This study's principal objective was to explore the statistically predictive power of academics' research agendas for their job dissatisfaction beyond demographics. Five hundred and forty-seven academics from the eight publicly funded universities in Hong Kong responded to the Multi-Dimensional Research Agenda Inventory-12 (MDRAI-12) and the Job Dissatisfaction Scale (JDS). Three key findings were obtained. First, good psychometrics for the MDRAI-12 and the JDS were obtained. Second, research agendas varied by age, gender, academic rank, and academic discipline, while job dissatisfaction varied by age, academic rank, and institutional ranking. Third and most importantly, when age, gender, academic rank, academic discipline, and institutional ranking were statistically controlled, trailblazing research agendas generally negatively contributed to job dissatisfaction, whereas a cohesive (conservative) research agenda positively predicted job dissatisfaction, as hypothesized. Implications of the findings are discussed for academics and university senior managers. Copyright © 2023 Springer Nature.

With the COVID-19 outbreak, emergency remote teaching -- an unprepared distant mode of education became the only possible alternative for schools. The present large-scale survey with 3,672 Grade 3 and 9 students, their parents, and 863 teachers/principals was conducted in the metropolitan city of Hong Kong after half a year of school lockdown. Results showed teachers, principals, and parents were worried about students' inability to concentrate and learn without teachers' explanations. In contrast, students, particularly younger ones, were less affected. They perceived their academic achievement was not worsened and they were more lively. Generally, lack of computers and stable internet was not seen as problems. Notably, socially disadvantaged students were not different in their perceived challenges, affects, life satisfaction, or perceived academic achievement. For cities with adequate provision of computers and internet facilities, the pandemic probably forced a positive and giant leap in using advanced technologies and pedagogies. Copyright © 2023 Springer.

Teachers’ beliefs influence educational goals, teaching practices, and learning outcomes, and are thus of great importance for civics research. This comparative study used semi-structured interviews with 17 teachers in Hong Kong and Germany conducted in 2020 to examine teachers’ beliefs about digital citizenship and education in digital societies. The teachers acknowledged the positive influences of digitalization on information gathering and participation opportunities. They also highlighted the threat of manipulation and interference by antidemocratic actors but rarely reflected on the influences of digitalization on the citizenship concept. Teacher education should facilitate discourses about digital citizenship that go beyond traditional competence models. Copyright © 2023 Elsevier.

This chapter traces one student teacher's (Joan) experiences of learning to teach English as a second language in a cross-cultural context during a teaching practicum in Hong Kong. The school-based practicum is a core component of many initial teacher education programmes. During this induction period, usually an 8-week block, student teachers are placed in local schools to learn how to integrate theories into practice in real teaching situations. Specifically, I uncover how Joan grappled with the tensions and complexities of teaching young learners from a different cultural and linguistic background, in a small elementary school situated in the borderland between Hong Kong (an autonomous region of China) and Shenzhen (a province of Mainland China). Copyright © 2023 Emerald Publishing Limited.

This paper studies the identity dilemmas of a teacher negotiating the tensions underpinning the transformations in the language profile of a Hong Kong primary school. Using a rigorous triangulation of written journals and in-depth interviews, the study reconstructs a case narrative personified as “Lily”, an English language teacher at “Lexis Elementary”, a school that previously struggled with low student enrolments. As a solution, the school now enrols students from Mainland China, where the spoken language is Mandarin rather than Cantonese spoken in Hong Kong. Resulting tensions arose because of transformations in the school’s language profile. Lily constructs the language terrain she negotiates in her interactions with cross-border Mainland Chinese and local Hong Kong parents and students, and her responses to interactions among students. This paper provides original conceptual tools to explain complex “born-again” sentiments that trigger people to act in reverse against the stipulated conditions of the powerful. The concept of “born-again reversals” connects to global literature on resistance against “language learning for economic benefits”. Insights from this study reconcile theoretical debates on using economic power as soft power, providing teachers with the conceptual tools to understand the identity dilemmas they experience with language planning initiatives worldwide. Copyright © 2023 National Institute of Education, Singapore.

Teachers’ emotions and well-being are critical not only for their personal and professional development but also for facilitating holistic development of students. With increasing risks and uncertainties from sociopolitical changes and the global pandemic, teachers are facing tremendous stress which has affected their self-efficacy. This cross-sectional study of 1614 teachers from 50 primary schools in Hong Kong investigates how teachers’ perception of emotional competences and their emotional labour strategies relate to their self-efficacy in moral and character education via confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. The results reveal that both teachers’ emotional competences and teachers’ emotional labour strategies are positively associated with teachers’ self-efficacy in moral and character education. Understanding the relationships among emotional competences, emotional labour strategies and teachers' self-efficacy may be the first step in intervention implementation and effective policy development that could improve teachers’ self-efficacy in their provision of moral and character education. Copyright © 2023 Intellect Ltd.

This study explores the readiness of pre-service primary school teachers in Hong Kong to develop future-ready learners. Societal advances require the education sector to continuously update curricula to prepare young people for the future. Schools must equip students with the flexibility to use technologies that have not yet been invented and solve unanticipated problems. In this qualitative study, we analysed the perceptions of 15 pre-service primary school English language teachers at a university in Hong Kong. The study focused on the knowledge and learning environment necessary for developing future-ready learners. Via semi-structured interviews, the findings revealed that the participants believed it is essential to integrate technology into classrooms to address future digital literacy needs. They also noted that students must develop critical thinking skills, problem-solving skills, and soft skills to succeed in the future. The findings also suggest that teachers need to be innovative and adaptable in their pedagogical approaches as the existing primary school curriculum is not cultivating learners’ future-readiness. Copyright © 2023 National Institute of Education, Singapore.

This study investigated 14 Hong Kong primary school teachers’ conceptions of and concerns about the implementation of integrated STEM education in primary school. Data were collected through concept maps and interviews with the teachers. Results revealed that in addition to representing STEM as simplistic models (e.g., STEM as an acronym), the teachers mostly seemed to model STEM integration conceptually using integrated disciplines, science as context, or real-world problem solving as context. Not many teachers were found to represent STEM using engineering design progress as context. Results also indicated that the teachers expressed intense concerns regarding personal inadequacy of STEM knowledge or skills (personal), student outcomes of STEM education (consequence), and limited instructional time (management). This study suggested providing sustained teacher professional development, creating supportive school environments, and building a collaborative STEM community as strategies to facilitate changes in teachers’ concerns and to advance STEM implementation in primary schools. Copyright © 2022 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden.

Procrastination tendencies are prevalent and are associated with negative psychosocial outcomes. However, how preservice teachers’ procrastination tendencies prior to the COVID-19 pandemic link to their experiences during and after the COVID-19 pandemic have not been investigated. The present study collected data from three time points, examining how preservice teachers’ procrastination tendencies before the COVID-19 pandemic related to their life satisfaction at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and their perceived work stress and the COVID-19 impact two and a half years after the outbreak of the pandemic. A total of 385 preservice teachers from Hong Kong were included in this study. Results from structural equation modeling revealed that preservice teachers’ higher procrastination tendencies before the COVID-19 pandemic were associated with lower life satisfaction at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which in turn was linked to higher perceived work stress and a more severe COVID-19 impact two and a half years after the COVID-19 outbreak. The results indicated that preservice teachers with procrastination tendencies may be especially vulnerable to experiencing work stress and life disruption in the face of traumatic events or crises. The findings provide valuable insights to both researchers and practitioners, highlighting the importance of addressing procrastination tendencies among preservice teachers. Copyright © 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.