Interpretive frameworks may be helpful to understand narratives, yet they also risk displacing unique information of the research context. In this paper, we argue that such is the case in narrative inquiry studies of English language teaching set in the Asian context, perhaps due to the pressure to use familiar interpretive frameworks that are…

This article reports the results of a qualitative study which explores the personal and professional identities construction journey of a migrant teacher of English as a second/additional language from Hong Kong, following her arrival in the United Kingdom. Grounded in a theory of language teacher identities and drawing upon Mikhail Bakhtin's…

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…

This is a qualitative longitudinal study of the lived experience of four mainland Chinese ESL teachers engaged in their first year of employment in Hong Kong secondary schools. Based on multiple interviews and email contact conducted over the course of one academic year, the research explores the adaptive processes these beginner ESL teachers…

Environmental education has been widely promoted in Hong Kong schools since the 1990s. Teachers have a crucial role in educating students to be well-informed, environmentally aware and responsible green citizens. The environmental literacy and tendencies of teachers are seen as having far-reaching influences on the development of environmental…

This study explores the use of video reflective narratives. It reports on data derived from 28 in-service primary school teachers undertaking professional development to support small class (n = 25) teaching in Hong Kong. The findings serve to highlight that such professional development is fraught with confounds, for professional development…

This article presents a collection of personal perspectives of three academics and one ministry official from various countries in the Asia-Pacific region, namely, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Thailand, on the importance of inclusive education. These perspectives offer an insider's understanding of the universal and country-specific…

This study focuses on how two teachers working in reduced-size secondary classes of the same grade adapted their pedagogy as a result of a brokered dialogue between myself as researcher and 43 grade 10 students from the teachers' classes. Research was carried out over the course of one academic year. First, students' perspectives on studying in a…

This research explores six language teacher educators' professional experiences in Hong Kong. Drawing on the data from their narrative frames, the study identified some distinct roles in the participants' professional lives, including teacher, supervisor, learner, researcher, scholar, and change agent. While some of the roles were satisfying and…

Education reforms underpinned by neo-liberal values have been criticised for bringing an adverse impact on teachers' professional identity. This article presents a qualitative study of teachers' professional identity in three historical periods in Hong Kong: Phase 1: 1965-84; Phase 2: 1984-97; and Phase 3: the post-1997 period. By juxtaposing the…

The use of a particular language as medium of instruction (MOI) is a complex issue in multilingual and post-colonial contexts such as Hong Kong, on which teachers' voices are often neglected. To capture their voices, this paper reports on an interpretive inquiry of eight experienced Chinese teachers' professional experiences with a focus on their…

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…

The life history method, which achieved a prominent position in the Chicago tradition of sociological research in the early 1920s, has been widely adopted for educational inquiries since the 1980s. The power of the life history method in illuminating subjective teacher experiences in social historical contexts has made it "probably the only…

This paper seeks to explore, by studying their personal stories, how Hong Kong secondary school teachers make sense of who and what they are in difficult situations, especially when such situations arise as a consequence of their being a part of the institution of education. Teachers' conceptual mappings of self will be investigated via their…

Describes the pressures exerted on Hong Kong students by the examination system, discussing the historical background, function, and nature of examinations in Hong Kong and explaining that the Chinese examination experience is different from the contemporary emphasis on examination in North American schools. Writings by Hong Kong students and…