Despite the crucial importance of teacher impact for a wide range of student and teacher outcomes, it is not clear whether any individual-level factors precede teacher passion and if so how. Drawing on self-regulation theory and the self-regulatory strength model, I propose a theoretical reciprocal model in which teachers’ sleep quality predicts their work enjoyment and engagement in cooperative interaction with others in school, both of which lead to greater work passion. In turn, higher levels of work passion have a reciprocal effect on the teachers’ sleep quality. The model is tested using experience sampling method (ESM) data collected from 137 teacher leaders in Hong Kong and 79 teacher leaders in Shanghai. Teacher leaders responded to short ESM questionnaires three times a day for ten consecutive working days. The results of cross-lagged path analysis support the hypothetical model. The results are interpreted as that nurturing teacher passion is partly a within-person process; teachers’ passion can stem from their own work enjoyment and positive interaction with others in schools, for both of which good quality sleep is helpful. Copyright © 2019 De La Salle University.

Teacher attrition is a perennial problem in many countries around the globe. With attrition especially pronounced amongst early career teachers, efforts to retain and sustain these teachers have highlighted the importance of effective mentoring and support programs within schools. However, less is known about the perceptions and experiences of graduates of initial teacher education (ITE) programs who choose not to enter the teacher profession, therefore not benefiting from such mentoring and support, and subsequently being lost to the profession, potentially forever. Therefore, this paper reports on a qualitative case study that investigated the reasons why one group of graduates from an ITE program in Hong Kong chose not to teach. Using in-depth interviews and grounded in a theory of teacher identity construction, the results reveal how the participants struggled to construct their preferred professional identities, in particular during a teaching practicum, and the role this played in their decision not to enter the teaching profession. Implications for how teacher educators can better support preservice teachers as they struggle to construct their professional identities are considered and suggestions for future research are discussed. Copyright © 2018 Australian Teacher Education Association.

Teachers' negative emotions began to receive attention in the Hong Kong context in the mid-1990s. As negative emotions may affect both teachers' well-being and the quality of their teaching, Hong Kong education policy-makers and educators have used psychological approaches to determine the reasons why teachers experience negative feelings. However, these approaches fail to accommodate the social causes of negative emotions. Therefore, this study investigates the possible social causes of teachers' negative emotions from the perspective of alienation theory. In-depth interviews with 21 teachers in Hong Kong reveal that Hong Kong teachers may be suffering from alienation (characterised by a sense of powerlessness, meaninglessness, isolation, and self-estrangement) due to their experiences of teaching, their employment status, and their structural position in schools, which are related to the occupational and organisational structure of teaching. The findings also indicate that patterns of alienation may differ between more and less experienced teachers.
[Copyright of Discourse-Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education is the property of Routledge Journals, Taylor & Francis Ltd. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2016.1261084]

This study explored the role realization journey of 11 English Teaching Assistants (ETAs) in Hong Kong. Their journey is framed through the lenses of Shulman’s (1987) teaching elements of content pedagogical knowledge, knowledge of learners and their characteristics, and knowledge of educational contexts. Data from four different inquiry methods were analyzed and triangulated to map out the journey of the ETAs. During this journey, the ETAs were faced with demands for content knowledge and teaching whilst encountering educational and cultural differences in terms of students’ learning styles and working environment. The ETAs perceived these experiences as shaping their role as supportive teachers, but hoped for structured professional development to enhance their preparedness and credibility – an implication for teaching assistant training. Fundamentally, the ETAs’ readiness to embrace their role as teaching assistants through the many faces of culture, experiences and challenges surmounts their journey to understand the world of teaching. Copyright © 2011 EERA.

Educational-policy makers worldwide are concerned with finding effective strategies to recruit and retain high-quality teachers. The recruitment of second-career teachers has been seen as one means of fulfilling this aim. Against a background of calls to better understand SCTs, this article reports the results of a qualitative study investigating the experiences of six second-career teachers in Hong Kong. Based on a theoretical framework of teacher-identity construction, discourse analysis was used to explore the participants' perceptions of their professional development. In-depth interviews were conducted to gain detailed insights into how the teachers construct their identities-in-practice and identities-in-discourse within Hong Kong schools. The findings expose tensions between attempts the positioning of SCTs within dominant discourses as 'traditional' and 'conventional' teachers, for example, and the participants' self-positioning in practice as 'innovative' and 'risk-taking' teachers. Ways in SCT agency, and hence identity construction, can be facilitated through the introduction of the innovative pedagogical practices which many SCTs seek to pursue in Hong Kong schools are considered. Copyright © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

This article investigates the experiences in knowledge development and sharing of a group of migrant teachers from different Asian countries who are teaching in secondary schools in Hong Kong. Seeing dispositions as the key to professionalization and professional contributions, it explores the possibilities and challenges in harnessing the professional value of their transnational disposition. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to investigate the participants’ position in the workplace, negotiations of the local curriculum and classroom practice, and professional interactions with colleagues and parents. The findings show that these teachers actively respond to invisibility and marginalization by drawing from their transcultural disposition to creatively but cautiously transform pedagogical practices and discourses. It is found that the presence of migrant professionals in local context provides opportunities for critical reflexivity and transnational awareness among local professionals. It is implied that the changes in thinking and awareness may lead to broad-based ideological and structural changes, which in turn promotes productive knowledge exchange. Copyright © 2017 Oxford University Press.

Background: Research into teacher emotion has attracted increasing attention in the last two decades. The relevance of teacher emotion in education has been highlighted. However, evidence of how teacher emotions impact their teaching approaches is rather limited.Aims: This study investigated the relationship between two self‐report instruments – the Teacher Emotion Inventory and the Approach to Teaching.Sample: There were 1,830 teachers were approached from 43 primary schools in China and 12 primary schools in Hong Kong.Methods: Exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modelling were utilized in the analysis procedure.Results: As a result, a five‐factor TEI model was identified with two positive factors (Joy and Love) and three negative factors (Sadness, Anger, and Fear). A ATI model involved was confirmed with three factors (Knowledge Transmission, Student‐Teacher Interaction, and Student Focus). Structural equation modelling demonstrated that more student‐centred approaches are the consequence of positive teacher emotions while a teacher‐centred approach is the consequence of negative teacher emotions although there are two surprising links.Conclusions: Identifying this pattern of relationships will contribute to understanding the reasons why new teaching strategies are often not adopted despite well‐designed professional programs and educational reform and will provide implications for teaching improvement through teacher emotion. Copyright © 2018 The British Psychological Society.

In recent years, many teachers suffered different kinds of negative emotions in the context of education reforms. A typical explanation was that the education reforms disempowered teachers in teaching, so teachers were forced to do much non-instructional work. Teachers considered their work meaningless but were powerless to change it, and eventually indulged themselves in negative emotions. However, the present research suggested that this explanation had neglected teacher agency and might be incomplete. Arguing from the perspective of social constructionism, the research showed that teachers in Hong Kong experienced negative emotions in education reforms because, on top of the disempowerment, the reforms structurally displaced teachers' educational goals with administrative goals. The goal displacement impeded teachers' evaluation of the instructional values of their work. Thus, teachers perceived their work as inconsistent with their major purpose of teaching (i.e. making a difference) and they felt negative towards work.
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Responses from 309 randomly sampled Hong Kong primary school music teachers to the shortened version of the Chinese Teacher Stress Questionnaire were subjected to a descriptive percentage analysis, one-way ANOVA and independent t test. Obtained results identify five key stressors: "changing education policy of the government"; "being observed by colleague, student teachers, college tutors, inspectors or parents";"too much subject matter to teach"; "inclusive education"; and "additional administrative work". An explanation is offered identifying stressor responses being underpinned by either global or contextual issues, while others by a combination of both. Unlike other studies that found relations between stressors and respondents' individual characteristics, the results of this study uniquely display no significant statistical evidence to link music teachers' stressor response levels with age, teaching experience, education, specialization or teaching-related workload. The evidence here supports the view that stressors are neutral and reported stressor response levels reflect global or contextual factors which can be intensified by a combination of both.
[Copyright of International Journal of Music Education is the property of Sage Publications Ltd..]