This study investigates the differences in pragmatic competence between Hong Kong and Chinese mainland university students. Participants included 19 native speakers of English, 115 Chinese mainland students, divided into those who had spent time abroad in an English-speaking country (CM A) and those who had not (CM NA), and 97 Hong Kong students, divided into those from an English-medium secondary school (Hong Kong EMI) and those from a Chinese-medium school (Hong Kong CMI). Linguistic proficiency was measured by a C-test, and pragmatic competence by a Metapragmatic Knowledge Test, an Irony Test and a Monologic Role Play. Group scores were compared using ANCOVAs to control for differences in proficiency. The results point to a continuum of pragmatic competence-EMI > CMI > CM A > CM NA-reflecting the groups' access to English in real-life contexts. The differences between the Hong Kong groups and the Chinese mainland groups were clearest in those tests measuring processing capacity (i. e., Irony Response Time and the Monologic Role Play). CM A, but not CM NA, performed as well as the Hong Kong groups on measures of metapragmatic awareness. The results are discussed in terms of Bialystok's (1993) distinction between analyzed representation and control of processing. Copyright © 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH.

The purpose of civic education is to prepare students to become ‘good citizens’ aligned with the policies and political purposes of the regime to which they belong. This exploratory study employed a mixed methods design to construct a typology of ‘good citizens’ to understand university students’ perceptions of citizenship in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and Mainland China. It found that the university students’ perceptions of ‘good citizens’ is constructed from two components: internal political efficacy and the connection between ‘good citizens’ and the regime. Students in these societies share a similar understanding of the first component but have significant divergences in the second component. These findings demonstrate a correlation between regime type and the perceptions of ‘good citizens’ and our typology could provide a conceptual framework to guide researchers in organising and conducting further comparative studies. Copyright ©2024 Routledge.

This article examines the intertwining and evolution of neoliberal and nationalist discourses in post-colonial Hong Kong and Macao, arguing that their combination reveals the dual layers of political rationality in the dynamics of higher education policymaking. It suggests a move towards governmentality with Chinese characteristics, marked by gradual and continuous shifts towards decolonisation and re-Sinicisation within the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ framework. This perspective contrasts with existing literature on Hong Kong that emphasises the maintenance of the colonial status quo and points out abrupt changes due to the 2019 protests and the 2020 National Security Law. By analysing the reconfiguration of governmentality in the higher education systems of these post-colonial Chinese societies amid changing political landscapes, the article sheds light on both the incremental changes and significant moments influencing the trajectory of higher education development in Hong Kong and Macao. Copyright ©2024 Routledge.

This article provides an overview of the politics of education as they affect regions and communities on the periphery of the People's Republic of China. Drawing on the articles in this special issue of Comparative Education, it analyses tensions related to the attempted imposition of Bejing's homogenising and totalising vision of Chineseness across Tibet, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and amongst the mainland's migrant underclass. Also considered here are the politics of comparative educational scholarship, as they relate to a widespread failure to engage critically with the diversity and complexity of Chinese societies. Attributable largely to the West's own 'culture wars', this failure betrays much-touted ethical commitments to social justice and anti-'hegemonic' resistance. It is thus a central purpose of this essay - and special issue - to urge educational scholars to interrogate the politics of oppression and injustice in China and elsewhere 'beyond the Western horizon'. Copyright ©2024 Routledge.

In this collective essay the authors consider the nature and consequences of reading and researching across difference in an international and intergenerational team, whose core members are focused on understanding how curriculum operates and the nature of textbook representation of diversity in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau. Examining textbook reading across and about difference as senior and junior curriculum theorists, emerging educational researchers, and recent secondary school graduates with varied international and cross-border experiences, the authors consider how their unique positions and experiences--as well as the political and social context of schooling, and the abstraction, simplification, and reduction of reality which textbook production entails--influences understandings of the value of curriculum theory and textbook research. The insights of this essay shed light on such topics as how textbooks are seen across difference, read in academic and school settings, experienced based on identity and subjectivity, and taken up in understanding broader nation-state politics. In sum, the authors critically ask here what textbooks and textbook research are 'for' from an international view, given the dynamic ways that reading and collaborative scholarship work. Copyright ©2024 Routledge.

Education reform efforts stemming from the Programme in International Student Achievement have strengthened in recent years, particularly in response to the growth of global references societies -- high achieving educational jurisdictions such as Finland, Hong Kong-China, and more recently Estonia and Singapore. Despite political rhetoric, evidence-based policy development associated with this international benchmark measure is rarely, if ever, a neutral enterprise that is guided by the best available evidence. Indeed, political discourse and policy framing surrounding PISA often results in the selective use of results to justify contested policy reforms. Brief cases from Japan, Sweden, and Canada illustrate how national policies have been adopted that are not grounded, and may even run counter, to research findings. The discussion examines the politicization of PISA and its symbolic role in adding legitimacy to education reform agendas. Collectively, the analysis offers an alternative perspective to the popular notion that PISA guides evidence-based decision-making. Copyright ©2024 SAGE Publications.

This study aims to assess the mathematics literacy levels of 15-year-old students participating in the PISA-2022 test, considering the impacts of the frequency of digital device usage, and the influence of printed and digital learning resources in the educational context across Estonia, Finland, China (Hong Kong), Croatia, and Turkey during COVID-19 pandemic. Utilizing a correlational survey research design, data were sourced from the PISA-2022 dataset, with the sample drawn from the specified target population encompassing students in the selected countries. The analysis involved one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multiple linear regression modeling. Across all countries examined, students using personal laptops, desktop computers, or tablets demonstrated higher levels of mathematical literacy compared to those utilizing other digital tools, except in Turkey where students employing their smartphones exhibited superior mathematical literacy. Furthermore, findings indicated a positive association between live lessons delivered by teachers at school through video communication platforms (e.g., EBA, Zoom™, Skype™) and mathematics literacy levels in all countries. Copyright ©2024 Journal of Educational Technology and Online Learning.

This study examined the cognitive-linguistic and literacy-related correlates of dyslexia in three Chinese cities and the English word reading and mathematics performances of Chinese children with dyslexia. Chinese children with/without dyslexia were measured with an equivalent test battery of literacy and mathematics in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Taipei. Univariate analysis results suggested that phonological sensitivity distinguished those with and without dyslexia across all three cities in group comparisons. In Taipei and Hong Kong, morphological awareness, delayed copying, and spelling also distinguished the groups. Logistic regression analyses demonstrated that Chinese character reading, as directly compared to Chinese word reading, also distinguished the groups particularly well. In addition, in Beijing and Hong Kong, children with dyslexia performed significantly less well in English word reading than those without dyslexia. In Hong Kong and Taipei, children with dyslexia also had difficulties in mathematics performance. Findings highlight the fundamental importance of some cognitive-linguistic skills for explaining Chinese dyslexia across cultures, the utility of recognizing the individual Chinese character as a foundational unit of analysis in Chinese across cultures, and the generalizability of the comorbidity of both English as a second language (L2) and mathematics with dyslexia in Chinese children in both Beijing and Hong Kong. Copyright ©2024 Springer.