Teachers' stories of children coping with family situations and family changes: a Hong Kong hybrid case

This paper examines teachers' stories of children's coping with changing family situations such as divorce or family separation which can induce discontinuities in their lives. Using the case of Hong Kong, a place where ‘East meets West’ in cultures and family relationships, this paper argues for the use of the concept of hybridities in understanding the experiences of children in changing family situations. Teachers' stories show that children in changing family situations are facing new kinds of difficulties from the mixing of modern family forms and traditional family values. Implications to teacher education, policy and practice are suggested.     

Towards a hybrid conceptualisation of Chinese women primary school teachers' changing femininities – a case study of Hong Kong

In this paper, I posit a hybrid conceptualisation of women teachers' identities in the globalising and localising negotiation of gender. Drawing on Homi Bhabha's theory of hybridities, this paper argues for a fluid, hybrid and multifaceted reality of women teachers' lives in the areas of family, the husband and wife relationship, and the place of the child in the family as they engage in workplaces. The analysis draws on in‐depth interviews with 20 Chinese women primary school teachers first individually and then in groups of four or five in Hong Kong where globalisation meets with the indigenous Chinese culture. Implications for teacher education are discussed.