The implementation of the Emmaus pedagogy in religious and moral education in five Catholic kindergarten classrooms in Hong Kong

Abstract

In 2006, the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong promoted a new Religious and Moral Education curriculum with a new pedagogy approach, namely “Emmaus Pedagogy” in all its Catholic schools ranging from kindergarten to secondary levels. The new pedagogy is adapted from Thomas Groome’s “Shared Christian Praxis”. A series of textbooks embedded “Emmaus Pedagogy” had been published to support classroom teaching. In this study, kindergarten classrooms were selected, five Catholic kindergartens under two different sponsoring bodies, namely, the Religious Orders and Caritas were invited to participate. To portray the classroom teaching adopting “Emmaus Pedagogy” and discuss the factors affecting the adoption, documentary analysis, questionnaire survey, classroom observation and in-depth interviews were employed. The findings revealed that the “Emmaus Pedagogy” was practiced very differently in schools run by the two sponsoring bodies. The religious background of the teacher may also hinder the effectiveness of the adoption. Other factors affecting the quality of the different policies of school administrators, lack of professional development and the teaching experience and approach among people factors, school culture and classroom factors. The implication gives new insight to the Religious and Moral Education pedagogy in early childhood classroom teaching in Hong Kong.