In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global workforce, including higher-education professionals, experienced substantial changes in their working conditions. Responding to the crisis, universities swiftly adapted their operational modes, thus inevitably impacting the work–life balance (WLB) of their staff. This study examines the WLB factors and their outcomes for higher-education staff, among both teaching and non-teaching staff, in Hong Kong and Thailand, during the initial stages of the pandemic through the lens of the job demands and resources model (JD-R model). The results of 1800 questionnaires completed by respondents from government-funded universities in both locations revealed a significant difference in the WLB between the two cases, with the Hong Kong respondents reporting lower levels of WLB compared with their Thai counterparts. The Hong Kong teaching staff exhibited a higher utilization of family-friendly policies (FFPs), whereas the non-teaching staff reported significantly lower levels of both policy utilization and overall WLB. The results also revealed significant differences in terms of how work, family, and personal-resource and demand factors were correlated to the WLB outcomes. This study advocates for tailored adjustments in university policies, basing the policies on the specific staff category and emphasizing the need for targeted support. In the Hong Kong context, attention should be directed toward enhancing WLB and FFP utilization among non-teaching staff. In contrast, in Thailand, a focus on refining the policies to better support the WLB of teaching staff is recommended. Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

This study examined the relationships between kindergartens teachers' emotional labour strategies and their relations to instructional leadership, trust in colleagues, teaching experiences, and teaching satisfaction. With a sample of 491 kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong, this study found that surface acting negatively predicted while deep acting and expression of naturally felt emotion positively predicted teachers' teaching satisfaction; instructional leadership and trust in colleagues were positively related to deep acting and expression of naturally felt emotion, respectively. Meanwhile, teaching experience was found to be positively related to their adoption of expression of naturally felt emotion and teaching satisfaction. These findings shed light on the nature of kindergarten teachers' work, and provide some implications for teacher development in kindergartens. Copyright © 2023 Springer.

Over the recent decades, the topic of spirituality and health has attracted increasing research interest. Teaching has been recognized as a multi-faceted demanding profession. Particularly, spiritual well-being plays a vital role in cultivating quality of life; yet there is limited research investigating the impacts of spiritual well-being on teachers' quality of life. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between teachers' spiritual well-being and subjective quality of life in the Hong Kong context. Based on previous research, there is no universal standard to determine an "average" degree of spiritual well-being. Therefore, individual spiritual well-being can be better reflected through both the "ideals" and the "lived experience." In this cross-sectional study, the sample consisted of 671 teachers from 22 primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong. Participants were asked about their ideals of spiritual well-being as measured by Life Orientation Measure and their lived experiences of spiritual well-being as measured by Spiritual Health Measure. The results of structural equation modeling suggested a difference between Life Orientation and Spiritual Health in the pattern of predicting psychological and social aspects of quality of life. This study further explored the associations between spiritual well-being and subjective quality of life by investigating the effects of discrepancies between Life Orientation and Spiritual Health in three domains, namely personal and communal, environmental, and transcendental. The results of the path analysis suggested that the discrepancies in the three domains significantly predicted the psychological and the social aspects of quality of life among teachers. Copyright © 2023 The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Teachers’ emotions and well-being are critical not only for their personal and professional development but also for facilitating holistic development of students. With increasing risks and uncertainties from sociopolitical changes and the global pandemic, teachers are facing tremendous stress which has affected their self-efficacy. This cross-sectional study of 1614 teachers from 50 primary schools in Hong Kong investigates how teachers’ perception of emotional competences and their emotional labour strategies relate to their self-efficacy in moral and character education via confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. The results reveal that both teachers’ emotional competences and teachers’ emotional labour strategies are positively associated with teachers’ self-efficacy in moral and character education. Understanding the relationships among emotional competences, emotional labour strategies and teachers' self-efficacy may be the first step in intervention implementation and effective policy development that could improve teachers’ self-efficacy in their provision of moral and character education. Copyright © 2023 Intellect Ltd.

Self-determination theory (SDT) posits that autonomous motivation is a critical condition for optimizing human flourishing. In the school context, autonomy-supportive teaching promotes student learning and well-being. In Asian contexts, however, an indispensable part of classroom instruction seems to relate to control, which is conceptualised as the opposite of autonomy-support. While some researchers interpret Asian teachers’ instructional practices as authoritarian, increasingly more studies have argued that children in collectivist societies indeed benefit from teachers’ ‘control’. Some researchers proclaim that autonomy support is more appropriate in Western contexts while control is more important among Asian teachers. However, other studies claim that the need for autonomy-support is universal. This chapter aims to address this debate by reporting a study of the teaching style of two Hong Kong teachers. The mixed-method study was based on classroom observations and interviews of two teachers regarding their teaching styles, and a survey measured the motivation of 67 junior form students who were taught by the teachers. The coding results of classroom observation indicated that the two teachers have largely embodied autonomy support in their teaching, and that minimal controlling behaviour was found in the teachers. Their classroom practice was dominated by fostering student interest, with relatedness support and promoting mastery learning orientation as the dominant features of the two teacher’s teaching styles respectively. The two teachers’ beliefs and practices showed a strong resemblance to Confucian philosophical ideas, demonstrating the characteristics of being altruistic (jen), self as relational, and self-cultivation. Their students’ motivation was almost equally high in terms of students’ relationships with the teachers, perceived self-efficacy, learning goals, and self-handicapping behaviour (reverse score). The results disagreed with the point of view

Procrastination tendencies are prevalent and are associated with negative psychosocial outcomes. However, how preservice teachers’ procrastination tendencies prior to the COVID-19 pandemic link to their experiences during and after the COVID-19 pandemic have not been investigated. The present study collected data from three time points, examining how preservice teachers’ procrastination tendencies before the COVID-19 pandemic related to their life satisfaction at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and their perceived work stress and the COVID-19 impact two and a half years after the outbreak of the pandemic. A total of 385 preservice teachers from Hong Kong were included in this study. Results from structural equation modeling revealed that preservice teachers’ higher procrastination tendencies before the COVID-19 pandemic were associated with lower life satisfaction at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which in turn was linked to higher perceived work stress and a more severe COVID-19 impact two and a half years after the COVID-19 outbreak. The results indicated that preservice teachers with procrastination tendencies may be especially vulnerable to experiencing work stress and life disruption in the face of traumatic events or crises. The findings provide valuable insights to both researchers and practitioners, highlighting the importance of addressing procrastination tendencies among preservice teachers. Copyright © 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.

Research Findings: Early childhood educators’ own disposition has been suggested to contribute to their ability to promote physical literacy (PL) in young children. There is currently limited evidence of educators’ own PL, and studies have not explored how PL relates to teaching knowledge and behaviors in the early childhood education (ECE) context. This current study examined the relationships of teachers’ perceived PL with their self-efficacy and perceived professional competence in relation to promoting physical activities in ECE settings. A total of 338 early childhood educators from Hong Kong responded to an online survey that consisted of the Perceived Physical Literacy Inventory (PPLI), Chinese version of the Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale (C-TSE(R)), and Teachers’ Professional Competence (TPC) questionnaire. The findings revealed that educators’ perceived PL is moderately associated with self-efficacy and professional competence when conducting physical activities in ECE contexts. The PL attributes of self-expression and communication, and knowledge and understanding were significant predictors of educators’ self-efficacy in classroom management and teaching strategies, as well as their professional knowledge and attitudes. Practice or Policy: The findings suggest that ECE teachers’ training should consider aspects of their own PL to enable their self-efficacy and perceived competence for conducting physical activities in ECE settings and thereby promote the PL of young children. Copyright © 2023 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

The present study is among the first that has investigated how teachers’ perceptions on quality of school leadership, work-related meaning in life, and optimism explained the psychological well-being of 509 kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong, China. Structural equation modelling showed that teachers who perceived better perceptions on quality of school leadership found more work-related meaning in life, and were higher in optimism, while work-related meaning in life positively explained optimism, only optimism mediated perceptions on quality of school leadership and psychological well-being. Findings implied the importance of the reciprocal relationship among perceptions on quality of school leadership, work-related meaning in life, and optimism. School management should pay attention to such relationships when designing school plans and teacher training programs to enhance teachers’ psychological well-being. Copyright © 2023 The International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS) and Springer Nature B.V.

This study examines how well in-service teachers in Hong Kong (N = 1,110) are supported in their efforts to teach in inclusive classrooms. It also examines the psychometric properties of the newly developed Teachers' Perceived Support Needs scale to measure in-service teachers' perceived support needs. Factors that predict teachers' perceived support needs are also identified. The exploratory factor and confirmatory factor analyses revealed two factors: 'support in using inclusive teaching strategies' and 'support in expert guidance'. The results show that the Hong Kong in-service teachers felt under-supported in implementing inclusive education. The experience teaching students with disabilities, level of confidence, level of training, gender and school type emerged as significant predictors of their perceived support needs in inclusive education. Copyright © 2022 Routledge.

Objective: This study examines the effects of a well-being intervention based on the PROSPER (i.e., Positivity, Relationship, Outcomes, Strength, Purpose, Engagement, and Resilience) framework, on well-being outcomes among preschool in-service teachers in Hong Kong during the COVID-19 pandemic.Method: We recruited 76 in-service teachers (Mage=26.05, SD=4.71, nfemale=93.4%). Participants completed a survey that measured the PROSPER components of well-being in baseline and 2-month after baseline, from February 2021 to May 2021. They were randomly assigned into the intervention group (n=36; who received four intervention workshops, an online activity and four educational videos with self-reflection activity) and waitlist control group (n=40; who received four intervention workshops after completing the data collection). MANCOVA and ANCOVA, controlling for sex, age and teaching experience, were adopted to examine the intervention effects.Results: MANCOVA results showed a significant multivariate group x time interaction effect of the intervention on the PROSPER outcome variables compared to the control group, Wilks’ Lambda F(7,65) =3.80, p<.001, η2=.29. Results of univariate analyses suggested that participants in the intervention group scored significantly higher on positivity, strength, purpose, and resilience (η2=.08-.11, p<.05) than those in the control condition over time.Conclusion: Our findings provide preliminary evidence on the mental health benefits of the PROSPER-based psychological intervention program among in-service preschool teachers. School principals are encouraged to invest in school-based teacher training initiatives that focus on teachers’ well-being as pandemic-related job stressors might potentially deplete their psychological resources and mental health. Copyright © 2022 European Conference on Education.