The article discusses the professionalization and vocationalization of continuing education in Hong Kong, China as a result of educational reforms. Topics include public and private sector involvement in professional and vocational education (PVE), the relation between education and occupational or job training, and the emphasis on learning outcomes assessment.
[Copyright of International Journal of Lifelong Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02601370.2013.774066]

Caring for a child with Specific Learning Disabilities or Difficulties (SLD) can be both rewarding and difficult experience; however, little is known about the experience of mothers in caregiving children with SLD in Hong Kong as well as other countries. The present study aimed at exploring the perceived health needs and ways of coping among mothers with caregiving to their children with SLD in Hong Kong via qualitative interviews. Particular interest was laid on (1) the parental experiences of caregiving to a child with SLD; (2) the sources of stress and perceived health needs among the mothers concerning caregiving; (3) the supports and utilization of available health care services by the mothers having a child with SLD; and (4) the coping strategies employed by the mothers in caring for their SLD children in daily living. This study adopted a qualitative research approach. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with nine mothers having a child with SLD. All interviews were audiotape recorded and transcribed. Content analysis with a constant comparative approach was used to analyze the interview data. During the data analysis, five categories emerged from the data collected. All nine in-depth interviews were held between December 2009 and November 2010. The research findings suggested that the stress related to the care of children with SLD was multi- faceted. A lot of difficulties in caregiving, concerns with the SLD child, negative experience with school personnels, and limited support resources were reported by the mothers in the study. The researcher also found that there were significant psychosocial impacts on the mothers due to caregiving to their children with SLD. In addition, active seeking information, acceptance and positive wishful thinking were the few coping strategies employed by the mothers to cope with the stress in caregiving. This study set out to contribute to the understanding of the stress and ways of coping among Chinese mothers

From 1997 onward, integrated education has been developing rapidly in Hong Kong. Since then, many students with physical disability (PD) were integrated into mainstream schools. In catering for the special needs of students with PD, many mainstream schools had taken steps to improve physical accessibility. However, it was generally agreed that students' needs on other aspects, such as on peer interaction and learning, were less attended to. The present study investigated the quality of school life (QSL) in students with PD in mainstream schools. The QSL model proposed by Williams and Batten (1981) was adopted. Qualitative research method was chosen. Four students who were / had been studying in mainstream schools were interviewed. The interview was in a semi-structured format. Pre-designed questions concerning the following domains of school life, including general satisfaction, teacher-student relations, social integration, opportunity, achievement and status were asked. The questions were designed based on the QSL model of Williams and Batten (1981). Data obtained was transcribed, coded, and summarized. Summaries of the four interviews were provided. Further analysis was then carried out to identify key themes and concepts from the transcriptions. Through the analysis, it was found that the participants were satisfied with their school life in general. Among the important domains mentioned in Williams and Batten's QSL model, the participants were positive towards the domains of achievement (i.e. academic results) and opportunity (i.e. relevancy of the curriculum). In the domain of social integration which focused on interaction with peers, the participants had varying experiences. Two of the participants were satisfied with their relationship with peers while the other two experienced bUllying by their non-disabled peers. Even among students who regarded their interaction with peers as satisfactory, factors that negatively affected friendship development were identified