Enhancing quality early childhood education and enabling access for ethnic minority South Asian (SA) children in kindergartens have increasingly been a social concern in Hong Kong. This empirical study examines the beliefs and perceptions of kindergarten teachers and principals towards educating SA children in their own educational settings. The research focus was sharpened by a case-study method to examine the effectiveness of SA children from two different kindergartens with significant demographic differences. In total, 10 focus group interviews with 29 teachers and individual interviews with the 2 principals were conducted to understand their perspectives on the learning and transitional needs of SA children. The findings reveal a remarkable difference between the beliefs and perceptions of both teachers and principals from the two kindergartens in response to the diverse needs of SA children. School policy, practice and the implications for the development of early years education are discussed.; Enhancing quality early childhood education and enabling access for ethnic minority South Asian (SA) children in kindergartens have increasingly been a social concern in Hong Kong. This empirical study examines the beliefs and perceptions of kindergarten teachers and principals towards educating SA children in their own educational settings. The research focus was sharpened by a case-study method to examine the effectiveness of SA children from two different kindergartens with significant demographic differences. In total, 10 focus group interviews with 29 teachers and individual interviews with the 2 principals were conducted to understand their perspectives on the learning and transitional needs of SA children. The findings reveal a remarkable difference between the beliefs and perceptions of both teachers and principals from the two kindergartens in response to the diverse needs of SA children. School policy, practice and the implications for the development of early

Hong Kong classrooms are populated by a significant number of culturally diverse students, most predominantly newly arrived students (NAS) from Mainland China. These NAS come to school with the same hopes and aspirations as their Hong Kong counterparts and with a wide range of abilities. The huge diversity presents demands on today's Hong Kong teachers. Too often, the NAS are failed by the educational system because their perceived needs are not being addressed. This essay serves as an exploratory study on teachers' pedagogical effectiveness in response to the challenges of educating the NAS in Hong Kong schools. It draws special reference to the lessons learned from a one-year professional teacher support pilot project for the education of the NAS. Implications are drawn to provide support for the need and value of the integration of the cultural relevant elements in continuous teacher education programmes.
香港學校收納了不少文化多元的學生，他們多是內地新來港的學生。他們擁有不同的能力，然而，他們跟香港本土學生一樣對學校抱有相同的夢想與素求。他們本身的多元性為今日的香港老師帶來了不少的要求。很多時，他們的學業失敗是因為本港教育制度不能照顧他們的學習需要而致。本文是一個為期一年的探索式先導計畫，研究專注於香港老師回應新來港學生教育的挑戰的教學效能。由香港優質教育基金贊助，名為「新來港學童教育專業支援計畫」。本文總結先導計畫成果，並把所得的啟示作為支持在教師持續教育課程中加入文化適切元素的需要和價值。
[Copyright of New Horizons: The Journal of Education, Hong Kong Teachers' Associationl is the property of Hong Kong Teachers' Association at http://www.hkta1934.org.hk/]

This study represents an initial attempt to determine and compare the levels of the intercultural sensitivity of three samples of student teachers in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore using the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI). A total of 317 student teachers participated in the study. Across the three samples, the majority of participants tended to see the world from an ethnocentric perspective and tended to simplify or polarize cultural differences. They also had a tendency to emphasize commonality and universal norms, and showed difficulties in comprehending and accommodating complex cultural differences. Based on the results, the study offers recommendations for the development of a suitable intercultural training programme to achieve greater intercultural sensitivity for future teachers in each of the three cities.
[Copyright of Compare: A Journal of Comparative Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03057920802281571]

Teacher education programs and teachers' own lives in the relatively homogeneous communities of the past have hardly equipped them to assist their students to become interculturally sensitive, global citizens. This study compares the levels of intercultural sensitivity of secondary school teachers in four Hong Kong schools using the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI). Findings indicate unique IDI profiles at each of the four schools in the study and a wide range of IDI scores at each school. Implications of the findings provide the basis for recommendations for the professional development of teachers in these schools.
[Copyright of Intercultural Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14675980701327247]