Critical and sociocultural practices towards a higher education pipeline in Hong Kong: Issues of agency, sustainability, and internationalization within teacher education and research training

This paper explores the integration of critical pedagogy and sociocultural learning in developing more engaging and rigorous teacher education practices for institutions that are looking to advance their ‘international standards’ in education for the shorter and longer term. The context is a program in Hong Kong that helps develop diverse undergraduates, often the first in their family to attend university, to be more effective teachers and researchers and be concerned with addressing social justice issues in their work and everyday lives. This paper discusses what can be called an educational pipeline that begins with early undergraduates and then branches off into teaching, postgraduate studies, and research. In examining this process, the paper discusses sustainable contributions that can be made when the pipeline is grounded in methodologies which help to reframe what is considered teacher and student knowledge, and promote a teacher education praxis towards greater agency, equity, and a more humanizing education. Copyright © 2017 Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong. All rights reserved.