Hong Kong, this paper aimed to explore the 'soft' and 'hard' policy implementation through teachers' perspectives. Since 2000, 'soft' policy has been used by the Hong Kong Government through the provision of resources and manpower to assist the innovations implemented in local schools. It seemed that these 'soft' methods should be welcomed by the local school teachers. However, teachers were pessimistic about the current policy implementation. In general, teachers perceived that they had no choice but to implement the stated government reforms in their schools. In the end, they felt that 'soft' and 'hard' policy did not differ much.