Minoritised students with dis/abilities in Hong Kong may face aggregated challenges. As a minoritised student with dis/ability or impairment, they may be doubly marginalised or triply marginalised, as in the case of a female or poor minoritised student with dis/ability or impairment. Little is known, however, about these students or about the underpinning philosophies of existing support. Adopting an intersectionality approach and dis/ability critical race theory (DisCrit), this paper explores the educational provision and existing support measures for minoritised students with dis/abilities and the issues and challenges faced by them. It draws on various policy documents from related government departments and others. The paper presents three theoretical arguments: (1) that dis/ability discourse needs to be more inclusive; (2) that the medical model currently provides limited support for minoritised students with dis/abilities in Hong Kong; and (3) that a social model, rather than the current medical model would provide inclusive support. Copyright © 2022 Routledge.

Trees are living organisms that are subject to attack by decay or disease-causing natural enemies as well as weather adversities and long-term climate change in the course of their life span. When they suffer from these intrusions or extensive damage by typhoons, they often express visible symptoms, which may be structural or physiological. Initiated by a group of scholars at The Education University of Hong Kong, with the involvement of student-teachers as well as teachers and students in primary and secondary schools, a project, “Life Education and Citizen Science through Tree Protection and Conservation”, was launched with the objectives of caring, respecting and acting for our nature from preserving trees and enhancing citizens’ contribution to protecting the environment. The initial project experiences revealed that students acquired knowledge and skills in tree assessment and also cultivated positive attitudes towards tree conservation, which are relevant to the balanced development of knowledge, skills, values and attitudes in this new century. Copyright © 2023 selection and editorial matter, Kerry J. Kennedy, Margarita Pavlova and John Chi-Kin Lee; individual chapters, the contributors.

Life education, originating in the West, has been an increasingly important source of moral and values education in the Greater China region. Life education, to some extent, is linked with different kinds of values education that encompasses moral and citizenship education, environmental education as well as religious and spiritual education. In the 21st century, life education could also be complementary to positive education that is related to the development of positive (life) values and the pursuit of well-being. Life education also echoes with health education under the impact of COVID-19 along with life and planning education including life-long learning perspectives. This chapter explores the theoretical and practical connections between life education, positive education and other values education and proposes an integrated and holistic approach to curriculum development for the context of Hong Kong. Copyright © 2023 selection and editorial matter, Kerry J. Kennedy, Margarita Pavlova and John Chi-Kin Lee; individual chapters, the contributors.

Unprecedented developments in communication and technology have resulted in numerous opportunities for personal and professional contact. The emerging trend of actual and virtual spaces for professional engagement demands that younger generations be equipped with values and skills that govern their everyday interactions with people from diverse backgrounds. Although determining the role of education in preparing future generations should be straightforward, devising inclusive education and supporting students with diverse educational needs in schools is demanding. This chapter investigates the intersection of inclusive education, soft skills and hard values and situates the discussion in the educational context of Hong Kong. It identifies the issues and challenges of inclusion in Hong Kong’s education system and underscores the lack of focus on soft skills and values in education. It then proposes ways to cultivate soft skills and values among students and teachers to promote inclusive education in the city. In addition, this chapter highlights possible ways that schools can prepare students with special educational needs for a competitive working environment and offer equal learning opportunities for all students. Copyright © 2023 selection and editorial matter, Kerry J. Kennedy, Margarita Pavlova and John Chi-Kin Lee; individual chapters, the contributors.

This chapter firstly provides a brief historical overview on the transformation of religious education in Hong Kong. Throughout the British colonial era to China's resumption of sovereignty, the role of religion has been largely overlooked in the making of Hong Kong society, with religious education being a marginal academic subject in the formal school curriculum. Nevertheless, this chapter highlights the importance of religious education in Hong Kong society. The importance of the subject matter has been increasingly recognized given its intrinsic value in empowering students' resilience in coping with life challenges and depressing social environments. These are not outcomes that can be provided by the core academic subjects. Lastly, by considering the case of an increasing demand for Islamic education externally and internally, this chapter concludes with a new scenario setting an alternative aspiration for spirituality and religious education in Hong Kong's future. Copyright © 2021 selection and editorial matter, Kerry J. Kennedy and John Chi-Kin Lee; individual chapters, the contributors.

Citizenship education has been implemented in Hong Kong primary schools in the name of moral, civic and national education (MCNE). In the context of the backdrop that schools have been granted autonomy for implementation, this chapter explores teachers' perceptions of the implementation of MCNE in Hong Kong primary schools. The findings indicate that Hong Kong teachers in general hold an eclectic attitude towards MCNE. With these prevailing attitudes, MCNE was loosely defined and flexibly implemented. Although the whole-school permeation approach was considered ineffective, teachers did not support MCNE as an independent subject due to an overcrowded curriculum and assessment issues. Some teachers illustrated that the issues that arose in the implementation of MCNE were related to time and resources, the marginalization of MCNE, professional development training, and a contradiction between the teachings of schools and parents. Despite the many issues that have arisen in the implementation of MCNE, the findings suggested MCNE could be taught through history (including Chinese history) which could help strengthen students' knowledge of the world community and the country, and prepare students to live in the complex real world. Copyright © 2021 selection and editorial matter, Kerry J. Kennedy; individual chapters, the contributors.

Most research concerned with students' civic learning has focused on what has been learnt as a result of their school experiences. While some attention has been paid to the influence of parents, peers and out-of-school experiences, in general these influences have been regarded as marginal to those provided by the official curriculum. While we do not underestimate the importance of these latter experiences, our focus in this chapter is on informal learning and its impact on the development of student's civic knowledge. Student samples from Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan were drawn from the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) 2016. Informal learning was defined in the study reported here as “traditional media,” “social media” and “interaction with friends.” Structural equation modelling was used to test the relationship between informal learning, formal learning, citizenship self-efficacy, participation experiences and civic knowledge. Results indicated that traditional media exerted a positive effect on students' civic learning across the three societies; social media exerted a small but negative effect in all societies, though the effect was not significant in Korea. Talking with friends about social and political issues or about other countries, as a source of informal civic learning, did not affect students' civic knowledge in any significant way in any society. Copyright © 2020 selection and editorial matter, Javier Calvo de Mora and Kerry J. Kennedy; individual chapters, the contributors.

Empirical evidence of Asian students' traditional citizenship values was provided in the Asian Regional Module (ARM) of the International Civic and Citizenship Study. This paper is based on a secondary analysis of the ARM data. Three issues are addressed. First, a theoretical analysis of the ARM constructs contributes to their construct validity. Second, the endorsement of these constructs by students from five Asian societies is compared indicating that some of the differences between societies were statistically significant, although effect sizes were generally weak or moderate. Third, the predictive validity of the constructs was examined. They had a small but differential effect on students' civic knowledge and a generally negligible effect on school participation. Variance at school and individual level accounted for by the ARM constructs differed across societies. The implications of these results for civic education and future research in the field are discussed.
[Copyright of Educational Psychology is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2013.775003]

Presently, there are a growing number of ethnic minority students in Hong Kong schools. This article examines teachers' views of the cross-cultural experience of ethnic minority students, their influence on the performance of these students, and how the diverse learning needs of these students are being addressed. Qualitative data were collected from semi-structured interviews with 32 teachers from three secondary schools. This study shows that teachers struggle to conceptualize a new rationale for responding to cultural diversity. They develop a sense of intercultural sensitivity, promote cultural responsiveness to diversity, and strengthen the home–school connection. This article argues that, like students, teachers simultaneously engage in a cross-cultural process through which they learn the culture of ethnic minority students, relearn their own culture and reexamine the relevant rationale underlying cultural responsiveness. Finally, a framework for the creation of culturally responsive classrooms, based upon the teachers' new rationale of cultural responsiveness, is proposed.
[Copyright of Intercultural Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14675986.2012.686021]