I heard a sad news in tonight class: My doctoral classmate, Michael, was passed away recently because of illness. He was an Australian aged around 50 who taught English at a community college in Hong Kong.
We got to know each other one year ago, i.e. at the beginning of our doctoral study. When he told me that he was going to study the community college development in Hong Kong, I showed my interest on his topic as I was from the sector of continuous education. I told him the historical background, and we joked that he should interview the former Chief Executive, Mr. TUNG Chee-wa, as he was the one who initiated such a policy. I thought that his research was worth doing as it might be the first of its kind to evaluate the effectiveness of community colleges in Hong Kong ...
After coming home tonight, I deliberately connect to the Interactive Learning Network (ILN) and look for his postings. Here is the first one among all classmates:
my current thinking about my original proposal
MCCAFFREY Michael William
Thursday, September 20, 2007 11:10:25 PM
My original research proposal's aims are far too big for one little study - to account for the birth of the Community College in Hong Kong AND find out what and how College graduates are actually performing in terms of discipline knowledge AND generic skills, AND if all of this is achieving the original aims for the Hong Kong Community College policy or not.
I will eventually have to settle on only ONE of those areas, although they are still all equally interesting to me:
Accounting for the introduction of Colleges would be an historical study, relying on documents and records, but could also involve interviews with prominent policy-makers. It cannot just be historical description, can it, so may need a theoretical base (Foucault? Weber? Bourdieu? Marx? - none of whom I understand, by the way).
Finding out what graduates are doing would involve talking to graduates, and their employers and professors (and their parents?) . This may turn out to be quite an easy study to do. Might it be "strengthened" by comparing College graduates' performance with Form 7 graduates'? Might it be able to encompass comparing College graduates' performance against the aims the government originally had for the Community Colleges? Probably.
Another idea which keeps coming up is that the most valuable study in this area would be one which compares the situation for 15/16/17-year old students now with the situation before there were Colleges in HK. Is it better for them?
Am I posting this in the right place?
Monday, September 22, 2008
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6 comments:
Hello, I am so very saddened to hear the news about Michael. I knew him from his days as an actor in Brisbane, Australia. I lost contact with him for many years (he lived in Spain for 7 years then was in HK for 10 years). We caught up with each other this year when I was teaching at the HKAPA. It was like no time had passed at all - he was as mad, funny and bold as ever. I had not realised he had passed away and only have his HK contacts. I wonder if you could contact me with any details that you may have of his passing and how I might contact his family. If you are interested, I have a photograph of him posted on my website from a production we did together many years ago of Noel Coward's play "Design for Living" (www.davidbelldirector.com). You can also email me diirectly from that site. Many thanks. David Bell
Email Reply from Dr. CHEUNG Kwok-wah on 24 Sep 2008
Dear Mr. Choi
Many thanx for putting this on your blog. I remembered very well the type of input Michael offered during class discussion and other comments he made on ways to improve our EDD teaching.
I shall miss Michael.
News from Brisbane forwarded by Ms. Gillian Choa on 25 Sep 2008
VALE: MICHAEL McCAFFREY, Actor (1953 - 2008) - A Little Gossip was saddened to hear of the recent passing of former Brisbane actor MICHAEL McCAFFREY. From the little information we have managed to gather, apparently Michael McCaffrey, aged 55, suffered a heart attack and passed away in a Hong Kong hospital earlier this month. Born in the Queensland town of Chinchilla, during his career Michael McCaffrey was a regular performer during the 70s and 80s with the T.N. Company (Hamlet, The Choir, Happy End, Travesties, Happy Days, The Threepenny Opera), and the World Premiere of the sci-fi rock musical Starstud, with Queensland Theatre Company (Equus, School for Scandal, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Savages), La Boite Theatre Company (Loot, The Sea, Oedipus, Grease, Angel City, Traitors), the Brisbane Actors Company (The Misanthrope, Scapino, Macbeth), Brisbane Arts Theatre (Treats) and Gallery Theatre (Kaspar, Ginger Megg’s Last Stand). Michael’s passing has come as a great shock to all his friends, especially those in the industry. A Little Gossip would like to extend their deepest sympathy to the friends and family of Michael McCaffrey.
Hello,
I am writting from Spain. Michael was my English teacher for so many years. And I am very sad about hearing these news, because I don't know if he really was my teacher, I have lost contact during the years he have been in Hong Kong and now I am so sad that I cannot speak.
Please, kindly tell me something about him.
Thank you very much
You can write me an email to almuhada7@hotmail.com
Thanks again
To: Almudena Martínez
As David Bell mentioned in the 1st comment of this blog post, Micheal lived in Spain for 7 years. You may email David for more information on Micheal via his website (www.davidbelldirector.com).
I have tried to access David Bells website to see these photos, but have been unsuccessful. Can anyone help?
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