Total raw self-esteem scores of 1303 children, including Chinese children in Britain and Hong Kong and White British, were assessed by using the Self-esteem Inventory developed by Coopersmith (1967). Across all samples, the results show little differences between children of different ages, whereas statistically significant differences occur in the independent variables of ethnic groups, gender and educational aspiration. Despite the social disadvantages that the UK Chinese may face, they have significantly higher self-esteem than their Hong Kong Chinese counterparts, but have little differences from their White peers. This indicates that they are likely to have positive feelings and academic confidence in being themselves and as part of the host society. In contrast, Hong Kong children tend to have low levels of self-esteem, which may be caused by the more self-effacing and modest values in Chinese culture, a traditional authoritarian style of education or highly competitive pressures created by schools, families and society.
[Copyright of Educational Psychology is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/014434100110380]

Across the globe, many countries have incorporated new managerialism and marketization to reform their education systems. Feminist studies have already pointed out that these changes are gendered and masculinized and have documented their impacts on women teachers in secondary, higher and further education. Yet interestingly, while primary teaching is a feminized occupation, the ways that these changes and the associated practices are gendered and affected women teachers are relatively under-researched . This article, based on a case school in Hong Kong, attempts to fill this gap. By teasing out the gendered assumptions embedded in management strategies, it will show how an entrepreneurial school has attempted to succeed in a competitive educational market by exploiting young women, discriminating motherhood and forging competition among women of different educational qualifications. While making visible the patriarchal interests and masculine norms of the school, the article also aims to illuminate the contradictions and tensions inherent in, or generated, by those strategies.
[Copyright of Gender & Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09540250042000300394]

Sex education is not treated as an important subject in the school curriculum of Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Education Department issued in 1986 and 1997, respectively, two guidelines on sex education for schools' reference. The 1997 Guidelines cover a broader conceptual framework relating to different aspects of human sexuality and also include teaching strategies. Surveys by the Education Department in the early 1990s showed that there were a lot of problems in promoting sex education in schools. To see whether there had been any progress in sex education in the post-handover period to China from the United Kingdom, a working group of the Hong Kong Institute of Education carried out a study on this issue in the year 1999-2000. Data were collected through a survey and a small number of structured interviews. The study reveals that secondary schools are now generally more positive in promoting sex education and more interactive teaching methods are used. However, there are still a lot of constraints in the promotion of sex education in schools in Hong Kong.
[Copyright of Sex Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14681810500171458]