Study abroad has become an important component of many teacher education programs. Through the lens of culturally relevant pedagogy, critical thinking, and educational freedom, this qualitative case study focuses on understanding Hong Kong teachers' perceptions about United States culture and education. Data were collected through in-depth,…

This study explores the influence of Confucianism on a professor's learning and parenting. The participant discussed hard work, success, freedom, enjoyment and his perceptions of his father and sons being one of under/over their aspirations. The interplay of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, Confucian teachings, parental aspiration and achievement…

Enhancing the higher order thinking (HOT) ability of students is a worldwide educational goal. This has also become a significant objective in the curriculum reforms in Hong Kong, which aims at better preparation of students to meet the challenges of the new era. Cultural aspects are often regarded as salient in determining approaches to teaching.…

By conducting in-depth interviews with new teachers who are about to become full-time teachers and then reinterviewing them two years later, the author of this article presents how beginning teachers think and feel about teaching and describes the challenges they face as beginning teachers in the context of Hong Kong. The stories of the teachers,…

While common philosophical foundations influence instruction and leadership in East Asian nations, variable historical factors also significantly impact education within these countries. The current study was designed to holistically examine educational systems in different Confucian contexts, so that contemporary issues and necessary reforms may…

This paper argues that the concepts, beliefs and understandings of local and non-local teacher educators in a Hong Kong university are grounded in their own cultural cognition and antecedents. It presents the viewpoint that contemporary notions of good practice were compromised when applied to a context that is strongly influenced by the tenets of…

This article examines teachers' experience in relation to the massive top-down but ever-changing education reform initiatives in Hong Kong, where "East meets West" in cultures and identities. A life-narrative approach was used to probe the daily experience of 24 secondary school teachers of different ages, genders, and marital statuses…

Background: Prior to the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, the civic education were characterized by denationalization and depoliticization. After the Joint Declaration, many of the conflicts emerged between the national interests advocated by the nationalistic camp and the Hong Kong interests promoted by the Liberal camp in the newly…

School guidance seeks to promote the whole person growth of students. It is regarded as an integral part of an educational programme. In Hong Kong secondary schools, a team of teachers are responsible for school guidance. This article examines how guidance teachers made sense of their caring work in general and specifically the counselling…

In Chinese society, there are two Confucian teachings that have become guiding values for many teachers and have had profound influence on their educational practices for nearly 2,500 years. These values are "yin cai shi jiao" and "you jiao wu lei." The direct translation of yin cai shi jiao is "to carry out teaching based…

Teachers in Hong Kong, as elsewhere, are concerned with students' misbehaviour. In secondary schools two teams of teachers, a guidance team and a discipline team, deal with it. This article examines how teachers make sense of their caring work and strategies for behaviour management. Taking an interactionist perspective, the framework suggested by…

Discipline is a crucial aspect of teachers' and students' classroom lives. Hong Kong secondary teachers, as elsewhere, are concerned with students' misbehaviour. This article examines teachers' constructs of classroom discipline and strategies adopted for behaviour management. Qualitative data were collected by interviews and classroom…

This paper examines philosophical frame factors for English Language Teaching in the Confucian Heritage Culture (CHC) classroom. Drawing on the experience of a Native English Teacher in a government-aided Hong Kong High School it pays attention to two related difficulties: the "reality" of English in the classroom and the perceived…