This paper argues that the planned introduction of visual literacy into the New Secondary School Curriculum can play a crucial role in enabling students to think critically and creatively in Hong Kong's highly visual landscape. As Hong Kong's educational system remains entrenched in long-established and conventional pedagogies, the primacy given to the written word is in sharp contrast with the pragmatic roles that visual images play in students' day-to-day life. Hong Kong is well-known for its extremely high level of Internet / broadband penetration and media saturation, yet visual literacy is still in a state of infancy in Hong Kong. Therefore, from a curricular standpoint, as Hong Kong society relies to a greater degree than ever before on visual communication strategies, it is vital that visual literacy be integrated as part of the new curriculum under the current educational reforms. As contemporary Hong Kong culture becomes increasingly dependent on the visual environment, developing visual literacy to enhance students' learning can be an important step in the future towards a more successful implementation and development of the New Secondary School Curriculum.
[Copyright of Asia Pacific Journal of Education is the property of Routledge]

The present study aims to map the life satisfaction of adolescents from ethnic minority/immigrant backgrounds in schools with high concentrations of co-ethnic peers by comparing them with their mainstream counterparts in Hong Kong. The life satisfaction of 1,522 students was measured by the validated Multidimensional Students' Life Satisfaction Scale. Tests of invariance were conducted followed by latent mean analysis. In contrast to the public debates on the undesirability of co-ethnic education, the findings do not suggest negative associations between the ethnic minority or immigrant status of these students and their self-appraised global and specific life satisfaction in school and with friends. This study confirms that a school factor exists and that there are significant differences in the life satisfaction of the student groups under review. Educating students in schools with high concentrations of co-ethnic peers appears to benefit South Asians but not mainland Chinese immigrant students.
[Copyright © 2013 The Author(s).]

English teaching and learning has taken an interesting shift in Hong Kong schools with the implementation of the New Senior Secondary (NSS) curriculum under the 334' education reform. Situating the paper within the broader considerations of the intersection of Cultural Studies and English teaching, this paper examines the challenges and prospects of teaching the new Language Arts elective called Learning English through Popular Culture module. It is argued that while the module endeavours to connect and motivate Hong Kong students to learn English through popular culture materials, the official curriculum and schemes of work, however, narrowly articulate the teaching of popular culture texts conceived as text-types'. Such a formulaic approach to using popular culture in the classroom is limiting and locks students into a procedural way of thinking' and doing' popular cultural texts. The paper concludes by offering some ways forward that might deliver what is otherwise a revolutionary and innovative curriculum. Beyond the specific case of Hong Kong, the curriculum challenge discussed is instructive for other education systems and curriculum scholars looking to develop new pedagogies from the intersecting disciplines of Cultural Studies and English teaching.
[Copyright of Oxford Review of Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2015.1110130]

An international school may make organisational choices that divide the school by curriculum, grade-level, language and location. This article explores how a school's organisational stratification impacts how the school supports changing teaching and learning practices through technology. The article draws from case data of technology integration specialists at international schools in Hong Kong. A variety of organisational sections and responses to imbalances in technological pedagogical support between sections are presented. The findings highlight how stratification may not only act as an appropriate valve for change and facilitate intercultural exchange through technology but also perpetuate existing inequalities within and between schools.
[Copyright of Globalisation, Societies & Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2014.965010]

This paper reports the key findings of a territory-wide review survey on the current development of Information Technology in Education (ITEd) in Hong Kong. 711 schools in different sectors had taken part in this study. Five areas regarding ITEd were reviewed: (1) IT facilities and accessibility; (2) Resources; (3) IT deployment in schools; (4) IT deployment for learning/teaching; and (5) Students' awareness/competency in use of IT. All schools had basic infrastructure to support the development of ITEd while teachers and students were competent to adopt IT in teaching and learning. The present progress of ITEd has posted a solid foundation for further development which aims at developing 21st century skills.
[Copyright © 2011 Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education.]