School choice gives parents greater power over their children's education. But ever since the Pre-primary Education Voucher Scheme (PEVS) was introduced in Hong Kong in 2007, school choice has become a hotly debated topic. The scheme was introduced to empower kindergarten parents in choosing a school for their children by offering them direct fee subsidies that, in return, could propel education quality forward. Parents in the private kindergarten sector, however, have long enjoyed the privilege of choice, and they have been preoccupied with an intense interest in their children's academic upbringing, even if it means compromising the holistic development of their children. This runs counter to the principles of a quality education. Therefore, the urge to further promote parental kindergarten choice will likely allow parental academic interests to continue to prevail and hence invalidate the PEVS' promise to improve education quality. The result is a unique dilemma between school choice for parents and the promise of education quality within Hong Kong's unique private kindergarten sector.
[Copyright © 2011 Arizona State University.]

In the past 15 years, educators in Hong Kong have given increasing attention to the research and development of home and community involvement in education. The roles of parents and teachers in educating the children were seen as separate in early eighties (Llewellyn, 1982). Parents mainly served as the “home supervisor” or “home tutor” of children, like those parents in other Confucian influenced regions in Asia (Pang, 2004). In the school premises, parents usually played the role of audience. After the setting up of the Committee on Home-school Cooperation by the Hong Kong Government in 1993, different forms of home-school partnership and diverse roles of parents have emerged. In research, there has been a significant increase in theses, reports and articles published in local and overseas journals. In this paper, via literature review and document analysis, the changing roles of parent and community in school education in Hong Kong will be examined. The consensus, controversies, and challenges of the various types of school-home-community partnerships will be discussed. The Ecological Systems Theory of Bronfenbrenner (1979) will be used to explain some of these developments.

Teacher attitudes and practices have been considered as essential in bringing about parent involvement in school education. In Hong Kong, among various home-school links, teacher-parent communication about children's learning has been agreed as the primary concern of both schools and parents. This study looks at the intentions and practices of the communication of primary school teachers with parents. It attempts to identify variables which can predict the effectiveness of such communication. A model which has taken into account the theory of planned behaviour, self-efficacy theory, expectancy theory and role theory has been proposed. Scales for measuring the variables and constructs involved have been developed. Path analyses linking the variables in a conceptual model have been conducted. Results show that a number of variables, such as "the teacher's commitment towards teaching", "personal teaching efficacy", "teacher efficacy in working parents" and "teacher's sense of shared responsibility with parents" have predictive power for teacher's intention and practices. The significance of these findings for enhancing teacher-parent communication is discussed.

Objective The aims of this study are to explore the interplay between parental feeding style, child eating behavior, parenting stress, and young children's weight outcomes in preschool settings in relation to the intervention and prevention of childhood obesity. Design, Setting and Participants Quantitative and qualitative methods were used. A survey of 336 Chinese parents and primary caregivers of preschool children aged 2 to 6 years was nested in 3 detailed case studies in 2011. Outcome Measures and Analysis The Parental Feeding Behavior Questionnaire and Child Eating Behavior Questionnaires, Parenting Stress Index, and BMI of young children were measured. Quantitative data were analyzed by descriptive statistics. Analysis of variance, χ2 test, and Fisher exact test were used to compare and investigate associations between variables. Qualitative data were analyzed by a multilevel framework and incorporated data from the quantitative study into an overall model. Results Significant differences were found in food responsiveness (F3,332 = 4.25, P < .01), enjoyment of food (F3,332 = 6.00, P < .01), desire to drink (F3,332 = 4.36, P < .01) with obese children; satiety responsiveness (F3,332 = 9.84, P < .01), slowness in eating (F3,332 = 24.19, P < .01), and emotional undereating (F3,332 = 4.71, P < .01) with underweight children; and parents' encouragement to eat (F3,332 = 4.10, P < .01) with underweight children. Parent-child dysfunctional interaction positively correlated with instrumental feeding (radj = 0.37) and emotional feeding (radj = 0.29). Child age, schooling, and housing were associated with child BMI (P < .01). Conclusions and Implications These findings confirmed that children's eating and feeding relates to abnormal weight, which also links to parenting stress, family socioeconomic status, and childcare practices. Funding S.A.S. Dragon Holdings Ltd. R2090.
[Copyright © 2012 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior]

THE TRANSITION FROM HOME to early childhood education can be stressful for both children and parents. How parents cope with this potentially stressful event affects both the children's adaptation and the parents' lives during the preschooler stage of the family lifecycle. This paper examines how parents respond to their children's adjustment difficulties, particularly a reluctance to attend school, by examining the coping strategies of 29 Hong Kong parents. The parents expressed different kinds of negative emotions regarding their children's reluctance to go to school due to various adjustment difficulties. Parents' coping strategies can be classified as planful coping, seeking social support, accepting responsibilities, distancing, self-controlling and positive reappraisal according to Folkman and Lazarus's Ways of Coping (WOC) framework. The implications of these strategies for how early childhood professionals can support parents are discussed.
[Copyright © 2014 Early Childhood Australia Inc.]

Purpose: This paper aims to report a case study of 93 parents’ attitude towards their involvement at various levels of school education in a special school. It also examines the relations between parents’ education backgrounds and different levels of parental involvement. Design/methodology/approach: This study adopted quantitative research approach. A questionnaire composed of 30 items under six scales was developed with reference to Ng’s (1999) six–level Model of Home-School Cooperation which was adopted to frame the study. Findings: The study indicates that parents’ inclined to be involved more outside the school including ‘two-way communication’, ‘supervision of children at home’ and ‘participation in parent organizations and activities’ than that inside the school such as ‘volunteering’, ‘providing advice on school policies’ and ‘participating in decision making’. Research limitations/implications: In spite of its small scale in a case-study special school, it does not aim at generalization but illuminate how parental involvement was carried out. Practical implications: The study carries the implications for school management and policy makers when promoting and implementing parental involvement in special schools. Originality/value: For the school personnel, a total and positive relationship could help enhance efficient and effective management of education. Second, more resources should be provided by the Education Bureau for special schools to educate parents and subsidize their involvement. Third, more training opportunities regarding knowledge and skills of parental involvement be provided for frontline teachers.
[Copyright © 2015 Emerald Group Publishing Limited.]