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 brief reflective piece considers the experience of academics in the field of comparative and international education in Hong Kong. It begins by examining the state of international higher education and the continued dominance of Western contexts and perspectives in publishing in comparative education even in the so-called global era. It contrasts Western-oriented historical and contemporary views of the field with the situation in East Asia and particularly Hong Kong, where lively international dialogue has always been a key theme of academic and intellectual life. Against pronouncements in recent decades of "the death" of Hong Kong, the paper asserts that comparative and international education remains a thriving domain in Hong Kong since the handover and provides further reflections on the history and state of the field today as well as its future promise. Copyright ©2024 Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

This case study explored how the principles of multicultural and intercultural education are reflected in a minority-majority Hong Kong secondary school (that is, a school where most students are ethnic minorities). The findings suggest that the school illustrates several aspects of multicultural and intercultural education, especially content integration, prejudice reduction, equity pedagogy, and democratic deliberation, particularly in relation to school-based material, teacher sensitivity, and dialogical reasoning. The main hurdles discovered are language learning difficulties and an unsupportive social environment. This study contributes to literature on the development of multicultural and intercultural education in Hong Kong and offers directions for generalizable future research. Copyright © 2023 Peicong MA et al.

Humility as a virtue has been receiving increasing scholarly attention in the fields of philosophy and psychology (particularly positive psychology). While humility is regarded as important for knowledge production, acquisition, and transmission, philosophical and psychological inquiries indicate that the concept of humility can significantly differ across social arenas and cultural traditions. However, despite its clear educational importance, humility as a moral concept is seldom explored empirically in relation to teaching and learning. This study seeks to extend our cross-cultural understanding of humility and its association with teaching and learning practices in schools. Based on semi-structured interviews with teachers in local and international secondary schools in Hong Kong, we comparatively explore how teachers understand the concept of humility and how their understandings shape their teaching practices in classrooms. This comparative approach can provide a deeper understanding of the differences and similarities between different teachers’ understandings of humility as an important moral concept. Furthermore, this study will shed light on how educators’ moral concepts are associated with their pedagogical practices. This will provide an alternative lens to reflect on and improve teaching and learning practices, and teacher-student relations in schools. Copyright © 2021 The Education University of Hong Kong.

Multicultural education in many industrialized, diverse societies aims to positively represent and include minority groups in the curriculum. Though there is some discussion of this aim in Hong Kong curriculum, the positive inclusion of minorities in subjects dealing with social life remains minimal. This paper aims to defend the need for multicultural education in Hong Kong by comparing the sociological and representational challenges there with those of other societies with traditions of multicultural education. Using comparative methods this project provides sociological and historical context to multicultural education programs in diverse societies including Canada, the United States, France, Japan, and South Africa. The historical backdrop of these countries will be considered as well as the nature of their multicultural education. Hong Kong faces unique dilemmas in developing multicultural education, including the problem of prejudice toward mainland Chinese people, and the common notion that to be a Hong Konger one must be both (a) of Chinese (Han) ethnicity, and (b) Chinese (Cantonese and/or Mandarin) speaking. This paper will examine these and related issues in the context of the broader comparative discussion, also considering other essential challenges to the concept of multicultural education. Copyright © 2013 The CESHK Annual Conference.

1. Objectives or purposes of the paper.The primary purpose of this paper is to analyze how religion is portrayed and explored within the Liberal Studies curriculum in Hong Kong schools. Liberal Studies is the main place for social studies and moral and civic education in Hong Kong today, as one of four required subjects (alongside math, English, and Chinese). Liberal Studies aims in part “to help students appreciate and respect diversity in cultures and views in a pluralistic society.” However, it is also a new part of curriculum which teachers can find hard to implement. This paper specifically analyzes how religion is discussed and described in Liberal Studies curriculum materials including major textbooks used, as textbooks are thus far often directing the course of classroom teaching in Liberal Studies.2. Main perspective or theoretical/conceptual framework used.A comparative multicultural framework undergirds this project. The researcher’s past experience in multicultural religious education in the United States informs the choice of topic. Though both the United States and Hong Kong are proudly diverse places with strong traditions of religious freedom, Hong Kong lacks the tradition of common schooling of many Western societies and its aim to help students understand and assimilate with one another. As a result, the multicultural content may not be as celebratory about diversity there. Additionally, in Hong Kong it is understood that individuals can participate in various religious traditions at the same time, while in Western societies people tend to be more exclusive in their religious belief or unbelief. Though comparisons of multiculturalism in education are a backdrop to this project, its ultimate aim remains to consider whether students are learning what they should learn to understand religiously diverse others from the Liberal Studies curriculum, from an intercultural-multicultural stance which values dialogue and initial respect and good faith in the midst