Dr Choi Taehee won RGC Early Career Award
Dr Choi Taehee, Research Fellow of APCLC and Assistant Professor of the Department of Education Policy and Leadership, has won the Early Career Award in recognition of her achievements in research from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong. The Early Career Award is an honorary title given to outstanding researchers selected from the Early Career Scheme (ECS) grantees. Only 12 of the 366 early-career scholars funded by the RGC in 2015/16 received this prestigious award.
Dr Choi’s research project, “State-funded Outsourcing of English Language Education: Does New Education Privatisation Ensure ‘Quality Education for All’ in Hong Kong Secondary Schools?” was funded by the Early Career Scheme 2015/6. The project was rated excellent (with a full score of 5.0) and just won the Early Career Award from the Research Grants Council. The project aims to examine and theorize the practice of state-funded outsourcing of English language education (ELE) focusing on its quality and equity, with reference to the Hong Kong context. Many governments have turned to state-funded outsourcing of education (Ed-outsourcing) to enhance the quality and economic efficiency of Education, and ultimately, the competitiveness of their societies (Barrera-Osorio, Guaqueta & Patrinos, 2012). The quality of state-funded Ed-outsourcing, what Burch (2009) termed new education privatization, however, is disputed in the international literature (Ball and Youdell, 2008). It has also been documented that new privatization techniques have reproduced or even increased disparity in learning opportunities in many contexts (ibid.). Although some concerns related to quality and equity in Ed-outsourcing have been echoed in HK (e.g. the need for quality-control systems) (Chan & Ng, 2015), few, if any, attempts have been made to investigate changes and impacts at the school and government-regulation levels. Thus, this project intends to explore and theorize the emerging phenomenon of providing schools with state funds to buy and integrate third-party services into their delivery of education, focusing on its quality and equity.
Dr Choi’s scholarship and expertise in the field is recognized through international awards (e.g., Young Scholar Best Paper Awards, The Asia Pacific Educational Research Association and recently the Early Career Award) and advisory-seeking (e.g., Cambridge University Press, English language teaching for South Korean learners). Previously she was a visiting lecturer at King’s College London, UK (2010 – July 2013) and taught BA and MA students; and a teacher educator and policy advisor (2005-2009) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher (1995-2009) in South Korea. She published about thirty EFL learning and teaching resources with Korean and international publishers.
To know more about Dr Choi’s ECS research project, please visit: http://www.eduhk.hk/apclc/research_34.html.
