Beginning teachers encounter new challenges as the role system in contemporary society has become more and more demanding. By means of the life history method, role management strategies of four Hong Kong beginning teachers employed to cope with role demands and intra-role conflicts were located in their biographical, workplace and wider social-historical contexts. The study shows that strategies such as qualification matching, definition searching, strategic compliance and strategic redefinition were adopted in the professional socialization process. The employment of certain role management strategies, which was related to the novices' human agency, the structure and culture in the workplace as well as the rewards and punishment embedded in the wider social context, had an impact on the development of beginning teachers' professional identity.
[Copyright of Teacher Development is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13664530500200260 ]

Increasingly, there is advocacy for parents to be included in partnership roles with schools. Indeed, the term 'partnership' seems to have acquired the connotation of an ideal form of parent-school relationship. This paper argues that the notion of partnership, with its accompanying suggestion of equality as a framework for the complementary sharing of responsibilities, is problematical. Based on the findings from an in-depth study of teacher leadership in three Hong Kong schools that involved as participants parents, teachers, and students, it is proposed that a more reasonable understanding of this relationship is that of a professional and client association, where both parents and teachers are aware of their responsibilities and that these responsibilities are at once both demarcated and shared according to that understanding. At the same time there is also a need for teachers and parents to concentrate on building more concrete links for consistent and regular teacherVparent communication, as significant student learning now takes place informally at home, via the Internet.
[Copyright of Teaching Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10476210601151573]

In the so-called 'global age', the issue of how children learn to locate themselves in the world is an important one. Working from a foundation of theories related to globalisation, identity development and citizenship education, this paper describes the findings of a research project which explored elementary school children's geographical and affective location of the self in Japan, Macau and Hong Kong. Analysis and discussion of Japanese education policy is then presented in an attempt to explain the finding that Japanese children are far less likely than their counterparts in Hong Kong and Macau to locate themselves in an international sphere.
[Copyright of Compare: A Journal of Comparative Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03057920050034084]

This paper characterizes early mathematics instruction in Hong Kong. The teaching of addition in three pre-primary and three lower primary schools was observed and nine teachers were interviewed about their beliefs about early mathematics teaching. A child-centered, play-based approach was evident but teachers emphasized discipline, diligence and academic success. Observations also revealed practices reflective of both constructivist and instructivist pedagogies. Results from interviews suggest that teachers' traditional cultural beliefs about instruction were challenged by western ideologies introduced in continuing professional development courses and by notions promulgated by the educational reforms. Both consistencies and inconsistencies between teachers' beliefs and practices were identified. Implications of the findings are discussed.
[Copyright of Early Years: An International Journal of Research and Development is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09575140802020917]

In this age of advanced technology, the pervasive influences of the media on pupils has aroused widespread concern among educators in general and religious educators in particular. This article argues for the teaching of religion through media education. It first discusses the interest of religious groups in media education and how media education might make an important contribution to the teaching of religion. Then it provides data from two schools who have adopted media education in the teaching of religious education to see how teachers and pupils have responded to this initiative.
[Copyright of Religious Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00344080600956723]