The purpose to this paper is to explore the relationship between teachers' perceived spiritual leadership and organizational commitment. A survey was conducted to collect data from a sample of 2,094 teachers from 117 primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong. Questionnaire developed by Fry et al. (2005; Fry, 2003; Karadag, 2009) was used to measure teachers' perceived spiritual leadership and spiritual survival in their schools. Eighteen items were used to measure the three factors of teachers' organizational commitment: affective commitment, continuance commitment, and normative commitment (Meyer, Allen, & Smith, 1993). The analyses were conducted using multilevel confirmatory factor analysis (MLCFA) and multilevel structural equation modeling (MLSEM). The current study has illustrated how membership and meaning/calling play a mediating role between spiritual leadership and organizational outcomes. It has shown that the influence of spiritual leadership on membership is apparently stronger at the school level than is it at the teacher level. This reflects, to an extent, the observation that qualities operate at both individual and organizational levels. It also reflects the call for all members in an organization to engage in a spiritual journey – a journey of transformation to become a less ego-centered and more other-centered person (Fry and Altman, 2013, p. 69). Copyright © 2018 Leena and Luna International, Chikusei, Japan.

Informed by research literature about intercultural competence development, this paper aims to explore non-local students’ skills and strategies in communication when they study at a university in Hong Kong. The previous research indicated that they usually experience many problems to adapt into host culture and country because they are lacking in language proficiency and social-cultural knowledge. Students’ prior learning experience, attitude, psychological or behavioural factors can affect their communication skills. In addition, different languages, dialects, accents, characters or cultural difference between their home and host cultures can also cause communication barriers to the students. This study shows that most of the non-local students, mainly the Chinese, still encounter language difficulties in communication in a Chinese society. Such difficulties are reported in studies on Gangpiaos (literally meaning Mainland Chinese drifters in Hong Kong) as well; the word “drifter” implies adaptation difficulties for Mainland Chinese immigrates. Nonetheless, existing empirical studies have been seldom tapped into non-local university students’ intercultural communication capability and how they cope with their communication difficulties in a Chinese society. The present study seeks to fill this research gap in the literature. Based on in-depth interviews with 30 non-local students who were studying in undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programmes, this paper adopted thematic analysis to examine the students’ language obstacles and identify the pattern of their communication practices in the process of intercultural adaptation in Hong Kong. Coping strategies in communication and implications for policies, which assist in young Gangpiaos in developing their intercultural communication knowledge and skills, are drawn based on the findings. Copyright © 2018 HKERA International Conference.

This paper explores the influence of friendship in mainland Chinese (MC) students’ adaptation to studying in Hong Kong. The number of MC students in Hong Kong has amounted to 18,887 in 2016, which makes it necessary for universities to cater for these students’ adaptation. Research has identified social-cultural differences between MC students and their local peers despite shared traditional Chinese cultural root. Existing studies have shown that international students can adapt to the new culture better and be more confident by making cross-cultural friends. Previous research has mainly focused on MC students’ difficulties in their adaptation, but how friendship influences their adaptation is still under-researched. This paper addresses the research questions: (1) What strategies do mainland students adopt to establish friendships during their study in Hong Kong? (2) What are the facilitating and hindering factors for mainland students to establish friendship? (3) How can friendship help mainland students adapt to their study and life in Hong Kong? A total of 24 MC university students studying in Hong Kong were interviewed. Thematic analysis was employed for data analysis. The findings show that friendship plays an important role in MC students’ adaptation to studying in Hong Kong, especially regarding daily life routines, such as how to deal with visa issues and navigate the university’s course selection system. MC students build friendships mainly through taking part in social and academic learning activities. Nonetheless, political-social conflicts between Hong Kong and Mainland China have, to a certain extent, hindered friendship establishment between MC and local students. Copyright © 2018 HKERA International Conference.

This chapter aims to construct a comprehensive framework for conceptualizing and analyzing the nature, scope, and issues of curriculum change and development so as to inform practice and policy-making. In the first part of the chapter, three important concepts, namely, globalization, localization, and individualization, are delineated and then operationalized for improving the relevancy and values of curriculum. The second part presents a new structure of curriculum effectiveness to conceptualize the complex, dynamic relationships among the various essential components of curriculum at the different stages of the teaching and learning processes. Further, some specific recommendations are proposed for studying, developing, and improving multi-level curriculum effectiveness. Finally, the chpater discusses and compares three approaches to developing teacher competence and conducting curriculum change. It is hoped that the comprehensive framework and related concepts are helpful to policy-making and curriculum change and development in Hong Kong and other parts of the world.
[Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

Towards the 21st Century, the educational environment is changing at a very rapid rate and the roles and responsibilities of teachers are becoming more complex and demanding in most parts of the world. As teachers are the key actor for education quality and school effectiveness, there is an urgent need to understand the complex nature of teacher performance and develop the necessary teacher education and development programs for them. This paper aims to report the development of a multi-dimensional framework of teacher performance and draw implications for restructuring teacher education. Traditionally, studies on teacher performance and effectiveness focused mainly on the instructional behaviors of teachers, particular at the classroom level. This simplistic conception has limitations and the findings of these studies often cannot provide comprehensive implications for improving teacher education for the new century. Based on the results of an empirical study involving 789 teachers in 99 work groups of 46 primary schools in Hong Kong, this paper developed a five-dimensional framework of teacher performance, including technical performance, human performance, political performance, cultural performance, and renewal performance. - Technical performance refers to teachers' performance in planning and organizing curricular materials, classroom management, delivering instructions and presenting materials. - Human performance refers to teachers' performance in developing human relationships, providing social supports and attending students' motivation at classroom level. - Political performance refers to teachers' performance in using social power, resolving and managing conflicts in classroom. - Cultural performance refers to teacher's performance in developing shared goals for students, transforming students' values and norms to support active learning and collaboration in classrooms. - Renewal performance refers to teacher's performance in self-learning, reflection, and