This article reports on a qualitative study conducted at primary schools in Hong Kong exploring the use of microlearning to support the self-directed continuing professional development (CPD) of English language teachers. Microlearning refers to short, concise, and easily consumable segments of learning about a knowledge point or skill. These activities tend to be multimodal and delivered through digital platforms, making them accessible anytime and anywhere. Currently, little is known about teachers’ perceptions of microlearning. To address this gap, we developed and delivered a mobile course that followed a microlearning approach and covered various aspects of digital technologies and English language teaching. Eight primary school English teachers engaged in the course and shared their perceptions of the experience in semi-structured interviews. The findings suggest that they found microlearning to be more enriching and conducive to developing their digital competence than traditional CPD. It allowed them to address their immediate needs, develop practical skills, and integrate technology into their practices. The study provides important insights into the use of microlearning to support self-directed CPD. Copyright © 2024 The Open University.

This chapter reports the struggles of one group of ethnic minority early career teachers (EMECTs) to construct their personal and professional identities in Hong Kong. Although all early career teachers will, at times, encounter tensions as they struggle to construct, sustain, and advance their preferred teacher identities, EMECTs, because they are part of a group that lives within particular and possibly pejorative societal discourses about ethnic minority populations in Hong Kong, face additional challenges to construct their teacher identities. Nevertheless, the voices of these teachers have hitherto been largely absent from the literature. This chapter addresses this gap in current knowledge by using a narrative short story approach to explore these voices. Grounded in Bakhtin’s framework, the narratives reported in this chapter reveal discursive tensions in which EMECTs’ desire to construct their professional identities comes into tension with their identification by others as members of ethnic groups within Hong Kong. Results underscore the role of relations of power, as discourses compete to define what it means to be an EMECT in Hong Kong. Implications for supporting the identity construction efforts of these teachers are discussed and suggestions for future research are considered. © 2024 selection and editorial matter, Zia Tajeddin and Bedrettin Yazan; individual chapters, the contributors.

Background: Preschool teachers’ well-being is positively associated with their students’ development and learning outcomes. Developing a positive psychological intervention that can foster preschool teachers’ well-being would be essential.Purpose: This study examined the effects of an intervention based on the PERMA (i.e., positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment) model on well-being outcomes among preschool teachers in Hong Kong.Method: We recruited 116 preschool teachers (Mage = 34.14 years, SD = 10.17, range = 21–59; female = 98.51%). Participants were randomly assigned to the intervention (n = 51; received four online workshops that cultivated the PERMA dimensions in 4 weeks) and waitlist control group (n = 65; only received the workshops after the data collection). Participants completed a survey that measured the PERMA dimensions of well-being at baseline 4- and 8-week follow-up occasions. MANCOVA and ANCOVA, controlling for gender, age, and teaching experience, were employed to examine the intervention effects.Results: A significant time x group interaction effect was found in the MANCOVA, Wilks’ Lambda F(10,102) = 2.19, p = .02, η2 = .18. The results of ANCOVA revealed that participants in the intervention group scored significantly higher on engagement, relationship, and accomplishment (η2 = .02 to .05, p < .05) than those in the control condition across time.Conclusion(s): Our findings highlighted the effects of PERMA-based interventions to promote mental health of preschool teachers. Teachers are encouraged to engage in positive psychological activities (e.g., positive reappraisal and self-compassion) to cultivate their well-being. Copyright © 2023 ICBM.

Earlier work has been well-documented how emotional of teaching connecting with professionalism and affected by moral purpose of teachers, cultures, and contexts (Day & Qing, 2009; O’ Connor, 2008). However, there is a missing link to explore how teachers interpret emotional experiences from ethical dilemmas encountered at work. Using social constructivist perspective, this study argues that emotional experiences are conditioned by the contexts in which social interactions with students, parents and other colleagues take place (Lasky, 2005; Oplatka & Arar, 2019). This qualitative study attempts to understand kindergarten teachers’ emotional experiences by analyzing how they perceive and navigate the ethical dilemmas in work. An interpretive approach is applied with interview data collected from twelve Hong Kong kindergarten teachers. Data are analyzed inductively based on descriptions of critical incident cases reported. Researchers interpreted, coded, and grouped data into themes. The interview quotes exhibit that teachers’ emotions are contextually bounded. The dilemmatic experiences stemmed from teachers can be characterized into three ethical considerations: Role of empathy and care, culture of reciprocal trust, and dispositions related to cultural responsiveness. The discussion will contribute to the depictions of emotional experience, especially teachers are facing multiple challenges in working with different stakeholders. It also gives us some insights into how teachers develop ethical judgment for dealing with the situations given in such critical incident cases. Copyright © 2023 ISA, International Sociological Association.

Within the early childhood context, kindergarten teachers encounter day-to-day ethical dilemmas. These relate to the multiple obligations and responsibilities that kindergarten teachers have when working with different stakeholders, such as children, families, colleagues, organizations, and policy makers (Dahlberg & Moss, 2005; Feeney & Freeman, 2007). Although codes of ethics for teaching profession have been developed and applied in the worldwide, understanding professional ethics of early childhood teachers has been an underdeveloped area of study in Hong Kong. Using the ethical codes from three counties as the base, this study attempts to explore and develop the principles of professional ethics for Hong Kong early childhood sector. Those principles are conceived as an essential part of the professional repertoire which helps teachers make judgment and choices of action in the real-life workplace (Campbell, 2000; Mahoney, 2008). However, those principles are not exhaustive nor applicable to every situation. This study reports the suggested principles of professional ethics which are built on reviewing the extant ethical codes from international and regional contexts and collecting qualitative data from the semi-structured interviews with a total of 13 pre-service and in-service teachers. Findings reveals that professional ethics among early childhood education can be conceptualized into five domains. The interview data also reflect that the dimensions and meanings of professional ethics are varied among pre-service and in-service teachers. This study contributes to articulate dialogues about the notions of professional value, moral reasoning, professional autonomy, and teacher identity. Findings of this study reaffirm the responsibilities and obligations of kindergarten teachers, and this could be seen as a source of insights into the ethical base of teacher professionalism in Hong Kong early childhood context. Copyright © 2023 ISA, International Sociological Association

Since the public release of ChatGPT in November 2022, generative AI tools—capable of creating human-like content such as audio, code, images, text, simulations, 3D objects, and videos—have gained significant attention. While the impact of these tools on language teaching and learning has been widely speculated, the perspective of language teacher educators concerning their influence on initial language teacher education (ILTE) remains unexplored. This study investigates how teacher educators, who play a crucial role in adapting ILTE to technological advancements, perceive the effects of generative AI tools on ILTE. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with thirteen English language teacher educators from all four Hong Kong government-funded universities offering ILTE. Findings reveal that participants believe generative AI tools will substantially affect the ILTE curriculum, instruction, and assessment. However, most participants believed they lacked the confidence and competence to address the implications of generative AI tools effectively. This study highlights the need for further research and training to support teacher educators in adapting ILTE to the emerging influence of generative AI. Copyright © 2024 The Authors.

This paper captures the group dynamics underpinning preservice teacher identity formation to understand how childhood schooling and teacher education shape the teaching metaphors teachers construct of intercultural education. We propose a theory of identity grafting (IG) for a precise framing of the diverse ways teachers identify with intercultural education vis-à-vis other pre-established aspects of their teacher identities. Studying their IGs helped us connect the preservice teachers’ experiences with the experiences of other teachers that had emerged in global literature. We draw insights from our efforts to co-construct with preservice teachers their professional development in facilitating intercultural education. Adapting the activities based on their responses, we co-constructed with each other during the workshop teacher identities with a sense of connectedness between intercultural education and other pedagogical forms. We observed preservice teachers as we facilitated their discussions, employing ethnographic approaches to immerse ourselves in the interactions of the workshop participants. The findings revealed that preservice teachers had become more mindful of the implications of their intercultural education practices after having reflective dialogues with each other. However, although the teachers successfully integrated each other's views about intercultural education practices, this could not be sustained when they attempted to contextualize these efforts. The teachers could not reconcile their disparate childhood experiences with cultural diversity as students graduating from schools with differing academic performance rankings (school banding). Therefore, they struggled to connect their experiences with other pedagogical forms that they had previously encountered. Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Developing cultural inclusiveness has been a prominent agenda in European and North American teacher preparation programmes. Beyond these societies, however, discussion on teacher education programme diversity remains tokenistic. Hong Kong, a city often marketed as Asia's World City, is not an exception, given the relatively recent history in the representation of minority groups and the enactment of an anti-racial discrimination ordinance in 2009. This lacuna thus raises questions about teachers’ preparedness to engage with the growing concerns for educational equity for ethnically diverse learners. This chapter describes and reflects on an informal learning programme within a Hong Kong university that has taken up the challenge of engaging pre-service teachers more explicitly about cultural diversity. The informal programme applies a ‘to know, to care, to act’ approach in collaboration with a social enterprise to offer students virtual experiential learning opportunities with ethnically diverse communities. The programme aimed at developing learners’ global competence as aspiring teachers of diverse learners. In doing so, this chapter advances theoretical arguments about merging global and multicultural education frameworks. This is a means to foster contact and learning between pre-service teachers and ethnically diverse learners and provides a pathway for promoting cultural inclusion in schools. Copyright © 2024 selection and editorial matter, Paul Downes, Jim Anderson, Alireza Behtoui and Lore Van Praag; individual chapters, the contributors.

This article presents a study that examines the impact of a Philosophy for Children (P4C) program on teachers in Hong Kong, specifically focusing on its effectiveness in fostering dialogic and inquiry-based teaching approaches. While dialogic teaching has been acknowledged as beneficial for cultivating vital competencies such as creativity, critical thinking, and communication skills, existing literature reveals a prevalent tendency towards monologic teacher-student interactions across various subjects, grades, and countries. By providing training and support to teachers, enabling them to implement P4C in Integrated Humanities and English lessons, this study aimed to evaluate the program’s effectiveness in enhancing teachers’ classroom practices. The results indicated that P4C significantly contributed to improving teachers’ ability to engage in dialogic and inquiry-based teaching, thereby enhancing their overall effectiveness in the classroom. These findings highlight the significant role of P4C in promoting teachers’ professional development and its relevance to innovative teaching pedagogies in higher education. Copyright © 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.