Although a substantial body of studies has been focusing on exploring approaches to enhance the learning of children with special educational needs (SEN) in kindergartens, considerably fewer studies have been conducted to test early childhood educators’ confidence levels in early identifying and facilitating the learning and social development of children with SEN. This study took the initiative to conduct a large scale survey in the Chinese context, seeking to develop a good understanding of teacher preparation for identifying and supporting children with SEN. Over 5000 early childhood educators from 519 kindergartens and kindergarten-cumchild care centres (KGs) in Hong Kong participated in this survey study. Specifically, we examined these teachers’ confidence levels in terms of early identification and intervention through a wide range of instructional activities. We also investigated external needs these teachers perceived to be critically important for supporting SEN children. The role of integrated programme (IP) in these surveyed KGs on teachers’ confidence levels in supporting children with SEN was also examined. Implications of findings of the current study to early childhood education, improvements of existing facilities and resources to support teachers’ professional development are discussed.

Although children’s adaptive social and emotional development and academic performance/achievement are important indicators of school effectiveness, considerably less studies have been taken with a special focus on these social, emotional and academic gains among children with disabilities, particularly those integrated in regular classroom. From both perspectives of children with disabilities and parents of these children, this study tested and compared the patterns of the predictive effects of perceived social and emotional competences on academic performance between their perceptions. In total 307 children with disabilities and parents of these children (parents N = 180; children N =127) participated in this study. These children are integrated in mainstreaming primary schools (p1 to p3) in Hong Kong. An interesting finding was emotional competence was the stronger predictor of children’s academic performance compare to social competence. The predictive patterns were consistent based on the results from parents’ and children’s self-reported data (i.e., path coefficients from social and emotional competences to academic performance: β =.37 and β =.28 based on children’s data; β =.37 and β =.25 based on parents’ data, all path coefficients are significant at the .01 level). Similarly, in the results from both parents and children, we found that around 30% variance of academic performance could be explained by social and emotional competences as two predictors. These findings indicated not only a pivotal role of social and emotional competences, but also a more salient role of emotional competence in academic performance of children with disabilities. Both theoretical implications to emotion research in early childhood education and empirical implications to call for school support and practices to foster emotional competence of children with disabilities are discussed.

Population of ethnic minorities in Hong Kong has been growing, and many Muslim minorities are now studying in the mainstream kindergarten. In the midst of global wave of Islamophobia and the lack of understanding towards the cultural traditions of local Muslim minorities, this paper explores teaching Islam art as an inclusive attempt of childhood education program. With the example of promoting Islamic art workshop of Hong Kong Islamic schools and madrasahs, this paper foresees broadening Chinese students’ world map and cultural geography through teaching and learning Islamic art. Interacting with ethnic Muslim students, it may help students avoid unintentional insults and errors of etiquette.

This research investigated the attitudes of Chinese students toward inclusive education, by dividing the research into two studies with different subgroups included. Study 1 invited 340 secondary students and 129 secondary teachers from 9 mainstream secondary schools in Hong Kong to participate. The Chinese version of the 16-item Attitudes toward Inclusive Education Scale originally developed by Wilczenski⁶⁹ was applied. The results were analyzed at item and variable levels. Hong Kong students had significantly more positive attitudes toward inclusive education than their teachers. However, both groups did not show positive attitudes towards inclusive education. Based on the results of study 1, study 2 tried to cross validate these findings by inviting 135 teachers and 260 students in Macau to participate. As well, study 2 extended the horizon of comparison by inviting 260 parents to participate. They were either the mothers or fathers of the 260 students who participated in study 2. The same scale was applied in study 2 and the results showed that neither the Macau students nor the teachers were particularly positive toward inclusive education. The Macau parents had the more positive attitudes toward inclusive education than the Macau students and teachers. The results from the two studies in Hong Kong and Macau were compared and discussed.
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