This article presents some findings of a small-scale research study carried out in 1 kindergarten in Hong Kong. The study looked at the problems associated with the transition of families from one culture (mainland China) to a new culture (Hong Kong), concentrating on the children's development of a sense of belonging in Hong Kong. Specific issues that children may face were identified. The study also suggests some strategies for early childhood teachers to use when implementing a play-based curriculum that gives immigrant children opportunities to express their emotions through play. The study found that a sense of belonging can be enhanced if teachers understand the difficulties inherent in cultural transition and respond accordingly.
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Using data from Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), this study examines the social disparity of family involvement. A total of 4,405 students from 140 Hong Kong secondary schools participated in the first cycle of PISA study identifying four types of family involvement: cultural communication, social communication, homework supervision, and cultural activity. Multi-level analysis was used to examine the major family factors related to these types of family involvement. Consistent with previous research, working-class, immigrant, and single-parent families tend to have lower levels of parental involvement. The effect of these structural factors decreased after family resources, family network, and family norms entered into the multi-level regression model. It can be argued that the social disparity of family involvement is mediated by the deprivation of useful resources, lack of network, and low educational aspiration of the disadvantaged families. The results also suggested that it is not only cooperation between home and school, but also connection between parents and their children's peers that provides the necessary chemistry for success. Educators, parents, and policymakers should be aware that family networking should be extended to include the peers of the teenagers if they want to enhance family involvement in education.
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Despite the fact that Hong Kong is now a part of China, there are differences between Hong Kong and the main land, especially in terms of the education system, school environment, and learning culture,and learner proficiency level of English. Based on interviews with ten secondary school teachers, the paper discusses the difficulties caused by the recent influx of children from China into Hong Kong. Firstly, there are difficulties for the immigrants themselves. They have to search for a school that will accept the children, and the children are often rejected because their English is not good enough. Secondly, there are difficulties for the classroom teacher. Added to the problems of teaching through English,there are now additional problems with the Chinese children, such as different first languages and no single lingua franca. And there are difficulties for the schools, for example, caused by the lack of systematic admission procedures, and insufficient support for schools and teachers in this respect.The paper makes a number of observations and recommendations that may help to alleviate the situation.
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