Renewed Conception of Harmonious Society,Governance, and Citizenship – Evidence from the Study of Chinese Perceptions in Hong Kong

This paper aims at constructing a modern theoretical conception of a harmonious society and testing it in relation to governance and citizenship rights, based on an empirical study of Chinese people’s perceptions in Hong Kong. It is proposed that a harmonious society can be defined as “a society in which the component parts are integrative and cooperative; even if there is conflict, it can be resolved within the established mechanisms and does not interrupt the orderly functioning of society.” This study investigates the social, economic, and political aspects and their related institutions in the renewed conception of harmonious society. Overall, less than two‐fifths of the respondents felt that Hong Kong was a harmonious society. The strength of governance in Hong Kong is its sound and trustworthy institutions; the weaker elements are social and interpersonal relations. This finding is in contrast to the traditional notion, which regards social harmony as harmonious social and interpersonal relationships. It is clear that the greatest challenge for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government is the need to rebalance the interests of big business and those of labor and the lower class in order to enhance the perception of a harmonious society among its citizens.     

Beyond identity politics: the making of an oral history of Hong Kong women who love women

Oral history has long been an important resource for lesbian and other underprivileged groups in advancing identity politics. While there is an increased awareness of social construction of identity and the impact of race and class on the experiences of sexual identities, oral historians have yet to rethink their task in view of poststructuralists' and queer theorists' critique of identity. This paper examines the "Oral History Project of Hong Kong Women Who Love Women" as an attempt to construct histories that respect difference and minimize normalization. It discusses the project's significance in terms of its subversion of the heterosexual/homosexual binary and its queering of the notions of identity, community and coming out. The critique unfolded is one of anti-assimilation and anti-minoritization. doi:10.1300/J155v10n03_03.     

Inclusive education services for children and youth with disabilities: Values,roles and challenges of school leaders

Implementing inclusive education requires significant changes to values, systems, and practices. Hong Kong began to implement the inclusive education policy on the basis of voluntary participation in 1997. The government later launched a school partnership scheme, under which schools with proficient practices in whole-school approach to inclusive education were invited to serve as resource schools to support other schools. Data on what has led school leaders to join the reform under the policy of voluntary participation and how they tackle problems during implementation cannot be located. Thus, the purpose of this qualitative study is to uncover the reasons for school leaders' decision to participate in and what they did to facilitate the school wide effort to practice inclusive education, as well as challenges encountered. Key findings included Christianity and Confucianism as the prime reasons for practicing inclusive education, partnership with teachers and a shared vision as the key to successful implementation, and a competitive education system together with inadequate resources and teacher training as the main challenges. Recommendations consist of incorporating value development and building relationships with stakeholders in principal training programs, integrating knowledge and skills for inclusive education into the pre- and in-service teacher training programs, and appropriating resources with increased stability and autonomy.     

Repositioning Risk in Social Work Education: Reflections Arising from the Threat of SARS to Social Work Students in Hong Kong during their Field Practicum

The social work profession has always been involved in dealing with uncertainty and risk in the life politics of clients. However, it is not easy for young social work students to translate this philosophical disposition into their real life practice with clients. In spring 2003, when the SARS epidemic broke out in Hong Kong, a group of social work students from the Chinese University of Hong Kong were doing their fieldwork practicum. Suddenly confronted by a collective sense of risk in their role as social workers, the students went through a period of unrest, as performing their helping duties brought with it a simultaneous exposure to personal risk. This paper is based on four focus group interviews with these social work students, to understand how they processed their experience of risk during their exposure to the SARS crisis, and how they connected the experience to their social work practice with clients. It is found that the predicament arising from the exposure to personal risk brought about by the SARS crisis during the students' field placement engendered the reflective process that enabled a renewed and personalized meaning of professionalism. The results provide a basis for reflection among social work educators on the role of risk in the training of prospective social workers, and on how social work education can better prepare students for practice in a high‐risk environment.     

Evaluating a Teaching Module on Ethically Responsible Evidence-Based Practice Decision Making in an Advanced Micro Practice Course

ABSTRACT

This article adds to the growing body of literature on the use of evidence-based practice (EBP) in social work. Specifically, it examines a 9-hour EBP educational model designed to prepare MSW students for appropriate decision-making strategies in working with multicultural client populations. The model places emphasis on identification and application of critical thinking skills for micro- and mezzo-level practice in urban social work systems. It moves beyond traditional research approaches and emphasizes community-based and emic approaches for generating evidence appropriate for ethnic minority populations. Students’ written assignments (N = 80) demonstrated the model’s pedagogical value as a learning strategy for applying EBP. Students’ evaluations demonstrated the model’s value in sensitizing students to the importance of becoming ethically responsible research consumers.     

Social policy and social order in East Asia: an evolutionary view

This study contrasts two varieties of comparative analysis: on one hand, researchers may look to explain the historical development of the East Asian welfare systems (EAWS) with an eye towards delineating some common trends, while on the other hand, they may seek to recognize the institutional features of these systems through the cross-regime comparisons. We discuss problems in the operation of these two approaches, instead choosing to employ contextual analysis to illuminate developments in social policy in EAWS. This study proposes to understand the policy model of these systems as a two-phase evolution in policy, thus providing a new foundational approach for the study of EAWS.     

Comparing the effectiveness of I-BMS-informed self-help interventions in alleviating psychosocial distress for women awaiting the outcome of IVF treatment

Women undergoing in vitro fertilisation experience enormous emotional distress while waiting to find out if they are pregnant; yet their intention to seek help remains low. Interventions that can be easily self-administered may provide a promising alternative. This randomised trial compares psychosocial outcomes of 207 women who received a self-help education booklet containing either spiritually reflective exercise and relaxation techniques, spiritually reflective exercises only, or information about body-mind wellness. Results suggest that knowledge on body-mind wellness protected the women from deteriorating in a range of psychosocial well-being domains that would otherwise have occurred during the waiting period prior to the pregnancy test.     

Interparental Agreement on Family Functioning Within Chinese Families

Although many studies have investigated the concordance of parent and adolescent perspectives on family functioning, little research has been conducted on concordance between parents’ perspectives. In this study the authors investigated this issue in China. Each parent of 729 children attending elementary schools in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, completed a set of questionnaires including a version of the Chinese Family Assessment Instrument (C-FAI). Mother and father concordance was medium to strong for four of the five C-FAI subscales, suggesting that parents were generally in agreement with each other in their perceptions of family functioning. However, mothers reported significantly more family conflict than fathers when their child was a girl, and fathers reported significantly more control problems than mothers when the child was a boy. The findings are discussed in relation to the limitations of the study and the need for future research.     

Counseling Support for the Forgotten Transgender Community

The needs of people with nonconforming gender behavior are not homogeneous, for people who self-identify as transgender are not and should not be considered the same as individuals who self-identify as transsexual. Limited counseling resources are available for clinicians working with individuals who self-identify as transgender but have no desire to proceed to sexual reassignment surgery (SRS). Though it appears many of the recommendations for transsexuals are relevant for the broader range of transgender individuals, significant differences exist between them, warranting further investigation. This article presents a summary of approaches for gender-variant clients not matching the transsexual paradigm.     

Strategies Used by Gay and Bisexual Young Men to Cope With Heterosexism

ABSTRACT

Although the pervasiveness of heterosexism in the lives of gay and bisexual youth is well established, little is known about the strategies these youth use to cope with stigma and discrimination based on their sexual minority status. In this qualitative study, the authors present findings and implications for clinical practice based on interviews with 43 gay and bisexual young men. Respondents’ coping strategies are discussed in relation to current theory and research on coping with stigma, as well as the emerging field of emotion regulation. The narratives from the current study suggest that the emotion regulation paradigm is well suited to understanding the functions of strategies for coping with heterosexism and similar types of stigma.