In the past two decades, young women's educational performance in Hong Kong has gradually improved; yet this has sparked concern over boys' "under-achievement." Despite prevalent concern, however, few academic studies have seriously considered this complex phenomenon. Inspired by feminist discussions on this topic, this chapter explores the contradictory construction of successful female leaders in an elite girls' school in Hong Kong. The discussion aims to show that the discourse and expectations of "successful girls" are similar to those in Anglophone countries and that they are intimately linked to Hong Kong's neoliberal educational reforms, middle-class oriented, and fraught with contradictions. Copyright © 2018 selection and editorial matter, Kerry J. Kennedy and John Chi-Kin Lee; individual chapters, the contributors.

Previous studies that have found changes in the teaching motivations of student teachers assumed that these changes resulted from the field experience, without actually examining whether this was indeed the case. The mixed method study described in this chapter sought to cross-sectionally compare the teaching motivations of first- and fourth-year student teachers in an initial teacher education (ITE) programme, and at relating their differences in teaching motivation to the ITE programme, particularly the field experience. In this study, 319 first-year and 460 fourth-year student teachers in Hong Kong completed a teaching motivations questionnaire, and 35 and 12 from each group, respectively, then volunteered to participate in follow-up interviews. Both year groups were high in intrinsic, altruistic, and extrinsic teaching motivations (adaptive motivation) and low in teaching as a fallback career (maladaptive) motivation, although the fourth-year student teachers had lower adaptive and higher maladaptive teaching motivations compared to the first-year students. Interview data from the fourth-year student teachers clearly revealed the importance of the field experience in shaping teaching motivations. While the reality of the heavy workload and gloomy job prospects as experienced in their field experience lowered the teaching motivations of some, their negativity can be partly offset if they have high perceived teaching competence. The implications for teaching education are discussed. Copyright © 2018 selection and editorial matter, Kerry J. Kennedy and John Chi-Kin Lee; individual chapters, the contributors.

With the economic and technological developments of Asian countries in the last two decades, nurturing individuals' capabilities for logical thinking and problem solving have become one of the major foci of secondary education. Being a core subject for developing the fundamental ability of high school students towards systematic and organized ways of thinking, mathematics is no longer a requirement only for students who are going to study science or engineering majors in university but has become a common core subject for whole-person education. In this chapter, we shall investigate the recent development of high school mathematics curricula in Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore, in coping with the change. Copyright © 2018 selection and editorial matter, Kerry J. Kennedy and John Chi-Kin Lee; individual chapters, the contributors.

Gifted education has the mission of providing a favorable learning environment and opportunities for the developmental trajectory of gifted students in quality education. In this chapter, researchers from four Asian societies share evidence on the policies, research and practices of gifted education in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. They examine current gaps and the potential for future development of gifted education by analyzing formal policy documents, administrative and research units established by the government and the education bureau or related organizations. The researchers analyze gifted education in these countries with regards to clarity, comprehensiveness, connectedness, feasibility for implementation, research-based nature, gaps in policy, practice, and research on gifted education and provide a discussion of the implications of each. Copyright © 2018 selection and editorial matter, Kerry J. Kennedy and John Chi-Kin Lee; individual chapters, the contributors.

The promotion of creativity has come to be seen as a vital component in the development of a knowledge-based globalised society, and Hong Kong, like other countries around the world, has been responding to this challenge through a raft of educational policy reforms. However, despite the last ten years of policy reforms aimed at encouraging creativity, traditional teacher-centred didactic practices still dominate. This chapter will argue that before creativity can be promoted, it is essential to understand teachers' beliefs in relation to creativity and then to establish whether these beliefs are actualized in practice. Drawing on research that was undertaken within a number of Hong Kong early childhood settings, this chapter will exemplify how it became possible to utilize a Western-orientated pedagogical framework for creative practice (PFCP). Using examples of illustrative data, the chapter will draw out the complexities that surround the interrelationship between teachers' beliefs and practice whilst also foregrounding the necessity for the development of culturally and contextually appropriate pedagogies. The chapter suggests that because creative practice is complex, changing, and developmental, more effort is needed in searching for culturally and contextually appropriate pedagogies. This may involve some fusion of Chinese and Western creative pedagogies. Copyright © 2018 selection and editorial matter, Kerry J. Kennedy and John Chi-Kin Lee; individual chapters, the contributors.