The formation of attitude towards gender roles begins at an early age and it is important for the education system to address the factors involved. Textbooks play an important role in local early childhood education settings. It is uncertain that the extent to which this issue has been addressed sufficiently. This paper discusses the depiction of gender roles in the thematic subject – Integrated Curriculum from Kindergartens 1 to 3. a questionnaire was distributed to 224 serving Kindergarten teachers attending the Certificate in Kindergarten Education Programme at the Hong Kong Institute of Education to determine the most commonly used publisher. A case study was employed to review the thematic textbooks published by the chosen publishers. Data collection methods included textbook content analysis and focused group teacher interviews. Implications and recommendations were made for kindergarten teachers, curriculum developers and teacher educators.

Gender issues are some of the core concerns of policy, practice and provision in relation to education. There is a popular notion that boys are naughty while girls are good mannered in primary schools. In many studies, boys were found to engage in more rough-and tumble play and physical fighting than do girls (Thorne, 2002). It seems that it is more difficult for teachers to deal with boys than with girls. However, in the emerging literature, within girls, there are different types of emotional and behavioral problems, such as aggression, which is not unusual that teachers may face with. Research with empirical data on how teachers help girls with emotional and behavioral problems is spare. In order to understand more how teachers in training deal with the gender and the nature of students' problem, this study investigates the responses of pre-service teachers in helping students in a guidance training programme, which is a part of a pre-service new B.Ed. module. The study aims to make some suggestions for effective preparation of the pre-service teachers to play their guidance role in Hong Kong primary schools. In an attempt to explore how pre-service teachers developed their capacity in helping students with different gender and nature of problems, two scenarios were used. Case 1 was a by in a helpless situation (with emotional difficulties) while case 2 was an angry girl with aggressive behavior (with emotional and behavioural difficulties). Qualitative research approach in form of case study was used. The sample, 16 student teachers with some seemed to be very aware of, others largely ignorant about the guidance role of teacher were selected for in-depth interviews to chart their development in the training programme. Their responses for handling of two different cases of pupils' problems in the interview schedule were analyzed. The results of the study show that student teachers had developed their abilities in handling pupils' problems in terms of attitude towards

This paper presents initial findings from a project which focuses on the changing masculinities of Chinese primary school men teachers in Hong Kong, which is a stage II of the a project on Contemporary Chinese primary women teachers' experiences of changing femininities. In this paper, four life stories of men teachers, representing two generations of teachers, will be presented. Bhabha's (1994) concept of a "hybrid" or "in-between" culture - such as when a predominantly Chinese society experiences western colonization and continuing changes in public spheres and Giroux's (1992) notion of "border crossing" will be used as the guiding framework for this study. The research uses qualitative interviews in constructing life histories of men teachers. The paper will present snapshots of these four men teachers in the ways they navigate and experience their changing masculinities both in the primary school workplace and at home in their lived experiences. The four stories show a lot of hybridities and border crossing, creating both tensions and integrations for these men teachers. Implications of this study to teacher education and gender equity education will be discussed. This study will raise fundamental issues for teacher education and professional development of teachers in contexts of cultural shift associated with globalisation. It will also have implications for pedagogy for teaching of personal, social, sex and civic education in schools in the various Chinese communities.

Contrary to the belief that education would empower women to attain a higher degree of equality with men in the society, recent researches in the West tend to indicate that in schools male students are actually favored in the classroom. Sadker & Sadker (1985) found that in all grades and classes of primary schools in the District of Columbia boys dominated the classroom communication with the tacit approval of their teachers. Morgan & Dunn (1988) suggested that boys were more 'visible' in the classroom and were granted more academic leeway. Such bias is taken as one of the factors which contribute to the nurturing of gender characters that dovetail the roles of the two genders in the society. The present study was undertaken to reveal whether newcomers to the teaching profession in Hong Kong will be gender-biased in handling their classes and if so, how and also why. It is hoped that result of the interview will cast light on whether the curriculum of teacher education course should be restructured to enhance the gender-fairness of the student teachers who would soon become the pillar of the teaching profession.

How gender operates is a key factor in the ways in which physical education is organized, taught and experienced by students and teachers. This essay highlights the gendered contours of the history of physical education development in Hong Kong, its Chinese heritage and its colonial foundations - the persistent influence of British approaches to physical education teacher education and the promotion of sport. The paper is a collaborative work between Chinese-born and Western scholars. It examines the relative influences of Chinese attitudes towards gender roles and the active, sporting body and the continued impact of Western approaches to physical education and sport in a post-colonial society.
[Copyright © 2005 Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business.]

This report describes a failed attempt at gender-bias reform among two groups of teacher-trainees of EFL and other subjects in Hong Kong Government schools. The groups are investigated in terms of their demographic background, perceptions of gender-bias in their education, and response to observing gendered classroom interactions. Their classroom observations indicate that urban Asian classroom interactions are gender-biased and that females appear to be both the object and the main perpetrators of such bias. A failed initiative to reform gender-bias reveals such bias to be dynamic, not passive.
[Copyright © 1997 CUHK English Lanuage Teaching Unit.]