Parental account of support for specific learning difficulties in Hong Kong

Parents play a significant role in the education of children with special needs. Recent national policies have aimed to improve support for students with specific learning difficulties and their families in Hong Kong. Literature on the experiences of children with specific learning difficulties in Hong Kong is scarce. This study, by Kim Fong Poon‐McBrayer of the Hong Kong Institute of Education and Philip Allen McBrayer of the University of Guam, attempts to capture a glimpse of the support for students with specific learning difficulties through their parents' account of experiences with school practices. Findings indicated parents' frustration over the use of grade retention as a remedial method, the use of expulsion as a disciplinary strategy, limited instructional support, and a lack of school‐initiated communication to inform, engage or support parents in the special education process which in turn resulted in a poor home–school relationship. Recommendations centred on policy enforcement, reducing class size and teacher workload, and improving home–school relationships.     

Image and Experience of Contemporary Public Schools: informal processes and the post‐school transition

This paper considers the role of informal networks in securing post‐public school occupational advantage. Both the ‘official’ view of the private sector and the experiences of recent pupils are cited. A significant disparity is found between the two. A denial of the relevance of the ‘old boy network’ is revealed in the sector's publications, a position fully consistent with the overall reconstruction of image currently being pursued. In contrast, ex‐pupils unequivocally asserted the continued influence of non‐meritocratic means of advancement, though crucially, only for an (elite) element of pupils. It is argued that adequate social analysis requires not simply an awareness of the presence of covert mechanisms, but also an acceptance of the socially restricted, rather than universally available, nature of the processes. Recognition is needed that contemporary informal networks have evolved from an historically familiar form, yet constitute a particular, dynamic, era‐specific manifestation of it.