Table Of ContentSoft Skills and Hard Values
To help researchers, educators and policy makers understand and support
the development of 21st-century skills in schools, this edited volume explores
the various iterations of “soft” skills with a particular focus on their implica-
tions for values and evaluates ways in which “soft skills” and “hard” values
can be integrated.
Discourse throughout the 21st century has focused on the changing
nature of work, the need for new skill sets and the disruptive effects of new
technologies. This has been a neo-liberal discourse that subordinated per-
sonal and individual needs to the needs of a productive workforce delivering
more and more efficiencies linked to higher and higher profits. The solution
is often seen to be in the development of a school curriculum that focuses on
work-ready skills for an increasingly complex work environment and its
demands. Agencies such as OECD and UNESCO highlight the need to link
the skills agenda with complementary values. Yet this process is at a very early
stage. The proponents of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) for exam-
ple highlight the impact of new technologies, not just on work but also on
the social world. Yet they neglect to explore the values that would be needed
in these new disruptive environments.
This book takes up that issue and lays out the multiple value systems that are
available for this new 21st century world. It is an important resource for policy
makers, academics and teachers with responsibility for a new generation.
Kerry J. Kennedy is Professor Emeritus and Advisor (Academic
Development) at The Education University of Hong Kong. He is also
Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Department of Education and
Curriculum Studies at the University of Johannesburg.
Margarita Pavlova is Associate Professor in the Department of International
Education, The Education University of Hong Kong and Director of the UNEVOC
Centre (Hong Kong), a member of the global UNESCO-UNEVOC network.
John Chi-Kin Lee is Vice President (Academic) and Provost, UNESCO Chair
in Regional Education Development and Lifelong Learning, Chair Professor
of Curriculum and Instruction and Director of the Centre for Religious and
Spirituality Education at The Education University of Hong Kong.
Routledge Series on Life and Values Education
Series editors: John Chi-Kin Lee and Kerry J. Kennedy
The current world order so often seems fixated on economic growth at all costs, rising and
self-interested nationalism, rampant individualism, environmental minimalism and declining
support for authentic inclusion and democracy based on mutual trust, respect and dialogue. This
book series takes an alternative view of life primarily as a meaning-making activity. It focuses on
the education of young people’s spiritual and religious engagement. It does so using a cross-cul-
tural approach drawing on the diverse traditions found in Asia while recognising the importance
of Western traditions that have also been significant in the region and beyond. Blending this
diverse range of influences, books in the Series explore the way religious and spiritual dimensions
of life are adopted, integrated and practiced by schools and their communities. By so doing, it
seeks to highlight an important and too often neglected dimension of life and living.
The Book Series adopts pluralistic and dialectical approaches to life and values education
primarily, although not exclusively, situated in diversified Asian societies which cover moral
education, religious and spirituality education, citizenship education as well as other kinds of
values education such as education for sustainability and peace education and issues related to
lifelong learning. Books will:
1. Enhance academic dialogues within and across different Asian societies with diverse reli-
gious, philosophical and socio-cultural traditions
2. Consolidate approaches, strategies, experiences and challenges in implementing life and
values educations within Asian contexts and with an international perspective
3. Suggest forward-looking agendas in research and development in life and values education.
Editorial Board
Marvin W. Berkowitz, University of Missouri-St. Louis, USA
Jianjun Feng, Nanjing Normal University, China
Rob Freathy, University of Exeter, UK
David Hansen, Teachers College, Columbia University, USA
Helen Haste, University of Bath, UK
Stefan Huber, University of Bern, Switzerland
Terence Lovat, University of Newcastle, Australia
Fethi Mansouri, Deakin University, Australia
Andrew Peterson, University of Birmingham, UK
Johannes H.C. Sun, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
Kirsi Tirri, University of Helsinki, Finland
Wiel Veugelers, University of Humanistic Studies, The Netherlands
Tianlong Yu, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, USA
Religious Education in Asia
Spiritual Diversity in Globalized Times
Edited by Kerry J. Kennedy and John Chi-Kin Lee
Life and Moral Education in Greater China
Edited by John Chi-Kin Lee, Stephen Yam-Wing Yip and Raymond Ho-Man Kong
Soft Skills and Hard Values
Meeting Education’s 21st Century Challenges
Edited by Kerry J. Kennedy, Margarita Pavlova and John Chi-Kin Lee
Soft Skills and Hard Values
Meeting Education’s 21st Century
Challenges
Edited by Kerry J. Kennedy,
Margarita Pavlova and
John Chi-Kin Lee
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Kerry J. Kennedy, Margarita
Pavlova and John Chi-Kin Lee; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Kerry J. Kennedy, Margarita Pavlova and John Chi-Kin
Lee to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the
authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance
with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-032-11336-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-11335-7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-21941-5 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003219415
Typeset in Galliard
by SPi Technologies India Pvt Ltd (Straive)
Kerry would like to dedicate this book to his grandchil-
dren (Oliver, Henry, Annabel, Zoe, Jaime, Rose, Fletcher
and Samuel) who will need both skills and values to cope
with precarious times.
Contents
List of Illustrations ix
List of Contributors x
Series Editors’ Note xv
PART I
Soft skills and their stories 1
1 Skills agendas in the 21st century:
Understanding the stories 3
KERRY J. KENNEDY, MARGARITA PAVLOVA AND JOHN CHI-KIN LEE
2 Green economies, green values: Story for the times 19
MARGARITA PAVLOVA
3 The Fourth Industrial Revolution: Humanoids,
humanity and agency 37
KERRY J. KENNEDY
PART II
Values for a better world 51
4 Future stories: Narrative, values and the management
of radical uncertainty 53
HELEN HASTE
5 Global citizenship education: Searching for global cohesion 71
HELEN HANNA
viii Contents
6 Inclusive education: Equal opportunities for all 93
MING-TAK HUE
7 Life and values education: Beyond the self 112
JOHN CHI-KIN LEE, ELLEN YUEFENG ZHANG AND ROWENA HOI YEE LIU
8 Anti-racist values and intercultural skills 133
MIRON BHOWMIK AND JAN GUBE
9 Education for sustainable development: Experiences
from a Tree Assessment for Life Education
(TALE) project in Hong Kong 149
ALICE SIN-YIN CHOW, CHI-YUNG JIM AND JOHN CHI-KIN LEE
10 Media and information literacy: Evaluating
misinformation and fake news in a complex world 164
ALICE Y. L. LEE
11 Learning to live together: The hidden curriculum 180
LIZ JACKSON
PART III
Integrating skills and values: Agenda for the future 197
12 Constructing the future: Integrating values and
skills to meet the challenges of a precarious world 199
KERRY J. KENNEDY, MARGARITA PAVLOVA AND JOHN CHI-KIN LEE
Index 212
Illustrations
Figures
2.1 Typology of green skills 21
7.1 A glance at activities for P.1 classes 122
7.2 A glance at activities for P.5 classes 123
7.3 Samples of implicit values education curriculum 126
8.1 Intercultural competencies framework 143
9.1 Mobile application “Tree Portal” 153
9.2 Tree Portal website 155
9.3 School A: TALE project activities 156
9.4 A postcard drawing showing the value connection between
trees and people 157
10.1 A media and information literacy model for evaluating news
and information 170
Tables
1.1 The World Economic Forum’s changing priorities for 21st
century skills 8
1.2 McKinsey’s skill categories, groups and distinct elements of
talent (DELTAs) 9
1.3 UNESCO’s transversal skills 11
2.1 ESD response to the barriers and mediating factors of
attitude-behaviour translation 29
5.1 Aims of GCE 74
7.1 Curriculum guideline of mindfulness practices in the case
school 118
7.2 A sample mindfulness lesson in General Studies 119
7.3 Three-tier system to support students’ mindfulness practices 119
9.1 Students’ attitudes towards tree conservation 159
10.1 Thinking skills for news and information analysis 171
