This article reports the results of a case study involving two ethnic Chinese students, one from Malaysia and one from Indonesia, who chose to pursue higher education in Hong Kong. By placing the students at the centre of an investigation of the social, political, economic and educational contexts of their home countries and host territory, the study sought to gain a holistic understanding of cross-border mobility. The findings suggested that the students’ personal backgrounds and dispositions mediated the external push-pull factors involved in their decisions. The data showed that the two students’ cross-border mobility allowed them to redefine their ethnic identities and create global academic and professional identities. The implications of the purposes of cross-border mobility and methods for examining student mobility are discussed.
[Copyright © 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore.]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine gender identities of Chinese male and female middle leaders in secondary schools and how gender dynamics play in the leadership process and impact on career aspirations and career development. Design/methodology/approach – This paper draws on the data of a larger qualitative study conducted using the life history approach. Cases of four male and female middle leaders, which are able to demonstrate the “efficacy” of life stories to enhancing our appreciation of the process of gender negotiation and the impact of gender dynamics on leadership behaviour, are reported. Findings – Evidence suggests that traditional Chinese gender identities played out in the leader-follower relationships although signs of hybrid gender identities were also evident in some cases. Gender identities and the family role perception of the middle leaders have impact on their career aspirations and development. Research limitations/implications – Findings yield implications for the professional development needs of Chinese middle leaders not only regarding their professional role but also their personal understanding of how gender identities and family role perception impact on their career development. Further study with overlapping and complementary methods to a larger sample could be more illuminating to this complex and multifaceted issue. Originality value – In the context of global concerns about the shortage of leader talent, the present study illuminates gender identities and the dynamics of the interactions between Chinese superiors and subordinates of different sexes and adds perspective to the leadership development literature.
[Copyright © 2013 Emerald Group Publishing Limited.]

A wealth of literature on gender identities undertaken by western research communities shows that gender scripts have real consequences for male and female teachers' identity constructions. Social expectations and stereotyped images of men and women teachers affect teachers' gender identities as well as their professional experiences and opportunities (Biklen, 1995; Casey, 1990; Coffey & Delamont, 2000; Smedley, 2007; Tamboukou, 2000; Wayne & Blye, 2006). There has been growing research efforts into research on Chinese women primary teachers (Chan, 2004; Luk-Fong, 2010). Little published work on Hong Kong Chinese men and women secondary teachers have been found. Understanding teachers' gender identity is important because the way gender dynamics has worked to shape teachers' gender identities in their school days may field results for the students they interact with. Sabbe and Aelterman (2007), in their comprehensive review on gender in teaching, rightly spell out that 'teaching is historically and culturally imbued with multiple discourses and subjectivities of gender' (p. 529). This chapter portrays gender identity construction, negotiation and renegotiation of two Hong Kong Chinese teachers, Shuijing and Baibin, who both have been involved in painstaking struggles with their gender identities but with varied learning backgrounds. Their narratives aim to illuminate understanding of: - How the gender identities of the Hong Kong Chinese male and female teachers were negotiated and renegotiated, their varied institutional experiences, and; - Crucial elements contributing to gender identity negotiations.

Teachers have often been placed in the heart of educational reform. They are expected to play a pivotal role in the enhancement of educational quality. Various forces energize the professionalization project of teaching and there has long been advocacy that teachers should be regarded as professionals. Although literature shows that there are divided views on whether it is entirely favorable for teaching to become a 'profession', there is little disparity that teachers should uphold professionalism. While teachers as professionals may well be a conception that denotes different meanings by different people, this paper seeks to understand the conceptions of a professional teacher held by four fist year primary school teachers in Hong Kong. The paper reports the results of a study which entails three main parts. The first part is about the societal expectations of a professional teacher in Hong Kong. With reference to the profession literature, selections of key educational documents of Hong Kong were analyzed to find out the common expectations. The second part involves the analysis of the first year teachers' conceptions of what makes a professional teacher. Each of the four teachers have been followed through in the first year of teaching by four in-depth face to face interviews and at least three telephone interviews. Their conceptions of a professional teacher have been studied and analyzed in the context of their career events. The third part of the paper identifies the similarities and differences of the conceptions between those identified as the societal expectations and those held by the informants. The paper ends with a discussion on the various implications of the findings.

This paper reports a qualitative study of twelve Hong Kong beginning teachers' lived experiences in their probationary periods in the context of teacher professionalization. Teacher professionalization has been an on going project but the image of a professional teacher has been significantly re-portrayed since the 1980s, which has influenced the induction provision for the beginning teachers. Life history method, which draws on informants' critical career events, was adopted for the study. Information of the beginning teachers' professional development was analysed with reference to the new image of a professional teacher as projected in the literature and policy documents. Results of the study showed that beginning teachers' learning in the workplace was shaped by both individual and contextual factors. Essential components of helpful induction, which facilitates the development of teaching professionals, are identified.

This paper is concerned with the conceptions held by the HKIEd graduates of the certificate course in relation to the role of a professional teacher. While upgrading the professionalism of teachers is a stated policy of the SAR, the understanding of the teachers’ interpretations of their role as a professional teacher is deemed fundamental. This paper is based on data drawn from case studies of 8 graduates of the HKIEd before they started teaching in their primary schools in September 1998. It reports findings concerning the graduates’ expectations of what they should be able to do as a professional teacher and the factors that contribute to the formation of such conceptions. Informed by the perspective of symbolic interactionism, the paper relates the literature on teacher socialization and teacher development to the study of the scenario in Hong Kong. It examines the extent to which the graduates’ interpretations of the professional role of a teacher is an idiosyncratic process reflecting the differences in biography, personality and their selective interaction in the pre-service teacher education context. Implications on the structure and processes of pre-service teacher education are then discussed.
[Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

This paper presents evidence that contemporary teachers in Hong Kong are confronted with professional role diffusion. The phase of stabilization, which characterized many teachers with four to six years of teaching experience in Huberman’s (1989) study, seems to have deferred. In a life history study of four teachers with six to ten year teaching experiences, the absence of a stabilization phase was found in the professional life of the informants. It is argued that the quest of excellence and accountability in school education has contributed to a prolonged period of survival and discovery phase and a rapid recurrence of stabilized and destabilized cycle.