Hong Kong families are increasingly diversified in form, structure, pattern and ethnicity. Working within the context of school improvement project, the authors responded to parents’ concern towards children’s language learning.
[Copyright © 2004 Common Ground, Wai Man Kwong, Po Wah Chan, Lai Ha Yuen.]

This article is concerned with parental involvement and participation in preschool education in Hong Kong. Based on the experience gained from a parental education programme, it is argued that three issues are crucial in the development of parental education: (1) an ecological approach to recognise the nature of parental education; (2) parental involvement as an indicator of school performance; and (3) training teachers or relevant professionals to work with parents from diverse families. In response to the changing nature of families’ and children’s growth and development in Hong Kong, preschool parental education in the twenty-first century has a special mission and vision regarding parental involvement and participation. This article indicates that the empowerment issue of parents and teachers has evidently been addressed by a belief in the notion of ‘people participation for development and improvement’.
[Copyright © 2004 Symposium Journals Ltd.]

Following the education reform in 2001, the Education Bureau (EDB) in Hong Kong initiated a review of early childhood education (ECE) in 2006. The main focus of this review is the quality assurance mechanism for ECE, including the training of teachers, teaching quality, the potential pressures on teachers to upgrade their qualifications etc. This review is supported by the Chief Executive’s Policy Address (2006), which outlines concrete ways to achieve the targeted goals. This paper compares the provision of music training at four major ECE professional teacher-training institutions and examines the perspectives of in-service teachers, principals and early childhood education lecturers on the music training of ECE teachers. Using focus group interviews and survey, in-service ECE teachers expressed their general satisfaction with their pre-service training in music teaching. However, they did not feel prepared and confident enough to teach music in their schools compared to other subjects. They suggested aspects of pre-service training which would have better prepared teachers to teach music and identified three areas of professional development needs of ECE teachers in music teaching. A practical framework of professional development is also presented.
[Copyright © 2007 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

Pre-school parents' expectations have considerable influence on the early childhood curriculum. With better understanding of what parents expect for their children from pre-school provisions, constructive partnerships between school and parents could be established. This paper examines parents' expectations of pre-school education with reference to a small-scale study conducted in Hong Kong. Parents' understanding of the purposes of pre-school education and their curriculum expectations were investigated through interviews. Results of the eighteen parents' interviews showed that only a small number of these parents had high expectations on their pre-school children, which was different from some of the previous Hong Kong reports but was in line with a large scale survey conducted by a local pre-school education service provider. The nursery parents seemed to be less demanding on academic learning and showed more concern on learning self-care skills than the kindergarten parents. There was no obvious difference in expectations between parents with high and low education levels.
[Copyright © 2004 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

In the last two decades, teacher leadership has been extensively discussed, mainly in relation to the professional education for in-service teachers. Relatively little is known about leadership as pedagogy for the development of pre-service teachers. The study reported in this paper aims to investigate the discourses of teacher education focusing on the process of teaching practicum supervision and leadership development of pre-service teachers. Early childhood education in Hong Kong was chosen as a research site for the study. Qualitative case study was adopted in the research design. Two pre-service teachers who were studying in the Bachelor of Early Childhood Education progamme and their teaching practicum supervisor from the university were selected as research participants. Semi-structured interviews and documentation were mainly used for data collection. The findings of the study indicated that both of the teaching practicum supervisor and pre-service teachers were aware of the importance of leadership development for professional growth. The teaching practicum provided various opportunities for developing leadership skills, such as reflection, collaboration, and engagement in professional learning community. The findings also revealed that a supportive environment could be possibly built up to support pre-service teachers in the process of leadership development through the joint efforts of teaching practicum supervisors from university, placement school, and student peers. It is argued that leadership as pedagogy in the process of teaching practicum is important for developing pre-service teachers as leaders for their future career.

Currently, there is rigorous effort involved in preschool improvement in HK. A set of performance indicators (www.edb.gov.hk) was developed in 2000 to facilitate the reform process.The present mode of early childhood educational accountability in Hong Kong has been in place since 2000. In these recent educational reforms (www.edb.gov.hk), the focus has been placed on self-assessment and subsequent evaluation by an external body. However, according to the two most recently published reports by the Education Bureau Annual Report, none of the inspected kindergartens met the "excellent" standards set in the Teaching-Learning domain. In 2007, a voucher system (www.edb.gov.hk) was introduced which includes a teacher professional development scheme as an incentive. This investment can potentially be seen as the key to quality assurance in Hong Kong. The focus of this enquiry concerns the activities undertaken by 10 preschools implementing self-assessment and school improvement. The findings are used to present a theoretical framework which identify key characteristics in the implementation process which can enhance school improvement at the preschool sector.Currently, there is rigorous effort involved in preschool improvement in HK. A set of performance indicators (www.edb.gov.hk) was developed in 2000 to facilitate the reform process.The present mode of early childhood educational accountability in Hong Kong has been in place since 2000. In these recent educational reforms (www.edb.gov.hk), the focus has been placed on self-assessment and subsequent evaluation by an external body. However, according to the two most recently published reports by the Education Bureau Annual Report, none of the inspected kindergartens met the "excellent" standards set in the Teaching-Learning domain. In 2007, a voucher system (www.edb.gov.hk) was introduced which includes a teacher professional development scheme as an incentive. This investment can potentially be seen as the key to quality assurance