The Government of India’s National Policy of Education 2020 stipulates that in the following five years all stand-alone teacher education colleges will be required to convert to multidisciplinary higher education institutions. This calls for a complete overhaul of the country’s vast, diverse, and age-old system of teacher preparation. Evidence-based policy implementation is thus the need of the hour. This chapter attempts to aid the process by presenting insights from a comparative education research on pre-service teacher education (PSTE) of secondary school teachers at stand-alone teacher education institutions (TEIs) in the Indian city of Mumbai and university-based teacher education in the Chinese city of Hong Kong. Documentary sources, field visits, and 57 interviews form the basis of the findings. The dimensions for comparison include academic freedom and autonomy; pathways to PSTE; linkages of teacher education providers; and role and working conditions of teacher educators. The chapter deduces the core differences in teacher education at stand-alone TEIs vis-à-vis that at a university and draws out implications of shutting down the former. It concludes by laying down a road map for the effective universitization of teacher education in India that will result in genuinely improving teacher quality. Copyright © 2021 Emerald Group Publishing Limited

The purpose of this article is to explore the influence of a customized continuing professional development (PE-CPD) programme on PE teachers’ perceived physical literacy and efficacy beliefs in Hong Kong. Individual and focus group interviews were conducted to gain an in-depth understanding of the participants’ CPD experiences and to explore the programme’s influence on their perceived physical literacy and efficacy beliefs. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the interview data. Results revealed that all participants underwent certain immediate and intermediate changes in relation to their self-perceptions of physical literacy and teaching efficacy while completing the customised PE-CPD programme. It was concluded that stakeholders should address the importance of developing teachers’ physical literacy and self-efficacy through similar programmes, in order to provide quality physical education (QPE) in school curricula and in turn enhance students’ physical literacy. Copyright © 2021 Springer Nature B.V.

This paper reports on a longitudinal case study of a Hong Kong early career ESL (English as a second language) secondary teacher, Joyce (pseudonym), who experienced different stages of personal–professional development over seven–eight years (August 2013–December 2020), as follows: (1) entering, and engaging, in teaching for five–six years, upon graduation from a local teacher education BA degree program in summer 2013; (2) resigning from her full-time teaching position and leaving the teaching profession, in response to an “insulting” classroom revisit in her third school; (3) working in an NGO for a short time, after “recovery” from the “insulting” event; and (4) weighing possibilities for resuming teaching, after leaving the NGO in 2019. Drawing on multiple data that were collected over seven–eight years, including interviews, informal communications, and autobiography, this study aimed to examine the issues of teacher attrition and sustainable professional development, in relation to teacher agency and teacher identity, in Hong Kong secondary school contexts. The findings revealed that school and social contexts intertwined with personal experiences, culminating in Joyce’s leaving or staying in the teaching profession. Through focusing on Joyce’s long-term experiences of becoming and being an ESL teacher, the findings shed light on the affordances for, and constraints upon, teacher agency and teacher identity in school contexts. Copyright © 2021 MDPI AG

The paper draws upon a collaborative action research project using Photovoice aiming at empowering participants to voice and critically reflect by thinking deeply about their context and difficulties, and using images to foster critical consciousness. Nineteen prospective teachers in a Hong Kong public university participated in this collaborative action research project. Findings highlight the obstacles and concerns that prospective teachers faced, core reflections, and action plans for overcoming such challenges. This study demonstrates the feasibility of using Photovoice to facilitate reflective dialogues in developing professional teachers in initial teacher education. Copyright © 2021 Routledge.

This small-scale exploratory study explores the practices and experiences of two experienced Hong Kong Education Bureau Advisory Teachers (ATs) engaged in school-based professional support (SBPS) of teachers during school closure caused the COVID-19 pandemic. It documents the ATs usual practices, conditions for effective SBPS, the effect the pandemic had on their practices, and the specific support they provided remotely during the pandemic. Key findings indicate that effective SBPS requires clear role expectations, a collaborative support approach, building strong relationships and durability. The SBPS model is resilient and allows ATs and teachers to adjust to the evolving situation. ATs have continued to provide support throughout the school closures, something that would not have been possible without the existing SBPS model, relationship cultivated over an extended period of support and available technology. The authors recommend that Education Bureaus explore SBPS as a way to continue supporting teachers during school closures. Copyright © 2021 Taylor and Francis.

Globalisation and massification are creating significant expansion in the higher education sector in Asia and forcing institutions to professionalise their teaching. Merely implementing academic development, however, does not ensure improvement in teaching quality. We report an action research project, which demonstrated that the combination of teaching development through Teaching Advantage Global, alongside professional recognition through fellowship of the Higher Education Academy, significantly improved the teaching self-efficacy of academics in China and Hong Kong SAR. The results of this research demonstrate that professional development and recognition can support and evidence sector-wide strategic change. Copyright © 2021 Routledge.

Today's teacher operates in a globalised space where people everywhere are inextricably connected, and whose lives no longer exist in an isolated vacuum, but intersect and collide as part of a dynamic vortex. Teachers must now think, and teach beyond local boundaries, such that definitions of teacher professionalism will be reshaped by forces of globalisation. But have they, and in what ways? This article examines the intersection of globalisation and teacher professionalism. It begins with working definitions of globalisation and professionalism. These definitions will conceptually frame an analysis of policy documents about teacher professionalism, specifically standards for teachers in Hong Kong, the United States, and Australia. As a benchmark for teacher professionalism, an analysis of teacher standards across this international sample affords a broad portrait of what teachers are expected to know and do, juxtaposed against a rapidly evolving and globalising world. Copyright © 2021 Routledge.

Teaching has become increasingly challenging as a result of high expectations and demands placed on education systems. With an overview of the pathways to become a teacher and the teacher policy context in Hong Kong, this chapter presents the case of an undergraduate ITE programme offered by the Education University of Hong Kong. The ITE programme aims at preparing high quality ITE graduates with the key attributes of Professional Excellence, Ethical Responsibility and Innovation. The heightened expectations and demands placed on teachers in Hong Kong have been exacerbated by the enormous difficulties at the societal level since 2019. The outbreak of the COVID-pandemic and the major socio-political issues have generated unprecedented uncertainties in society at large and the education community. The chapter examines how these extraordinary circumstances place novel demands on teachers’ professional competence, and hence requiring new professional knowledge. The creation of hybrid spaces in ITE and communicative safe spaces is needed to foster the co-construction of new professional knowledge. The chapter ends by arguing that professional competence coupled with teacher buoyancy can likely enhance the potential for ITE graduates to stand tall against immense everyday challenges of beginning teaching in an era of unprecedented uncertainties. Copyright © 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

This study examined the relationships between faculty trust, professional learning communities and teacher professional learning among a sample of 2120 kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong. Faculty trust was examined through trust in colleagues, trust in the principal and trust in parents to explore the effects of organizational factors in details. The results showed that professional learning communities significantly mediated the positive effects of faculty trust on teacher professional learning. However, while trust in colleagues exerted a positive effect on teacher professional learning, the effects of trust in parents and trust in the principals were found to be negative and having no significant effect respectively. Kindergartens are recommended to promote teacher learning through enhancing faculty trust and professional learning communities. Copyright © 2019 All Academic, Inc.