Enormous variation exists among nations and regions in their inclusive education provisions. In addition to comparisons based on policy documents and figures, in-depth and contextually grounded comparative studies involving qualitative data based on stakeholder’ experiences are needed, especially between western and Asian regions or nations where socioeconomic and cultural contexts vary greatly. This study thus compared how the conceptualization of inclusive education and elements that affected inclusive education in Guam and Hong Kong where vastly different socioeconomic, and cultural contexts were present. A qualitative approach of interviewing school leaders was adopted to permit an in-depth understanding of these contexts. Findings affirmed the significance of contextual analysis in understanding the conceptualization and practices of inclusive education in the two study sites. It was concluded that more cross-national qualitative studies are needed to examine contextual factors for meaningful understandings of school reform policies, practices, and challenges.

The present investigation validated a short form of Career Development Self-Efficacy Inventory (CD-SEI) in students with a wide range of special educational needs (SEN). Participants were a sample of S3 to S6 SEN students who have been integrated in regular schools in Hong Kong (N =103). The SF-CD-SEI consists of five key domains to assess students' self-efficacy in career planning, career goal setting, training selection, job hunt preparation, and job hunting. The results showed good reliability estimates for the whole scale and for all five sub-scales. Based on previous research on validating the complete CD-SEI, a series of confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were performed to test three competing models of the internal structure of the SF-CD-SEI. The results showed the high order model (model 3) had the best model fit compared to one general factor model (model 1) and five-factor model (model 2). These findings were consistent with those identified in previous studies with non-SEN students. The SF-CD-SEI provides researchers, educators and practitioners a useful instrument to assess SEN students' competences in career planning in order to develop self-efficacy enhancement interventions to cater for these students' career development needs.
[Copyright © 2015 The Special Education Society of Hong Kong Ltd.]

升讀副學士課程的學生當中，不少對教育工作是抱有熱誠與希望的。香港推行融合教育已有 15 年之久，平等機會委員會在其《融合教育制度下殘疾學生的平等學習機會研究》鄭重地指出準教師於大學畢業前的特殊教育需要(SEN)的培訓是香港融合教育走向成功的一個路向。本研究以問卷形式，收集了副學士在接受培訓課前並於完成培訓及實習後對支援有特殊學習需要的學生在學習、教學支援、學生行為管理、與他人合作和行政支援的看法，以作為副學士課程的學生經歷了接觸及教育有特殊學習需要的學生之後感受的對比。數據分析顯示副學士對融合生的觀感正面，完成培訓及實習後於「教學支援」和「學生行為管理」方面有顯著的正增長。他們勇於接受 SEN 的個別差異，態度正確。需要指出的是若以男性與女性的副學士作對比時，女性對培訓的增長較男性大。此外，是次研究留意到副學士學生相當有耐性，可塑性極高。因此，若她/他們欲投身教育界，副學士畢業生會是擔任教學助理 (Teaching Assistant, TA) 的合適人選。
[Copyright © 2016 特殊教育學會有限公司.]

很多年前，參與融合教育計劃的學校多會聘用教學助理來協助照顧有特殊教育需要的學生,當時的聘用條件只需要中五學歷，有愛心及耐性，工作多集中在協助教師準備教材及於班房內提供協助，以文書工作為主。隨著時間的遷移，學校聘用教學助理的條件已經改變，對教學助理在學校所擔當的角色及職能亦有所改變。自 2008 年起，香港教育大學特殊學習需要與融合教育中心多次獲教育局委托開辦普通學校教學助理工作坊來培訓教學助理有關特殊教育需要知識及與教師協作的技巧，透過培訓期間的聚焦討論及課程問卷調查，發現現時教學助理的入職條件及工作跟融合教育推展初期有很大的改變。本研究嘗試探討現時教學助理的聘用要求及所擔當的工作，以了解教學助理在學歷、工作、學校期望及能力上的改變，如何適切現時融合教育的支援，並作出相關建議。
[Copyright © 2016 特殊教育學會有限公司.]

It has been estimated that over 37,000 students with special educational needs (SEN) study in ordinary mainstream school in Hong Kong, with an average of 37 students with SEN in a school. Since 1997, inclusive practice in Hong Kong has been implemented with great determination and wide school coverage. The Chief Executive of Hong Kong, in his 2015 Policy Address, further announced a HK$200 million three-year programme titled "Provision of funding for ordinary schools to arrange special educational needs coordinators (SENCOs)". Taken together with the previous policy implemented by the Education Bureau in 2008, of funding additional leadership positions in shaping school-wide development in inclusive education, it has become clear that the SENCOs will play an increasingly important role in strengthening the implementation of inclusive education (IE) in Hong Kong. By using qualitative semi-structured interviews of the SENCO, school principal and six students from each participating school in this pilot study, this paper explored effects of the new SENCOs’ role on and values added to inclusive practices in support of special educational needs in the pilot schools in contrast to the current practices in non-pilot schools. The contextual difference in support of SEN by the pilot and non-pilot schools was particularly noted. Preliminary findings that have a direct bearing on the effectiveness of SENCO’s role, responsibilities and support in the pilot schools that could provide empirical evidences of defining value-added inclusive practices will be discussed.

This study examined the self-efficacy of TAs in Hong Kong. Quantitative method was adopted. 463 TAs had participated in this study, and their self-efficacy had been tested in 5 domains: teaching support, learning support, behavior management, cooperation and administrative support. The findings were obtained by the means of “Teaching assistant efficacy scale” which was developed by Yan, Lum, Lui, Chu and Lui (2015). Data indicated that TAs were most confident in cooperation and least confident in teaching support and behaviour management. Training to support students with special education needs (SEN) were found to contribute to TAs’ self-efficacy in all 5 domains. However, no differences were found among different training hours because the training cannot meet the needs of TA. This paper suggested reforming the TA training program to increase TAs’ self-efficacy.

This study examines the impact of a revised one-week training course on teacher self-efficacy in terms of improving teaching and learning strategies and classroom management to support students with special educational needs (SEN) in ordinary schools in Hong Kong. Various teacher-related variables (i.e., level of prior training in special education, confidence in teaching students with SEN, knowledge of legislation and policies, years of teaching, teaching experience with students with SEN, gender, and school type) are analyzed among 347 regular primary and secondary teachers. Teacher confidence and school type are determined to be significant predictors for the self-efficacy of teachers in inclusive education.
[Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.]

Enormous variation exists among nations and regions in their inclusive education provisions. In addition to comparisons based on policy documents and figures, in-depth and contextually grounded comparative studies involving qualitative data based on stakeholder’ experiences are needed, especially between western and Asian regions or nations where socio-economic and cultural contexts vary greatly. This article examined and compared how the conceptualization of inclusive education and elements that affected school leaders’ decisions to participate in inclusive education in Guam and Hong Kong where vastly different socio-economic and cultural contexts were present. An interpretive qualitative approach of interviewing school leaders was adopted to permit an in-depth understanding of these contexts. Findings revealed that the legislation-based versus the cultural heritage of Confucianism and the geographical location versus the elite education system of Guam and Hong Kong were key contexts affecting conceptualizations and challenges in the two regions. Large scale cross-national qualitative studies are called for to examine contextual factors from other key stakeholders, to give meaning to statistical figures and policy documents, and to offer more meaningful interpretation of the relationship between national contexts and inclusive education provisions.
[Copyright © 2017 Whole Schooling Press.]

The roles of principal leadership in change management have long been documented. The key concern to examine in this study was the dilemmas and measures confronting principals’ when they led changes to instigate inclusive education in Hong Kong. Thus, this paper aims to report sources of dilemmas and how principals tackled them in the change process. Ten principals of schools recognized for effective inclusive education practices were interviewed in a qualitative study. Findings suggested that the process of leading change was very complex. Two dilemmas were identified: (a) principals’ struggles between benefits and issues of participating in inclusive education and (b) autocratic initial decisions versus need for staff involvement. The second dilemma stemmed from not involving key staff while the implementation required their active participation. Thus, the existing organizational culture and personnel capacities became obstacles required for the success of inclusive education. The leadership measures to tackle the obstacles began by building a shared vision which in turn required both transactional and transformational leadership activities in order to increase teacher commitment to reforms. This study has contributed to change leadership theories in affirming the need to include socio-political contexts in examining leadership decisions toward school reforms.
[Copyright © 2017 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.]