Learning to teach is seen as a continuous process. Graduation from the initial teacher education programme is thus the first stage on which further professional developments are based. Studies have shown that shifts in teacher concerns are an indication of professional maturity. Therefore, investigations into teacher concerns provide a substantial basis for planning and implementing teacher education programmes. The present study aims to portray the professional development of Hong Kong pre-service primary teachers at the exit point of the pre-service teacher education programme. Measurements of teacher concerns of the student-teachers at the point they graduated from the programme were made. Follow-up interviews were conducted to find out the influencing factors that affect the perception of the student-teachers. The paper concludes by drawing on the implications of the findings on the design of the initial and further teacher education programmes.
[Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

The findings of this study reveal those attributes that are considered important for teacher success as perceived by some of the teachers who received the Outstanding Teachers' Award in Hong Kong in the years 1998 to 2002. The teachers chosen had different backgrounds, with respect to their type of school, age, and category of experience. In describing the perceptions of the concept of success, the award winners reveal their understanding of the nature of teachers as professionals and their conception of professionalism. The findings shed light on the different perspectives that were held by teachers, namely moral, technical and critical. Relatively speaking, the study shows that greater importance has been attached to the moral perspective. This study can enhance policy makers' understanding of teachers' perceptions of concepts of success. More comprehensive information on teacher success will be provided if the views of other stakeholders, including students, parents, principals and supervisors are all taken into consideration.

On June 30, 1997, the handover ceremony ended 155 years' of British colonial rule and marked the beginning of resumption of China's sovereignty over Hong Kong. However, did allegiance and sense of belonging of the people of Hong Kong drastically readjust to match the political transfer? What did the identity of 'citizen under "one country, two systems'" mean to the people of Hong Kong, especially the student-teachers sculptors of the mind of to-morrow? To match the political transition, Civic Education has been promoted in Hong Kong since the issuing of the First Guideline in 1986. Since that time, in the process of curriculum development in Civic Education, there has been a hot debate on whether the focus of Civic Education should be placed on democratic education or nationalistic education. This debate is bound to continue in the upcoming curriculum development and teaching in Civic Education. In this debate, what position did student-teachers take? In late 1996, it was decided that Civic Education should become an independent subject of study in Junior forms. The syllabus was compiled and drafts issued for public consultations. The finalized version is to be implemented in late 1998. To what extent were aims and objectives, and contents of the new guideline endorsed by student-teachers? This study included a survey by questionnaires of Social Sciences elective student-teachers in the Hong Kong Institute of Education. It was conducted in December, 1997. The questions in the questionnaire were developed basing on the aims, objectives and contents of the draft of the 1998 Civic Education Guideline and other policy papers related to Civic Education. It intended to find out student-teachers' conceptions of citizenship and citizenship education under "one country, two systems", focussing on the 2 key issues of democratic education and nationalistic education. It explored the extent to which the aims, objectives and contents of the 1998 Civic Education Guideline were endorsed

This article reports the results of a multiple qualitative case study which investigated the challenges that seven early career English language teachers in Hong Kong confronted as they constructed their professional and personal identities. A series of in-depth interviews with participants during the entire first year of their full-time teaching experience provided a longitudinal perspective on the teachers’ experiences of becoming teachers. A contribution of this study is to examine such experiences using the analytical lens of teacher identity. The case studies illustrate that these teachers faced considerable challenges in constructing teacher identities as they negotiated the dominant discourses of teaching and learning within individual Hong Kong schools. It is argued that school-based support for early career teachers should include the problematisation of the identity positions available to all teachers within the profession as a whole in order to support the construction of the professional and personal identities that these teachers place a premium upon. Implications for teacher education and future research are also discussed.
[Copyright © 2015 Taylor & Francis.]

This paper aims to study the perception of primary curriculum implemented in Hong Kong through the views of school practitioners and how the gaps were closed through school practice. Parts of the data in this paper were collected through interviews with principals and teachers on their the views of achieving the aims of the Hong Kong primary education curriculum. Their practice and effort in achieving the aims in education is recorded and analyzed. They were asked to pinpoint professional areas which they thought teachers may have difficulties and hence a barrier for the improvement of quality education and achieving the educational aims. These include opinions on subject content and pedagogical knowledge for the primary school subject in Chinese and mathematics and in turns reflect the contents needed in teacher education program. The paper provides insight for future teacher education program development and primary schools to distinguish practice that could be used by them.
[Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]