Internationally, there is growing concern regarding the insufficient preparation of teachers in mainstream kindergartens in terms of teaching for ethnically diverse children. As teacher educators, we are concerned about how to help kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong improve their teaching. In this study, we adopted the research approach of phenomenography to investigate the following research question: In what qualitatively different ways do teachers experience the teaching for ethnically diverse children? We conducted individual semi-structured interviews with 26 in-service kindergarten teachers. Four ways of experiencing were identified. Teaching for ethnically diverse children can be experienced as: adjusting instruction (A), expanding modes of expression (B), exploring new possibilities (C), and embracing inclusion (D). We recommend that teacher educators discuss our results with teachers in professional development programmes, making them aware of alternatives and appropriate advanced ways of experiencing such teaching. Moreover, our results also revealed the benefits that ethnically diverse children bring to all children. Copyright © 2023 Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research.

Artificial intelligence (AI) education for K-12 students is an emerging necessity, owing to the rapid advancement and deployment of AI technologies. It is essential to take teachers' perspectives into account when creating ecologically valid AI education programmes for K-12 settings. However, very few studies investigated teacher perception of AI education. Phenomenography is an empirical research method that was widely used to understand teacher's interpretive understanding of new phenomenon, in this study, the teaching of AI in secondary school. Therefore, the present study investigated teachers' conceptions of teaching AI using a phenomenographic approach. Twenty-eight in-service teachers from 17 secondary schools in Hong Kong were invited to participate in an interview after implementing an AI curriculum. Six categories of teacher conceptions were identified: (1) technology bridging, (2) knowledge delivery, (3) interest stimulation, (4) ethics establishment, (5) capability cultivation, and (6) intellectual development. The hierarchical relationships of the six concepts were organised as an outcome space. The space shows a range of surface to deep conceptions and offers an understanding of how teachers perceive AI education through their teaching experience. Two learning paths have been suggested for cultivating technical and non-technical teachers for teaching AI. These learning paths provide insights for teacher educators and policymakers to enhance teachers' competence in teaching AI and promote general AI education for K-12 students. Copyright © 2022 Springer.

Effective teaching requires teachers to have shared understanding with learners. If learners see the world in a way different from that of the teacher, the teacher may not be able to make connections with the learners, thus failing to convey the instructional content to them. Along this line, our project adopted the notion of ‘the pedagogy of learning’ and involved iterative cycles of research on children’s ways of seeing and the professional development of kindergarten teachers. In terms of research, we investigated the qualitatively different ways of seeing of children as manifested by the errors in the spoken words they used in everyday conversations in kindergartens while they learned to speak. Over the three years of the project, we had engaged a total of 254 in-service kindergarten teachers in observing children’s errors in their own kindergartens. A pool of 788 children’s errors was collected and 5 categories of errors were inductively identified: sound imitation (A), non-existent combination of characters from words (B), inappropriate use of the spoken forms of words (C), use of characters with inaccurate meanings (D), and creative exploitation of characters with relevant meanings (E). Concerning professional development of in-service kindergarten teachers, we presented the five categories of errors to the teachers in our professional development programmes to explore what they needed to know to teach children to correct each of the categories of errors and to use the appropriate spoken words. The presentation generated stimulating discussion among the teachers, inducing them to reflect upon their understanding of the Chinese language and their scientific knowledge about the world. On the whole, this project put forth the positive value of children’s errors and called attention to the potential contribution of the notion of the pedagogy of learning in improving the teaching of teachers for children to learn Chinese.有效的教學要求教師與學生有共同的理解，如果學生理解事物的方式與教師的不同，教師難以明白學生的想法

In Hong Kong, teaching ethnically diverse children (e.g. Indians, Pakistanis, Nepalis) has recently become a pressing issue. As teacher educators, we believe the crux of the issue lies in teachers’ understanding of cultural diversity. Specifically, this study adopted the theoretical framework of phenomenography to investigate the question of: What are precisely the qualitatively different ways teachers see ethnically diverse children? We recruited 81 in-service kindergarten teachers and conducted interviews and/or collected documents related to their practice of teaching. Four ways of seeing were identified: Ethnically diverse children are seen as: (A) of one and the same group, (B) not local to Hong Kong, (C) in need of support and deficient, and (D) overly devoted to their own cultures. We recommend teacher educators to discuss the descriptions of the four ways of seeing with teachers. The results of this study contribute to pedagogical knowledge of teacher educators for professional development of teachers. Copyright © 2022 Informa UK Limited.

Internationalisation of the curriculum (IoC) is on the agenda of many higher education (HE) institutions worldwide. Typically seen as associated with a top-down strategy, IoC often meets resistance from university teachers, many of whom struggle to understand its relevance to teaching practice. This phenomenographic study investigates university teachers’ conceptions of IoC. Five conceptions ranging in sophistication have been identified. The least sophisticated focuses on making the curriculum content internationally relevant, whereas the most sophisticated centres around developing self-awareness, awareness of others, and a change in mindset in students. The latter is realised by embracing reflexivity and criticality and, more importantly, utilising societal and political issues as learning opportunities for identity development. Situated in the Hong Kong context, the findings not only suggest the need for teachers to shift their focus from curriculum content to value-based development but also for educators to reflect on their role in helping students to reconcile their identity in relation to their counterparts regionally and globally. Copyright © Springer Nature B.V.

Internationalisation of the curriculum (IoC) is on the agenda of many higher education (HE) institutions worldwide. Typically seen as associated with a top-down strategy, IoC often meets resistance from university teachers, many of whom struggle to understand its relevance to teaching practice. This phenomenographic study investigates university teachers' conceptions of IoC. Five conceptions ranging in sophistication have been identified. The least sophisticated focuses on making the curriculum content internationally relevant, whereas the most sophisticated centres around developing self-awareness, awareness of others, and a change in mindset in students. The latter is realised by embracing reflexivity and criticality and, more importantly, utilising societal and political issues as learning opportunities for identity development. Situated in the Hong Kong context, the findings not only suggest the need for teachers to shift their focus from curriculum content to value-based development but also for educators to reflect on their role in helping students to reconcile their identity in relation to their counterparts regionally and globally.
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This study offers an in-depth understanding of acculturative experiences among a group of Pakistani secondary school students in Hong Kong. The study findings seek to report the various ways in which the research participants experience acculturation in the familial, communal, educational, and societal contexts and identify the various factors that facilitate or hinder their acculturation to mainstream society. The study employed a culture learning approach and adopted a strength-based perspective to understand the lived acculturative experiences of first-generation and second-generation Pakistani students (n-16) attending six different secondary schools in Hong Kong. Phenomenography as research methodology guided the study, and data was collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews. The phenomenographic data analysis aided by Nvivo software resulted in twenty-eight categories representing the different ways in which the research participants experience acculturation. The three findings chapters delineate what and how the participants learn about their heritage culture (enculturation) as well as other cultures (acculturation) and what factors hinder their acculturation to the mainstream society. While growing up in the multicultural city of Hong Kong, the research participants not only learn about their social identities and acquire multiple languages but also learn about their heritage culture and other cultures. Although all the participants make sense of their social identities differently, their place of birth, ethnicity, nationality, and religious affiliation shape their hyphenated identities. The acquisition of linguistic capital in multiple languages, including mother tongue, Urdu, English, Cantonese, and Arabic, facilitate their learning about heritage culture and other cultures. Their everyday socialization across the social settings results in both their enculturation as well as acculturation.Within the familial context, language preferences, dietary

In Hong Kong children aged 4-6 years old are taught Chinese characters writing in local preschools. Non-Chinese speaking (NCS) preschool children are affected by the differences between their mother language and Chinese when they are given similar Chinese writing exercises in the preschools. This study aimed to investigate how Chinese preschool teachers taught Chinese characters writing in local preschools and how NCS preschool children learnt to write Chinese characters in an authentic classroom. Three parts of ‘Object of Learning’ were employed in this phenomenographic study. The first part was ‘Intended Object of Learning’, in which data were collected through semi-structured interviews with participating teachers. It aimed to study the teachers’ understanding of the teaching of character writing to the preschool children. The second part was ‘Enacted Object of Learning’, whose data were recorded by the researcher about how the teachers implemented their character writing activities in the class. The third part, ‘Lived Object of Learning’ concerned how the NCS children, who were 5 to 6 years old, performed after they had experienced the character writing activities. This study investigated the mentioned experiences of teachers and NCS children of upper level in 3 local preschools. A total of 4 preschool teachers and 12 NCS preschool children participated in this present study. The time period was twice a week, especially during their daily Chinese character writing demonstration times, for twelve consecutive weeks. The researcher used various methods to collect data, including video- and audiotaping, field notes, photographic documentation, collection of lesson plans and interviews. The findings were compiled using ‘Categories of Descriptions’, which reflected the preschool teachers‟ and NCS preschool children’s ways of seeing Chinese characters writing in their daily classroom experiences. In the first part of the findings five teachers’ conceptions from their understanding

This study set out to use phenomenography as a theoretical framework to investigate teaching in classrooms, focusing on how the same object of learning was enacted differently in different teaching activities. We observed in person teaching activities intended to teach children to recognize Chinese characters (i.e. the object of learning) in Hong Kong preschools. Classroom observational data such as the delivery of the teaching activities and the conversation between teacher and children were used as the main data source. Three categories of teaching activities were identified from the data, which correspondingly reflected three ways of seeing the recognition of characters: (A) recognition as matching items, (B) recognition as imitating behaviors, and (C) recognition as constructing meanings. The results of this study were useful for fostering the professional learning of preschool teachers in practical ways. As teacher educators, we were particularly interested in the learning of teachers; thereby in the study we chose to investigate teaching from the perspective of learning to teach. We assumed that the ways teachers acted in enacting the object of learning reflected how they saw the object of learning. We hope to foster more discussion and in turn contribute to the methodology of phenomenography.

This study set out to use phenomenography as a theoretical framework to investigate teaching in classrooms, focusing on how the same content is enacted differently in different teaching activities. We observed teaching activities intended to teach children to recognize Chinese characters in preschools and collected data about the delivery of the teaching activities. A total of 3 categories of teaching activities were identified from the data, which correspondingly reflected 3 ways of seeing the recognition of characters: (A) recognition as matching items, (B) recognition as imitating behaviors, and (C) recognition as constructing meanings. Our results were useful for fostering the professional learning of teachers in practical ways as well as holding the potential to further advance the methodology of phenomenography.
[Copyright © 2016 Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research.]