Girls' education has been considered a site of struggle where ideals of femininity and domesticity are translated into curricula and practices that seek to shape and regulate. In colonial Hong Kong, British mission societies had a significant share in providing girls' education, which was predominantly in the hands of European missionaries in the nineteenth century. The dual mission of evangelising and civilising colonial subjects in the Victorian era of empire expansion constituted a pertinent focus of inquiry in the writing of history of girls' education. Drawing on selected texts on missionary literature and government reports, this article examines in what ways a domestic ideology framed within evangelical beliefs and the imperial gaze interplayed with the politics of race and class in shaping girls' education. It challenges the presumed impartiality in education policies and practices concerning both sexes, and discusses women's agency in re-defining identities and boundaries in a colonial society.
[Copyright of History of Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00467600802368715]

Kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong are blamed for not putting child-initiated learning theory into practice. Their competence is challenged. An earlier study ( Li, 2003 ) suggested that the professional development of kindergarten teachers was limited by their inability to extend thinking beyond their own personal concerns so that the needs of the children were not the major determinant of their classroom practice. It was argued that to confront and modify the teachers' personal beliefs the presence of models, action research and joint collaborative activity were the keys. This report was a follow-up study of a school-based project, providing opportunities for teachers to engage in collaborative investigation of school curriculum and of pedagogical innovations. In this study, the practice and belief of a group of around 60 teachers were tracked during their participation in the project and the merits of peer coaching, mentoring and collaborative teamwork were examined. Classroom observations and semi-structured interviews (40-60 minutes) were adopted as the main research procedure. Teaching records, videoed teaching episodes and feedback on project workshops were sources of data collected for triangulation. The findings of the study suggest that collegiality holds some promise for change in teachers' practice, though questions concerning the constancy of change are of concern.
[Copyright of International Journal of Early Years Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0966976042000225534]

Ability grouping is supposedly undesirable because it leads to deficits in academic self-concept and academic achievement. However, it appears to be justifiable for its improvement of teaching and learning in schools, perhaps more so in a collectivist culture. In view of the paucity of data examining the controversy in Hong Kong, the authors collected data from 2,720 junior high school students with a random sampling procedure and obtained teachers' reports about the students' subsequent academic achievement, ability grouping, and the ability level of the class. The authors maintained students' past academic achievement as a control variable in predicting their subsequent academic achievement and self-concepts. Results revealed no significant detrimental effect caused by the ability-grouped class and the ability level of the ability-grouped class. Rather, students in classes that were more homogeneous according to past academic achievement tended to have significantly higher subsequent academic achievement and self-esteem. Results revealed no variation attributable to each student's gender and IQ in the effects of ability grouping.
[Copyright of Journal of Educational Research is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00220670309598813 ]

Will our Christian colleges in Asia serve as possible venues for the cultivation of communication and understandings among people of different cultures? This is the issue addressed in this paper and the author attempts to give a report of the work of Chung Chi College overall, with special reference to her distinctive contribution as a Christian college in Hong Kong, China, and its Asian contexts. As a Christian college, Chung Chi College has found herself serving not only as a light to the gentiles but also as "a bridge" between the Eastern and Western cultures, between Christianity and other religious traditions.
[Copyright of Christian Higher Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15363750590959977]

The present study investigates the views of Hong Kong parents on kindergarten education. A questionnaire was designed to examine the reasons for parents to send their children to kindergartens, their concept of kindergarten education, their views on kindergarten teachers' work and training. There were 14,328 returned questionnaires. The findings indicate that parents had positive attitudes towards kindergarten education; they thought that kindergarten education was important for their children and that well qualified teachers were necessary for kindergarten education.
[Copyright of Early Child Development and Care is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0300443991590103 ]