Informed by the perspective of complexity theory, this study seeks to explore two English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) teacher educators' expertise in Hong Kong. Drawing on data from interviews, field observation, and informal communication over one academic year, the study revealed that the teacher educators' expertise entailed different components: 1) a dialogic teaching approach informed by research-based and contextualized knowledge; 2) emotional intelligence for maintaining personal emotional wellbeing and channeling emotions for effective teaching; 3) a reflective and agentive mindset for continuous learning; as well as 4) willingness and capacity to promote and distribute expertise in multiple communities. The participants' expertise functioned and transformed through their continuing engagement in different forms of teacher education practice, influenced by their personal beliefs and situated contexts. The study concludes with practical implications for language teacher educators on how to develop their expertise as a complex, adaptive, and evolving system in daily practice. Copyright ©2021 Wiley.

The inclusion of all learners in mainstream classrooms is an objective for schools internationally. The aim of this study was to test the psychometric properties of the newly developed Inclusive Practices Scale (IPS) to determine if the intention to use inclusive practices could be predicted from participants' atti-tudes and efficacy scores. Participants included 390 pre-service educators from four countries (Australia, India, Canada, and Hong Kong). Results suggest that the IPS is both a reliable and valid instrument, with teaching efficacy the strongest predictor of inclusive practice intentions. The IPS could be a meaningful tool in determining pre-service and in-service educators' intentions to use inclusive practices. Crown Copyright © 2021 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

This paper addresses university teachers' conceptions and articulation of teacher care as informed by their teaching practice within the Hong Kong university context. The research is predicated upon the perspectives of caring university teachers identified through a systematic process of reputational-case selection, and their narrations analyzed by thematic analysis. Three overarching themes, 'humanitarian caring whole-person education', 'student-centred caring teaching' and 'invisible caring acts', were identified. Based on the overarching themes, we propose a model of 'caring pedagogy of student-centredness and invisible care'. This study contributes to enriching the existing literature on teacher care and caring pedagogy from university teachers' perspectives. We advocate the integration of care into pedagogy, whilst university administrators could provide more institutional support for practising caring pedagogy for the benefits of our students. Copyright ©2021 Springer.

By innovatively applying positioning theory with reference to a framework of willingness, capability and power, this study explored how pre-service teachers' professional identities dynamically change through the negotiation of various positions. A qualitative approach was adopted using data from six Hong Kong pre-service teachers in a teacher education programme for teaching Chinese as a second language. Multiple data sources, including interviews, reflective journals, classroom observations and lesson plans, were collected over one year. Pre-service teachers were found to negotiate individual deliberated self-positionings before entering the education programme and forced self-positionings from significant others during the education programme in three key stages: pre-positioning, negotiated positioning and performed positioning. Three differentiated positioning trajectories were identified that were greatly influenced by the pre-service teachers' levels of willingness, capability and power. Copyright ©2021 Routledge.

Drawing upon the Triadic Reciprocity Framework, this longitudinal qualitative multiple-case study examined how three Hong Kong secondary English as a second language (ESL) teachers exercised their teacher agency to take control of their teaching and professional development. More specifically, the study aimed at exploring how teachers' intentions and actions for the establishment of their professional identity were afforded and constrained by their workplaces. Findings reveal that these ESL teachers exercised different degrees of proactive, reactive, and passive agency. The four properties of human agency, i.e., intentionality, forethought, self-reactiveness, and self-reflectiveness, influenced the teachers' proactive, reactive, and passive agency when they responded to personal, behavioral, and environmental determinants. The findings shed light on a three-layered Triadic Reciprocity framework on teacher agency and contributes to a systematic and comprehensive discussion about the various internal and external factors that might exert influences on agency of early career teachers. This study offers pedagogical implications for school teachers, school leaders, and policy makers in Hong Kong and beyond. Copyright ©2021 Frontiers Media SA.

Beginning teaching is challenging during normal circumstances. Yet, in the summer of 2020, the newly qualified teachers (NQTs) from initial teacher education (ITE) programmes in Hong Kong, as well as many other global contexts, entered schools that were severely disrupted by COVID-19. This qualitative study, through the use of a qualitative online survey, explored the sense of preparedness and first-semester experiences of one cohort of NQTs who graduated from an ITE programme in Hong Kong in the summer of 2020. Findings suggest that the disruptions to their programme and teaching role fundamentally affected their sense of preparedness and defined their first-year experience. Specifically, the NQTs did not feel practically or psychologically prepared to teach online using digital technologies. However, some NQTs reported positive school-based practices that aided their transition. Based on the study's findings, professional digital competence beginning teachers require for online teaching environments, as well as recommendations for ways ITE programmes can help develop this competence, are provided. Copyright ©2021 Routledge.

A long-neglected sector in education, early childhood education (ECE) in Hong Kong has generated much attention in recent years following the government's heavy promotion as laying the foundation for lifelong learning and all-round development. Enhancing 'teacher professionalism' by raising qualifications and remuneration is seen as a vehicle to achieve quality ECE. While the once lowly perceived occupation is now 'in fashion' among college applicants, little is known about how prospective teachers view ECE teachers' professionalism in Hong Kong. This study explored the views of 175 Hong Kong pre-service ECE teachers from 7 teacher education institutions using self-administered, open-ended survey questionnaires. The results showed that the pre-service ECE teachers generally described Hong Kong ECE teachers positively and viewed them as professionals. However, they also revealed a sharp dissonance between the participants' own perception and society's perception of the professionalism of ECE teachers due to the different emphases they used to define professionalism when shifting their perspectives. The results reflect a generally pessimistic view of the pre-service teachers on teaching in ECE as a career. Implications and suggestions for government policies, ECE teacher training, and research are discussed. Copyright ©2021 Routledge.

The Government of India’s National Policy of Education 2020 stipulates that in the following five years all stand-alone teacher education colleges will be required to convert to multidisciplinary higher education institutions. This calls for a complete overhaul of the country’s vast, diverse, and age-old system of teacher preparation. Evidence-based policy implementation is thus the need of the hour. This chapter attempts to aid the process by presenting insights from a comparative education research on pre-service teacher education (PSTE) of secondary school teachers at stand-alone teacher education institutions (TEIs) in the Indian city of Mumbai and university-based teacher education in the Chinese city of Hong Kong. Documentary sources, field visits, and 57 interviews form the basis of the findings. The dimensions for comparison include academic freedom and autonomy; pathways to PSTE; linkages of teacher education providers; and role and working conditions of teacher educators. The chapter deduces the core differences in teacher education at stand-alone TEIs vis-à-vis that at a university and draws out implications of shutting down the former. It concludes by laying down a road map for the effective universitization of teacher education in India that will result in genuinely improving teacher quality. Copyright © 2021 Emerald Group Publishing Limited

The purpose of this article is to explore the influence of a customized continuing professional development (PE-CPD) programme on PE teachers’ perceived physical literacy and efficacy beliefs in Hong Kong. Individual and focus group interviews were conducted to gain an in-depth understanding of the participants’ CPD experiences and to explore the programme’s influence on their perceived physical literacy and efficacy beliefs. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the interview data. Results revealed that all participants underwent certain immediate and intermediate changes in relation to their self-perceptions of physical literacy and teaching efficacy while completing the customised PE-CPD programme. It was concluded that stakeholders should address the importance of developing teachers’ physical literacy and self-efficacy through similar programmes, in order to provide quality physical education (QPE) in school curricula and in turn enhance students’ physical literacy. Copyright © 2021 Springer Nature B.V.

STEM education is an important approach for preparing students for a competitive workforce with essential skills in the 21st century. However, successfully implementing STEM education in primary and secondary schools presents a variety of challenges. The study suggests that a neglected challenge in the literature is how to sustain teachers’ positive emotions toward STEM educational work, which may cause teachers to be more engaged in, motived by, and committed to STEM education. Therefore, the study aims to contribute to the literature by investigating the mechanism of the construction and suitability of teachers’ emotions toward STEM educational work based on a single case study conducted in Hong Kong from the social constructionist perspective. The major findings of the study indicate that (1) positive emotions toward STEM educational work may be constructed by the teacher’s positive interpretation of the work, i.e., STEM educational work as the facilitator of students’ overall development and that (2) positive emotions toward STEM educational work may be sustained by enabling school institutions to have the elements of shared power, administrative support, and the value of a whole-person education. Copyright © 2021 MDPI AG