In multicultural education, empathy has been regarded as an essential teacher disposition that enables teachers to better understand culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students through perspective-taking. However, less is known about the mechanism that underlies how empathy fosters teachers' competence in supporting CLD students, i.e.,…

Background: Diversity across the world is changing, given the growing number of immigrant children in schools. These increases in transnational mobility have teachers struggling to reconsider their everyday practices to accommodate many more newcomers in their classrooms. The need for teachers to become more responsive to changing social…

This paper reports on our inquiry into how language teachers' identities relate to their efforts to teach intercultural communicative competence. In the study, we collected data through in-depth interviews with and observations of 16 Chinese language teachers in Hong Kong's international schools. The analysis revealed that the participants…

The present study seeks to explore the long-term impact of an overseas immersion programme on pre-service teachers' professional learning in Hong Kong. In-depth interviews with 11 pre-service teachers about their immersion experiences and post-immersion learning revealed their professional gains and challenges brought by their exposure to…

This qualitative multi-case study explores a group of university-based language teacher educators' boundary crossing experiences in Hong Kong. Informed by a conceptual framework on boundary crossing and drawing on data from in-depth interviews and field observations, the findings reveal the opportunities and challenges embedded in teacher…

Against the background of increasing internationalization, Chinese-foreign cooperative education programs are growing in the Chinese higher education sector. With the international teaching environment combined with the local IC education concept, Chinese-foreign cooperative education programs are potentially the ideal platform for the complete…

This paper examines Indonesian migrant domestic workers' contentment with their sojourn in Hong Kong and factors that inhibit contentment. These factors largely consist of inadequate pre-departure training in Indonesia or training that emphasizes subservience rather than assertiveness, as well as oppressive work environments, underpayment and…

Meaningful intercultural interactions are important to the achievement of today's educational goals, global citizenship and intercultural competence in particular. However, understanding of intercultural interactions between local and international students in classroom settings remains limited. There are few studies that simultaneously examine…

Teaching in international schools is challenging for teachers and professional school staff due to language barriers, cultural shocks, teaching and learning expectations, support and even living standards. As a result, international schools often organise recruitment fairs to recruit professionals and prevent them from frequent departures. Such…

This paper reports a case study on Maneesha Rai, a Nepalese girl living in Hong Kong and an "out of school" student. Based on in-depth interviews, a case was constructed of her previous school days and current "out of school" days. These provided a vivid picture of her life and several themes were created using schema analysis…

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 article reports on a study examining the extent to which pedagogical activities can affect students' cosmopolitan communicative competence (CCC) through online transnational encounters. A total of 58 students from a Hong Kong university and 25 students from an American university were divided into 25 transnational groups. They communicated…

This study explores critical incidents regarding differing cultures-of-use in telecollaboration against the backdrop of Hong Kong and German teacher education contexts. The rationale for the exchange was to model technology use and task design with the ultimate goal of internationalizing teacher education and supporting global citizenship.…

We examine school choices made by western expatriate parents in post-colonial Hong Kong in order to understand the essence of imagined global citizenship and its implications for existing ethnic and class inequalities in the education system. Responding to changes in the global job market, a small but increasingly visible group of parents are…

This article reports on a qualitative study investigating a group of novice ESL teachers' teaching experiences with ethnic minority students in secondary schools in Hong Kong. It finds that, while teachers argue that society has not been tolerant enough of ethnic minorities, they nonetheless believe that ethnic minorities should comply with…