Neoliberalism has permeated every sphere of social life, including education and language learning, seeking to produce a particular kind of subject, homo economicus , with the dispositions required to manage the self as an economic project. This article unravels the workings of the unfulfilled promise of neoliberal English education and its damaging consequences on a high-achieving female university graduate in the context of contemporary Hong Kong. Combining Marxist and Foucauldian perspectives, while simultaneously drawing on Goffman's concepts of stigma and spoiled identity, our analysis is informed by positioning theory and captures the impact of what we have termed the English language gaze on our informant's sense of self. Seen through a Foucauldian lens, the data reveal the extent, but also the limits, of her assimilation of neoliberal governmentality, while the Marxist lens allows us to account for her plight in terms of alienation and the resulting stigma of a spoiled identity. Copyright © 2023 Cambridge University Press.

This essay emerges from an ongoing conversation between us while collaborating on various projects that have explored the role that English plays in people's lives. One of us is an English teacher educator from Australia, the other an EFL educator from Iran now working in Hong Kong. Our conversation prompted us to reflect on English as a medium of communication between us that has enabled us to transcend the division between so-called native speakers and those who speak English as an additional language, without denying the differences between us. To take our conversation further, we set each other the task of writing an autobiographical vignette to inquire into how the English language has variously shaped our sense of self and our relationships with others. We thereby attempt to re-envision English as a relational and historically situated phenomenon in order to think again about our common project as English language educators. Copyright © 2023 Taylor & Francis.

This study examined proficiency levels and attitudes of main languages in use among ethnic minority students in Hong Kong. We surveyed 260 students from primary and secondary schools with English as the medium of instruction. They were multilingual speakers who were proficient in spoken English and Cantonese. Our results revealed asymmetric and correlated proficiency levels including in the students' native languages (L1s). Their multilingual proficiencies were also affected by factors such as age variables and associated with aspects of L1 attitudes. Our key finding corroborated previous research claims that mastery of multiple languages could allow ethnic minority students to construct a more powerful multilingual and multicultural identity. Copyright © 2023 Routledge.

High-quality caregiver-child relationships are critical to healthy development, including the acquisition of language and literacy skills. However, their potential benefits to early mathematical development and its underlying mechanisms have been minimally explored. In view that language and literacy development play prominent roles in mathematical development, this study investigated whether very young children's relationship quality with parents and teachers were linked with their mathematical ability through language and literacy abilities. One hundred and thirty two-year-olds from pre-nursery classes in Hong Kong were tested on their early academic abilities. Furthermore, their parents and teachers evaluated on questionnaires the quality of their relationships with the children. Results of path analyses indicated that after controlling for children's age, parent-child closeness was associated with children's mathematical ability via language ability. Teacher-child closeness had a direct link to children's mathematical ability, as well as indirect links through language and literacy abilities. Parent-child conflict and teacher-child conflict had neither direct nor indirect relations with children's mathematical ability. These results suggest that mathematical development is interwoven with language and literacy development beginning in the early years. Also, parents and teachers should be reminded the importance of building close and affectionate relationships with very young children when nurturing the foundation for academic development. Copyright © 2023 Springer.

Purpose: This research is an interview-based study that captures the academics' perspectives toward the planning and design of an interdisciplinary General Education Curriculum for undergraduate students in the Chinese context, using the Common Core Curriculum at the University of Hong Kong as a case study. Design/Approach/Methods: A total of 28 academics with various levels of academic ranking, disciplinary context, proven teaching excellence, and research productivities were individually invited for and consented to a semi-structured and face-to-face interview. Findings: This article suggests four fundamental and interrelated dimensions for consideration when structuring an interdisciplinary General Education Curriculum, namely, how to design, what is worth learning, how to learn and teach, and how to know students have learned. It is suggested that the ideal curriculum should remain coherent and coordinated, broad and balanced, as well as open and flexible, ensuring the capture of knowledge, skills, and attitudes, with the facilitation of active, authentic, and contextualized pedagogies and assessments. Originality/Value: This article has the potential of providing insight for policymakers and educators around the world to better structure an interdisciplinary General Education Curriculum by creating an overall springboard for future discussion. They can also integrate these evidence-based elements and strategies into their everyday practices. Copyright © 2023 SAGE Publications.

The onset of COVID required many libraries to re-imagine how they conducted their services. It also identified needs and gaps in the delivery of these services to the community. In response to changes such as extended lockdowns and the resultant economic difficulties and the wider need for digital literacy skills, Hong Kong SKH Ming Hua Theological College Library (MH College) established an international collaboration to develop and deliver online tours/ talks as a library skills program with librarians, faculty, students, and professionals in Hong Kong, Japan and Australia. The overall aims of this initiative were to provide an online library skills program for education, leisure and to make the value of librarians and libraries visible to stakeholders during the pandemic to ensure the upkeep of library resources, budgeting and staffing. Through partnerships with key stakeholders and the use of a variety of innovative IT tools, real-time online activities were conducted in three languages (English, Chinese and Japanese) to an internationally distributed audience. This paper will outline the background and organisation of the program, its design and discuss the lessons learned and implications for practice of the strategies used in the program. Copyright © 2023 Taylor & Francis.

We examine teacher induction programs through a systematic review of existing international literature from 2012 to 2022. Three of the most comprehensive online databases for educational research (Education Research Complete, ERIC EBSCO, ScienceDirect) were considered for the search, which resulted in eight documents being retrieved and considered in the analysis. We also review teacher induction programs in six jurisdictions (Estonia, Finland, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, Singapore, South Korea) with consistently high-performing students on the PISA reading, mathematics, and science assessments over the past decade, summarize teacher induction best practices identified in prior international comparison studies, and compare these results with induction programs in jurisdictions with low-performing students on these same assessments. Finally, we summarize our results, discuss limitations in our findings, and identify ideas for further and future research. Copyright © 2023 Elsevier.

Teachers play a critical role in facilitating the career and life planning of secondary school students. This paper describes the development of the Career-Related Teacher Support Scale (Hong Kong Secondary Students Form). Based on data obtained from 493 students in Hong Kong, five types of career-related teacher support were identified with the most important form of support being teachers' knowledge about the world of work and study path requirements. A correlation model yielded the best fit to the data. No variance in response pattern appeared across genders, and the new scale was found to have good validity and reliability. Copyright © 2023 Springer.

This paper explores how mobility is experienced differentially in international education, through a comparison of two ostensibly very distinct student groups. Both groups have non-UK citizenship and have studied, or are studying, for a British higher education degree – one in the UK, the other in Hong Kong. Through a dual focus on the materialities and mobilities within international higher education, we consider the extent to which physical mobility across borders is a defining feature of the experiences and outcomes of those engaging in international education. We argue that combining perspectives of mobilities and materialities challenges simplistic dichotomies of im/mobility amongst students and unsettles the boundaries between onshore and offshore international education. Our paper provides a more granular and nuanced understanding of the relationship between im/mobility, international higher education and social reproduction. Copyright © 2023 Taylor & Francis.

This comparative study investigated the associations between instructional practices and students' reading performance among 10 top performing regions that participated in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018. A nationally representative sample consisting of 80,016 15-year-old students from 5 Asian regions (B-S-J-Z [China], Singapore, Macao, Hong Kong, and Korea) and 5 Western regions (Estonia, Canada, Finland, Ireland, and Poland) were included. A secondary analysis of PISA survey and assessment data was conducted. T test and ANOVA analyses revealed systematic differences in instructional practices of the 10 regions. B-S-J-Z (China) had significantly higher levels of teacher support, teacher-directed instruction, and teacher stimulation than the other sample regions. Asian regions tended to have higher levels of teacher support, teacher-directed instruction, teacher feedback, adaptive instruction, and teacher enthusiasm compared with Western regions, although variations were also found within Asian regions or within Western regions. Hierarchical linear regression (HLR) analyses indicated that reading performance was positively predicted by teacher support, adaptive instruction, teacher stimulation, and teacher enthusiasm, but negatively predicted by teacher-directed instruction and teacher feedback. This study sheds light on the effective instructional practices for optimizing students' reading performance across different cultural contexts. Copyright © 2023 Springer Nature.