Invitational Education (IE) is a theory to be practiced in the five areas of People, Places, Processes, Policies, and Programmes (the five P’s). The emphasis of IE on creating an inviting school environment, developing students’ self-concept, and fostering positive perceptions of school is well supported in the field of education. This study investigated the invitational climate of seven secondary schools in Hong Kong that implement IE. The research involved a large scale survey of the seven schools that received the “Inviting School Fidelity Award” in 2008, followed by a qualitative study undertaken in the school with the highest invitational climate. A Chinese translation of the revised Inviting School Survey (ISS-R; Smith, 2005) was used to measure the invitational climate in the seven schools. The five subscales of ISS-R were found to be valid and reliable in a sample of 706 Grade 11 students. Students’ perceptions of the invitational climate in the key areas of People, Places, Processes, Policies, and Programmes were analyzed. The findings of this study suggested that indications of invitational climate in the five P’s could facilitate teachers’ and administrators’ consideration in improving invitational practices to cater for the needs of different groups of students. Teachers also need to be aware that IE may be perceived and received differently by students of different genders and levels of ability. In addition to the invitational climate, students’ affective and social development were also examined in the areas of academic affect (feelings about learning and achieving in school), academic self-concept (beliefs about oneself as a learner), self-regulation(the ability to manage one’s own learning and behaviour), goal setting (setting own learning targets), and social concern(concern for self and others). Correlations were found between the five key components of IE and students’ academic affect and self-concept, self-regulation, goal setting and effort, and social concern. ANOVA revealed differences in perceptions and outcomes across different academic achievement levels, and by gender. Results supported the view that IE encourages students to become self-motivated and autonomous learners. The qualitative part of the study involved individual and focus group interviews with 30 Grade 11 students from the IE secondary school with the highest invitational climate (according to the ISS-R survey). Students’ perceptions of the school climate were examined in relation to five key areas―People, Processes, Policies, Places, and School Programmes. The aim was to explore how these five areas influence students’ academic affect, academic self-concept, self-regulation, goal setting, and social concern. Findings suggested a definite relationship between these five areas of affective and social development of the students and their perceptions of the inviting school climate, particularly the influence of teachers, and the processes used to encourage autonomy in learning. In addition, this qualitative section confirmed the survey findings that students with different levels of academic achievement had different perceptions of invitational climate. Less-able students felt less positive than more-able students about the inviting nature of people, policies, and places. Implications for the implementation of Invitational Education to cater for learner diversity are discussed. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Education

Over the last decade, a significant number of overseas Chinese including Hong Kong emigrants have returned to Hong Kong. Many returnees, especially those who learnt Chinese as a heritage language, often encounter various language difficulties upon their return mainly due to their incompletely acquired version of the Chinese language. However, there is little research on the Chinese language learning and teaching for this special community, which is inherently different from native Chinese learners or second-language learners. This work explores various pioneering ways to develop returnees’ greater fluency in the Chinese language and especially to improve their practical literacy skills. We intend to evaluate and further develop their awareness of the orthographic principles operating in Chinese characters. We believe that this is a key step to help Chinese returnees quickly integrate themselves to the local society. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Education is supposed to advance humans towards the common good and a better future, but the present environmental education in trend has largely failed to inculcate a social perception of nature as is required in education for sustainability. The world is facing an ecological crisis as a result of unrestrained exploitation of natural resources and pollution; while the sustainability movement remains sluggish as prevailing citizenship education in the national context continues to serve dominant values through the top-down approach and fall behind actual needs in reforming societies. Outdated thinking of citizenship and the absence of civil society involvement are argued to be the main factors slowing down education for sustainability. Ecological citizenship as an emerging concept to address world sustainability suggests a stronger role to be played by the civil society particularly in renewing the political obligations of citizens towards their unsustainable relationship with nature. A paradigm shift in educational values towards critical pedagogy should encompass environmental justice and ecological footprint to reflect the global dynamics of environmental issues today. International environmental non-government organizations can capture opportunities of this rising role, as affirmed by the Hong Kong case analyzing the work of Greenpeace and WWF and views of local key stakeholders taking part in this movement. Through their usual environmental governance work in the forms of advocacy and stakeholder engagement, international environmental non-government organizations can foster more community-based sustainability education in formal, non-formal and informal settings through the more bottom-up tripartite approach of government-business-civil society. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Language Studies / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Social Sciences