This paper examines issues of affordability and justice using the concept of “basic structure” as developed by Iris M. Young in order to produce a more nuanced account of the Pre-primary Education Voucher Scheme. We draw on the experiences of Hong Kong mothers of different socio-economic status who have participated in the voucher scheme. The scheme aims to provide affordable quality early education by giving parents a flat-rate voucher so as to assist them in enrolling their children in non-profit local kindergartens. We base our arguments on the central premise that socially just policy requires meticulous attention to the basic structure that determines distributive patterns. We go on to argue that the basic structure is governed by institutional assumptions, rules, and practices about class, gender, and markets. Our analysis references both quantitative and qualitative data of a three-phased mixed-method study with > 1400 mothers. The key findings reveal how mothers of different socio-economic backgrounds experienced the voucher scheme where power structures and relations are legitimized, thus contributing to the structural processes that reproduce constraints and injustice. Mothers' articulation regarding the policy recommendation of free early education adds insights into the constraints they experience and a notion of collective responsibility in supporting the education of young children.
[Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.]

The research reported here investigated the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) by 15 Hong Kong preservice early childhood teachers (PSTs) who had completed a course regarding the use of ICT in early childhood settings as they participated in their first-year teaching practicum. The study examined the preservice teachers use of ICT and their ability to integrate ICT into their teaching practices. The research took place in 7 preschool settings across the Hong Kong Special Administration Region (SAR). The results indicated that preservice teachers used ICT mostly in the context of a teacher-directed approach to learning. The contexts allowed for few child-directed activities and very few child-initiated activities. Similarly, when the preservice teachers incorporated learning activities that used ICT, they initiated and directed most of the activities. The findings from this study indicate that school factors, such as school-level curriculum, ICT infrastructure, and the mentor-teacher’s teaching philosophy exerted a powerful influence on the way that preservice teachers were able to use ICT in their teaching practicum.
[Copyright © 2017 National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators.]

A lot of literature has been written about education as the transmission of cultural knowledge yet the way in which culture, as ritual action, constitutes and fosters religio-cultural ideological myth remains largely unexplored in the context of ritual pedagogies in school settings. In Hong Kong, the government had initiated an educational reform promoting the play-based child-centred approach to replace the traditional mode of teacher-centred approach aimed at meeting the changing world at the start of 21st century. However, there are great variations when these principles and approaches are implemented in classroom practice. Even though the school voucher scheme1 providing support for parents to choose kindergartens that adopt the approach has been introduced in 2006, there is no significant impact in the field of early childhood education. This study aimed to identify the extent to which how different ritual pedagogies had reflected the mythical values that the teachers held by examining the forms and practices of ritual in two early childhood classroom settings. Data was collected through observational records and interviews to examine how the mythical values of the two teachers concerned had underpinned their ritualistic practises. The findings suggested that teachers using different ritual pedagogies had reflected entirely different mythical values that they held respectively. The implication for this study is that schools should not ignore the mythical values of their teachers if they are to realise their school missions and cultural values that they cherished. The study might give insight to early childhood practitioners and policy makers on how the ritualistic practises of the teachers could make a big difference to the realisation of their ideological goals. On the academic side, light might be shed for an understanding of the puzzled gap between the traditional teaching mode and the recommended approaches.
[Copyright © 2013 Grace LAU, Kwok Keung

對於大部分中文初學者而言，學習中文的最大困難，在於漢字學習。有關漢字的學習，普遍認為有三大困難，分別是「字多難記」、「形多難寫」和「音多難讀」（謝錫金，2002）。而在香港的幼稚園，幼兒於入學後便開始進行中文識字教學，但其中部分幼稚園偏重以重複抄寫的方法幫助幼兒識字，被受爭議（幼稚園視學組，2004; 2005; 2006）。因此，香港不少家長、幼兒教師和教育學者/教育研究者，同樣關注香港幼兒語文教育中，識字課程的設計和施行情況。 針對以上種種，香港大學教育學院中文教育研究中心透過問卷的方式，向本港學前教育機構和教師進行一項有關幼兒中文教與學方法的研究調查。研究計劃的名稱為「香港學前機構中文教學研究」。是次研究共有1200名學前機構教師參與，當中研究範疇包括中文課程模式、教材、教學語言、教法、教學上遇到的困難及教師專業發展等分項。研究結果發現，香港幼兒教育需要發展一個更有系統和生活化的識字課程。而進一步的科學研究數據能夠幫助香港幼兒教師規劃更有質素的識字教學方法。另外，研究反映香港幼兒教師在不同專業發展領域尚有待提升，包括有效的識字教學法、學前兒童學習理論等。學界有必要增加幼兒師資培訓與進修的資源與空間。
[Copyright © 2013 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

Initially developed from policies implemented under British rule, the integrated programme for children with disabilities has not been widely publicised in the context of early childhood education in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). Local communities have responded differently to the integrated programme implemented in mainstream kindergarten-cum-child care centres (Kg-cum-CCCs), which serve children from 2 to 6 years old. This study focuses on the perceived benefits and challenges of the integrated programme implemented in mainstream Kg-cum-CCCs. Thirty stakeholders (18 school personnel and 12 parents of children with and without disabilities) from six integrated Kg-cum-CCCs took part in a series of semi-structured in-depth interviews, providing a comprehensive database for this study. The data were analysed with reference to previous studies on the integrated programme for children with disabilities in the context of the current educational experience in the HKSAR. The findings indicate that the stakeholders believe that the integrated programme can benefit children with and without disabilities, but that it can also cause challenges for these children. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.
[Copyright © 2017 TACTYC.]

香港在過去十數年的教改推動下，幼教課室亦走向多元化教學。這情況有助配合幼教多元化的文化及宗教觀的發展。事實上，特區政府的課程改革檔也確立了宗教文化的靈性向度在教育上的意義和訊息。筆者現嘗試引用佛教思想於幼兒教育上的實踐並在理念上作出研究分析，期待以拋磚引玉的精神踏出第一步，讓香港的幼教界朋友展開一個在多元文化的融和社會下的宗教教學法研究的平臺。
[Copyright © 2013 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

The physical, social and temporal dimensions of the classroom environment have an important role in children's learning. This study examines the level of support for child-centred learning, and its associated beliefs, that is provided by Hong Kong's pre-service early childhood teachers. Two hundred and seventy-five students from a pre-service early childhood teacher training programme completed a questionnaire; in general, these students believed that teachers should create physical, social and temporal environments which are child-centred in early childhood education settings. Linear regression analyses showed that the students' perceived importance of fostering children's social and communication competence in early childhood programmes, and their belief in children's competence in self-learning, were significant positive correlates of their level of support for all dimensions of child-centred learning environment. Their self-perceived competence in managing children's behaviours was, however, a significant negative correlate of their level of support for child-centred social and temporal environment. This study then discusses the implications of these findings for pre-service early childhood teacher education.

This paper seeks to question what impact education vouchers have on the process of school choice. The context examined in the paper is the Pre-primary Education Voucher Scheme ('Voucher Scheme') introduced in 2007 in Hong Kong. Using a Straussian grounded theory method, data collected from 40 parent interviews are coded, analysed and developed into categories. The paper analytically situates the findings within a model, derived from the data, which is based on two properties: orientation and time. Orientation differentiates and emphasises the significance of choice factors in relation to the school versus the family, and time is related to focus on the present versus the future. The paper subsequently presents the data related to these properties and reflects on the intricate dynamic of parents' school choice decisions under the Voucher Scheme.
[© 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group]

The English and Chinese reading proficiency of 1376 Grade 4 students in 24 Hong Kong primary schools were assessed using measures developed for the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study. Students' parents provided information about home reading activities (HRA) aimed at supporting their children's reading prior to them entering school ("early home reading activities", EHRA) and during Grade 4 ("home reading activities"). Results indicated that EHRA was a stronger predictor of reading performance in both Chinese and English than HRA. Moreover, 'typical' HRA such as reading books, telling stories and singing songs were found to be predictive of reading performance in both Chinese and English. In English, in addition, playing word games or character puzzles were also activities beneficial to reading performance. Together, these results provide evidence for the beneficial effects of traditional early childhood activities at home such as book reading, telling stories and singing songs for reading performance in later primary school in children's first as well as second language.
[© Australian Council for Educational Research 2017]

This paper explores the concept of miniature students to interrogate the ways in which early childhood care and education systems in East Asian countries are being constructed. Experiences drawn from working in the Hong Kong education system and observations of teaching and researching in Hong Kong have enabled an analysis about the ways in which young children are conceptualized, normalized, and governed from the beginning of preschool. The purpose of the analysis presented is not to create an alternative grand narrative of childhood or studenthood, but rather to explicate the ways in which young children are being shaped into miniature students from the beginning of their (in)formal educational experiences. A post-structuralist lens is used to explore the ways in which this concept has become manifested within the context of a privatized system, regulated by government and supported by new forms of funding to increase participation. Going beyond the geopolitical space of Asia, the making of miniature students can also be observed in many other countries in which governments focus on 'rigorous' assessment schemes or systems that are considered to result in improved high stakes test scores. The making of miniature students is perpetuated by a drive by governments toward narrow education outcomes.
[International Journal of Early Childhood is a copyright of Springer, 2017]