This paper reports on some research from an ARC funded project conducted by the authors into the ways in which Australian universities establish collaborations with partners in Hong Kong and Papua New Guinea to offer courses in those countries. The research used principally qualitative methods (interviews, observations, document collection and analysis) to develop case-studies of a range of partnerships in Hong Kong. The project commenced in 1999 and is in its final stages. The paper discusses the experiences of staff who developed, administered and taught courses offered in Hong Kong by Australian institutions in partnership with a local provider. It presents and discusses findings on their reasons for working 'off-shore' in Hong Kong, their engagement with local staff and students, and their experience of Hong Kong students' coping with Australian curricula, pedagogies and assessment.
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Exploring teachers' attitudes towards research is always interesting. With the Education and Manpower Bureau's policy of introducing the position of Primary School Master/Mistress (Curriculum Development) to local Hong Kong primary schools, to understand the beliefs these curriculum leaders hold onto research - as a means to help schools to reflect upon their strengths and to decide how best to bring about reform in curriculum becomes significant. A survey of 209 PSM(CD)s suggested although people in general favour research in their work, there still reservations. A five-factor model indicated that, on the one hand, the majority of the respondents perceived themselves having ability to do research, valued research for professional development and providing solutions to teaching and learning deficiencies, and found the action research course that they participated useful. On the other hand, they preferred courses focussed on improving their teaching competencies to an action research course. It was shown that while demonstrated research experience and qualification of higher degrees revealed no significant difference in research attitudes, these factors associated positively with their commitment to school, self-efficacy and an internal locus of control. The work contributes to the understanding of how PSM(CD)s feel towards supporting doing and facilitating research for curriculum development in schools.
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The fact that the number of sojourn programs organised to overseas and mainland China has grown rapidly in recent years in secondary schools in Hong Kong underlines the interest of schools in embracing the ideal of providing more learning opportunities for students under the growing impact of globalization. In this study, with its definition referring to short-term programs organised by Hong Kong secondary schools for students to reside temporarily in a foreign land for the purpose of learning, these popular programs have been playing a significant role in internationalisation of Hong Kong education through varied student interactions with peoples and cultures. This study particularly attempts to explore the nature of sojourn programs, how different stakeholders think about the importance and their impact on the process of internationalisation of Hong Kong secondary education. The study also explores how secondary schools in Hong Kong maintain a balance between destinations in China and overseas (such as Australia, UK and Canada) in an era of educational reforms.
This is a doctoral work in progress, a primitive research and data collected will be presented to reveal the significance of the study.
[Copyright of Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) at http://www.aare.edu.au]