Purpose: Both Hong Kong and Singapore leverage teacher collaboration to improve student learning, but state reforms differ in how teacher collaborative capabilities are prioritized. This paper provides a nuanced comparison of Hong Kong and Singapore teachers' values (risk-taking, power distance and uncertainty avoidance) to develop insights into how different policy focuses cultivate teachers' capabilities to focus on improving student learning. Design/methodology/approach: Employing Hargreaves and Fullan's (2012) concept of professional capital, statistical analyses determine teachers' values profiles of high, medium and low professional capital in the respective contexts. Leveraging related research on Singapore teachers (Lee and Lee, 2018), nuances in teachers' values in the Hong Kong results are identified via cluster analysis and explained via structural equation modelling. Findings: Medium professional capital Hong Kong teachers' values matched Singapore's, but teachers in other clusters are nuanced. Compared to Singapore teachers with similar levels of professional capital, high professional capital Hong Kong teachers have higher uncertainty avoidance, while low professional capital teachers are the opposite. In Hong Kong, high uncertainty avoidance values positively influence teacher leadership and focus on student learning. Nevertheless, as with their Singapore counterparts, high professional capital Hong Kong teachers have low power distance and high risk-taking values. Originality/value: This paper raises awareness regarding policy's influence in cultivating teachers' values and their transformational change capabilities. By comparing two hierarchical Chinese societies, the discussion questions whether Chinese and Western cultural influences are mutually exclusive, and whether transformational change in cultural values, if achievable, is necessary. Copyright © 2021 Emerald Publishing Limited.

This article investigates the variety of factors that hinder the implementation of play (as defined by western scholars) in Asian preschools. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of policy borrowing, enactment and glocalisation, we analyse three jurisdictions that illustrate distinctive problematics: India, Mainland China and Hong Kong. The methodology involves a bibliographic review. Each jurisdiction is presented as a narrative portrait, including key sociocultural characteristics, features of early childhood education system, role of play in government policies, and teachers’ beliefs and practices pertaining to play. The findings show that the distinctive factors hindering play relate to societal mindsets in India, a lack of curriculum clarity in China, and structural factors and parental pressures in Hong Kong. Common hurdles include a high societal emphasis on academic learning, lack of information on how play should contribute to achieve curriculum outcomes, and insufficient teacher preparation. The authors show that play is neither adequately defined nor justified in some Asian policy frameworks, and argue that play might not be viable in certain preschools (especially in half-day programmes). An alternative glocal notion is proposed – child-led activities – which would be less conceptually problematic and more culturally appropriate. The study highlights the need for the glocalisation of Asian early childhood education systems. Copyright © 2021 The Author(s).

Transmitting traditional music for sustainability has been a common theme in global music education. Recently, the school systems of Hong Kong and Guangdong have been encouraged by governmental authorities to teach Cantonese opera aiming at enhancing the sustainability of the genre and promote a Chinese cultural identity within students. This paper details a survey of school music teachers working in Hong Kong and Guangdong examining the current state of Cantonese opera teaching in the schools of both regions and investigate how it is affected by teacher variables including their interest in Chinese opera, the confidence in teaching the subject, and their perceptions of their Chinese cultural identities. A total of 1,974 valid questionnaires were received and examined. Descriptive and inferential statistics including MANOVA and chi-square tests were used to analyze the data. Findings reveal that Cantonese opera teaching is limited in both regions. While teachers are modestly interested, confident, and knowledgeable about teaching the genre, there is a significant relationship between the music backgrounds of teachers and their interest in Cantonese opera. The article discusses the findings within the context of a historical predominance of Western music within music education curricula and wider societies. Implications for policy makers are proposed. Copyright © 2021 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

A major cluster of economic engines that have changed Asian higher education, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan have all developed high-income societies as well as world-class universities which linked local “knowledge economies” to global science and created hubs for international collaborations and mobility. However, there has been limited analysis of interdependencies between the rise of world-class universities and changes in the flows of international talent. This paper elaborates on the concept of higher education internationalization that aims at enhancing geopolitical equity in global mobility and re-positioning local students for improved access to the world-class excellence. The paper compares key themes and patterns that define the Tiger societies’ unique positions in the field of global higher education. Copyright © 2021 The Author(s).

In two studies, we investigated how Hong Kong university students reacted to descriptions of China as multicultural vs. assimilatory, examining effects on emotions, prejudice toward Mainland Chinese, attitudes toward Hong Kong/China culture mixing, and cultural identities. Study 1 compared a multicultural priming condition to a control condition and found that the multiculturalism prime significantly reduced desire to socially distance from Mainland Chinese. Study 2 compared multiculturalism, assimilation, or control primes’ effects, and found that the multiculturalism prime, through increased positive emotions, indirectly reduced social distancing from Mainland Chinese and disgust toward culture mixing, and increased Chinese ethnic identity and multicultural identity styles; the assimilation prime had the opposite indirect effects through increasing negative emotions. Results show new evidence of the importance of emotion in how non-immigrant regional groups, who are both minority and majority culture members, react to different diversity models. Multicultural frames increased positive emotions, with downstream positive effects on both intergroup attitudes and integrated identities. Copyright © 2021 Ye and Buchtel.

Literature offers a theoretical framework exemplifying the inherent tensions between “becoming Chinese” and “remaining global” in the evolution of the international status of Hong Kong. Adopting this framework, this paper examines the global position of Hong Kong’s higher education through an investigation of universities’ participation in China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Greater Bay Area development plan. Specifically, drawing on data from interviews about universities’ engagement with the two Chinese grand strategies, the paper discusses university leaders and academics’ experience and perception of Hong Kong’s global status against a policy context that foregrounds a deeper integration with the Chinese national development. This discussion offers a theoretical dialogue that reveals different but overlapping scenarios for the future of Hong Kong’s higher education and sheds light on the link between the changing geopolitical contexts and international higher education. Copyright © 2021 The Author(s).

Although mathematical modeling plays an important role in many curricula worldwide, significant discrepancies persist in the importance of mathematical modeling in ordinary mathematics classrooms and teacher education. This paper compares pre-service mathematics teachers' professional mathematical modeling competencies in three different regions—Germany, Mainland China, and Hong Kong—where educational and cultural traditions differ, including the role of mathematical modeling. In total, 232 pre-service mathematics teachers from the three regions completed a modeling task covering mathematics content knowledge (MCK) of modeling and mathematical pedagogical content knowledge (MPCK) of modeling. The results show that pre-service teachers from Germany demonstrated the strongest MCK and MPCK of mathematical modeling; by contrast, pre-service mathematics teachers from Mainland China and Hong Kong demonstrated relatively weaker MCK and MPCK of mathematical modeling. MCK and MPCK of mathematical modeling were also found to be unevenly developed at different competence levels for the three regions. These differences may be attributed to the history of mathematical modeling in mathematics curricula, teacher education, and teaching culture in these three regions. Copyright © 2021 The Author(s).

本研究的目的是從洪堡特的教育哲學檢視香港的通識教育的理念與實踐，比較兩間傳統大學在課程設計和實踐的異同。本研究採用文獻分析的研究方法，將文獻與實證研究的結果進行批判性的分析和比較，由洪堡特的〈關於人之能力的發展法則〉、〈關於人之陶冶理論〉及〈關於人類的精神〉三篇文章探討其全人教育理念，並依此檢視香港兩間大學的通識教育。洪堡特全人教育有三個要點：第一、強調人的不同能力，如理性和感性之間的平衡、調和，甚至互相促進；第二、一方面強調經驗的多樣性，另一方面又強調人類心智的統一性，如此一來，如何透過前者的培育讓後者得到發展？第三、洪堡特的教育和陶冶哲學十分強調人的個體性，教育的目的不只是純粹技術性知識的灌輸，而是掌握科目一些重要的基本理念，以達致人格完整發展。本研究從這三方面探討香港兩所政府資助大學的通識教育的同時，尤其注意科目之間如何平衡上述不同的能力，以及如何做到又多元又掌握一些基本理念，並能培養學生跨科系的學習能力。最後，本研究亦從一些教師和學生對課程的意見，檢討香港的大學通識教育的成就和缺失。This paper aims to investigate W. von Humboldt’s educational philosophy and compare it with the idea and practices of general education in Hong Kong by applying documentary analysis and then compare them critically with the results of other empirical studies. Based on the three Humboldt’s articles, his idea of Allgemeinbildung can be summarized in three points: 1. the fullest development and harmonization of man’s different faculties such as rationality and sensibility; 2. the variety of experiences and unity of the human mind and character, how the latter can be achieved through the former? 3. emphasis of individualities. The aim of education is not only to transfer knowledge but also to master some basic and imperative ideas of the subjects to achieve the whole person development. It then investigates the general education in two government subsidized universities to see how different faculties can be balanced, and how various basic ideas can be mastered to build up students’ multidisciplinary competences. It compares the differences and similarities of curriculum design and practice between two universities in Hong Kong. Lastly, the achievements and deficiency of general education is discussed by looking at the opinions of lecturers and students on the curriculum. Copyright © 2020 中華民國比較教育學會.