In this collective essay the authors consider the nature and consequences of reading and researching across difference in an international and intergenerational team, whose core members are focused on understanding how curriculum operates and the nature of textbook representation of diversity in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau. Examining textbook reading across and about difference as senior and junior curriculum theorists, emerging educational researchers, and recent secondary school graduates with varied international and cross-border experiences, the authors consider how their unique positions and experiences--as well as the political and social context of schooling, and the abstraction, simplification, and reduction of reality which textbook production entails--influences understandings of the value of curriculum theory and textbook research. The insights of this essay shed light on such topics as how textbooks are seen across difference, read in academic and school settings, experienced based on identity and subjectivity, and taken up in understanding broader nation-state politics. In sum, the authors critically ask here what textbooks and textbook research are 'for' from an international view, given the dynamic ways that reading and collaborative scholarship work. Copyright ©2024 Routledge.

This longitudinal study examined the interactive effects of individual- and classroom-level teacher-child relationships on developing externalizing, internalizing, and prosocial behaviors in kindergarten children over time. On two occasions separated by about 1 year, data were collected from 473 kindergarten children (52% boys, M[subscript age] = 4.36 years) and their class teachers and mothers in Hong Kong, China. Class teachers reported the closeness and conflict in their relationships with each participating child of their class at Time 1, and mothers reported the child's externalizing, internalizing, and prosocial behaviors at Times 1 and 2. Results indicated that controlling for child age, gender, grade, maternal education, and prior levels of child adjustment, individual-level teacher-child closeness was negatively associated with internalizing behaviors, and individual-level teacher-child conflict was positively associated with child externalizing behaviors over time. Classroom-level teacher-child closeness and conflict emerged as moderators. The longitudinal association between individual-level teacher-child closeness and externalizing behaviors was negative in low-closeness classrooms but not in high-closeness classrooms. However, the longitudinal association between individual-level teacher-child conflict and child prosocial behaviors was negative in low-conflict classrooms but not in high-conflict classrooms. Despite the statistical significance of the cross-level interaction effects, they were of small effect sizes and explained only very small amounts of variance. Theoretically, our findings demonstrated the interplay of the individual- and classroom-level teacher-child relationships in shaping children's psychosocial adjustment over time. Practically, our findings highlighted the importance of enhancing teachers' awareness of the affective quality of their relationships with children at both classroom and individual levels, which could potentially impede

Engaging students as partners (SaP) is an approach promoting meaningful pedagogical relationships in higher education. Scholars have called for more culturally situated research on SaP that compares Anglophone countries with other contexts. In response, we conducted an exploratory qualitative study by interviewing 36 undergraduate students from Australia, Mainland China, and Hong Kong. Adopting the relational lens of SaP, the interviews focused on conceptualisations of pedagogical partnership, specifically learner–teacher identities and power dynamics. Through comparative and reflexive thematic analysis, we found that understandings of partnership in different contexts were influenced by broader cultural differences. The findings showed that the perception of SaP in Australia was consistent with the prevailing Western discourse, but the notion of SaP was adapted and re-shaped in Mainland China, and in Hong Kong, there were diverse interpretations of it. This study contributes to new understandings of the influence of specific sociocultural and policy variations in SaP practises through culturally situated and comparative research using theorisations of perpetual translation. We argue for future research to contribute collective insights and nuanced, diverse understandings that expand SaP as an approach to global scholarship. Copyright ©2024 Springer.

Students as partners (SaP) has become an impactful practice in higher education as it enables students to take ownership of their learning and exercise agency. However, the implementation of SaP, particularly in Asia, has encountered many challenges, including concerns about a large power distance between students and teachers. Despite the emerging interests in exploring SaP in several Asian regions, there have been few studies about students’ experiences of partnership throughout a project life cycle. This study explores students’ experiences of SaP in three projects spanning two research-intensive universities in Hong Kong based on the Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) and positioning theory. Data were collected from exit interviews with student partners, their reflective writings, and their responses to open-ended questions in a post-project survey. Our main contribution is the discovery of multiple contradictions between the project designs and students’ enactment of partnership. Specifically, students’ hesitation in assuming a partner’s role was related to their disciplinary identity, the inquiry methods of the projects, and the pre-determined project specifications. In contrast, the cultural factors, which are largely framed as barriers in the literature, only affected the partnership development at the beginning of the project. Our study implies that future SaP projects need to ensure the alignment between project designs and a partner’s role to facilitate equal and sustainable contributions from students and staff members. Copyright ©2024 Routledge.

The study aims to adopt an intention-based approach to examine the key factors influencing academics’ behaviour to share career capital tacit and explicit knowledge, foster innovations and to gain competitive advantages among higher education context. A research model was developed by successfully extending the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) with institutional forces (i.e. senior management support and innovative climate) to examine academics’ career capital knowledge sharing behaviour. A survey was conducted through a questionnaire among 234 academics in Hong Kong self-financing institutions and the data was analyzed using SmartPLS – Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique. It was found that innovative climate of self-financing higher education institutions plays a mediating role in knowledge sharing intention among academics. The findings of this research help higher education institutions promote innovate climate and adopt innovative technologies to encourage knowledge sharing behaviour. Innovative climate fully mediates the relationship between knowledge sharing attitude and intention to share tacit and explicit career capital knowledge, as well as the relationship between senior management support and intention to share explicit career capital knowledge. Managerial implications are discussed and issues for further research are highlighted. Copyright ©2024 Springer.

The presence of non-Chinese pupils has brought to the fore a widening spectrum of learning needs in Hong Kong schools. Curriculum and teaching standards have likewise made clear the importance of creating equitable - with a view of eliminating barriers to - learning. The pathways to these equity goals from a cultural aspect, however, are unclear. This chapter aims to articulate an innovative approach to curriculum for diverse students by considering a more explicit connection between the notions of “caring” and “equity.” It will be argued that the notion of caring provides an important foundation for equity in teaching, especially in a Chinese schooling context marred by pragmatic and neoliberal conditions. These conditions, in part, underlie the integrationist orientation of curriculum responses to Hong Kong’s increasingly diverse student population. These responses often animate familiar policy and curricular rhetoric on ethnic minority learners’ early acquisition of Chinese language that can eclipse the cultivation of culturally inclusive environments. An expanded vision of equity based on caring attitudes will thus be proposed for teacher education to draw closer attention to the cultural dimensions within the curricular emphasis on learner diversity. Copyright © 2025 selection and editorial matter, Huixuan Xu; individual chapters, the contributors.

International branch campuses (IBCs) are commonly used by nations and universities to achieve internationalization. Although existing research has examined students' attitudes and behaviors toward IBCs, few studies have investigated these issues in an intra-country context. Hong Kong institutions' IBCs in the Greater Bay Area of Mainland China are examples of cross-border education that is offered under China's 'one country, two systems' policy. Using the concept of global-national-local imbrication as the theoretical lens, this qualitative study explores contextual factors influencing students' motivations to enroll at a Hong Kong institution's intra-country IBC. The findings suggest that students are drawn by global (e.g., high level of internationalization), national (e.g., shared culture), and local (e.g., high function-price ratio) factors to enroll at IBCs. These findings have generated new insights into students' motivations within a unique environmental context, and the global-national-local imbrication paradigm provides a new attempt to explain the destination and institutional choices of students in transnational education. Copyright ©2024 SAGE Publications .

This study aimed to (1) investigate the provision of physical activities in Hong Kong kindergartens across different grade levels and (2) examine the availability and utilization of venues in or near kindergartens for physical activities. We surveyed 526 hong Kong kindergarten teachers. Descriptive statistics and parametric statistical techniques (e.g. one-way ANOVA) were employed. Participants across all three grade levels reported implementing physical activities relatively infrequently (M = 2.47), with higher provision of unstructured physical activities involving low degrees of physical exertion and risk. However, K3 teachers (M = 2.55, SD =.45) were found to provide more physical activities than K1 teachers (M = 2.43, SD =.47, p =.033) and K2 teachers (M = 2.42, SD =.42, p =.030). Indoor venues were more commonly reported in or near kindergartens and were more frequently utilized for physical activities. In contrast, the availability and utilization of outdoor venues were limited. The results highlight the distance between internationally accepted physical activity guidelines and actual practices in Hong Kong kindergartens. We conclude that the limited opportunities for physical activities may not be enough for children to develop themselves optimally. Offering longer kindergarten programs and a wider range of easily accessible venues for physical activities would be vital to improving this situation. Copyright © 2024 Childhood Education International.

Hong Kong (HK) has been frequently studied in higher education (HE) policy research, but almost none shed light on policies related to the university student hostels. This study is unique as it focuses on university residential education in HK, which has a history of adopting the Oxbridge residential model, but in an Asian context. By tracing the policy development of university student hostels from 1980 to 2020 (a 40-year period), several themes were observed according to the year, ranging from financing hostel construction, defining the purpose of student housing, balancing the ratio of local and non-local students, to promoting internationalization in a localized context in recent years. Compared with the student housing development trend in the UK, the author deduces that the government’s decision to either offer public student hostels or outsource to the private sector will have a considerable impact on the educational role of student hostels. This study emphasizes that residential education must be intentional and suggests that universities should emphasize it as an essential part of higher education. Copyright © 2024 The Author(s) .