Teacher professional development (TPD) is regarded as crucial to fostering teacher improvement. Recent calls for the internationalization of teacher education and professional development, including teachers undertaking courses taught abroad, have enhanced the scope of TPD opportunities. Yet, little is currently known about how such international experiences of TPD shape the perspectives of these teachers. It is also unclear how the learning these teachers experience in foreign settings is reflected in their engagement in the practices and activities of schools and classrooms upon returning to their home country. Therefore, this paper reports the results of a study that explores the perspectives and experiences of one group of in-service mainland Chinese teachers who undertook professional development in Hong Kong. Grounded in a theory of teacher identity construction and using in-depth interviews, results suggest that the teacher’s identities were shaped by the learning they experienced during professional development. However, following their return to teaching positions in mainland China, relations of power within their schools blocked the construction of their preferred teacher identities in practice. Suggestions are made for supporting the identity construction aims of teachers who undertake international professional development and implications for future research are considered. Copyright © 2020 National Institute of Education, Singapore.

Research findings: This study explored the latent structure of socioemotional competence among Chinese kindergarten children in Hong Kong, China, developing and validating a culturally relevant, teacher-reported measure, the Chinese Inventory of Children’s Socioemotional Competence (CICSEC). Cross-sectional questionnaire data were collected on two samples of children from Hong Kong (N₁ = 1,731; N₂ = 475). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed that, children’s socioemotional competence was best represented by a two-level, four-factor model, a model that was invariant across child gender and grade levels. Four first-level factors, cognitive control, emotion expressivity, empathy and prosocial behaviors, and emotion regulation, were identified, and they were subsumed under a second-level, overarching factor: socioemotional competence. CICSEC demonstrated many good psychometric properties: The entire scale and the four subscales exhibited excellent internal consistencies. Moreover, it demonstrated criterion validity by being correlated positively with school readiness and negatively with problem behaviors. It also demonstrated incremental validity by explaining unique variance in school readiness, above and beyond an existing measure of children’s socioemotional competence. Practice or policy: Findings pointed to the advantages of using culturally specific, locally derived measures in assessing socioemotional competence and understanding child adjustment. Copyright © 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

As a consequence of English developing into a global language, new varieties of English have emerged and the language has assumed the role of a common medium of communication among speakers of different ethnolinguistic backgrounds. When Hong Kong was transforming from a British colony into “Asia’s World City” after its sovereignty was returned to China, the notions of “World Englishes” (WE) and “English as a Lingua Franca” (ELF) were also introduced to teacher-trainees taking English as their major subject in a local university in Hong Kong. Despite this, preference for the native English models seemed to prevail. This article examines the extent to which ELF was a rhetoric rather than a reality as perceived by this group of students. Through the Verbal-guise Technique and group interviews, the article examined the attitudes of 105 English teacher-trainees in Hong Kong towards four native and three Asian speech samples of English (including their own). The results showed that although the respondents displayed good confidence in their own accent and positive attitudes towards all speakers, their strong preference for the American and British models remained deep-rooted, suggesting that a linguistic hierarchy exists even in the WE paradigm. Copyright © 2020 Informa UK Limited.

This research aimed to develop a short form of the Self-assessment Practices Scale (SaPS). Guided by a process model of self-assessment, the SaPS scale was designed to assess the actions students engage in during the self-assessment process. The data used for developing the original 20-item SaPS (SaPS-20), i.e., 1,416 Hong Kong students ranging from Primary 4 to Secondary 3, were reanalyzed, and a 12-item short form (SaPS-SF) was developed. Factor analysis and Rasch analysis were applied in complementary ways to examine the psychometric properties of the SaPS-SF. The results showed that factor structure of the original scale held in the SaPS-SF, and all items fitted the Rasch model requirements sufficiently and measured the constructs as theorized. The findings presented in this study facilitate the measurement of self-assessment practice in a parsimonious and effective way. Copyright © 2020 Yan.

Under 'One Country, Two Systems', 'good citizens' ‐ as supported by pro-democratic positions ‐ and 'good citizens' ‐ as promoted by the Chinese government ‐ are seemingly in contradiction with each another based on their values and ideologies in Hong Kong. The competing values of citizenship are demonstrated by deep divisions within Hong Kong society, with pro-democratic groups advocating democratic values and initiating societal transformation, and their pro-establishment counterparts highlighting patriotic values and sustaining the status quo. From an educational perspective, teachers take on an essential role in the implementation of education policies designed to cultivate students who are 'good citizens'. This research employed a mixed-methods approach to examine Hong Kong teachers' perceptions of 'good citizens' based on their affinity with democratic and patriotic values. The findings indicated that rather than conflicting, patriotic values tended to be complementary to democratic values. Moreover, critical patriotic citizens with multiple identities who participate rationally and constructively in social and political activities might be more likely to facilitate democratic development in Hong Kong. These findings have implications for policy-makers responsible for the citizenship education and preparation of future citizens living within polarized and pluralistic societies, and they highlight the value of learning to live together in a complex world. Copyright © 2019 Intellect Ltd Article.

The role of emotions in student engagement has been examined in many studies. However, little is known about how emotional intelligence (EI) is related to engagement and other key learning outcomes in higher education. To fill this gap, this study examined how EI is associated with student engagement and how EI and engagement jointly predict key learning outcomes in higher education, including the students’ GPA, generic outcomes, and satisfaction with the university experience. The study adopted a prospective longitudinal design involving 560 first-year students from 10 faculties of a university in Hong Kong. The data were collected at two-time points, namely before the start and after the end of the students’ first year in the university. Structural equation modeling was employed to test the measurement and hypothesized models. Results indicated that EI positively predicted all dimensions of student engagement and promoted key learning outcomes (including GPA, generic learning outcomes, and students’ satisfaction with the university) via the different dimensions of student engagement. The model also explained 16%, 44%, and 38% of the students’ GPA, generic learning outcomes, and satisfaction with their university experience, respectively. This study provides empirical evidence on the positive effect of EI on the students’ optimal functioning in the higher education context. Implications of the findings are discussed. Copyright © 2020 Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada, Lisboa and Springer Nature B.V.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to systematically analyze the neoliberal challenges and problems facing public schools in the particular Hong Kong context.Design/methodology/approach: Based on a systematic and critical analysis on the history and socio-political context of Hong Kong's school policies and practice as well as the official documents and statistics, this paper examines the impacts of neoliberalism in four main aspects of school education in Hong Kong: school governance, accountability, privatization and government expenditure.Findings: Convergence, as well as deviation, on neoliberal globalization occurs in the particular Hong Kong context. School bureaucracy has irresistibly expanded. Policymakers have placed increasing emphasis on instrumentally evaluating schools while decentralizing, diversifying and privatizing education. School leadership has become focused solely on succeeding within those imposed performance management and metrics, pulling ahead of school competitions and prioritizing easily quantifiable and measurable tasks. Teachers have faced a potential threat from the loss of autonomy through the market logic and consumerist metrics. The rise of privatized education has further intensified school practices based on competitiveness and performativity. On the other hand, resource cutbacks and financial constraints – problems that are generally inflicted by neoliberal discourse – have rarely occurred in Hong Kong.Research limitations/implications: This study is part of concerted efforts in research that adopts the comparative and critical perspectives emerging from different social contexts to consider and flesh out how neoliberalism look across the school systems, how it challenges the systems differently, and how it evokes various responses from within the systems (Apple, 2001). Taken all the efforts together, a finely nuanced understanding of the trails of neoliberalism can help collectively re-discover school education as a social good

This paper draws on the experiences of nine secondary school teachers in Hong Kong who conducted practitioner research (PR) in their Liberal Studies classrooms. The purpose of the study is to 1) investigate the impact and effectiveness of PR as a teacher professional development strategy and 2) identify effective support from the university team addressing the challenges relevant to an Asia-Pacific context. The study employed a qualitative design. Data were drawn from teacher interviews, meetings between the research team and the teachers, school documents and field notes. Findings suggest that while contextual challenges exist, PR is an effective approach for teacher professional development. Teachers perceived the direct impact of PR as observing the improvement of pupil performance and engagement, and a readiness to adopt new teaching strategies. Teachers also reflected on the benefits of professional development as related to the use of evidence to support reflection on pupil learning and teaching, and redefining teachers’ roles. The findings provide insight into designing effective support and collaborative strategies for PR. With the support of the findings, a feasible approach to PR as a teacher professional development strategy relevant to an Asia-Pacific context is proposed. Copyright © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Since 1989 the Hong Kong government has taken an active interest in environmental education. The Guidelines on Environmental Education in Schools was issued in 1992 and both government departments and non‐governmental environmental organisations made efforts to promote the implementation of this curriculum change. However, there has developed a gap between the rhetoric of the ‘Guidelines’ and actual practice. Environmental emphasis has been primarily subject based and institutional commitment to environmental education in schools has been unsatisfactory. There are needs for policy reforms, teacher education curriculum and environmental education curriculum reforms and improved curriculum strategies such as resource provision and in‐service education. Copyright © 1997 Carfax Publishing Ltd.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to highlight the urgent need for a genuinely effective and attainable citizenship education model in Hong Kong’s schools, which focusses on promoting student participation in school governance. It is an empirical citizenship education management model for school leaders that illustrates the predictive effects of personally responsible, participatory, justice-oriented and patriotic citizenship, necessarily supported by school management practices, school ethos and teacher beliefs.Design/methodology/approach - A total of 3,209 students from 51 secondary schools in Hong Kong participated in a quasi-experimental design questionnaire survey. A structural equation model (SEM) was applied to confirm the model.Findings - The results of the SEM show that the values and cultural practices held by a school’s teachers drive the implementation of its citizenship education. Moreover, it is well known that organizational values can exert a powerful influence and it is the same within educational structures: management practices in schools have an impact on ethos, teachers’ beliefs and student participation in school governance.Practical implications - The paper provides practical proposals for school leaders to create opportunities for student participation in school governance.Originality/value - This study builds on existing literature and provides school leaders with a practical model for implementing student participation in school governance. Copyright © 2019 Emerald Publishing Limited.