Hong Kong is a predominantly Chinese society but just over 6 percent of the population is made up of ethnic minorities. This composition flows into schools where teachers in selected schools need to cater for a diverse school population. The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether assessment environments in Hong Kong schools are able to cater for the learning motivation of ethnic minority students as well as their Chinese peers. Students were surveyed to gain an understanding of the assessment practices they experienced as well as their own learning motivation goals. The results indicated that both Chinese and ethnic minority students experienced teacher-dominated assessment environments most often, and each group strongly endorsed learning motivation goals that stressed academic development and competence. Both groups of students provided moderate support for social learning goals, with somewhat stronger support coming from ethnic minority students. Teachers can build on ethnic minority students' strong learning orientation by providing high-quality feedback even in a teacher-dominated assessment environment. A more interactive classroom characterised by feedback may provide teachers with a better idea of the learning needs of all students.
[Copyright © 2015 NZCER Press.]

Many schools and NGOs in Hong Kong are deeply concerned with the welfare of ethnic minority students. This paper examines the experience of teachers working in schools where Chinese and non-Chinese students are accommodated. Quantitative and qualitative data respectively collected from a survey and an interview study will be reported. The survey involving 282 teachers from 10 schools explored their perceptions of teaching efficacy. The findings showed that teachers felt more confident in teaching non-Chinese than teaching Chinese students. This finding was illuminated by an interview study into teachers’ view of the cross-experience of students. 25 teachers from four schools were involved. It showed that teachers constructed the behaviour and needs of Chinese and non-Chinese students and their parents differently, in terms of social behaviour, cultural practices, gender identities, languages, and educational aspiration, and that the school, home and community were disconnected. This paper argues that to implement the ethos of equality and social justices, it is not only necessary for the school and government to develop culturally responsive approaches to teaching, but equally important to develop a connected schooling ecology where ethnic minority students and parents can be consistently supported in classroom, in school, at home and in community.

An important feature of Hong Kong's education reform over the past decade has been the articulation of the "no loser principle". This policy statement was meant to signal that all students are valuable and will benefit from both basic and senior secondary education. Yet barriers remain for the 2.9% of students under the age of 15 who can be classified as ethnic minorities. Until the 2008 Racial Discrimination Ordinance (RDO), the educational needs of these students remained an invisible issue for the school system. This article examines the policy context in which Hong Kong schools have made provisions for ethnic minority students, and reviews classroom practices that operationalize these policies on a daily basis. In an interview study involving 32 teachers' narratives of how they managed the cultural diversity of ethnic minority students in classrooms (Hue & Kennedy, 2012, 2013), it was reported that at the practical level, teachers struggle to meet the diverse needs of students and to conceptualize a new rationale for responding to cultural diversity. The implications of promoting ethnic minority education at the three levels of policy, practice and research are discussed.
[Copyright © Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia (UNED)].

Following the return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, the new government set out an ambitious programme of educational reform. Following extensive community consultation, reforms to both basic education and senior secondary education were set out and programmed over a ten year period starting in 2001. The school curriculum was the centre piece of this reform agenda with proposals for a more integrated curriculum, more engaging teaching strategies and assessment processes that focused on learning rather than testing. A new approach to senior secondary education extended six years of schooling to all students. The reform agenda was post-colonial in nature but also sought to develop a curriculum that would support Hong Kong's role in the emerging knowledge economy. The reaction of schools to this agenda has not always been supportive. Yet there is some evidence that change is being made and teaching and learning in Hong Kong schools has been affected by the reform agenda.
[Copyright © National Institute for Compilation and Translation].

There is a growing body of literature highlighting issues concerning current educational provision for ethnic minority students in Hong Kong. The popular media is also featuring these issues. In addition, the Equal Opportunities Commission has formally notified the Education Bureau of its concerns about the education of ethnic minority students. This article reviews a range of issues and concerns that have been raised regarding educational provision for ethnic minority students in Hong Kong. It particularly raises the issue of "out of school" ethnic minority children in Hong Kong. To date, most of the existing literature has been on ethnic minority students who are already in the school. Yet a careful analysis of the reports and tables published from the 2006 census data suggests that a good number of ethnic minority children are probably not in school, including pre-primary, lower secondary, upper secondary and post-secondary age groups. Despite the fact that some legislation is in place to protect the educational rights of ethnic minority children in Hong Kong, they are nevertheless facing a number of issues and challenges inside school. In addition, the fact that ethnic minority children are "out of school" raises new issues about access and equity in Hong Kong's education system.
[Copyright © Hong Kong Educational Research Association].

An important feature of Hong Kong's education reform over the past decade has been the articulation of the 'no loser principle.' It was meant to signal that all students are valuable and will benefit from both basic and senior secondary education. Yet barriers remain for the 2.9% of students under age 15 who can be classified as ethnic minorities. There is a declining participating rate as students move from primary to tertiary level, the medium of instruction remains alien to most of these students, and there are no curriculum provisions to meet their special needs. This paper will examine both the policy context in which provisions for ethnic minority students have been made in Hong Kong schools and also classroom practice that operationalises this policy on a daily basis. The purpose is to make an assessment of the extent to which the 'no loser principle' can be said to apply to ethnic minority students.
[Copyright © The Hong Kong Teachers' Centre].

Political trust provides the necessary legitimacy for political institutions and the actions they take on behalf of citizens. Political trust is especially important in democracies to sustain and build social cohesion but also to encourage citizens to work together for democratic principles. In this chapter we set out to investigate the role of schools and the contribution they can make to building political trust amongst young people. In addition, we want to focus on the use of multilevel modelling as an analytic technique that has the potential to tap results at different levels of education systems. The sample comprised 23,654 junior secondary students who had recently participated in the 2009 International Civics and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS2009). The students were selected from schools in five Asian societies, namely Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand. The schools were chosen through proportional probability sampling and students within schools came from a single intact class. The a mean age of students was 13.5 years at the time of testing within each society. Results show that schools can play a role in the development of political trust in the five societies we have studied. Within societies schools utilizing generally democratic processes and structures for student are more likely to build political trust than those that are not. Nevertheless, there is substantial difference between societies in the mechanisms through which school exerts influence on students’ political trust. Further, nuances are observed across societies in gender and parental roles. The findings reported in this chapter have provided important insights for future research in the political socialization of adolescents.

This study investigates Hong Kong primary teachers’ perceptions of moral, civic and national education, which may have an impact on how they prepare students to become ‘good citizens’ through classroom instruction. Moral and Civic Education (MCE) has been an overall goal of Hong Kong’s education system since 2001, while Moral and National Education (MNE) was proposed as a new subject in an effort to introduce a patriotic agenda in 2011. Teachers play essential roles in nurturing students to become ‘good citizens’ because they are the key figures in implementing education and curriculum policies in schools. Therefore, gaining a greater understanding of teachers’ perceptions of MNE provides insights into the extent to which teachers are prepared to contribute to the patriotic agenda as part of a revamped civic education curriculum. While there are complex factors affecting teachers’ receptivity to curriculum change, an understanding of factors that influence teachers’ perceptions of patriotic education could be valuable for school stakeholders (such as policymakers, educators and researchers), not only in Hong Kong but in other places (such as the United States and the United Kingdom), when they consider what can be done to influence students’ attitudes towards citizenship. Utilizing pilot data, this study reports Hong Kong teachers’ attitudes towards patriotic education through the proposed new school subject of MNE. The findings indicate that ‘perceived others’ support’, ‘perceived concerns of MNE’ and ‘non-monetary cost-benefits’ were the significant predictors of teacher receptivity of MNE. The results suggest that when teachers had concerns about patriotic education, they were less likely to support its implementation, while if they had the support of others they were more likely to support implementation of MNE. More importantly, teachers who perceived that patriotic education can cultivate more well-rounded students were more likely to support the implementation