The study reported herein aimed to determine the importance and value of internships in the hospitality industry to students so that academic institutions, receiving organizations, and the students themselves can better prepare for placements in the future. Content analysis was applied to the placement reports submitted by 279 students at the School of Hotel and Tourism Management in the author's home institution. Based on a simple counting of placement attributes mentioned by the students, the analysis yielded nine themes. How the findings can be used to enhance student satisfaction with internships and how the enhanced internship experiences can help solve career problems are discussed.
[Copyright of Journal of Teaching in Travel & Tourism is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15313221003792027]

Concerning the issue of taking up new roles for principals in School-based Management (SBM) in Hong Kong, I used a comparative approach in document analysis in the study. Countries chosen for comparison were Australia (Victoria), England & Wales, Singapore, and Hong Kong. They were comparable because they have similar configuration of education systems and they had SBM. Based on the discussion of G. M. Crow about the role conception that determines the enactment of a social role this dissertation adopted his framework for understanding role change. Here it argued that before taking up a new role there is a new context for the role occupant for his (her) new perception of the role he (she) has to consider assuming. Thus new contexts of different countries created by the implementation of SBM at the school level are compared through the framework of role conception content as which is under the influences of the interaction of policy elements of SBM, the profession of principalship, and the organizational factors.
From the comparison the new context of SBM in Hong Kong secondary schools for veteran principals could be projected for it is similar to other places although she has her uniqueness. Based on the comparison the four-facet of principalship (strategic leadership, organizational leadership, instructional leadership, and the culture ethics and law leadership) advocated by the policy in Hong Kong for role change was evaluated. It was concluded that it would not be optimistic about taking up these dimensions of new role for the veteran principals due to the new context created by SBM, except the organizational leadership, which might be enhanced. Any success of the new four-facet role taking is circumstantial, not directly related to the implementation of SBM.

Curriculum is not neutral. Curriculum as actuality is a representation of selected ideas, skills, values, norms and practices within society (Smith and Lovat, 2003). Moral and civic education is a key aim of the Hong Kong English Language Education Curriculum. To incorporate moral and civic education, a set of values and attitudes is proposed. The Hong Kong Extensive Reading Scheme is a reading program in the Hong Kong English education curriculum. Students participating in the Extensive Reading Scheme are recommended to read large quantities of books that are of their interests and within their linguistic competence. My research examines the extensive reading materials to demonstrate how the texts may contain hidden values and attitudes.
This paper is drawn from research in progress and it studies the extensive reading materials suggested by the Hong Kong curriculum from a critical discourse perspective. It aims to draw implications for raising the teachers' awareness of the cultural and political values inherent in the reading materials. In addition, this paper studies the Hong Kong English Language Education Curriculum. It proposes the need for having pedagogy that supports the critical approach of teaching English in the curriculum.
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Importing a Western curriculum to another culture is contentious. Through a content analysis of guidance materials in selected primary schools, the authors explore the appropriateness of adopting a Western guidance curriculum in Hong Kong. Using a multi-dimensional framework derived from Lawton's (1973) model of curriculum development, they report the sociological contextual features of the materials and present a content analysis to develop an understanding of the different approaches to psychology embodied in the curriculum. Three forms of the same Western guidance curriculum, as used in three Hong Kong primary schools, are analysed to illustrate how Western notions of 'self' do not fit within an 'East meets West' context such as Hong Kong.
They argue that because of the 'East meets West' context of Hong Kong, there is a need to develop a 'hybrid' guidance curriculum that draws on a psychology guided by an understanding of the 'hybrid self', and that reflects the social and psychological contexts of Hong Kong. Implications of the findings for countries with Confucian heritages are discussed.
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Access via Open Journal Systems: http://www.ojs.unisa.edu.au/index.php/EDEQ]

This paper outlines the application of a particular model of content analysis to the evaluation of an online discussion group. A set of online discussion data from a group of students enrolled in an educational management course offered by the Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK) was examined. The provision of the online discussion facility for this group of students was mainly for enrichment purposes and their participation was completely voluntary. Overall, the analysis confirmed the usefulness of Henri's model in examining the interaction and learning processes in an online forum. It also provided insights towards increased understanding of the complex processes and methodological considerations involved in analysing online conferences.
[Copyright of Distance Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01587910500081327]