Religion in Hong Kong Education: Representation in Liberal Studies Textbooks

Hong Kong's Liberal Studies curriculum (implemented in 2009) aims in part to teach young people about diversity in society, including cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity. This essay considers how religions and religious diversity are represented in Liberal Studies, analyzing how minority forms of religion are visible and invisible in the four most popular Liberal Studies textbook sets. The analysis will answer the questions of (1) how Hong Kong's religious diversity is expressed in the textbooks and (2) how different religions are depicted in relation to the society overall. Textbooks are the primary source material teachers use, particularly in new subjects, as reflections of prevalent attitudes, beliefs, and norms, and as formal sources of curriculum content. This essay therefore provides a glimpse of the latent knowledge about religious diversity in the educational publishing and decision-making community of Hong Kong, relating gaps in text coverage to the subject's aim of developing student understanding and appreciation of diversity.postprin

Under Construction: The Development of Multicultural Curriculum in Hong Kong and Taiwan

This paper examines the development of multicultural curriculum in Hong Kong and Taiwan over the last two few decades. Though both societies are broadly Chinese cultural contexts, differences in their political histories, cultures, and demographics nonetheless reflect disparate approaches to the development of multiculturalism in curriculum content. At the same time, Hong Kong and Taiwan both face tensions today related to competing priorities for cultivating local, national, and global senses of identity and civic participation. The paper concludes with recommendations for the further unfolding of multicultural curriculum in these societies in light of their local diversity issues, and with brief reflection on the potential of these findings to enrich traditional framings of multicultural education coming from western societies.postprin

Islam and Islamophobia in USA: The Tip of the Iceberg

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A Preliminary Examination of the Concept of Altruism as an Aim of Education

Conference theme: Measuring Up in EducationParallel Session 28Many are concerned with education’s role in preparing societies to meet challenges related to globalization. Among various educational aims related to globalization is that of developing in young people a critical awareness of the lives of disadvantaged people, in their communities and across the world, to become compassionate, or socially responsible, ‘global citizens’. This general interest is shared by policy makers envisioning global or twenty-first century citizenship education, as well as by philosophers of education and social justiceoriented teachers. However, the aim of such education or its most appropriate pedagogy or schooling context is not always spelled out, owing to the controversial nature of various interpretations and recommendations related to poverty and injustice today (i.e., economic redistribution versus austerity; privatisation versus socialism). In this essay, I ask whether altruism can be usefully elaborated as an educational aim for global citizenship and social responsibility. First, I examine philosophical treatments of altruism such as by Thomas Nagel and Lawrence Blum, and consider the educational implications of significant features of a useful definition of the concept. Next, I juxtapose these views with those of Confucian and Buddhist scholars, to consider whether a universal value of altruism for contexts of west and east is plausible. Finally, I apply my conceptualization of altruism to Hong Kong curriculum, providing a concrete context for considering altruism as a useful educational aim. I end by highlighting the tension of teaching for altruism in settings (unlike Hong Kong) where moral education is contentious, while citizenship education is not.published_or_final_versio

Leaning Out of Higher Education: A Structural, Postcolonial Perspective

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Challenging Empty Signifiers in Search of Common Values: Collaborative Learning as Transformative Leadership

Collaborative inquiry into the nature of values in university education can lead to their clarification and strengthening. However, in real-world workplaces, the common feeling of busyness can alienate academics from one another. In individualistic, performance-oriented higher education environments, “values talk” related to educational activities in and recognition of education as value-laden, not only related to professional performance but to personal and emotional development, can seem risky. Yet developing collaborative understanding of shared priorities such as core educational values remains crucial to effectively aligning teaching and learning practices to communal goals. This article reflects on one quest to elaborate the core educational values of a diverse group of education faculty in Hong Kong. The article explores how the group attempts to clarify shared values and elaborates on this quest as one of challenging “empty signifiers.” Empty signifiers constitute sites of contestation over meaning and significance. In the project discussed here, definitions and significations of “leadership,” “evaluation,” “review,” “collegiality,” “excellence,” and “political education” became, through collaborative exploration, contested once again, and controversial: gaps were revealed between claims of meaning. After sharing the case study, the article concludes by reflecting on the following questions: Can the collaborative work of refilling such emptied terms help constitute a more empowering, transformative leadership in higher education? Can we systematize our good intentions to improve, not just deconstruct, academic structures in non-ideal workspaces? Or are gaps over meaning better understood as inherent to a dynamic environment of collaborative learning for transformational, culturally and/or socially appropriate leadership?preprin

Learning about Diversity in Hong Kong: Multiculturalism in Liberal Studies Textbooks

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Emerging Perspectives on Editorial Ethics: An Interview with Chris Higgins

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"Distracters" do not always distract : Visual working memory for angry faces is enhanced by incidental emotional words.

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Bridging Cultures through Unpaid Labor: US Volunteer Teachers’ Experiences in China’s Yunnan Province

International volunteering has become a complex field in the context of globalization. Within the discourses of international volunteering and development programs as well as in the voices of volunteers, the field can be understood as one of unpaid transnational labor, as social activism and altruism, and as a new “soft power” post-colonial agenda. Many studies contend in this context that international volunteers need better training for intercultural understanding amidst these disparate frameworks, to make meaning out of their service and effectively contribute to communities they serve. This study examines the motivations, experiences, and challenges of US volunteer teachers in China’s Yunnan Province as reported within a survey implemented in 2012. Findings elaborate on the challenge volunteers face reconciling cross-cultural views of education while working in post-colonial global contexts, and suggest that intercultural training is necessary to prepare volunteers for related global work practices in the future.postprin