To investigate music teachers' perceptions and concerns in fostering music creativity of students with intellectual disabilities, findings are presented from a study of nine music teachers purposely sampled from across all three categories (mild, medium, severe) of Hong Kong's special school for students with intellectual disabilities. Personal profiles identify respondents' displaying three professional knowledge gaps -- music expertise, special-education training and prior experience of being taught 'creativity'. Findings also indicate that respondents add to the creativity literature: first by supplementing Hargreaves' 2012. "Musical Imagination: Perception and Production, Beauty and Creativity." "Psychology of Music" 40 (5): 539-557] 'process' to include 'music making' and 'body movement', and second, that music creativity may be described as a spectrum that embraces various forms of expressions. Copyright © 2022 Routledge.

In Hong Kong, the principle of 'one curriculum framework for all' applies to all students, including students with special educational needs (SEN) (EDB 2020. "Special Education Needs." https://www.edb.gov.hk/en/curriculum-development/major-level-of-edu/special-educational-needs/index.html). Students with intellectual disabilities (ID) are expected to achieve the same learning targets as their counterparts in mainstream schools. Within this common curriculum framework, students (age 6-14) study Music with one of its overall aims 'to develop creativity' (CDC 2003. "Music Curriculum Guide" ("Primary 1 - Secondary 3"). Hong Kong: CDC, 11). This qualitative multiple case study reports a sample of nine music teachers fostering the musical creativity of students with ID. A discussion of the findings reveals that in this sampling: (1) instructional strategies focus on the process not product of musical creativity, (2) creative fostering strategies embody gamification and (3) these music teachers re-frame creativity as being innate and commonly held by their students with ID. Copyright © 2021 Routledge.

This study analyses responses (n = 309, across 94 schools) to the General Self-Efficacy Scale (Zhang and Schwarzer [1995]. "Measuring Optimistic Self-Beliefs: A Chinese Adaptation of the General Self-Efficacy Scale." Psychologia: An International Journal of Psychology in the Orient 38 (3): 174-181) from Hong Kong primary teachers of inclusive music classes. Analysis of these results sheds light on the impact that contextual reforms have on these non-core subject music teachers' practice. Respondents' perceived self-efficacy is moderate - characterised as a see-saw relationship between their personal and external domains. A possible behavioural intervention suggests professional-sharing being further enriched were current Education Bureau's in-service SEN courses to be inclusive of all primary school subjects, including music. Specific factors that underpin these respondents 'moderate' self-efficacy are identified as forming two clusters, human resource management and stress, with possible behavioural interventions for these being outlined.
[Copyright of Music Education Research is the property of Routledge.]

Responses from 309 randomly sampled Hong Kong primary school music teachers to the shortened version of the Chinese Teacher Stress Questionnaire were subjected to a descriptive percentage analysis, one-way ANOVA and independent t test. Obtained results identify five key stressors: "changing education policy of the government"; "being observed by colleague, student teachers, college tutors, inspectors or parents";"too much subject matter to teach"; "inclusive education"; and "additional administrative work". An explanation is offered identifying stressor responses being underpinned by either global or contextual issues, while others by a combination of both. Unlike other studies that found relations between stressors and respondents' individual characteristics, the results of this study uniquely display no significant statistical evidence to link music teachers' stressor response levels with age, teaching experience, education, specialization or teaching-related workload. The evidence here supports the view that stressors are neutral and reported stressor response levels reflect global or contextual factors which can be intensified by a combination of both.
[Copyright of International Journal of Music Education is the property of Sage Publications Ltd..]

It has been a decade since the implementation of Hong Kong's policy of inclusion, that mainstream schools should admit students with special educational needs (SEN). This study reports on music teachers' experiences of teaching SEN students in inclusive music classrooms. Data were derived from a qualitative multiple case study comprising10 government-funded primary school music teachers. These music teachers lack knowledge of ways to support the musical development of pupils with SEN and reported learned helplessness and effective exclusion of SEN students. The major barrier to effective inclusive music teaching evidenced is the absence of in-service training in inclusive music education.
[Copyright of Music Education Research is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14613808.2015.1044509]

Seeking to address a gap in the literature, this article reports the development of an instrument to measure Hong Kong primary school music teachers' concerns about inclusive music education. To do so, a 25-item music teachers' Concern of Inclusive Music Teaching (CIMT) scale was constructed and administered to 317 primary schools music teachers in Hong Kong, data from whom indicate that the CIMT scale comprises six concern factors ? 'learning support', 'learning difficulties', 'learning needs', 'resource', 'training' and 'curriculum design and assessment'. Although these data results do not support either Parsons and Fuller's (1974) three-factor model or hierarchical three-factor-related model, they do support a discrepancy noted elsewhere (Kazelskis and Reeves 1987; Schipull, Reeves, and Kazelskis 1995; Boz 2008; Borich 2013) that may reflect the impact of teaching context.
[Copyright of Music Education Research is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14613808.2015.1049259]

In Hong Kong, inclusive education is concerned with educating all students, including those who are categorised as having special educational needs (SEN). This qualitative study reports three challenges faced by primary schools music teachers required to implement inclusive education. The first two challenges echo those reported internationally ? the lack of subject-specific pre- and in-service SEN training and insufficient school-based SEN support for music teachers. The third challenge is the key role of a societal mindset that, by valuing SEN interventions against other educational values, justifies discriminatory training and resourcing. It is against this mindset that these teachers argue and that explains why inclusive education in Hong Kong's primary music classrooms becomes a pathway for both SEN students and their teachers to learned helplessness.; In Hong Kong, inclusive education is concerned with educating all students, including those who are categorised as having special educational needs (SEN). This qualitative study reports three challenges faced by primary schools music teachers required to implement inclusive education. The first two challenges echo those reported internationally ? the lack of subject-specific pre- and in-service SEN training and insufficient school-based SEN support for music teachers. The third challenge is the key role of a societal mindset that, by valuing SEN interventions against other educational values, justifies discriminatory training and resourcing. It is against this mindset that these teachers argue and that explains why inclusive education in Hong Kong's primary music classrooms becomes a pathway for both SEN students and their teachers to learned helplessness.
[Copyright of International Journal of Inclusive Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2015.1019374]

Why should bringing the power of music into student learning be a challenge - even more so when the class comprises students deemed in need of 'special education'? To address this question, three case studies are presented of Hong Kong special schools music teachers experienced in teaching students with intellectual disabilities at senior secondary level. Findings suggest that behind individual teacher variations to the standardised music curriculum lie not only rigid pedagogies, but also limited implementation strategies and hence mindsets of low expectations of 'special education' students' music learning. This predictive and prescriptive approach to student learning is here challenged by an alternative view that, to successfully aid 'special education' students, it is helpful if teachers reflect first on what learning is like for these students.
[Copyright of Music Education Research is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14613808.2014.906396]

This longitudinal study (2001-09) of two Hong Kong secondary schools highlights six issues with an integrated arts curriculum: first, integration of knowledge and skills negatively precedes the integration of learners' construction of meaning; second, integration is perceived as challenging the profession's status; third, teachers are unaccustomed to co-teaching; fourth, teachers have little prior experience conceptualizing cross-discipline teaching and learning; fifth, Hong Kong's current systemwide education reform places arts integration as a relatively low priority; and sixth, because integrated arts curriculum implementation is not mandatory, the vagaries of individual school management create a plethora of integration approaches that confound the task of forging a common definition. Remedial recommendations include cascading "seed projects" to broaden teachers' views of integrated arts and teaching, facilitating supportive school timetabling, and sharing integrated learning outcomes in the individual schools.
[Copyright of Arts Education Policy Review is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10632913.2012.687339 ]