Chapters 2 and 3 considered the challenges mainland Chinese preservice teachers experience in becoming English language teachers in Hong Kong. This chapter continues to explore the perceived challenges of becoming an English language teacher in multilingual contexts such as Hong Kong from the perspective of local Hong Kong preservice teachers. The current chapter discusses the results of a qualitative study that aimed to explore how one group of preservice English language teachers in Hong Kong constructed their identities as teachers. Using in-depth interviews to gain a rich understanding of participants’ teacher identity formation in practice and discourse, the perspectives of six preservice teachers about teaching and teachers at the completion of their undergraduate teacher education program are examined. In contrast to the theorization of teacher identity construction, the results suggest that the participants often held rigid views about teaching and how they saw themselves, and others, as teachers. It is argued that this rigidity may lead to antagonistic relations between these preservice teachers and their more experienced colleagues as the participants move into teaching and explores the implications for challenging this rigidity within the context of teacher education programs.
[Copyright © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht]

Educational researchers in Hong Kong has pointed out the inadequacy of the competency-based teacher education program in the past decade. A qualitative pilot study was conducted to examine how an inquiry-based Integrated Field Studies (IFS) course could help to facilitate early childhood teachers to become researchers of their own practice. The research project also examined how their learning experiences facilitate their professional growth throughout the course. The main data source for this study was semi-structured and individual in-depth interviews of in-service early childhood teachers. Additional data, such as, the participants’ written reports and IFS handbooks, were also collected for data analysis. The findings showed that the IFS courses were characterized by several features which could help enhance the growth of the teachers. They included: Freedom of choice on individual student’s area of interest for investigation; students being perceived as active learners; an opportunity for a continual and practical research experience; the provision of an interactive learning environment and a supportive role played by the supervisor. The study advocates a collaboration between the supervisor and the students to inquire into their teaching and learning experiences in future study.
[Copyright © 2014 CGPublisher.]

This paper examines the perceptions of 250 first year student teachers in HKIEd regarding how their educational ideologies affect the effectiveness of the newly designed and implemented Lifeskills Program. Focused on the rationale and premises of Liberal Ideologies, the program witnesses an emergence of a robust sense of 'Liberalism' in a period of political change in Hong Kong. The Lifeskills Program represents a shift from a traditional approach and entails putting liberal learning and teaching theories into practice. The perceptions of the student teachers who have been identified as having distinct educational ideologies toward these changes are to be cautiously investigated to explore the program effectiveness. Equally crucial is to study and draw conclusions from the major findings, particularly concerning the explicit perceptions and beliefs revealed by those student teachers preoccupied with educational ideologies different from the Liberal one, and to place greater emphasis on helping them make the transition to a more liberal orientation.

Initial teacher education programs offered worldwide all aim at developing student teachers with the best and most comprehensive preparation before joining the teaching profession. However, teacher education research reveal that there are discrepancies between the outcome and what is intended in the program. Without sufficient field experience, beginning teachers always find difficulties in assisting administrative duties and curriculum planning in schools. It is a common practice that teachers are expected to perform different roles apart from regular classroom teaching. It appears that current teacher education programs do not provide solid preparation for beginning teachers in these areas. When beginning teachers function in school with a rather low level of competence in various areas, the chance of becoming burnout might be higher. To bridge the gap in teacher training, a Summer Creative School Project has been developed and launched in the summer vacation in 1998 in Hong Kong. The aim of the whole project was to provide opportunities for student-teachers to experience the management of a school for four weeks. The project has three stages, viz., the pre-field stage, field work stage and the debriefing stage. In this program, participants were given a series of intensive training in the form of seminars and workshops. There were a total of 80 student-teachers participating in the project. In the field work stage, a total of four Hong Kong public sector primary school were involved. Twenty student-teachers took over the management of 10-12 classes of one school. All student-teachers took up different functional posts as head teacher, deputy head teacher, coordinators of curriculum and extra-curricular activities, etc. They also designed their own curriculum with creativity development as the central theme. In the debriefing stage, the experience and limitations of student-teachers throughout the project are debriefed. This paper gives a full account

This paper presents a qualitative case study of student teachers' professional learning in the field experience of initial teacher education in Hong Kong. It highlights the social nature of seven student teachers' professional learning by portraying the field experience context as a socio-professional context. The focus of the study is on student teachers' interaction with the school management, teachers and other staff of the school, their peers as well as pupils. Data collected include interviews with student teachers and school teachers as well as field observation over two years. Four types of socio- professional relationship between the student teacher and the field experience context are identified: detachment; affiliation; engagement and isolation. The implications on initial teacher education are discussed.

Supervision is a powerful intervention into student teachers' learning in the field experience of initial teacher education. This paper presents a study on the supervision of seven student teachers in an initial teacher education programme for secondary school teachers in Hong Kong. Data related to the supervision of the seven student teachers include 16 tape-recorded post-observation conferences, interviews conducted with the 7 student teachers and the 21 tertiary supervisors. The research addresses four issues related to supervision. First, tertiary supervisors' supervisory behaviour in post- observation conferences is examined. Second, the supervisory discourses in the post-observation conferences are situated in the theory-practice continuum. Third, student teachers' and supervisors' perception towards the supervision occasions is explored. Finally, on the basis of the insights gained from the examination of these post-observation conferences and the two parties' perception, attempt is made to draw implications on the role of supervision in the field experience of initial teacher education.