Against the background of expanding parental choices and declining global birth rates, schools are experiencing rising competition regarding student enrolment. Schools have responded by strategically presenting information about their students’ academic achievement and whole-person development orientation in the hope of attracting parents’ interest. However, few studies have investigated the impact of these factors on student enrollment, particularly in the context of diverse school types and educational orientations. Accordingly, this study utilized data from 327 secondary schools in Hong Kong to examine the effects of academic achievement orientation and whole-person development orientation on student intake. Using hierarchical regression analysis, we found a positive association between high whole-person development orientation and student intake in aided schools with a strong academic development orientation. The result implies parents are increasingly concerned about their children’s academic achievement and whole-person development at school. The study contributes to a broader understanding of the factors influencing parental choice in high-performing education systems, providing valuable insights for policymakers and educators seeking to improve educational offerings, enhance school transparency, and be better aligned with parental expectations. Copyright © 2024 The Author(s).

This study utilizes the 2015 data from the Hong Kong sample of the Program for International Student Assessment to examine the relative importance of various factors on the science learning performance of Hong Kong students. Using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), we examined the effect of students’ affective characteristics, involvement, and perceptions of science by parents and school environment on science achievement in Hong Kong. The results of HLM demonstrated that school characteristics explain 33% variance in science achievement, which indicates that school is a critical predicting factor in identifying science achievement. The findings highlighted that identifying as male, having high socioeconomic status (at the student and school levels), high self-efficacy, low test anxiety, less parental support, positive view of science by parents, more school resources, and less teacher autonomy positively influence the science achievement of students. In the final model, school-level predictors, such as disciplinary climate in science classes and teacher-directed science instruction, explained 58% of variance at the school level in positive directions. Lastly, the study discussed the implications of achievement gaps between gender and socioeconomic status and between parents and school influence. Copyright © 2024 Education Research Institute, Seoul National University.

To prepare teachers for blended teaching, this study proposed ongoing teacher professional development activities that utilize the learning-by-doing approach within a professional learning community with the objective of developing the technological, pedagogical, content knowledge (TPACK) of teachers. The study explored the TPACK of 11 teachers and their perceptions of blended teaching through interviews and questionnaires. Analyses of interview data demonstrated that teachers perceived the technological benefits (e.g., supporting citywide resources) but noted that the teacher professional development training required high levels of self-regulation skills. The questionnaire results indicated significant improvements in TPACK, TCK, and TPCK but not for other dimensions of TPACK. Lastly, the study presented discussions and implications accordingly. Copyright © 2023 Education Research Institute, Seoul National University.

Most students with disabilities who previously attended segregated special schools are now enrolled in regular schools in Hong Kong. The number of students with disabilities attending regular schools has increased. Hence, teachers are critical in implementing inclusive practices that include students with disabilities. It is essential that these teachers feel supported and prepared to teach students with disabilities for inclusive education to be successful. A qualitative study comprising focus group interviews with 16 in-service primary and secondary school teachers was conducted to identify the perceived challenges they face and their support needs for implementing inclusive practices. Despite the comprehensive legislation and policies and sufficient funding, teachers felt they needed more support in the form of human resources, teaching in classrooms, collaboration, and knowledge about including students with disabilities. This paper discusses the necessity for enhancing professional learning and teachers' understanding of inclusion. Copyright ©2023 Springer.

Sub-degree education is one of the key higher education sectors in Hong Kong. With the effect of managerialism, tertiary institutions tend to transition from a collegial toward a managerial model, and have shifted from teaching-intensive institutions to research-intensive ones. In this study, two key research questions are addressed: to what degree can managerialism influence organisational change? To what degree and how will an exogenous force generate organisational development? To answer the research questions, we present a case study at Hong Kong College via 15 face-to-face, semi-structured interviews with the administrative staff, academic staff, department head, and a visiting scholar. The key research findings identified the difficulties or obstacles experienced in carrying out research or scholarly activities, the long-term impacts on the workplace of staff and sub-degree institutions changing from teaching to research, the advantages of the staff and institutions regarding their working areas in the process of new research directions, and the driving forces for enriching a research culture in sub-degree institutions. Academic and managerial implications are also provided in the paper. Copyright ©2023 Springer.

For the past two decades, a significant number of ethnic minority students from diverse racial, cultural, linguistic, and religious backgrounds have entered Chinese language classrooms in Hong Kong for the first time. Simultaneously, Chinese language teachers have come under criticism for their lack of understanding of diversity and their failure to integrate ethnic minority students academically and socially. However, there is little research on how these teachers can transform their educational beliefs, teaching techniques, and attitudes toward diversity and inclusion to respond effectively to the drastic changes taking place in their professional work. This study examines how a group of Chinese language teachers employed translanguaging as a social justice strategy to address the challenges of teaching minority students in a monolingual and assimilative educational setting in Hong Kong. Classroom observations show that teachers enacted a translanguaging stance, using students' familiar semiotic resources to make their teaching more inclusive and equitable for ethnic minority students from low socioeconomic and religious backgrounds. Teachers reported becoming more aware of diversity in the classroom as well as of the social inequalities and racial discrimination outside of school. The study shows that criticism has been unfairly levied on Chinese language teachers in Hong Kong, who should not be held responsible for the social problems hindering ethnic minorities' social mobility. Research should include a decolonial perspective to legitimize translanguaging as a social justice strategy for more transformative praxis in the education sector in postcolonial Hong Kong. Copyright © 2022 Springer.

In Hong Kong, which transitioned from a colonial to post-colonial One Country-Two Systems structure, sustainability implementation rests on two institutional pillars: education, which drives the city’s knowledge-based economy, and family system. In light of the recent policy demands to strengthen higher education and family systems by capitalizing on the unique advantages of the post-colonial era, the purpose of this study was to: (1) describe and analyze sustainability values of the first-year university students; and (2) investigate roles of family and educational systems in the process of their formation. The mix-method study stressed the importance of discerning and analyzing sustainability value formation in order to create in-depth understanding of the curricular adjustments that align the sustainability mindset of Hong Kong students in the context of the One Country-Two Systems under the pressing demands of global economy. The study relied on the use of two systems theoretical frameworks employed within sustainability education (Sterling, 2003) and family (Bowen, 1957/1974) fields. Data sources included questionnaires of 4985 Hong Kong first-year university students; and 31 semi-structured interviews of Liberal Studies teachers. The quantitative findings showed that 85% of the students believed that their family influenced their environmental values; reported a significant negative coefficient (-0.044) between the two student cohorts in relation to family influence; and showed that family influence on students’ sustainability values differed by gender. The qualitative results revealed the overarching themes of Family Income, Role Modeling, and Shared Responsibility as three major descriptors of family influences on sustainability values of Hong Kong students. Copyright © 2022 Springer.

This study in the research domain of higher education sustainability addresses issues of policy and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in and through Hong Kong public universities. The purpose of the study was to critically analyze the problématique of achieving the SDGs by the Hong Kong higher education sector. The study used a post-empiricist qualitative design with Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis and an embedded case study methodology in order to explore the issues of the SDGs policy and implementation in eight public Hong Kong universities. The concept of sustainability ensoulment and the Higher Education Institution Sustainability Model served as a theoretical grounding for the interpretative analysis. The interpretive results showed a broad range of university responses and governmental support for SDGs despite small number of universities, and a score of authentic SDGs-related efforts, which were fully embedded into the educational mission of the universities. The essence from the interpretive analysis of the data suggests that the universities’ authentic attainment of the SDGs requires a ‘salutary detachment’ from putting excessive priorities on superficial sustainability standards and considering universities’ global ranking league tables as their principal goal. The study provides a structured discussion within five thematic areas: (1) regional-dominant sustainability challenges; (2) financing structure and independence; (3) institutional organization; (4) extent of democratic processes; and (5) communication and interaction with society. The research argues that a genuine SDGs attainment originates from what universities know best and regard as their threefold mission—research, teaching and knowledge transfer—to effectively generate global citizens with full ensoulment of the SDGs spirit and values, and thus, turning universities into authentically sustainable institutions. Copyright © 2022 Education Research Institute, Seoul

Integrated writing skills that emphasize integrated use of language skills and multiple source materials have attracted increasing attention in language education globally and locally in Hong Kong. This study examines teachers’ conceptions of integrated writing skills and interviewed twenty-five Chinese language teachers. Three conceptions emerged from the data, representing writing as a composite of disconnected parts (Category1), a logical inquiry (Category 2), and a developmental process (Category 3). As the categories move up, the alignment between teachers’ conceptions and the curriculum objectives increases accordingly, with the purpose of writing instruction ranging from fulfilling examination requirements, enhancing reasoning skills, to developing integrated use of language skills. The findings also reveal that although the development of integrated writing skills has been a critical component of the Chinese language curriculum since the first public examination in 2007, teachers’ receptivity toward it still varied greatly. Insufficient professional training, the legitimacy of integrated writing as a curriculum component, and the fossilization of the public examination were the factors that accounted for the differing attitudes among the teachers. The discourse of integrated writing in the Hong Kong context has been centered around high-stakes testing. The unbalanced discourse resulted in an oversimplified view that conflated the teaching and learning of integrated writing with integrated writing assessment. The study contributes to the conversation between integrated writing curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Implications for teacher professional development are discussed. Copyright ©Springer Netherlands.

This article analyses and compares the responses of parents to education policy initiatives in Singapore, Shanghai and Hong Kong. The education reform in three localities converges on changing an exam-centric culture and equipping students to thrive in a globalised world. Through a discussion of three representative policy initiativesDirect School Admission in Singapore, extended and inquiry/research curricula in Shanghai and Liberal Studies in Hong Kongthis article contends that the parents variously make sense of, negotiate, support and circumvent the policy initiatives. Their strategies, it is argued, are grounded in and shaped by their shared habitus, manifesting the four processes identified by Zhao, Selman and Luke (Bourdieu and Chinese education: Inequality, competition, and change, Routledge, Oxon, 2018) for understanding the formation of habitus. A major implication arising from the study is the usefulness of the concept of habitus in illuminating the educational expectations and proposed actions of parents when confronted with educational changes.
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