This study aimed to investigate differences in parental attitudes toward music and support for music education between typically developing children and autistic children with mild or borderline intellectual disability (ID) in Hong Kong. While research highlights the developmental benefits of music for autistic children with ID, few studies explore formal music training in this population, particularly within the context of cultural influences. The study included 148 participants, consisting of 84 parents of typically developing children and 64 parents of autistic children with ID. A questionnaire was used to assess parental attitudes toward music and their decisions regarding formal music training enrollment for their children. Covariates such as family income, child executive function, and parental expectations were analyzed to identify potential predictors. Parents of autistic children with ID held more positive attitudes toward music compared to parents of typically developing children when controlling for covariates. However, only 14.1% of autistic children with ID were enrolled in formal music training, in contrast to 40.4% of typically developing children. Family income and child executive function emerged as significant barriers to enrollment decisions. The findings highlight a disparity between positive parental attitudes toward music and pursuit of music education among autistic children with ID, highlighting systemic and financial barriers. Accessible music programs, adjustments in parental expectations, and inclusive policies may bridge the gap between parental attitudes and actual support. These insights call for targeted interventions to ensure that autistic children with ID can access the developmental benefits of music education. Copyright © 2025 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

This study examines the adequacy of a general proficiency in music listening for describing how examinees responded to exam questions on various music genres based on an empirical investigation of a public music listening examination. In the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE), Music consists of three mandatory components: listening, performing, and creating. Notably, the listening component is evaluated through a written examination, allowing for objective scoring. A candidate's performance on this exam has been summarized as a single score, a method that is effective for evaluation purposes, while the underlying conceptualization may oversimplify the depth of knowledge required for assessment. Consequently, we conducted a reevaluation of the HKDSE Music listening test, employing the Rasch testlet model to explore potential multidimensional structures. Our findings highlighted distinctive attributes in questions related to Cantonese opera, setting them apart from others. We discuss the implications of these findings for music assessment. Copyright © 2024 SAGE Publications Ltd.

The use of post-isms has become increasingly prominent in academic discourse because it offers new perspectives for gaining insight into current developments in human society and the historical dimension of culture. In the Hong Kong educational context, the concept of post-isms has permeated the current music curriculum. The curriculum guide alludes to posthumanist primary interests, was created in the postcolonial state after the return of the sovereignty of Hong Kong from Britain to China in 1997, and is associated with poststructural psychoanalysis that values the subjectivity of listeners. This article investigates the entanglement of the Hong Kong music curriculum and the post-isms from the perspectives of posthumanism, postcolonialism, and poststructural psychoanalysis. It is found that the curriculum guide demonstrates a commitment to ecology/human relations through both cross-species communication and understanding, as well as pro-nature humanism. It entangles with the concept of hybridity in postcolonialism and functions as a strategy of disavowal of the colonial legacy and the cultivation of the original national identity. The guide also perceives music as an agency that produces subjectivity by positioning the listener as subject. By investigating the Hong Kong music curriculum through the three lenses, implications for music curriculum development were drawn. It is urged that only when a music curriculum takes into account the multidimensionality of music can it reveal the greatest potential of music. Copyright © 2025 Wiley.

Liberal arts education in Chinese higher education can be traced back to the liberal arts tradition that existed in China's former Christian universities prior to the 1950s. The mission and goal of liberal arts education in Chinese contexts focuses on cultivating whole persons to serve their societies. Using data from documents and interviews, the study examines the liberal arts tradition for developing whole persons with a spirit of service in China's former Christian universities. It also explores to what extent the legacy has been carried on to the development of liberal arts education in contemporary universities in Chinese societies (Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan). The study provides insight into how some elements of whole person development from faith-based education could contribute to today's higher education reform in terms of the goals of global citizen cultivation. Copyright © 2024 Springer.

This study explores how Hong Kong’s latest Chinese history curriculum hybridizes Romantic and Enlightened approaches and how that hybridization converges with/diverges from mainland China’s, given the two societies’ increased integration in the People’s Republic of China. Data were drawn from Hong Kong’s and mainland China’s latest junior-secondary Chinese history curricula policies and textbooks and Hong Kong’s earlier curriculum. Despite approaching mainland China’s Chinese history in curriculum structure and promoting China as a unified multi-ethnic nation, Hong Kong’s latest history curriculum retains its earlier orientation towards the Communist Party of China and the Enlightened approach. Hong Kong’s junior-secondary Chinese history curricula try to balance Romantic and Enlightened approaches, while mainland China’s symbolically promotes and selectively uses the latter to serve the former. Theoretical and practical implications and directions for future study are provided. Copyright ©2024 Routledge.

A growing number of studies have explored the ways how teachers contingently respond to students' unexpected responses or a lack of student responses in second language classrooms. From a sociocultural perspective, teacher contingency involves a departure from the lesson plan in local response to the unexpected or unforeseeable actions in the classroom interactions (van Lier, 2001). This study adopts translanguaging as an analytical perspective in order to examine how a teacher employs various resources to contingently respond to students' initiatives and reformulate his utterances in order to prompt student participation. The data are based on a larger linguistic ethnographic project in a Hong Kong English-Medium-Instruction secondary history classroom. This paper reconceptualizes the notion of teacher contingency and argues that the process of how the teacher contingently responds to the unexpected outcomes that arise in real-time interactions is a process of translanguaging. Such a process requires the teacher in orchestrating the available linguistic and multimodal resources to construct pedagogical actions on the spot, instead of being planned in advance. Copyright ©2024 Oxford University Press.

This study explores the narration of China as a nation in history education in two regions – mainland China and Hong Kong – that share cultural roots but different socio-political contexts. Inductive analysis of data from junior-secondary Chinese history textbooks used in the regions in the late 2010s revealed that whereas mainland China’s textbooks constructed China as a nation by stressing its constitutive territory and ethnic inclusiveness, Hong Kong’s highlighted its constitutive ethnicity and changing territory, more frequently and directly narrated interethnic conflicts, and more explicitly promoted Han superiority. The study proposes constructing the nation in history education as a contextualised and socio-political exercise of reinterpreting the past to reflect current contexts and needs. Copyright ©2024 Routledge.

In the past, visual arts education in Hong Kong was not considered an important area of early childhood education. While the Hong Kong kindergarten curriculum has recently been updated to encourage creativity, there remains a lack of adequate visual arts education for young children. This deficiency stems from the fact that the visual arts receive minimal attention within Hong Kong teacher education programs. Little research has been conducted on how visual arts education is actually delivered in local kindergarten classrooms in Hong Kong and what kinds of artistic knowledge and skills kindergarten teachers need. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate kindergarten teachers' content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge in early visual arts education (EVAE) and to identify the challenges they faced in teaching visual arts to children. The study surveyed 342 in-service kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong and conducted individual interviews with 12 participants. The findings revealed that Hong Kong kindergarten teachers generally performed well in terms of their pedagogical content knowledge, but they lacked content knowledge in various forms of early visual arts (EVA) and faced challenges in teaching visual arts effectively. This study has the potential to change how early childhood visual arts teaching is conceptualized and taught in Hong Kong and other Asian regions. Copyright ©2025 Springer.

Early exposure to quality musical activities benefits children’s holistic development and learning. It is, therefore, crucial to ensure kindergarten teachers can provide such activities for children. In Hong Kong, the Education Bureau (EDB) designed the Kindergarten Education Curriculum Guide (Curriculum Development Council, 2017). While music is included as a subdomain in the official curriculum, with specific learning objectives and expectations for children, there is a dearth of research on the musical activity types kindergarten teachers conduct in practice. Similarly, no research has been conducted to explore the perspectives of local kindergarten stakeholders (e.g., quality assessors) on quality music education. Investigating these topics is vital to guide subsequent professional development (PD) efforts in kindergartens.This dissertation portfolio draws on Campbell and Scott-Kassner (2019)’s theoretical framework of quality music education in early childhood. The overall objective was to explore the provision and types of musical activities in Hong Kong kindergartens and stakeholders’ perspectives on quality musical practices. This dissertation comprises three empirical studies. Study 1 was a large-scale survey study with kindergarten teachers (n = 1,019), investigating the provision of musical activities in kindergartens and the potential differences in musical activities among teachers with different teaching experience. Descriptive, non-parametric, and parametric statistical analyses were performed. Study 2 was a content analysis exploring the types of musical activities mentioned in 164 Quality Review (QR) reports published by the EDB. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistical analyses, word frequency, and co-occurrence analyses. Study 3 was a content analysis of 323 QR reports, exploring the positive and negative feedback and recommendations for improvement regarding music pedagogical practices mentioned by quality assessors in the reports. Data was

We investigated the provision of musical activities in Hong Kong kindergartens and analysed potential differences among teachers with different levels of teaching experience. Using a self-designed survey, we asked 1,019 teachers how often they conducted 18 specific musical activities. Overall, we found that participants provided considerable music exposure to children. Advanced teachers (more than 15 years' experience) reported conducting more musical activities for children than Beginning teachers (less than 5 years). Principal component analysis revealed the existence of four components: Singing and Transitions (the most frequent); Movement, Technology and Thematic Activities; Sound Production; and Creativity and Self-expression (the least frequent). Teachers with varying teaching experience tend to focus on different musical activities in the classroom. Specifically, Beginning teachers reported to conduct significantly fewer musical creativity activities than Advanced teachers. We conclude that teaching experience is a crucial factor that affects the provision and types of musical activities conducted by kindergarten teachers. Findings May guide subsequent professional development efforts to better prepare kindergarten teachers with different profiles to achieve the learning objectives established in the curriculum framework. Copyright © 2024 Australian Society for Music Education.