Since 1997 when Hong Kong became a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China, a string of education reforms have been introduced to improve the quality of education and maintain Hong Kong’s economic competitiveness in the age of globalization. This book provides a comprehensive and critical analysis of major issues and challenges faced by the education system, ranging from pre-school to higher education. It analyses the prospects for educational development in Hong Kong. It further addresses how the Hong Kong government has responded to the perceived challenges of the external environment and internal forces and explains the rationales for the actions taken. Not only does it review how the reform initiative challenges have been dealt with, it also reviews how effective these initiatives are and its implications on future directions.

Since 1997 when Hong Kong became a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China, a string of education reforms have been introduced to improve the quality of education and maintain Hong Kong’s economic competitiveness in the age of globalization. This book provides a comprehensive and critical analysis of major issues and challenges faced by the education system, ranging from pre-school to higher education. It analyses the prospects for educational development in Hong Kong. It further addresses how the Hong Kong government has responded to the perceived challenges of the external environment and internal forces and explains the rationales for the actions taken. Not only does it review how the reform initiative challenges have been dealt with, it also reviews how effective these initiatives are and its implications on future directions.

Shadow education, the practice of private tutoring outside formal schooling, has become pervasive in Asia. Driven by intense exam competition and dissatisfaction with mainstream education, it plays a significant role in the region's educational landscape. However, its implications and regulatory frameworks still need to be studied and better understood. This book, Shadow Education in Asia: Policies and Practices, addresses this gap by comprehensively analyzing shadow education policies and practices in Asia. Despite its prevalence, shadow education's impact on students, families, and educational systems is complex and multifaceted. The lack of comprehensive research and understanding has led to challenges regulating and integrating shadow education into formal educational systems. Policymakers and educators struggle to address issues such as educational equity, student well-being, and the quality of education provided through shadow education. This book aims to inform policy discussions and reform efforts, ultimately contributing to a more nuanced understanding of this phenomenon and its role in Asia's educational landscape.

This book explores the interrelationship between ideology, the state, and education reforms, placing it in a global context. It examines some of the major education reforms and policy issues in a global culture, particularly in light of recent shifts in quality and standards-driven education, and policy research. The book critiques the neo-liberal ideological imperatives of current education and policy reforms, and illustrates the way the shifts in the relationship between the state and education policy affect current trends in education reforms and schooling globally. With this as its focus, the book’s individual chapters highlight hand-picked scholarly research on major discourses in the field of comparative education. A compendium of the very latest thinking on the subject, the book – like the other volumes in the series – offers a state-of-the-art sourcebook for researchers, practitioners and policymakers alike. Not only do the chapters offer a timely overview of current issues affecting comparative education and education policy research in what is now a global educational culture; they also outline future directions that education and policy reforms could take. By doing so, they provide a comprehensive picture of the intersecting and diverse discourses of globalisation and policy-driven reforms in education. Individual chapters critically assess the dominant discourses and debates on education and policy reforms. Using diverse comparative education paradigms from critical theory to historical-comparative research, they address globalisation, ideology and democracy and examine both the reasons for and outcomes of education reforms and policy change. As such, they provide an informed critique of models of quality and standards-driven education reforms that are informed by Western dominant ideologies and social values.

This volume tackles perceived myths surrounding the academic excellence of East Asian students, and moves beyond Western understanding to offer in-depth analysis of the crucial role that shadow education plays in students’ academic success. Featuring a broad range of contributions from countries including Japan, China, Taiwan, and Singapore, chapters draw on rich qualitative research to place in the foreground the lived experiences of students, teachers, and parents in East Asian countries. In doing so, the text provides indigenous insights into the uses, values, and meanings of shadow education and highlights unknown cultural and regional aspects, as well as related phenomena including trans-boundary learning culture, nomadic learning, individualized learning, and the post-schooling era. Ultimately challenging the previously dominating Western perspective on shadow education, the volume offers innovative theorization to highlight shadow education as a phenomenon which cannot be overlooked in broader discussion of East Asian educational performance, systems, and policy. Offering pioneering insights into the growing phenomenon of shadow education, this text will benefit researchers, academics, and educators with an interest in international and comparative education, curriculum studies, and East Asian educational practices and policy. Those interested in the sociology of education and educational policy will also benefit from this book.

Multilingual China explores the dynamics of multilingualism in one of the most multilingual countries in the world. This edited collection comprises frontline empirical research into a range of important issues that arise from the presence of 55 official ethnic minority groups, plus China’s search to modernize and strengthen the nation’s place in the world order. Topics focus on the dynamics of national, ethnic minority and foreign languages in use, policy making and education, inside China and beyond. Micro-studies of language contact and variation are included, as are chapters dealing with multilingual media and linguistic landscapes. The book highlights tensions such as threats to the sustainability of weak languages and dialects, the role and status of foreign languages (especially English) and how Chinese can be presented as a viable regional or international language. Multilingual China will appeal to academics and researchers working in multilingualism and multilingual education, as well as sinologists keen to examine the interplay of languages in this complex multilingual context.

This volume sets out to investigate the linguistic ecologies of Singapore, Hong Kong, and Dubai, with chapters that combine empirical and theoretical approaches to the sociolinguistics of multilingualism. One important feature of this publication is that the five parts of the collection deal with such key issues as the historical dimension, language policies and language planning, contemporary societal multilingualism, multilingual language acquisition, and the localized Englishes of global cities. The first four sections of the volume provide a multi-levelled and finely-detailed description of multilingual diversity of three global cities, while the final section discusses postcolonial Englishes in the context of multilingual language acquisition and language contact.

This must-have handbook offers a comprehensive survey of the field. It reviews the language education policies of Asia, encompassing 30 countries sub-divided by regions, namely East, Southeast, South and Central Asia, and considers the extent to which these are being implemented and with what effect. The most recent iteration of language education policies of each of the countries is described and the impact and potential consequence of any change is critically considered. Each country chapter provides a historical overview of the languages in use and language education policies, examines the ideologies underpinning the language choices, and includes an account of the debates and controversies surrounding language and language education policies, before concluding with some predictions for the future.

This book analyses the nexus between ideology, the state, and education reforms worldwide. The research evinces the neo-liberal ideological imperatives of current education and policy reforms and illustrates the way these shifts in the relationship between the state and education policy are affecting current trends in education reforms and schooling around the globe. With this as its focus, the chapters represent hand-picked scholarly research on major discourses in the field of global education reforms. Offering a compendium of the very latest thought on the subject, this book is, like the others in the series, a state-of-the-art sourcebook for researchers, practitioners and policymakers alike. Not only do the chapters offer a timely analysis of current issues shaping education policy research; the work also contains ideas about future directions that education and policy reforms could take. By doing so, it provides a comprehensive view of the diverse and intersecting discourses on globalisation and policy-driven reforms in education. The book draws on recent studies in the areas of globalisation, education reforms, and the role of the state. Respective chapters critically assess the dominant discourses and debates on education and policy reforms. Using diverse comparative education paradigms, ranging from critical theory to historical-comparative research, they focus on globalisation, ideology and democracy, and examine both the reasons for and outcomes of education reforms and policy change.

Based on new research data, with a 135-teacher study over 8 countries, this book challenges the assumption that all teachers automatically have the expertise to teach cultural understanding and argues, instead, that there is the need for teachers to acquire transcultural expertise to teach cultural understanding effectively in the present age, rather than depending on current multicultural and intercultural approaches. By outlining a new model to teach cultural understanding that is appropriate and relevant, this volume focuses on the expertise of teachers to address this gap in current teaching practice. Using the framework of education in Britain and its former empire, this book traces the role that teachers have played in teaching cultural understanding throughout history, and then uses the results of a recent international research project to outline recommendations for teacher education and professional learning that both develop and enhance the ability of teachers to address cultural understanding effectively in their work. Transculturalism and Teacher Capacity: Professional Readiness in the Globalised Age is the perfect resource for any researcher, school leader and educational administrator, or those interested in education that prepares teachers to meet the demands of the profession in the current age.