Improving mainstream perceptions of diversity in Hong Kong is fundamental to enhancing equality and human rights in the society in the future. The importance of mainstream members of society learning to recognize diversity with less prejudice undergirds many of the aims of a recent educational reform, Liberal Studies. This paper evaluates the capacity of Liberal Studies to educate for multicultural understanding of cultural difference. Its primary data source is Liberal Studies textbooks, and it employs a qualitative content analysis to consider how diversity and ethnic, cultural, and religious differences are represented in the texts. The analysis is complemented by an examination of related resources teachers may use in the classroom (and are encouraged to use by the Hong Kong Curriculum Development Council): mainstream news articles and resources from the (government-provided) Web-based Resource Platform for Liberal Studies. The voices and views of some practicing teachers and pre-service teacher education students related to multicultural Liberal Studies resources are also included to provide a balanced picture. Based on this analysis, multicultural education as provided in major resources within the Liberal Studies curriculum appears inadequate. As diversity is reflected upon in resources analyzed here most often as problematic and stereotypical, interventions are needed if Liberal Studies is to enable multicultural appreciation and understanding among students in Hong Kong in the future. Copyright © 2016 De La Salle University.

Teaching young people to understand and appreciate diversity is crucial in Hong Kong efforts for a just and inclusive multicultural society. History is the main place where the cultural identity and values of Hong Kong society have been reflected on, questioned, and problematized in the curriculum, as changes to this curriculum interface with larger social and political changes of the society. Although diversity is emphasized in Hong Kong history curricula, representations of ethnic minorities provided in education may not always be effective toward multicultural aims. This research explores how multicultural content is expressed in Hong Kong Chinese history textbooks. In particular, we focus on how relationships between Han and minority cultures are represented in the texts, using qualitative content analysis. Based on the analysis, we elaborate three main descriptive codes and themes: (1) only majority perspectives are provided, (2) cultural superiority of the dominant group (the Han), and (3) plural monoculturalism, where minority views are treated as threatened and/or as threatening in relation to the society as a whole. We argue that these codes are in contrast with a multicultural stance that aims to enhance social justice and equity in relation to diversity, through providing balanced perspectives, including positive ethnic minority recognition and support for just forms of pluralistic integration. Copyright © 2019 National Institute of Education, Singapore.

The past 40 years have witnessed significant developments in ELT research, reflecting the changes in learners' language needs and the extensive development of various language learning/teaching methods in different times and places. The aim of this study is to provide a systematic and comprehensive account of changing ELT methods (oral-structural approach, communicative language teaching and task-based language teaching) in Hong Kong's secondary education between 1975 and the present. By adopting Richards and Rodgers's (2014) framework (approach, design and procedure), it examined how ELT theories have been transformed into local curricula (1975, 1983, 1999 and 2002/07) and commercial textbooks (Longman, Oxford University Press) via detailed content analysis. The findings suggest that research into ELT methods in Hong Kong over the past decades has generally directed the designs of the language curricula. Changes in the textbooks, however, have been relatively limited, although considerable attempts have been made to align textbook design with ELT trends. By considering various constraints in the theory-to-practice process, this study offers suggestions for future research and language teaching, particularly regarding the recent debate over the choice between the 'weak' and 'strong' versions of task-based language teaching in EFL contexts, and the post-methods perspective in language teaching.
[Copyright of Language Teaching Research is the property of Sage Publications Ltd.]

課本是教育系統中的重要環節，也是重要的教學內容、系統知識的組織、課程與教學間的連結。然而，香港對課本的探討仍然不足，課本的品質亦有待提升。本文嘗試評析教育局在香港課本編審機制中的作用。全文主要分為兩部分，首先會探討教育局在課本編審機制中的作用，然後提出加強教育局作用的建議。本文作者認為，教育局在課本編選機制中扮演非常重要的角色；然而，除維持現有角色外，教育局也應與其他相關的組織配合以及統籌與課本有關事宜，進行更多的課本研究，以及研究優化編審課本的機制。Textbooks, crucial in educational systems, consist of essential teaching materials and represent the organization of systematic knowledge and the bringing together of curriculum and teaching. Hong Kong, however, needs to carry out more research of textbook and to improve the quality of textbooks. This article discusses the roles of the Education Bureau in textbook editing and selection mechanism and suggests ways to enhance those roles. The authors confirm that the Education Bureau plays crucial roles in the textbook mechanism. We suggest, however, that in addition to its present roles, the Education Bureau should cooperate with other relevant organizations to coordinate textbook affairs, conduct more textbook research, and strive to improve the textbook mechanism. Copyright © 2010 國家教育研究院.

The English language curricula in Hong Kong and mainland China place emphasis on ‘culture learning’. This study seeks to examine cultural depictions in two series of primary English language textbooks published in mainland China and Hong Kong. The study adopted Kachru’s three-circle model and Moran’s 4P framework (referring to products, practices, perspectives and persons) to investigate the breadth and depth of cultural presentation. The findings indicate that both series encompass content on the local culture as well as on foreign cultures. While the mainland textbooks focus on British culture in the inner circle through the cultural aspects of products and persons, insufficient attention is paid to other foreign cultures and the cultural aspect of perspectives. In contrast, Hong Kong textbooks include a wider range of foreign cultures and a more balanced presentation of various cultural aspects. However, both series contain mainly static and congratulatory cultural topics, and neglect the underlying value orientations. Copyright © 2019 Pedagogy, Culture & Society.

The relationship between history education and political education in Asian societies is an underexplored topic. Politics have deeply shaped the development of history education in Hong Kong, as in many other societies around the world. Hong Kong history education reforms have been criticized for providing a new form of national political education. This study examines how politic education can be found in the Hong Kong history curriculum as 'latent content'. To do so, it provides a qualitative content analysis of all textual data used in 'Chinese history' and 'history' textbooks in secondary schools in Hong Kong which discuss or portray political content, focusing particularly on the themes of identity shaping and assimilation. Before focusing on the Hong Kong situation, this paper first explores how history education is a political topic in general. Then Hong Kong's complicated political legacy is described in relation to one of the unique features of history education there: the concurrence of two subjects, 'history' and 'Chinese history'. Current debates about the reform of history education in Hong Kong and the limitations of current history education in Hong Kong are examined in the next part, using data from textbooks. Our analysis shows that 1) national identity is prioritized over local identity in the textbooks, and 2) the textbooks mainly reflect a Mainland-based majority perspective and justify assimilation in history, resulting in a lack of recognition of the many different minority groups of Mainland China, of which Hong Kong people may see themselves as part. Based on the analysis, we argue that history education in Hong Kong provides a narrow political education that can impede some crucial education goals in Hong Kong.
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Effective teaching and learning strategy is one of the most important topics in the field of teachers' professional development. Teachers' education and pre-service teachers' training programmes provide necessary coursework, field experience, and student teaching internship experience to pre-service, potential, and second career teachers who are seeking initial license status. Due to the rapid developments in Hong Kong, China, school teachers face challenges, difficulties, and social problems due to excess enrolment of teachers from different backgrounds. The regular curriculum and material also fail to cover all these issues. The current study applied the seminar technique as recommended in Polya's "Four-Step Problem-Solving Model" with targeted discussion topics and engaged 12 STEM pre-service teachers at one of the Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) programmes. The results indicated that beyond regular coursework, field experience, and internship experiences embedded in the curriculum, additional seminars allowed the participants to establish inter-disciplinary teaching strategies and critical thinking skills. The results of this study serve as a blueprint for teachers' education programme leaders and school administrators to establish similar seminars and conduct such sessions for their pre-service and in-service teachers to refresh and advance their teaching and learning strategies.
[Copyright of International Journal of Education and Practice is the property of Pak Publishing Group.]

The present study examines how gender is represented in the visuals (or illustrations) of two English Language textbook series used in most primary schools in Hong Kong. Instead of conducting frequency counts of the occurrence of male and female characters in illustrations or the spheres of activities they engaged in as in previous textbook studies, this study involves qualitative analyses of how visualised male and female characters are represented in the selected illustrations of the analysed textbook series in terms of their hair length and clothing. The results show that human females were more often portrayed having long hair than short hair and wearing dresses than trousers in both line drawings and photographs. For the colour of clothing, although blue and pink are generally considered ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ colours respectively, less than half and only a small percentage of the human males and females were portrayed wearing blue and pink respectively. For non-human characters, again, colour is not always a reliable cue to their sex. Yet, they can be recognised as males and females by the generally accepted ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’ colour and clothing items.