Students’ sense of school belonging (SSB) is linked with many meaningful educational outcomes. Though several studies have been conducted on SSB, most of these have used variable-centered approaches, with few studies examining profiles of students’ SSB using person-centered approaches. To further understand this important concept, this study sought to identify different profiles of students’ SSB by applying latent profile analysis to data from a sample of 1,173 students among 34 local primary schools in Hong Kong. The results revealed six profiles of school belonging (i.e., Low SSB and Moderate Rejection, Moderate SSB and Moderate Rejection, High SSB and High Rejection, High-Moderate SSB and High Rejection, High-Moderate SSB and Low-Moderate Rejection, and High SSB and Low Rejection). This study also investigated the relationship between the identified profile membership and character strength of kindness (i.e., motivation to be kind, recognition of kindness, and kind behaviours) among these students. The results indicated differences in character strength of kindness across the identified SSB profiles. The findings are in line with the view that school environment plays an important role in students’ optimal development and highlight the necessity for a greater emphasis on school intervention programs on building students’ SSB and enhancing their character strength of kindness. Copyright © 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

This chapter draws on the Global Childhoods ethnographic data from Year 4 classrooms in Hong Kong, Melbourne and Singapore to elucidate what everyday learning looks like in the three global cities. Acknowledging that learning assumes varied shapes and forms, our primary focus aims to explicate some key features of everyday classroom life in each city, with a focus on time and space. In doing so, we examine the class timetables and explore how time was organised in the schools, and consider the design of classrooms and playgrounds, including the ways in which these spaces were typically used by students and teachers to create learning opportunities. Our analyses are situated within the position of critical onto-epistemological perspective though which we offered critical insights to provoke new understandings about how educational practices are deeply situated within local sociocultural contexts with greater implications for broader learning outcomes and students’ educational success. We seek to provide discussions that are both critical and comparative for rethinking the ways in which opportunities, challenges and diversity in the three education systems became evident from the classroom ethnographies. We also consider the implications of structured learning for shaping children’s multiple ways of being, belonging and becoming learners. Copyright © 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

With the intensification of globalization and its international competitiveness as a key benchmark, universities are under pressure to increase their social and economic growth while remaining sustainable. ‘institutional brand, ' the way how an institution presents itself to the public, is a valuable asset for higher education sustainability. Through multiple case study methodology, this research showcases Hong Kong universities institutional brand-building processes to achieve their regional and global standing. It is argued that Hong Kong universities often spell out their branding strategies and persuade and push their staff adhere to intuitional vision and mission, with the hope that such an identification with the institutional brand will lead to corporate sustainability. Copyright © 2022 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Originating in Europe in the 1970s, foreign language learner autonomy has become influential as an educational goal in many parts of the world, including ‘Confucian-heritage’ societies such as mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. More recently, it has been well recognised that the development of language learner autonomy depends largely on language teacher autonomy. Despite the ample literature on the interrelationship between language teachers’ autonomy and their students’ autonomy, there has been, to date, very little published empirical research on the complex interaction between autonomy in language learning and autonomy in language teaching, for the same individual, over a prolonged period of time. This research seeks to examine the nature and kinds of transition from learner to teacher autonomy in the development of the same individual moving from a language learner context to a language teacher context. Following an interpretative-qualitative research tradition, the study investigates and compares the learning-teaching experiences of English learners-teachers, spanning their pre-service teacher education and their initial years in school teaching, in mainland Chinese socio-institutional contexts. The research will contribute new knowledge to the long-term development of language learner and teacher autonomy and will generate insights into pre-service and in-service language teacher education. Copyright © 2018 Asia TEFL.

This article provides school leaders with insights into within and beyond-school influences on school collaborative culture. The study examines how social demographics, and school culture prevalent in different school bandings, influence school capacities (principalleadership; shared and supportive leadership; shared values and vision; and collaborative learning). A structural equation model is constructed from 10 Hong Kong schools’ survey data to trace the path influences of the study variables. The results show that hierarchical cultures tend to prevail in lower banding schools, affecting school collaborative culture negatively. In contrast, rule-seeking cultures have a positive influence on individuals with humbler childhood family upbringing. Likewise at the individual level, unlike most risk-takers found to negatively influence school collaborative culture, English childhood home language speakers’ risk-taking values do not have a significant influence on such school capacities. Nevertheless, rule-seeking and risk-taking teachers are as likely to be recruited in schools regardless of school banding. The results have global significance on how broader social hierarchy embeds in leadership relations differentiated by school banding, with an impact on school collaborative culture. School leaders may consider leveraging leadership relations and professional development to promote school cultures that enhance collaboration at different levels of the organizational hierarchy. Copyright © 2023 The Author(s).

This study examines the effects of kindergarten teachers' self-efficacy on their perceived teacher-child relationships, and explores the associations between self-efficacy and two types of positive affective states (i.e., flow experience and psychological well-being) as the antecedents of efficacy beliefs. A sample of 796 kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong participated in this study. The results showed that teachers' flow experience and psychological well-being were significantly associated with their perceived positive teacher-child relationships, and teacher self-efficacy significantly mediated the effects of teachers' positive affective states on their perceived teacher-child relationships. The results highlight the significance of integrating social cognitive theory and positive psychology into the understanding of the relationships between teachers' positive affective states, self-efficacy, and teacher-child relationships in early childhood education settings. The implications for theory and practice are discussed. Copyright © 2022 Elsevier.

The impact of neoliberalism in higher education has been widely discussed and debated, yet most analyses have viewed the changes on university governance and academic work in different countries as slavishly bound by more global neoliberal factors without paying sufficient attention to the local contextual factors. This empirical study foregrounds the local dimension by examining how the actual quotidian effects of RAE 2020 operate within higher education institutions and on working academics in Hong Kong. The paper reports on an interview-based study with 15 education academics from two government-funded universities in Hong Kong. Neoliberal forms of university governance based on a set of RAE-defined performance indicators were identified; academics’ divergent forms of ‘practice of freedom’ in coping with RAE 2020 were delineated. This study discusses why the universities displayed strong ‘reactivity’ to RAE 2020 and explains academics’ practicality and resilience in coping with policy changes by drawing upon Hong Kong's colonial history, government-university relationship and institutional culture in the specific academic environment. This article calls for greater flexibility in assessment regimes to restore trust and autonomy to the professions and development of alternative patterns of academic prestige to elicit a healthy diversity of policy responses. Copyright © 2022 Taylor & Francis.

This study investigates factors affecting university student-to-student interaction within online learning platforms. A new model was proposed based on the United Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). The single-stage cluster-sampling method was employed, and 113 university students in Hong Kong were respondents. It was found that Information Quality, Social Influence, and Facilitating Conditions affect students’ intention to interact with each other. A quasi-full mediation model was established of the mechanism from Facilitating Conditions to students’ interaction behavior. The direct effect of Facilitating Conditions on students’ interaction and the effect of System Quality on the intention of student interaction were not significant. A fast network, computing facilities, and mobile-friendly software are possible candidates of the virtual environment conditions affecting the intention of student-interaction behavior within online learning platforms. Copyright © 2022 MDPI AG.

Each year, final year high school students choose the university that they would prefer to attend. Past studies have found that family, friends, course availability, university reputation, distances from home, and job prospects were factors affecting students’ choice of university. However, the relative weight of these factors might have changed in the digital era; also, electronic word of mouth was ignored in the past. The purpose of this study was to identify the important factors affecting students’ university choice. We distributed a questionnaire which was completed by 472 Form 6 secondary school students in Hong Kong. Conjoint analysis was used to simulate a real situation and what human beings would do: human being usually make up their mind using a few criteria at the same time. The contribution of the study is that it reveals that electronic word of mouth is the most influential factor, followed by peer influence and university reputation, in choosing a university. Copyright © 2022 MDPI AG.

This article compares and discusses three prevailing approaches used to understand the concept of school culture and school culture phenomena. The approaches are typology-functionalist approach, process approach, and improvement-effectiveness approach. Compared with the other two, improvement-effectiveness approach is identified as more appropriate to conceptualize school culture when the concept is applied to promote school improvement and effectiveness. Moreover, the School Improvement Model of School Culture developed by Cavanagh and Dellar is introduced with the implications of the model to Hong Kong school leaders, policy-makers and educational researchers are being discussed. Copyright © 2009 Hong Kong Teachers’ Centre.