The meanings and value of the arts and their impact on students’ learning have long been main areas of focus in arts education research. In Hong Kong, there are only a few studies discussing the impact of performing arts education on students’ learning, which leaves a gap in the overall understanding of performing arts education. This article reports on a study of performing arts education in Hong Kong. The participants of the study are students, teachers, principals and arts groups. A total of 28 focus group interviews were conducted with participants recruited from 25 primary schools, 26 secondary schools, one international school, nine tertiary institutions, five special schools and 20 arts groups. Although this study confirms the claims made by arts educators that performing arts education can promote students’ awareness of creative and critical thinking skills, change their behavior and attitudes, increase their socio-cultural awareness and benefit their all-round development, the stakeholders had different interpretations of the meaning and value of performing arts education. There appears to be a gap between arts groups and schools in the understanding of the fundamental purposes of performing arts education and the role that it should play in the school context. Copyright © 2022 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Initially developed from policies implemented under British rule, the integrated programme for children with disabilities has not been widely publicised in the context of early childhood education in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). Local communities have responded differently to the integrated programme implemented in mainstream kindergarten-cum-child care centres (Kg-cum-CCCs), which serve children from 2 to 6 years old. This study focuses on the perceived benefits and challenges of the integrated programme implemented in mainstream Kg-cum-CCCs. Thirty stakeholders (18 school personnel and 12 parents of children with and without disabilities) from six integrated Kg-cum-CCCs took part in a series of semi-structured in-depth interviews, providing a comprehensive database for this study. The data were analysed with reference to previous studies on the integrated programme for children with disabilities in the context of the current educational experience in the HKSAR. The findings indicate that the stakeholders believe that the integrated programme can benefit children with and without disabilities, but that it can also cause challenges for these children. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.
[Copyright © 2017 TACTYC.]

This paper reports on school-university collaboration during an action research project, which aimed to build a writing pedagogy for students with Learning Disabilities in the trilingual, biliterate educational context of Hong Kong. The project was established through interpersonal relationships built from the ground up between stakeholders from a university department and a secondary school. The informal social networks were the locus of innovation and creativity within the project. This paper examines four broad dimensions of collaboration: the relationships created, the resources shared, the action taken and the pedagogy created. We discuss these dimensions of collaboration from the perspectives of the stakeholders. We found that each stakeholder aligned their motivations and expectations with other stakeholders to achieve the common goals of the research and consequently we call such alignments of interests "research networks". Finally, we suggest that "research networks" constitute an important, yet overlooked component of action research.
[Copyright of English Teaching: Practice & Critique is the property of Universidad del Zulia.
Access via Directory of Open Access Journals: http://edlinked.soe.waikato.ac.nz/research/journal/index.php?id=1]

Across cultures and eras, children have engaged in play as part of the process of growing and maturing into adulthood. Play has been recognized as an effective form of pedagogy to promote learning in the early years. However, beliefs about what play is and how it should be practiced vary across Hong Kong and in other countries. Because Chinese culture places a heavy emphasis on academic achievement, a play-based curriculum has not been widely implemented in the region. Through classroom observations and interviews with key stakeholders in early childhood education, namely parents, teachers, and principals, this study reveals the complexity of views on this matter and uncovers the root cause of the difficulties in supporting play in the Hong Kong kindergartens. These findings may help promote the play-based curriculum in Hong Kong and other countries where play is in crisis.
[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/10.1080/09575146.2011.599794]

With a growing awareness of the importance of early childhood education, the governments of Hong Kong and England have both increased investment through providing fee assistance to parents for buying services and providing funding to providers for offering 'free' places, respectively. Alongside the increased funding of early childhood education, a heightened interest in the quality of early years settings has arisen. This paper aims to develop a framework for comparative studies by addressing the similarities and differences in quality improvement of both systems. Three key issues are discussed: relevance of the quality criteria for assessment, interpretations of the quality improvement mechanism and its use in guiding practice, and the influence of contextual factors in terms of stakeholders' views of the quality process. It is argued that these key issues are fundamental to a framework for understanding different sociocultural contexts and dynamics in shaping the quality improvement of early childhood education.
[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/10.1080/09669760.2010.524058]

An information literacy (IL) framework has been proposed for Hong Kong students to adapt to the emergence of the knowledge-based society, digital culture and globalisation. The aims of the study reported herein were to validate the proposed IL model and collect the views of practitioners and representative stakeholders on the possibility of its successful implementation. The findings of a survey, focus group discussions and in-depth interviews indicate that the aims and scope of the IL model were recognised as being relevant. Three key issues of professional development in the IL education--the realisation of capacity building, obtaining the consensus and support of school principals and teachers, and allowing practitioners the flexibility to organise their own development--were identified from amongst the concerns of practitioners and representative stakeholders. Nine modules for teacher professional development are proposed here to address these issues.
[Copyright of Technology, Pedagogy and Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14759390601168031]