The formation of a school subject and the nature of curriculum content: an analysis of liberal studies in Hong Kong

This essay explores the nature of the curriculum content of liberal studies—a core school subject in the new senior secondary curriculum in Hong Kong—with reference to the curriculum-making processes entailed in the formation of that subject. The central thesis is that a school subject is introduced to schools and classrooms as a distinct representation of content embodied in curriculum materials, entailing a theory of content—a special way of selecting, organizing, and framing the content for social, cultural, educational, curricular, and pedagogical purposes. Knowing the content of a school subject thus entails knowing more than the content per se; it entails an understanding of the underlying theory of content, which is necessary for disclosing and realizing the educational potential embodied in the content.