This study set out to use phenomenography as a theoretical framework to investigate teaching in classrooms, focusing on how the same object of learning was enacted differently in different teaching activities. We observed in person teaching activities intended to teach children to recognize Chinese characters (i.e. the object of learning) in Hong Kong preschools. Classroom observational data such as the delivery of the teaching activities and the conversation between teacher and children were used as the main data source. Three categories of teaching activities were identified from the data, which correspondingly reflected three ways of seeing the recognition of characters: (A) recognition as matching items, (B) recognition as imitating behaviors, and (C) recognition as constructing meanings. The results of this study were useful for fostering the professional learning of preschool teachers in practical ways. As teacher educators, we were particularly interested in the learning of teachers; thereby in the study we chose to investigate teaching from the perspective of learning to teach. We assumed that the ways teachers acted in enacting the object of learning reflected how they saw the object of learning. We hope to foster more discussion and in turn contribute to the methodology of phenomenography.

The enactment of the revised School Places Allocation Systems at the compulsory stage in 2004 had the aim of desegregating Hong Kong's non-Chinese linguistic minority (NCLM) students by including them into ethnic Chinese-dominated mainstream primary and secondary schools. Because of the presumed cause-consequence relationship between desegregated school participation and academic achievement, in specific second language Chinese (CSL) acquisition, the challenges that such students face in participating in mainstream education and learning Chinese, no doubt, deserve to be examined. This qualitative study conducted in-depth interviews with 18 secondary students of South Asian/Southeast Asian minority backgrounds enrolled in mainstream schools. Drawing on both cultural and institutional paradigms of explanation for educational achievement, we argue that the reasons inhibiting the minority students' academic involvement are not simply their linguistic challenges but also the institutional constraints in the mainstream education system unique to this population. This study calls for a shift in school desegregation arrangement from one focusing narrowly on physical desegregation to a more comprehensive set of policies that embrace the institutional factors including teacher expectation, resource availability, and bilingual support, crucial to reduce racial differences in achievement.

This chapter adopts a cultural perspective to report on a study of teaching and learning early Chinese literacy for young children in one Hong Kong kindergarten. Instead of viewing literacy education as a neutral and standardised cultural process across Chinese speaking communities, I draw on a Sinophone perspective and post-colonialism to investigate how the linguistic dissonance and cultural hybridity of Hong Kong influences teaching practices in one local kindergarten.
[Copyright © 2017 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore.]

自1896年梁啟超在《時務報》上發表〈沈氏音書序〉一文正式揭開“國語運動”的序幕，而“大眾語”亦逐步成為中國語文教育的統一用語。在1997年香港回歸後，官方和民間要求仿效國家政策——以普通話取代粵方言進行課堂教學。現時在教育局的推動下，已有不少本港學校，在推行“以普通話教中文”（下稱“普教中”）的學習安排。在政策檔中，教育局官員強調“普教中”能做到“我手寫我心”，有助學生增強其中文書寫能力。且在中文科以普通話授課，將令學生有較多時間接觸普通話，有助提供語境，讓學生多說多聽普通話，從而提升普通話聽說能力。從教師口中得悉，家長對上述政策甚表歡迎，認為“普教中”能提升學生的語文能力，對趕上國家發展勢頭、增加未來的競爭力有莫大幫助。本文將會探討“普教中”政策的實施，並參考有關政策移植的比較教育研究，從而分析“普教中”在香港教育環境實施的成效和限制。