Early childhood educators’ (ECEs) well-being has attracted worldwide attention given its importance to many individual, organizational, and child outcomes. ECEs’ well-being is a multidimensional construct that encompasses a number of elements. These elements are interrelated and represent a complex psychological network. Scant research has examined the features of this network and whether the network would be upheld for ECEs across career stages. This study uses a network analysis to identify pervasive and robust features of well-being in ECEs from diverse career developmental phases. Participants were 1,188 ECEs (1,008 females, M age = 32.19 years) recruited from four cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. They reported mental (i.e., subjective well-being and psychological well-being), occupational (i.e., job stress, job satisfaction, job burnout, and work engagement), and physical (i.e., physical health and role functioning of health) well-being. The results showed that emotional exhaustion was the most central element in the network whilst some other eudaimonic elements from the occupational aspect (e.g., vigor, dedication, and depersonalization) also occupied relatively important places. Further invariance analyses suggested that the above network was largely equivalent across ECEs at the novice, advanced beginner, and competent career stages. Theoretically, this study informs which elements are playing the fundamental role in the holistic well-being network among Chinese ECEs. Practically, the findings also provide implications for prevention and intervention strategies and career counselling to enhance Chinese ECEs’ different aspects of well-being. Copyright © 2023 The International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS) and Springer Nature B.V.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has rapidly emerged as a transformative force across diverse sectors worldwide, with policy initiatives signalling its rising prominence. In the realm of education, AI holds promise for revolutionising learning and teaching. However, the incorporation of AI in basic education faces significant challenges for many schools, particularly when explicit curriculum guidelines are absent, and teachers have limited exposure to AI technologies. This study delves into the importance of integrating Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED), particularly in primary and secondary school settings, with a specific emphasis on the obstacles and facilitators. The research examines the impact of digital leadership and its role in mitigating teachers' barriers to AIED incorporations. These external variables are systematically outlined within the conceptual framework proposed by this study. Furthermore, it conceptualises and considers three AIED approaches—Learning from AI, Learning about AI, and Learning with AI—as internal variables central to basic-education AIED incorporations, as highlighted in previous research. The study gathers quantitative data through a self-constructed questionnaire survey from 204 school principals and management-level teachers across 60 primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong, capturing their perceptions of AIED incorporation. A structural equation model (SEM) is adopted to analyse the relationships between digital leadership, internal and external teacher barriers, and the three AIED approaches. The findings underscore that digital leadership is a significant factor in facilitating AI incorporations in schools, and that teachers' internal and external barriers considerably affect Learning about AI. The paper concludes by proposing strategies to enhance the capabilities of school leaders and teachers in promoting AIED in basic education. Copyright © 2023 The Author(s).

This qualitative study has investigated how a group of bilingual university students in Hong Kong understand digital citizenship and construct it through digital literacy practices in social media. Drawing on interview data and examples of digital activity shared by the students, we adopt the theories of digital literacies and translanguaging and transsemiotizing to reveal how they construct digital citizenship through an complex interplay between several factors, most prominently (1) a variety of digitally mediated social, cultural and educational practices the students engage in, (2) their agency of deploying diverse linguistic and semiotic recourses to achieve varied communicative effects in different settings and (3) their personal pursuits of intellectual and professional development and social engagement in a digitalized and globalized society. We then discuss how the findings can enrich our understanding of digital citizenship and its relationship with digital literacies in a multilingual and multicultural context such as Hong Kong. The implications for digital citizenship education are also discussed. Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc.

English-medium instruction (EMI) is taking hold within higher education in non-Anglophone settings, but there is insufficient research into the challenges students encounter when taking EMI courses online. This exploratory quantitative study conducted in Hong Kong examines the language and studying challenges faced by undergraduate students when in-person classes were suspended due to COVID-19. One hundred thirteen first- and second-year students completed a questionnaire, rating their perceived challenges in the areas of writing, speaking, reading, listening, and study skills. The results showed that they faced particular challenges with reading and study skills (especially self-motivation), as well as vocabulary range, which affected more than one skill. Corroborating existing research, students with less secondary school EMI experience reported greater challenges. As providing English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses is a primary way to support the language skills of students in EMI settings, we offer guidance to EAP practitioners who seek to help their students overcome the challenges identified in this article. As online technology continues to deliver content in tertiary education, EAP courses must be closely aligned with the language and study skills needs of students in digital EMI environments. Copyright © 2023 by the authors.

Globally prevalent, Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) have negative consequences on students’ social, intellectual, emotional, and post-school transition results. While assessment tools exist, the majority of them were developed from the perspective of clinical psychology and/or healthcare. Some are lengthy and commercialized, and some have weak factorial validity. A feasible and practical assessment method, from the perspective of educational psychology and assessment, is required to better accurately and effectively assess the social and academic performance of ASD students in inclusive settings. With an emphasis on teachers’ practice and output in helping students with ASD in inclusive education, this study evaluated the Practice and Product Inventory of Supporting Students with ASD (PPI-SSA) psychometric qualities. PPI-SSA was designed to be practical, concise, and especially suited for quantitative research on ASD. The inventory was administered to 411 teachers in Hong Kong, and exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the PPI-SSA’s reliability and validity. A follow-up path analysis examined the concurrent validity of the PPI-SSA, revealing significant pathways between teachers’ intentions to implement inclusive education and each of the respective dimensions within the PPI-SSA. Measurement invariance results showed that the PPI-SSA demonstrated configural, metric, scalar, and residual invariance across primary and secondary teachers. The PPI-SSA, as a non-commercial instrument, has meaningful implications. It can facilitate the efficient collection of more empirical data on the social and academic achievements of students with ASD, informing evidence-based improvement of inclusive practices. It can assist in teachers’ practice to identify the diverse social and academic needs of students with ASD to align with their corresponding adjustments of teaching strategies. Copyright © 2023 by the authors.

This chapter aims to explore the novelty and utility of political economy discourse, termed “neo-statism,” as an analytical lens for comparative research in higher education. Analysis is framed within the context of Hong Kong’s transition from a British colony to a Special Administrative Region under China’s sovereignty, and its shifting academic paradigms from a more or less spontaneous philosophy rooted in liberal capitalist economy to embracing neo-statism, which involves market-conforming and state-sponsored approaches to economic and social restructuring whereby the state regulates higher education in support of national integration and global power projection. The statist regulation depends heavily on its deployment of discursive legitimacy, strategic distribution of resources, organizational synergy, and elite cohesion articulated through higher education policy, research projects, and cross-border academic exchange and cooperation. The Hong Kong case suggests that comparative research in higher education should advance from the methodological aspects of the comparative approach to exploring wider theoretical spectrum, for understanding emerging politico-economic factors shaping academic paradigm in comparative contexts. Copyright © 2024 The authors.

This article analyses the study-abroad identity of Central Asian undergraduate students in a Hong Kong university. It draws on the narrative data to explore the intercultural tensions and challenges they faced in the higher education context, as well as the impact of their study-abroad experiences on their identity-making when integrating into the receiving society. Drawing on Herzfeld’s (2005) concept of cultural intimacy, this article explains the students’ limited participation in local Hong Kong communities and their strong connection to the small, diasporic Central Asian network. It also reveals the co-existence of post-Soviet national identities and a cohesive Central Asian identity in the participants’ identity-making processes. Copyright © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.