PERCEPTIONS OF, AND ATTITUDES TO CATHOLIC SCHOOLS’ IDENTITY AND ETHOS IN MACAO: TOWARDS A COMMON FRAMEWORK OF CATHOLIC SCHOOLS’ IDENTITY

ABSTRACT

DRAMA-IN-EDUCATION (DIE) HAS BEEN RECOGNISED AS A VALUABLE TEACHING PEDAGOGY IN THE WESTERN WORLD FOR DECADES, AND YET IT HAS NOT BEEN FULLY OR SYSTEMATICALLY ADOPTED IN THE SECONDARY ENGLISH CLASSES IN ASIAN CONTEXTS, INCLUDING MACAU, DESPITE THE NUMEROUS REPORTED ADVANTAGES FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING (ELT) IN THE PAST STUDIES. THIS STUDY EXPLORES MACAU’S SECONDARY SCHOOL ENGLISH TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF UTILISING DIE IN THEIR CLASSES. A MIXED-METHODS RESEARCH (MMR) APPROACH WAS ADOPTED IN THIS STUDY, CONSISTING OF THREE PHASES. FIRST, PRE-SURVEY INTERVIEWS WERE CONDUCTED TO UNDERSTAND THE POTENTIAL MAJOR CONCERNS ABOUT THE CHOICES OF TEACHING APPROACHES AND THE APPLICATION OF DIE OF MACAU’S SECONDARY SCHOOL ENGLISH TEACHERS. SUBSEQUENTLY, A QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEY TARGETING LOCAL SECONDARY SCHOOL ENGLISH TEACHERS WAS ADMINISTERED, THE RESULTS OF WHICH WERE CROSS-EXAMINED BY, AND INTEGRATED WITH, THE RESULTS OF TWO POST-SURVEY GROUP INTERVIEWS. WHILE THE RESULTS AFFIRM THE LOCAL SECONDARY SCHOOL ENGLISH TEACHERS’ POSITIVE VIEW ON DIE AS AN ELT PEDAGOGY AND IDENTIFY THEIR PERCEIVED ADVANTAGES OF DIE, THE STUDY INDICATES THE OVER-DETERMINATION OF MULTI-FACETED CHALLENGES TO ITS IMPLEMENTATION IN MACAU’S SECONDARY EDUCATION CONTEXT. THE STUDY IDENTIFIES AND RECOMMENDS NECESSARY SUBSTANTIAL CHANGES TO FURTHER THE APPLICATION OF DIE IN MACAU’S SECONDARY EDUCATION MILIEU