Education Philosophy

I love teaching and enjoy sharing my values, knowledge and life experience with students. I share the joy of my students' achievement and growth. I have enthusiastically participated in planning, implementing and evaluating the curriculum and teaching of the programmes of Bachelor Degree and Master Degree of the Department of Social Work and the General Education Courses of College and University.

As an educator using formal and informal education, my main objectives are to stimulate the students' interests in acquiring knowledge, to foster in them a real concern for the society and to assist them to cultivate a systematic and critical way of thinking.

Results of my teaching evaluation are rated well above the average score of Department of Social Work at the Chinese University of Hong Kong whereas some of them are among the best ratings of the department. It demonstrates that my teaching performance is recognised and appreciated by my students.In recognizing my outstanding teaching performance, I am awarded the Exemplary Teaching Award 2011 by the Faculty of Social Science, CUHK.

PhD Supervision

Since 2008, I have successfully supervised the graduation of 17 PhD students, all of whom have gone on to secure positions at higher education institutions, NGOs, and government bodies. They have emerged as a new generation of social work educators and researchers in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

To be a member of the new generation of social work educators and researchers, they have to acquire up-to-date theories and sophisticated quantitative and qualitative methods to conduct their independent research studies.

I believe that PhD study is not just about thesis writing. PhD students need to have a deep understanding of the real lives in the society, have a genuine concern about the livelihood of the vulnerable groups, and uphold the values of social justice in social work research.

I am glad that most of my students have accomplished the above outcomes and will most probably become professional and academic leaders who will “make contributions to the social work profession and society through research and practice activities” as stated in the mission of the Department of Social Work. The thesis titles of my graduated PhD students are as follows:

• Home-and-community-based Services for the Elderly in Contemporary Urban China: A Comparative Study between Guangzhou and Nanjing by CHEN, Wei (2012)
• The Impact of Social Health Insurance Reform on Health Equity among the Elderly: A Study in Zhejiang, China by LIU Xiaoting (2013)
• Helping Poor Children out of Poverty? A Multiple-Case Study of School-based and Community-based Programmes in Hong Kong by TANG, Mun Yu Vera (2013)
• Can Welfare Leavers Get Out of Poverty? A study of Low-income Households in Taipei by DOU, Tsz Rung (2014)
• Organizational Survival and Adaptation Strategies of NGOs in Hong Kong by AU, Kit Ying Anita (2013)
• The Impacts of Social Capital on Social Inclusion of Migrants: The Roles and Functions of Social Service in Guangzhou and Shenzhen by ZENG, Weiling (2015)
• The Origin, Process and Influence of Chinese Worker's Mass Incidents: The Formation of Working Class's Collective Identity and Consciousness by Bai Xiao (2016)
• Factors and Mechanism of Subjective Well-being of Poor Adolescents —Qingdao-based Research by Xu Congde (2016)
• The Inequality of Strong Capital and Weak Labor in China Labor Relations: The Reflection of Function and Development of Different Levels Labor Unions in China by Wei Xin (2017)
• Effects of Community-Level Factors on the Social Care Needs of the Chinese Elderly by LU, Shiyu Tracy (2017)
• Lifestyle, Intergenerational Support, Community Factors and Health Outcomes among Rural Elders by Zhang Nannan (2019)
• The Progressiveness of Chinese Social Work: Comparative Case Study of Grassroots and Semi-Official Social Work Organization by CHEN, Anna (2019)
• Impact of Housing on Poverty Situation in Hong Kong: An Examination on Deprivation, Social Exclusion, and Subjective Poverty by CHAN, Siu Ming (2020)
• Effect of Care Service on Meaning in Life in Urban Elderly Homes: A Study in Wuhan City of Hubei Province by ZHOU, Xiaofan (2021)
• Agency of Chinese women workers: Resistance of women workers in multiple domains in Guangzhou and Shenzhen by GAO, Xianda (2021)
• “Heterogeneous Connectors” and “Missionary Narrators” – Intermediaries in the Field Formation of Social Entrepreneurship in Hong Kong by TAM, Wing Sai Jessica (2022)
• Impact of Housing on Poverty Situation in Hong Kong: An Examination on Deprivation, Social Exclusion, and Subjective Poverty by CHAN, S (2021)
• Research on the Influencing Mechanism of Transformational Leadership and Authentic Leadership on the Professionalism and Indigenization of Chinese Social Worker by LIU, Ziyu (2023)