Researchers examined the cultural hybridization of Froebel’s principles of autonomy, play, and relationship-based care, which feature prominently in infant-toddler care and education in US, UK, New Zealand, and Hong Kong curriculum/pedagogical frameworks. How are these principles enacted worldwide? Methods: Reviewed data from researchers’ existing larger study that included video-cued, multi-vocal (teachers, families, and researchers) analyses, to identify examples of these principles in action in ‘day-in-the-life’ videos of one-year-olds in each country. Findings: The way Froebel’s principles were enacted differed in specific ways found connected to each country’s broader culture, with Hong Kong demonstrating this most distinctly. Significance: Widely endorsed Froebelian principles are adopted but hybridized to represent each country’s uniqueness and to contribute to transmission of cultural values and norms. Copyright © 2023 AERA.

The Education University of Hong Kong has launched various animation projects, such as "Jockey Club From Words to Culture Programme: An Animated Way to Learn Chinese", "The Animated Chinese History for Curious Mind Project" and "The Life and Values Education Animated Series", to enhance children's interest in learning Chinese language, history, culture, developing their moral characters and positive values through learning the good deeds and achievements of the figures. Past studies have shown that animation teaching can enhance local children's language ability and interest in learning, and is even more effective in developing children's moral values. In this study, students from the Education University of Hong Kong adapted animation materials to suit the age and language proficiency of NCS children. The students used animation as a novel way to teach NCS children. NCS children from four social welfare organizations and schools were used for four to six weeks of intervention. The research questions include (1) How to adapt the animation materials for NCS children? (2) Does the language ability of NCS children improve through teaching with animation? (3) Does the interest of NCS children in language learning improve through teaching with animation? In this way, the features of the teaching materials and pedagogies that can effectively enhance the learning of the Chinese language and culture of NCS students are also summarized in this study. Copyright © 2023 ACEID.

In Hong Kong, around 33,000 non-Chinese speaking ethnic minority (NCS-EM) students were studying in local schools in 2019-2020, and nearly 40% were kindergarten children. However, from 2015 to 2019, the percentage of NCS-EM students admitted to government-funded postsecondary programmes remained 10% lower than that of the overall student population (Legislative Council Secretariat, 2020). Many NCS-EM students have experienced challenges in school adaptation because of difficulties with Chinese language. Studies on NCS-EM children’s problems in Chinese learning revealed that insufficient exposure to Chinese language in children’s daily living made them lag behind their Chinese-speaking peers (Oxfam et al., 2019). Even though some of them were locally born, their Chinese language proficiency, especially in recognizing Chinese characters and writing Chinese characters, remained a concern (Legislative Council Secretariat, 2018; Oxfam et al., 2019). This paper suggests immersing cultural responsiveness in support of NCS-EM children in learning Chinese language and social-emotional skills. The focus will be on teacher professional development, curriculum planning, and learning and teaching. Practical suggestions derived from a five-year Hong Kong based ‘C-for-Chinese@JC’ Project, which underscores the use of culturally responsive education benchmarks in kindergartens, are given. Guidelines for providing support to NCS-EM children for building up a learning environment with equity will be proposed. Copyright © 2023 ACEID.

The persistent challenges posed by COVID-19 and political unrest have urged teacher educators in Hong Kong to develop innovative strategies in curriculum design, pedagogies, and assessment and feedback practices in the online environment. The challenges in online teaching have also encouraged teacher educators to reflect on their practices and conduct practitioner-based research to enhance their scholarship of teaching, to respond to the changing society, changing schools and diverse needs from students. The crises caused by the pandemic of COVID-19 and political unrest have driven almost all school teachers and teacher educators to exercise various modes of online teaching, which undoubtedly presents the importance of technology-supported teaching and learning in schools and in teacher education. In the post-COVID-19 era, technology will continue to be one of the major driving forces of educational changes. However, a few issues concerning the negative impacts of online teaching have been rarely addressed in the existing literature. In this concluding chapter, we look into three issues that are relevant to online teaching in the post-COVID-19 era. They are virtual teaching and technology-enhanced curriculum, social and emotional learning, and digital divide and inequity. The discussion of these issues provides a basis to suggest the ongoing innovations in teacher education and directions that deserve further research in future. Copyright © 2023 selection and editorial matter, Kevin Wai Ho Yung and Huixuan Xu; individual chapters, the contributors.

University closures due to the pandemic have taken learning and teaching from the confines of the physical campus to virtual spaces enabled by digital technologies. In order to ensure the quality of higher education learning and teaching, teaching staff need to be supported with quality professional development (PD) for building their capacity to plan for and implement online learning. It is crucial for universities to design and implement customised PD to address the professional learning needs of the teaching staff. This chapter examines how a faculty-based learning innovation team at a university in Hong Kong has adopted an experiential learning approach to design customised PD programmes for teaching staff to build their capacity to enhance the quality of online learning and teaching. Copyright © 2023 selection and editorial matter, Kevin Wai Ho Yung and Huixuan Xu; individual chapters, the contributors.

Since Ernest Boyer's seminal work on scholarship of the professoriate, the notion of scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) has undergone changes in the higher education landscape. This chapter, partly based on the literature and partly based on the personal experiences and observations arising from my previous and current roles of a university-scholar teacher, former Dean of Education and Vice President (Academic) and Provost in two local universities in Hong Kong, explores issues related to scholarship and leadership of teaching and learning in different roles, formal or informal, in higher education.This chapter consists of two main parts. The first part of this chapter touches upon different perspectives and approaches to SoTL which is linked with, to some extent, student learning and its inquiry and reflection, disciplinary/multidisciplinary perspectives, self and collegial professional development and pedagogical innovation. The second part discusses issues related to leadership of teaching and learning which might cover forging shared vision, providing and sharing examples and practices, creating policies and structures, engaging colleagues and students in and leading collaboration, leveraging technology and resources, offering support and mentoring for colleagues and students in SoTL initiatives and so on. This chapter ends by offering some possible pointers for future SoTL and leadership development in teaching and learning in higher education. Copyright © 2023 selection and editorial matter, Kevin Wai Ho Yung and Huixuan Xu; individual chapters, the contributors.

Due to the social movements in Hong Kong and the outbreak of COVID-19, many non-local PhD students (NLPhDs) were scattered in different locations outside of Hong Kong. Since then, online teaching has been widely adopted in higher education and it affords students with continuable study and research opportunities but NLPhDs still experienced ever-shifting challenges and difficulties. This study draws on qualitative research methods to reveal the experiences of nine NLPhDs from different locations (e.g., Mainland China, Turkey, Vietnam, The Philippines, South Korea and Kazakhstan). Data were collected through in-depth individual interviews with the participants, their reflective journals and follow-up conversations via social networking applications. The findings show that NLPhDs experienced multifarious obstacles in study (suspended work, difficulties in adapting to online learning mode and stagnation in data collection). They had various emotional problems (stress, frustration, demotivation, sense of guilt and so on). However, they exercised agency (e.g., moving to spatially supportive contexts for study, reaching out to extra online resources, seeking supports from supervisors and tackling emotional problems) to overcome the challenges and difficulties. This study offers implications for doctoral students who are facing universal difficulties in times of crisis and their supervisors regarding how to offer appropriate support to their students. Copyright © 2023 selection and editorial matter, Kevin Wai Ho Yung and Huixuan Xu; individual chapters, the contributors.