Background: Empirical attention on infant-toddler early learning following attendance at early childhood care and education (ECCE) group settings has been scant. Aims: This study examines the quality of ECCE programmes designated for children from birth to three years, and considers how ECCE programme quality works with teacher-child relationships to shape early learning in very young children. Sample: Participants were 128 two-year-old toddlers (Mage = 33.11 ± 3.56 months) from Hong Kong who were enrolled in ECCE programmes and their teachers. Methods: The toddlers were tested on early language, literacy, and mathematics abilities. Teacher Behaviour Rating Scale, an observational tool which captures both the quantity and quality of early childhood teachers’ instructional behaviour, was used to measure ECCE programme quality. Teacher-child relationships was reported by the early childhood teachers using Student-Teacher Relationships Scale. Results: (i) ECCE programme quality and teacher-child closeness positively predicted the toddlers' early academic skills; (ii) teacher-child conflict was not associated with the toddlers' early academic learning; (ii) ECCE programme quality mediated the link between teacher-child closeness and the toddlers’ gains in early language skills three months later. Conclusions: The findings are novel in revealing the role of teachers' practice as indexed by programme quality in explaining the association between teacher-child relationship and toddlers’ early academic abilities, adding to our knowledge of how relationship-based curriculum and pedagogy for infants and toddlers foster learning in our youngest citizens. Copyright © 2025 The Authors.

This study utilised 2015 PISA data from the United Kingdom and Hong Kong to examine the relations between outside school ICT use for learning and science performance through a mediation model. The results uncovered three key findings: Firstly, ICT use for learning exhibited negative total effects on science performance in the United Kingdom, whereas the effects were non-significant in Hong Kong. Secondly, ICT use for learning consistently showed positive indirect effects on science performance through the mediation of self-efficacy, enjoyment and interest. However, no indirect effects were observed through utility value in either of the sampled countries/regions. Notably, ICT use for learning showed positive indirect effects through the mediation of epistemological beliefs in Hong Kong but not in the United Kingdom. Thirdly, ICT use for learning displayed negative unexplained (i.e., direct) effects on science performance, suggesting that potentially negative mediators have not been fully identified. Future research shall focus on exploring potential mediations that may cause negative indirect effects to develop more targeted interventions. Copyright © 2025 Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Research shows that religious schools foster academic achievements among middle and high schoolers. However, research into student attitudes towards the quality of school life in religious schools remains scarce. This study utilised a questionnaire to assess the relationship between a school's religious affiliation and students' religious affect, life satisfaction, personality, age, gender, and attitudes towards school. A sample of 4,468 secondary students (mean age: 14.1 years) was surveyed in Hong Kong. School life was measured by the six aspects: general school character, experience, worship, stewardship, relationships, and religious character. One-way MANOVA analyses revealed that school religious affiliations and personality factors have distinct effects on their attitudes towards school life. The importance of considering individual and contextual factors in understanding and strategies to enhance students' positive attitudes towards school life is discussed. Copyright © 2024 Routledge.

With more and more non-Chinese speaking (NCS) students learning in Hong Kong mainstream classrooms, differentiated instruction has been called for application in Chinese language education to consider the diverse learning needs of all students. However, factors influencing Chinese language teachers' use of differentiated instruction remain unclear. This study aimed to examine the influence of teacher-student relationships and teachers' work motivation on differentiated instruction, as well as the mediating role of work motivation in the relationships between teacher-student relationships and differentiated instruction. Two hundred and ninety Chinese language teachers from Hong Kong primary schools participated in the survey. The results showed that after controlling for demographic factors (i.e., gender, length of service, years of teaching NCS students, and in-service training), both dimensions of the teacher-student relationships (i.e., closeness and conflict) positively predicted differentiated instruction. Autonomous motivation positively predicted differentiated instruction, while controlled motivation did not significantly predict differentiated instruction. Furthermore, autonomous motivation partially mediated the positive effect of closeness on differentiated instruction. Contributions, implications, and limitations are discussed. Copyright © 2024 Springer.

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.

This longitudinal study examined the interactive effects of individual- and classroom-level teacher-child relationships on developing externalizing, internalizing, and prosocial behaviors in kindergarten children over time. On two occasions separated by about 1 year, data were collected from 473 kindergarten children (52% boys, M[subscript age] = 4.36 years) and their class teachers and mothers in Hong Kong, China. Class teachers reported the closeness and conflict in their relationships with each participating child of their class at Time 1, and mothers reported the child's externalizing, internalizing, and prosocial behaviors at Times 1 and 2. Results indicated that controlling for child age, gender, grade, maternal education, and prior levels of child adjustment, individual-level teacher-child closeness was negatively associated with internalizing behaviors, and individual-level teacher-child conflict was positively associated with child externalizing behaviors over time. Classroom-level teacher-child closeness and conflict emerged as moderators. The longitudinal association between individual-level teacher-child closeness and externalizing behaviors was negative in low-closeness classrooms but not in high-closeness classrooms. However, the longitudinal association between individual-level teacher-child conflict and child prosocial behaviors was negative in low-conflict classrooms but not in high-conflict classrooms. Despite the statistical significance of the cross-level interaction effects, they were of small effect sizes and explained only very small amounts of variance. Theoretically, our findings demonstrated the interplay of the individual- and classroom-level teacher-child relationships in shaping children's psychosocial adjustment over time. Practically, our findings highlighted the importance of enhancing teachers' awareness of the affective quality of their relationships with children at both classroom and individual levels, which could potentially impede

Engaging students as partners (SaP) is an approach promoting meaningful pedagogical relationships in higher education. Scholars have called for more culturally situated research on SaP that compares Anglophone countries with other contexts. In response, we conducted an exploratory qualitative study by interviewing 36 undergraduate students from Australia, Mainland China, and Hong Kong. Adopting the relational lens of SaP, the interviews focused on conceptualisations of pedagogical partnership, specifically learner–teacher identities and power dynamics. Through comparative and reflexive thematic analysis, we found that understandings of partnership in different contexts were influenced by broader cultural differences. The findings showed that the perception of SaP in Australia was consistent with the prevailing Western discourse, but the notion of SaP was adapted and re-shaped in Mainland China, and in Hong Kong, there were diverse interpretations of it. This study contributes to new understandings of the influence of specific sociocultural and policy variations in SaP practises through culturally situated and comparative research using theorisations of perpetual translation. We argue for future research to contribute collective insights and nuanced, diverse understandings that expand SaP as an approach to global scholarship. Copyright ©2024 Springer.

Students as partners (SaP) has become an impactful practice in higher education as it enables students to take ownership of their learning and exercise agency. However, the implementation of SaP, particularly in Asia, has encountered many challenges, including concerns about a large power distance between students and teachers. Despite the emerging interests in exploring SaP in several Asian regions, there have been few studies about students’ experiences of partnership throughout a project life cycle. This study explores students’ experiences of SaP in three projects spanning two research-intensive universities in Hong Kong based on the Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) and positioning theory. Data were collected from exit interviews with student partners, their reflective writings, and their responses to open-ended questions in a post-project survey. Our main contribution is the discovery of multiple contradictions between the project designs and students’ enactment of partnership. Specifically, students’ hesitation in assuming a partner’s role was related to their disciplinary identity, the inquiry methods of the projects, and the pre-determined project specifications. In contrast, the cultural factors, which are largely framed as barriers in the literature, only affected the partnership development at the beginning of the project. Our study implies that future SaP projects need to ensure the alignment between project designs and a partner’s role to facilitate equal and sustainable contributions from students and staff members. Copyright ©2024 Routledge.

The study aims to adopt an intention-based approach to examine the key factors influencing academics’ behaviour to share career capital tacit and explicit knowledge, foster innovations and to gain competitive advantages among higher education context. A research model was developed by successfully extending the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) with institutional forces (i.e. senior management support and innovative climate) to examine academics’ career capital knowledge sharing behaviour. A survey was conducted through a questionnaire among 234 academics in Hong Kong self-financing institutions and the data was analyzed using SmartPLS – Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique. It was found that innovative climate of self-financing higher education institutions plays a mediating role in knowledge sharing intention among academics. The findings of this research help higher education institutions promote innovate climate and adopt innovative technologies to encourage knowledge sharing behaviour. Innovative climate fully mediates the relationship between knowledge sharing attitude and intention to share tacit and explicit career capital knowledge, as well as the relationship between senior management support and intention to share explicit career capital knowledge. Managerial implications are discussed and issues for further research are highlighted. Copyright ©2024 Springer.

The presence of non-Chinese pupils has brought to the fore a widening spectrum of learning needs in Hong Kong schools. Curriculum and teaching standards have likewise made clear the importance of creating equitable - with a view of eliminating barriers to - learning. The pathways to these equity goals from a cultural aspect, however, are unclear. This chapter aims to articulate an innovative approach to curriculum for diverse students by considering a more explicit connection between the notions of “caring” and “equity.” It will be argued that the notion of caring provides an important foundation for equity in teaching, especially in a Chinese schooling context marred by pragmatic and neoliberal conditions. These conditions, in part, underlie the integrationist orientation of curriculum responses to Hong Kong’s increasingly diverse student population. These responses often animate familiar policy and curricular rhetoric on ethnic minority learners’ early acquisition of Chinese language that can eclipse the cultivation of culturally inclusive environments. An expanded vision of equity based on caring attitudes will thus be proposed for teacher education to draw closer attention to the cultural dimensions within the curricular emphasis on learner diversity. Copyright © 2025 selection and editorial matter, Huixuan Xu; individual chapters, the contributors.