This thesis explores the relationship between preschools and children's gender socialization in Hong Kong and Japan, focusing on three major enquiries: Firstly, I examine to what extent preschools influence the gender behavior of children; secondly, I am intrigued by how children's gender roles and behaviors are modeled by preschool organization, interaction between teachers and children as well as play among children themselves; my discussion is mainly based on Delamont's (1990) and Thome's (1993) two different approaches to the important role of school in gender socialization; lastly, I have investigated whether there are any similarities and differences in the gender socialization process in Hong Kong and Japan. The data come from ethnographic observations in four kindergartens (two in Hong Kong and two in Japan) and in-depth interviews conducted with 55 parents (24 from Hong Kong and 31 from Japan) and 28 teachers (12 in Hong Kong and 16 in Japan).
My argument is that kindergarten is a significant amplifier of gender socialization. Gender construction in the kindergartens observed was an ongoing, active and creative process that took place chiefly through interaction in group life, whereby children communicate and interact, challenge each other, and create new gender interpretations every day. Regarding the study of children's gender socialization in kindergartens, I found that Delamont neglected to note that teachers not only created gender separation but also were able to reduce children's gender differences, and I also partially agreed with her argument about the huge influence of school organization and of teachers' strategies and interaction on children's gender behavior. While my findings supported Thome's emphasis on the active creation of gender by children, I also want to highlight the fact that socialization is a mutual and interactive relationship. My data substantiated my argument that gender is also highly related to other factors such as age, friendship

As an area of inquiry, teacher learning has grown increasingly important in the field of teacher development and school improvement. It is commonly believed that teacher development is a form of professional development; and professional development implies 'learning' by teachers. Even though opportunities for teachers' professional development have increased in recent years, there has been little advancement toward a commonly shared understanding of the vital aspects of professional development: What are the essential factors for success? What do teachers really learn from professional development? Based on the idea of facilitating school improvement and teacher development more effectively, several important university-school collaborative projects were introduced and launched in Hong Kong and Beijing in the last decade.
This study aims to delineate teacher learning in the context of university and school collaboration. The two projects under investigation are based in Hong Kong and Beijing. While the two projects have different missions, the participants in both projects share a common belief that collaboration should enhance teacher capacity and ultimately help to improve students' learning.
A sociocultural theoretical lens is used to study university and school collaboration, and the ways in which a context for teacher learning is created in this process. It also examines the results of teacher learning. Using qualitative data gathered in the two projects, the study confirms that collaboration can offer a supportive context for teachers to learn.
During the process of appropriation, teachers master and own the necessary cultural tools, and then aquire about new knowledge and skills that enhance understanding on practice. During the process of collaboration, which is established on the principles of trust and equality, university faculties provide teachers with cultural tools, which is essential for teacher change. Only when the cultural tools are

This thesis aims to study the dynamic relationships between teachers and politics. Adopting the cases of Taiwan and Hong Kong, it is a comprehensive and critical study of the factors, development and consequences of teacher participation in shaping politics since the 1980s. Employing the concept of empowerment, this thesis develops an analytical framework with three independent variables, including (1) political culture, (2) union solidarity, and (3) government perception, shaping an intervening variable in personal, collective and institutional modes, and then a dependent variable, namely teacher empowerment. Teacher empowerment has three dimensions: (1) personal empowerment (process to defend their professional and political status), (2) organizational empowerment (process to articulate their interests through unions), and (3) political empowerment (the ability to influence government and other non-educational policies).
Although Hong Kong and Taiwan have experienced varying levels of democratization beginning in the 1980s, a divergence can be found in relation to: (1) the nature of empowerment, (2) teacher participation, (3) union solidarity, and (4) government perception. In Hong Kong's context, the procurement of teachers' material needs and the protection of their professional autonomy are of major concerns. In Taiwan, however, teachers aimed to alter the authoritarian approach upheld by the Kuomintang (KMT). Regarding teacher participation, educational elites co-opted into the advisory committees in Hong Kong usually utilize institutional channels to portray as a teacher representative and defend the bureaucratic views on educational issues. Despite the occasional adoption of collective actions to express their grievances, most of the teachers lack the drive to press the authorities in order to alter the official domination and hegemony. Despite the foundation of the Hong Kong Professional Teachers' Union (PTU), it has achieved limitedly to alter the authoritarian

Hong Kong and Taipei have similarities in their ethnic compositions, geographic locations, economic structures, and relationships with Mainland China. However, they also have significant differences in each of these spheres, and in other socio-political dimensions. Socio-political factors have had an impact on curriculum as well as on other domains of education. This thesis compares the intended, resourced and implemented curricula in Hong Kong and Taipei. Comparisons across place and across dimensions of curriculum help to identify the forces which are unique to particular locations and dimensions and the forces which are more generalisable.
The thesis focuses on music in junior secondary schools, and is constructed around one main research question and two supporting questions. The main research question is "What is the nature and extent of Chinese music in the curricula of junior secondary schools in Hong Kong and Taipei, and what socio-political forces have determined these patterns?" This has two supporting research questions: (1) What is the nature and extent of Chinese music in the curriculum at the intended, resourced and implemented levels in both places? and (2) What are the roles and status of Chinese and non-Chinese elements in the curricula in the two places? The answers to these questions are then interpreted within the context of analysis of socio-political forces.
This analysis is undertaken with the help of a set of conceptual models drawn from the literature on comparative education. The research methods included content analysis of two official syllabi and four sets of music textbooks, as well as interviews with syllabus designers, textbook publishers, and music teachers in Hong Kong and Taipei. The analysis centres on the curricular choices made regarding Chinese and non-Chinese music. This is a significant area of political, cultural and educational decision-making which is bound up with questions of national identity, allegiance and citizenship

The overarching aim of this research is to find out empirically about perceptions and experiences in self-directed language learning (SDLL) among university EFL students in two different social contexts: Mainland China and Hong Kong, and to provide empirical grounding for the potential attitudinal / behavioral differences in SDLL between successful and less successful language learners. The research is composed of a quantitative survey and two qualitative case studies. The survey study aimed at discovering and comparing the overall patterns of SDLL attitudes, strategies and motivation among university EFL students in Mainland China and Hong Kong, as well as the potential interrelationships between these variables. To this end, a questionnaire was designed based a combination of theoretical input in the literature and students' initial responses in a pilot study. The case studies were designed to complement, verify and expand the findings from the survey study by focusing on examining the potential differences between successful and less successful EFL students with regard to SDLL attitudes, strategies and motivation. The survey study identified significant differences concerning the overall patterns of SDLL attitudes, strategies and motivation between mainland Chinese and Hong Kong students. With regard to SDLL attitudes, the mainland students appeared to hold a significantly stronger orientation towards learner independence in English learning, a significantly more robust sense of confidence and abilities in carrying out SDLL, and to be significantly less supportive of teacher direction in language learning. With regard to SDLL strategies, the mainland students reported a significantly greater use of metacognitive and cognitive learning strategies, whereas the Hong Kong students reported an overall significantly higher use of functional practice strategies. The two groups, however, reported generally the same low levels of social and affective strategies. With regard

Concerning the issue of taking up new roles for principals in School-based Management (SBM) in Hong Kong, I used a comparative approach in document analysis in the study. Countries chosen for comparison were Australia (Victoria), England & Wales, Singapore, and Hong Kong. They were comparable because they have similar configuration of education systems and they had SBM. Based on the discussion of G. M. Crow about the role conception that determines the enactment of a social role this dissertation adopted his framework for understanding role change. Here it argued that before taking up a new role there is a new context for the role occupant for his (her) new perception of the role he (she) has to consider assuming. Thus new contexts of different countries created by the implementation of SBM at the school level are compared through the framework of role conception content as which is under the influences of the interaction of policy elements of SBM, the profession of principalship, and the organizational factors.
From the comparison the new context of SBM in Hong Kong secondary schools for veteran principals could be projected for it is similar to other places although she has her uniqueness. Based on the comparison the four-facet of principalship (strategic leadership, organizational leadership, instructional leadership, and the culture ethics and law leadership) advocated by the policy in Hong Kong for role change was evaluated. It was concluded that it would not be optimistic about taking up these dimensions of new role for the veteran principals due to the new context created by SBM, except the organizational leadership, which might be enhanced. Any success of the new four-facet role taking is circumstantial, not directly related to the implementation of SBM.

This study is concerned with aspects of decentralization of curriculum development, a complex educational phenomenon, in Japan and Hong Kong. By introducing fieldwork and the case study research method, it hopes to yield a general understanding of the above phenomenon as reflected in the contexts of selected programs in curriculum reform, namely, (1) Project Learning and SBeD in Hong Kong, and (2) Integrated Learning in Japan, at junior levels of secondary school. In its research design, the objectives are to investigate and compare the broad trends and features in the rationale, practices and processes, and implications of reform in the locations studied. Trends of decentralization of curriculum development, in recent curriculum reforms in Japan and Hong Kong, indicated a strong policy interest in promoting specific essential skills and qualities through partial devolution of curricular control to schools. Most of these programs have multiple educational aims directed at either particular policy emphases or local school conditions, or both.
The practices and processes designed to bring about this change toward decentralization of curriculum development differed in the cases of Japan and Hong Kong. At the policy and system level, the levels of government involvement and commitment were not the same. Japan, through a combination of direct measures at the initiation stage and a longer-term policy of minimalist intervention, legitimized schools' autonomy over curriculum development decisions in the reformed programs, while Hong Kong, being traditionally less centralized and less effective with the power-coercive approach in curriculum planning, adopted more indirect strategies of exhortation and inducement while allowing schools full freedom over their own approach and priorities toward the specific reformed school curricula. In terms of school support systems, Japan seemed to be less prepared with the provision of practice guidelines, professional support and