This study reports on a longitudinal inquiry into professional identity construction among six novice cross-border English language teachers from mainland China, who completed their pre-service teacher education in Hong Kong (HK) and began their teaching practice in local HK schools. The findings indicate that the participants navigated obstacles in teaching by deploying their own multiple languages as a cultural and linguistic repertoire. The findings also show that the teachers experienced difficulty legitimising their professional identity in the teaching community, where contextual issues and power interplays mediated the process. Furthermore, it is found that the participants' commitment to teaching was negatively influenced by their non-legitimate position in the teaching community and the discordance between their teaching beliefs and the norms and values of their workplace. This study suggests that complex inter-relationships between marginal status in and legitimate membership of the community, between historical and cultural background, present practice, and future expectations, between social discourse and personal location, are involved in the process of identity construction. Measures to legitimate these teachers' position and to transform the linguistic and cultural repertories of these teachers into valuable resources of the local schools are suggested. Implications for future research are outlined.
[Copyright of Educational Studies is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03055698.2013.801769]

This study examines the perceptions of Chinese students and parents in Hong Kong on homework involvement, assignment type and homework functions. The relationships of homework perceptions to student and parent attributes are also assessed. The sample includes 1393 pairs of students and their parents from 36 primary schools in Hong Kong. Findings of this study show similarities in preference for assignment type across students and parents. Between-group discrepancies are observed in preference for homework involvement and endorsement of homework functions. Moreover, homework perceptions are found to relate to students' and parents' efficacy attributes and involvement behaviour. Findings of this study are discussed in light of the Chinese sociocultural context in Hong Kong. Suggestions are made on the design and use of homework in primary schools by incorporating the views of different stakeholders.
[Copyright of Roeper Review is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03055698.2010.539788]

This article is an exploration of the emerging narratives on learning and teacher education in the United States and Hong Kong, as found in official policy statements and curriculum documents. Particular attention is given to Hong Kong's initiative in implementing an interdisciplinary liberal studies curriculum, and the continued professional development of teachers for this proposed Change. This recent trend is used to illustrate the possibilities for a broader vision of creating and substantiating knowledge and learning in teacher education programs in the United States.
[Copyright of Roeper Review is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00131946.2011.573606]

This paper argues that, despite government support in financial and contractual matters, ongoing problems of retention of Native-speaking English Teachers (NETs) in Hong Kong stem, in part, from problems of cross-cultural adjustment. The paper reports a small-scale qualitative investigation into the experiences of NETS in Hong Kong and finds problems of cross-cultural adjustment of the NETs themselves, the host schools and the government's induction practices. The paper reports a diversity of problems in cross-cultural adjustment and a variety of ways in which NETs handled them. The argument is made for increased and differentiated attention to be given to the cross-cultural adjustment of NETs, for greater social networking and for reducing the isolation and cross-cultural stresses that they experience. It is suggested that this might attenuate the problem of high NET turnover in Hong Kong.
[Copyright of Roeper Review is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03055698.2010.539667]

Many Hong Kong schools are concerned about the growing number of ethnic minority students. How they are supported and how the diversity of their pastoral needs is fulfilled become critical. This article examines teachers', students' and parents' narratives of the cross-cultural experience of ethnic minority students from India, Pakistan, Philippines, Nepal and Thailand, and the diversity of those students' pastoral needs. The qualitative data were collected from interviews, through which the constructs of 32 teachers and 32 students from three secondary schools were explored. Four groups of focus-group interviews were conducted, in which 15 parents were involved. This article argues that to implement the ethos of caring, it is not only necessary for the school to promote the intercultural sensitivity of all practitioners, but equally important to develop a connected school system where ethnic minority students and parents can be consistently supported in the subsystems of classroom, school and home.
[Copyright of Educational Studies is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03055690903425383]

This paper adopts a qualitative approach to study the perceptions of six secondary teachers from two schools with a similar background and history of school-based management (SBM). The study aims to explore the views of the teachers in the following areas: changes in school administration and the structure of the school under SBM; changes in the role of teachers and the activities of the Parent-Teacher Associations; the challenges facing principals; and teachers' worries and concerns under SBM. The study is significant as it supplements the limited number of researches on the roles of teachers and principals under SBM in Hong Kong. As serving teachers now play increasingly important roles in schools and work closely with their principals in administrative and educational matters, they can provide invaluable insights into the new era of change.
[Copyright of Educational Studies is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03055690600631085]

In Hong Kong, media education is not a new initiative. With the recent education reform, curricular space will undergo significant changes. Instead of having fixed subject boundaries, key learning areas will be introduced. As such, media education will find much more space for negotiating a place in the reformed curriculum. This study aims to look at how media education is implemented in schools in Hong Kong and the content and pedagogy of the media education curriculum against the background of education reforms.
[Copyright of Educational Studies is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0305569032000159723]

Teacher attitudes and practices are considered as essential in fostering parental involvement in school education. In Hong Kong, amongst possible types of home–school links, teacher–parent communication about children's learning has been agreed to be the primary concern of both schools and parents. This paper reports a test of a psychological model of teacher–parent communication in Hong Kong primary schools. The model has taken into account the theory of planned behavior, self-efficacy theory, expectancy theory and theories of family–school relations. Scales for measuring the criterion and predictor variables have been developed. Variables that associated with teacher communication intention and practices were identified and path analyses linking the variables in a conceptual model were conducted. Results show that teacher commitment and teacher efficacy in working with parents have significant predictive power for teacher intention. Teacher intention, together with teacher commitment, has predictive power for teacher's time spent in communicating with parents. Relationships between individual teacher beliefs and the criterion variables are also described and discussed.
[Copyright of Educational Studies is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03055690050022661]

In this age of new media, children are exposed to media messages at an early age. What can we do when the mass media exert such a great influence on children? One proposal has been for the introduction of a new school subject: media education. Though media education has not been part of the official curriculum in Hong Kong, some schools, both primary and secondary, have tried it out. This paper argues for the desirability of introducing media education in primary schools in Hong Kong, with regard to social change, recent education reform and learning initiatives of primary pupils. It then draws on the findings of a study conducted in a local primary school to examine the views of pupils, parents, and teachers on the effects on pupils of the implementation of media education lessons and campus radio projects in this age of new media.
[Copyright of Educational Studies is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03055690500237033]