Service users' and carers' involvement in health and social care education has become a mainstream activity in Britain. However, members from black and minority ethnic communities (BME) remain under-represented in this area of participation. In this article, we will take the readers across the globe to explore the difficulties and opportunities of engaging such an under-represented group, the Chinese community. The journey will begin in Britain where barriers to engagement of service users and carers from the Chinese community will be discussed. We will then travel to Hong Kong, a cosmopolitan city, where successful engagement in work with Chinese service users and carers will be explored. Throughout the journey, we will highlight the importance of the consideration of cultural factors, particularly Confucian beliefs such as social harmony and collectivism, when working with Chinese people. We will also fully explore the issue of 'trust' as a culturally laden concept in Chinese societies and its significance for successful engagement in work with Chinese service users and carers in different parts of the world.
[Copyright of Roeper Review is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2010.491542]

The teaching of values has seen renewed interest, as educators, policymakers and parents seek ways of increasing peaceful coexistence for children in a conflict-driven world. Education systems are again reviewing values as part of their core mission. Confucian values form the core of most Asian cultures, penetrating different levels of social life, and also set the standards for most families, communities and political behaviour. The research reported in this study set out to examine young children's expressed views of Confucian values represented in traditional stories of four Chinese festivals. Within this research, Confucian values were centred on five virtues: Ren (benevolence), Yi (righteousness), Li (courteousness), Xiao (filial piety), and Zhi (wisdom). The four selected Chinese festivals were: (1) Chinese New Year, (2) Dragon Boat festival, (3) Chung Yeung festival, and (4) Mid-Autumn festival. Participants included 392 children aged four to five years from 29 kindergartens or nursery schools and 57 pre-service early childhood teachers in Hong Kong. Results showed that the values of Ren (benevolence) and Yi (righteousness) were the most popular responses among local young children, while the value of Li (courteousness) tended to be the least popular category. Some implications for curriculum planning in early childhood education are discussed arising from the study findings.
[Copyright of Roeper Review is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03004430903357837]

This paper reports on two tutors' efforts to foster reflective learning in the context of a business synoptic module delivered as part of a programme of collaborative provision at City University of Hong Kong. In assessing what the design and implementation of processes aimed at fostering reflective learning have accomplished, evaluatory evidence of students' work suggests that Hong Kong Chinese learners are as capable as Western students to adapt to modes of learning and assessment requiring a reflective, deep learning approach.
[Copyright of Roeper Review is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2011.564013]

This paper argues that the concepts, beliefs and understandings of local and non-local teacher educators in a Hong Kong university are grounded in their own cultural cognition and antecedents. It presents the viewpoint that contemporary notions of good practice were compromised when applied to a context that is strongly influenced by the tenets of Confucianism. Thus the conclusion is that the contingencies of teaching and learning contexts are sufficiently different to compromise the goal of having pre-constructed notions of good teaching. The alternative is that university tutors and future researchers re-conceptualise good teaching practices within a context that gives it meaning and purpose.
[Copyright of Journal of Education for Teaching is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2010.497395]