Disadvantaged students increasingly confront ruthless competition for higher education degrees, while losing out on opportunities for social mobility. Some of Hong Kong’s low-income households defy the trend: families take on risk, including considerable debt, to send their offspring abroad, rather than test their chances at home by dealing with competitive learning silos, stratified schooling, social status anxiety, and failing employer support. Drawing on stakeholder theory, the “glonacal agency” heuristic and the existentialist perspective, this paper examines how some low-income families break the cycle of disadvantage by tapping into the powers, legitimacy and urgency of “important others,” allowing them to harness local and global resources to achieve social mobility. Copyright © 2015 James Nicholas Publishers.

香港自2012年推出新高中學制之後，除了考試制度的改革，非正規教育的改革亦馬不停蹄，生涯規劃教育與職業教育的變化特別明顯。自2014年開始，香港全面推行生涯規劃教育，以求改善舊有升學及就業輔導之弊，2015年則開始重塑職業教育為職業專才教育，將職業教育重新納入主要的教育政策議題之中。相對下，生命教育的發展較為停滯不前。直至2019年，香港政府委託顧問就生涯規劃教育推行成效發表研究報告，並建議將生涯規劃教育結合生命教育一同推行，推動學生的全人發展，生命教育方重新成為整個教育改革藍圖的一部份。同年，香港政府提出進一步推動價值觀教育的發展，尤其優先重視生命教育，可見生命教育與價值觀教育將成下一步非正規課程改革的重心。明顯地，生涯規劃教育、生命教育與職業教育三者的拓展似乎正在呼應《教育行動計劃2030》宣言的提倡。有鑑及此，本文將申論三者其實應該如何貫穿實踐，以切合香港實況，並以香港一項大型生涯規劃的項目為切入點作深入分析。Since the introduction of the New Academic Structure in 2012, policy reform in non-formal education was implemented along with a structural change of the public examination system. In 2014, Life Planning Education was launched to optimize the problem in the over-reliance on career counselling and guidance, while Vocational Education was officially rebranded as Vocational Professional Education and Training in 2015, and it is now regarded as one of the main agendas in the current Hong Kong education policy. In comparison, the development of Life Education has stalled for a long time until the publication of one policy consultancy research report in 2019, which recommended the possible merge of Life Education with Life Planning Education in the future implementation. In the same year, the Hong Kong government proposed the strengthening of support on Values Education in schools through prioritizing Life Education in the policy. This implies that critical role of Life and Values Education in the forthcoming non-formal curriculum reform. It is apparent that the newest development of Life Planning Education, Vocational Education and Life Education are all well-aligned with the initiative of ＂Education 2030＂ proposed by UNESCO. In light of this, this paper will examine how these three components have developed and implemented in the local Hong Kong context, with the support of an analytical case study based on a large-scale youth programme for Career and Life Planning for illustration. Copyright © 2020 台灣教育研究院社.

Background: Schools around the world are increasingly diverse in ethnicity. Given the importance of peer acceptance in children’s well-being and development, it is a pressing concern for educators to promote intergroup acceptance in schools. Aims: First, to examine the developmental trends of acceptance of outgroup members in both the ethnic minority and majority students. Second, to investigate how outgroup acceptance is subject to the interplay between perceived norm of prejudice, a risk factor in the macrosystem, and teacher support, a protective factor in the microsystem. Sample: The participants were 3,723 students (ethnic majority: 61%; boys: 51.9%; mean age: 13.7) at Grade 2, 5, 8, and 11 from 24 schools in Hong Kong. Methods: The students were asked to complete a battery of questionnaires regarding their willingness to accept outgroup members in schools, perceived societal norm of prejudice against ethnic minority group, and teacher support they received in schools. Results: It was found that ethnic minority students accepted outgroup members more than ethnic majority students accepted them. The difference was primarily driven by the low outgroup acceptance of ethnic majority students in Grades 2 and 5. The results of multi-level analysis revealed that outgroup acceptance was associated negatively with perceived norm of prejudice but positively with teacher support. The negative association between outgroup acceptance and perceived norm of prejudice was attenuated in schools with supportive culture. Conclusions: The results point to the need of early intervention and the importance of cultivating school culture with strong social emotional support. Copyright © 2020 The British Psychological Society.