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.

This study examined the relationships between professional learning communities (PLCs), principal leadership practices and teacher commitment to kindergartens among 2,120 educators from 153 Hong Kong kindergartens. The relationships were analyzed at both school and teacher levels using multilevel structural equation modeling. The result showed that at both levels, leadership practices promoted PLCs and exerted an indirect effect on teacher commitment through collaborative activities. Moreover, an indirect effect through reflective dialogue and a direct effect of leadership practices on teacher commitment were found at the teacher level. In contrast, the mediating effects of collective focus on student learning were insignificant at both levels. ECE principals are encouraged to introduce PLCs to promote teacher learning and commitment in the time of reforms. Copyright © 2020 All Academic, Inc.

With the increasing concern in school teachers’ well-being and growing focus on the early childhood education sector in recent years, the present study explored the factors that contribute to the psychological well-being of kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong. Based on a sample of 459 kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong, the authors demonstrated that teachers’ psychological well-being was strongly determined by their self-belief, which were contributed by their relationship with colleagues, and their positivity in attitude towards life and work. The authors further demonstrated that teachers’ self-belief was influenced by their perception of the school culture. Implications for establishing a positive attitude in kindergarten teachers and enhancing their psychological well-being were discussed. Copyright © 2021 The International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS) and Springer Nature B.V.

At present, there is a growing concern about cultivating virtue among youngsters in Hong Kong. Although moral and character education have been put on the education agenda, it is important to ensure that teachers have sufficient efficacy in moral and character education. Unfortunately, limited empirical evidence for this has been found within the Hong Kong context. Using a sample of 647 moral and character education teachers from 21 secondary schools in Hong Kong, this study examined teacher self-efficacy and its relations with teacher engagement and teacher emotional labour. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to assess the construct validity of each scale. Structural equation modelling was used to test the theoretical model, indicating a good model fit. The strongest predictor of teacher efficacy for moral education was teachers’ personal teaching efficacy. The findings are discussed with implications for future practice and research. Copyright © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Purpose: This study aims to understand of the role that teacher entrepreneurial behavior plays in developing teacher professional capital. The extant concepts around school leadership mostly encompass the transformative and instructional roles of school leaders in managing, mobilizing and supporting teachers for student achievement. However, school leadership has not focused strongly on promoting innovation and risk-taking for schools in a knowledge economy. As a timely promising response to the increasingly demanding and competitive school context, teacher entrepreneurial behaviour (TEB), which emphasizes teachers' willingness to take risks and be daring, has started to gain recognition in the school leadership literature, yet a nuanced understanding of TEB's potential impacts on schools is lacking.Design/methodology/approach: Based on a combined consideration of institutionalized recognition and expert judgement, this study identified three innovative entrepreneurial teachers/teacher groups that had won the most competitive teaching award in Hong Kong. Employing a multiple-site case study design, this study conducted semi-structured interviews with 23 informants and collected supplementary school documents and records.Findings: This study found that TEB enables the implementation of innovation and promotes cross-subject alignment. It cultivates trusting and coherent relationships among teachers. Teachers with TEB scaled up innovation among other teachers. Furthermore, entrepreneurial teachers enhance school attractiveness by creating competitive advantages.Originality/value: This analysis showed that TEB enables formal and informal school leaders to bring forth critical school outcomes. This study elaborates how TEB enhances teachers' professional capital through building trusting and coherent relationships. It also adds to the research on school innovation by demonstrating that TEB fosters teachers' capacity for bottom-up innovation in the community. Copyright © 2020

This article highlights findings from a case study research investigating factors that foster the academic achievement of community college students in Hong Kong. Data was collected from in-depth interviews with six community college students in a middle-sized, self-funded community college. The findings illustrate nuanced facets of teacher care that are conducive to students’ academic and personal development, including (i) teachers as important transmitters of knowledge; (ii) teachers as care-givers; (iii) pedagogical care; (iv) teachers as advice-givers, and (v) teachers as role models. The research has practical implications for practices within community colleges and teacher training in the sub-degree sector. Copyright © 2019 NAPCE

In Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) programmes, students are expected to master content knowledge and language simultaneously. The worldwide popularity of this kind of programme has called for professional development, particularly for content subject teachers who have to shoulder some responsibilities of language teaching in CLIL. There have been several frameworks or proposals for professional development of CLIL teachers. Yet, empirical studies investigating the effectiveness of CLIL professional development programmes remain scarce. This gap is particularly important, since the relationship between professional development and teacher change is complicated and there are various factors affecting whether and how teacher would change. This study implemented a 6-month professional development programme for a group of content subject teachers in CLIL in Hong Kong. With data gathered with questionnaires, interviews, lesson observations and post-lesson reflections, this paper reports the trajectory of three case teachers who seemed to experience different degrees of changes in beliefs and language awareness. These differences could be explained by the influence of such factors as school context, learning experience and subject discipline. This study yields important implications for teacher education in CLIL and teacher change.
[Copyright of International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism is the property of Routledge.]

This study examined the relationships between teachers' perceptions of faculty trust, professional learning communities, and their professional learning among a sample of 2106 Hong Kong kindergarten teachers. It analysed the differences between the effects of faculty trust in various stakeholders (i.e., colleagues, parents, and the principal). The results show that while trust in colleagues exerted a positive effect on teacher professional learning, the direct effects of trust in the principal and trust in parents were non-significant. Meanwhile, professional learning communities positively mediated the effects of teachers' perceived faculty trust on their learning. Implications for teacher learning in kindergartens are presented.
[Copyright of Teaching & Teacher Education is the property of Elsevier Ltd.]

Research suggests that teachers’ self-efficacy improves student learning and academic achievement (Caprara, Barnabelli, Steca, & Malone, 2006; Woolfolk, Hoy, & Davis, 2006) by enhancing students’ sense of efficacy (Lin, Gorrell, & Taylor, 2002) and strengthening their motivation to learn (Midgley, Feldlaufer, & Eccles, 1989). Within the context of citizenship education (CE), teachers’ self-efficacy generates many benefits, which take on different meanings. Recently, many youth in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea have been become radically active citizens. The question remains as to what roles schools and teachers play in students’ political socialization. Combining ICCS 2009 teacher and student data, this study is to examine on teacher self “efficacy have affected student civic learning, participation in school activities and intention to participation in future among these countries. According to the primarily findings, in Hong Kong, teachers’ participation in school governance has affected students’ civic knowledge; gender has affected students’ civic participation in the wider community and students’ expected adult participation in political activities, and teachers’ perceptions of social problems at school have affected on students’ expected adult electoral participation. In Taiwan, teacher self-efficacy has not affected student civic learning, participation in school activities and intention to participation in future. In Korea, teachers’ perceptions of students’ activities in the community have affected on students’ civic knowledge. Teachers’ perceptions of social problems at school have affected students’ participation in school activities. Copyright © 2017 13th citized International Conference.