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Creating culturally responsiveenvironments: ethnic minorityteachers' constructs of culturaldiversity in Hong Kong secondaryschoolsMing-tak Huea & Kerry John Kennedyb

a Department of Special Education and Counselling, Hong KongInstitute of Education, Hong Kongb Centre for Governance and Citizenship, Hong Kong Institute ofEducation, Hong KongPublished online: 07 Oct 2013.

To cite this article: Ming-tak Hue & Kerry John Kennedy (2014) Creating culturally responsiveenvironments: ethnic minority teachers' constructs of cultural diversity in Hong Kong secondaryschools, Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 34:3, 273-287, DOI: 10.1080/02188791.2013.823379

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Creating culturally responsive environments: ethnic minorityteachers’ constructs of cultural diversity in Hong Kong secondaryschools

Ming-tak Huea* and Kerry John Kennedyb

aDepartment of Special Education and Counselling, Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong;bCentre for Governance and Citizenship, Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong

(Received 10 April 2012; final version received 20 November 2012)

One of the challenges facing Hong Kong schools is the growing cultural diversity of thestudent population that is a result of the growing number of ethnic minority students inthe schools. This study uses semi-structured interviews with 12 American, Canadian,Indian, Nepalese and Pakistani teachers working in three secondary schools in thepublic sector to examine how school teachers are handling this challenge. The studyuses these interviews to establish a model for the creation of culturally responsiveenvironments that may help to improve the academic performance and promote thepersonal growth of students in Hong Kong’s secondary schools. Five aspects of culturalresponsiveness are identified: conceptualising cosmopolitanism, raising sensitivity to“minor acts of racism”, managing the diverse learning needs of students, promoting adeep understanding of cultural values and helping students deal with the challenges oftrilingualism. This study argues that ethnic minority teachers are engaged in acontinuing cross-cultural process through which they make sense of the culturaldiversity of students and re-learn their own beliefs and practices. The implications forthe creation of a culturally responsive environment are also presented.

Keywords: ethnic minority; culturally responsive; cross-cultural experiences;cosmopolitanism; Hong Kong schools

Although Hong Kong is known as an international city that bridges East and West, it hosts

a predominantly Chinese society; that is, 95% of the population in Hong Kong is Chinese.

According to the Education Bureau’s data for 2011/12, 14,076 students in primary and

secondary schools in the public sector are from a variety of non-Chinese ethnic

backgrounds such as Indian, Indonesian, Nepalese, Pakistani, Filipino and Thai (School

Education Statistics Section, Education Bureau, 2012). These students constitute 1.94% of

the student population; a number that does not include students enrolled in international or

private schools. The number of non-Chinese speaking or ethnic minority students enrolled

in secondary schools in 2008/09 and 2011/12 are 3,824 and 6,373, respectively.

Proportionally, this represents an increase from 0.71% to 1.43 % of the secondary school

student body (School Education Statistics Section, Education Bureau, 2012).

This is still a small number of minority students in a predominantly Chinese society,

but it is notable that the number is increasing. Although Hong Kong schools are aware of

their responsibility to meet the needs of all of their students, regardless of their ethnicity or

language spoken (Education Commission, 2000; Education and Manpower Bureau,

2004a, 2004b), the public schools are uncertain of how to effectively support these

q 2013 National Institute of Education, Singapore

*Corresponding author. Email: mthue@ied.edu.hk

Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 2014

Vol. 34, No. 3, 273–287, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02188791.2013.823379

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students and have asked for policies. What the current discussion does not cover is the

classroom experience of non-Chinese speaking or ethnic minority teachers; specifically,

how such teachers contribute to a culturally responsive learning environment. Although

there are no official statistics on the number of ethnic minority teachers serving in public

schools with ethnic minority students, the number informally disclosed by the Education

Bureau remains “very low”. Two implications can be drawn from this assumption. First,

the majority of teachers in these schools are Hong Kong Chinese. Second, the small

number of teachers with an ethnic minority background does not reflect the growth of

ethnic minority students.

In this study, we explore how the ethnic minority teachers in Hong Kong’s public

secondary schools facilitate cultural responsiveness to ethnic minority students. These

students are generally among the lowest-achievers academically, coming from low socio-

economic backgrounds and facing social adjustment problems in addition to difficulties

learning the foreign languages of Chinese and English. This study focuses on the

classroom experience of ethnic minority teachers, including Canadians, Indians, Nepalese,

Pakistanis and Americans. Specifically, we examine how these teachers, as members of

minority groups in Hong Kong, construct their classroom experiences to deal with the

cultural diversity of ethnic minority students. Understanding these teachers’ classroom

experiences and the challenges and difficulties they face will help school practitioners

consider the roles of ethnic minority teachers in creating culturally responsive

environments that promote students’ academic success. The following discussion begins

with an examination of the relevant studies on the school experience of ethnic minority

students and teachers. Our research method and findings will then be reported and, finally,

the implications for the management of students’ cultural diversity will be discussed.

Literature review

In this study, multicultural refers to demographically diverse groups of people (e.g.,

groups categorized according to race, language or ability) participating in the same social

context (Oakland, 2005). Multiculturalism emerges when these various demographic

groups interact with each other in a given context. Multiculturalism also refers to

knowledge of how diversity can be handled (Trotman, 2002), and how individuals search

for authentic depictions of the self and group life (Hughes, 1994). One of the key issues in

a multicultural environment is cultural responsiveness. In this study, this refers to the

knowledge, skills and practices used by teachers to make the classroom experience of

ethnic minority students more compatible with their diverse needs (Gay, 2000, 2002). It is

grounded in the assumption that when the cross-cultural experiences of these students are

taken into account by teachers, effective learning can be assured and it is more likely that

students’ learning needs in the classroom will be fulfilled.

In reality, student ethnic minority groups exhibit a range of classroom learning

behaviour and academic achievements (Darling-Hammond, 2006; Frankenberg, Lee, &

Orfield, 2003). For example, there is a gap between the academic performance of students

from culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) backgrounds and that of the students from

the majority group (Gay, 2002; Ladson-Billings, 1994b). Typically, CLD students do not

have as many opportunities as their majority counterparts to develop their intellectual

identities and identify with academics. Previous studies (Gay, 2000; Ladson-Billings,

1995; Villegas & Lucas, 2002) suggest that to promote the success of these students in

school and better manage diversity, the difference between home and mainstream school

settings should be adjusted by socially connecting these students to the majority and the

274 M.-T. Hue and K.J. Kennedy

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values of the host society (Stanton-Salazar, 1997; Yosso, 2005). To achieve this, these

students should be helped to reflect on their previous knowledge and to refine their social

engagement skills (Gay, 2002; Nasir & Hand, 2006).

Previous studies also stress the importance of teachers’ knowledge about the students,

their homes and communities (Gonzalez, Moll, & Amanti, 2005; Moll, Amanti, Neff, &

Gonzalez, 1992). This kind of knowledge is conceptualized as a “fund of knowledge”. As

defined by Moll et al. (1992), this refers “to the historically accumulated and culturally

developed bodies of knowledge and skills essential for household or individual

functioning and well-being” (p. 133). Teachers must play the role of ethnographers, learn

basic ethnographic methods and become reflexive with regard to their own practices and

their knowledge of their students (Gonzalez et al., 2005; Moll et al., 1992). Although

previous studies suggest that teachers have difficulty incorporating knowledge that

conflicts with their own personal beliefs and experience (Ball, 1989), it can be inferred that

teachers with “funds of knowledge” are more able to resolve this conflict and use students’

cultural and cognitive resources to promote effective learning and create culturally

responsive classrooms.

In Hong Kong, many schools are looking for ways to promote cultural responsiveness,

particularly those public schools that accommodate ethnic minority students from low

socio-economic environments (Hue & Kennedy, 2012). Ethnic minorities encounter a

variety of problems in Hong Kong’s educational system including limited educational

opportunities, poor educational provisions, difficulties in learning Chinese and joining

local schools and problems related to their cultures and religions. All of these problems are

interconnected (Ku, Chan, & Sandhu, 2005, 2006; Loper, 2004). A recent study makes a

similar point when examining the difficulties that South Asian students have in learning to

read and write Chinese and how such problems limit job opportunities and access to

tertiary education (Centre for Civil Society and Governance, the University of Hong Kong

and Policy 21 Limited, 2012). The same study shows that a language barrier exists

between the majority and the minority populations, and that this barrier can affect social

integration and cause misunderstandings. In addition to the language barrier, the study

identifies an inadequate understanding of each other’s cultures as a factor preventing

interaction. Although there are a few Hong Kong studies exploring the views of local

Chinese teachers and the ethnic minority students and their parents, the perspectives of

non-Chinese or ethnic minority teachers remain unexamined.

In Western societies, the important role that ethnic minority teachers play in

supporting the learning of ethnic minority students is well-established. Despite this, the

growth in the number of ethnic minority teachers does not equal that of ethnic minority

students in Western countries (Leavy, 2005; Luciak, 2006; Sheets & Chew, 2002;

Wubbels, den Brok, Veldman, & van Tartwijk, 2006). “Whites” as the majority group still

dominate the teaching profession (Causey, Thomas, & J. Armento, 2000; Hagan &

McGlynn, 2004; Hytten & Adkins, 2001; Johnson, 2002; Pearce, 2003; Sleeter, 2001). For

example, in the UK, Ross (2001) estimates that less than 5% of teachers, nationally, are

described as coming from ethnic minority backgrounds. In the US, in 2004, according to

the National Collaborative on Diversity in the Teaching Force, 90% of all public school

teachers were “white”, and more than 40% of schools did not employ a single teacher of

colour. This means that the majority of students in these two countries have few to no

interactions with minority teachers throughout their entire education (Kohli, 2009).

Ethnic minority teachers have advantages in supporting the learning of ethnic minority

students and promoting their personal growth. Such advantages include helping students to

deal with racism, enhancing tolerance, promoting multiculturalism, lessening cultural

Asia Pacific Journal of Education 275

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stereotypes, reflecting the diversity of a multi-ethnic society, improving the effective

functioning of ethnic students in a multicultural society and raising the academic

performance of minority students (Galguera, 1998; Gordon, 2000; Quiocho & Rios, 2000;

Siraj-Blatchford, 1993; Tomlinson, 1990). Specifically, ethnic minority teachers are more

able to connect with ethnic minority students due to their shared cross-cultural identities,

and to the teachers’ desire to be role models for all of the students, particularly those ethnic

minority students who may be at risk of under-achieving (Cunningham & Hargreaves,

2007; Ladson-Billings, 1994a; Mitchell, 1998; Valencia & Guadarrama, 1995). Other

studies indicate the importance of supporting ethnic minority teachers serving in

mainstream schools (Basit & Mcnamara, 2004; Harrison, 2001; Williams, Prestage, &

Bedward, 2001). Although the advantages of ethnic minority teachers are clearly

demonstrated in previous studies, in the context of Hong Kong education, the public and

the government are not aware that the under-representation of ethnic minorities in the

teaching profession is an issue that must be properly addressed.

Methodology

Theoretical framework

In this study, we adopted the social construction of reality as the sociological framework to

clarify the ethnic minority teachers’ experiences and examine how their knowledge of

social realities is constructed in everyday school life (Berger & Luckmann, 1973; Holzner,

1968). Narrative analysis was the methodological approach used in the interviews

(Anderson, 1991; Clandinin & Connelly, 1995; Denzin, 1998; Geertz, 1973; Holstein &

Gubrium, 1995). Specifically, the approach suggested by Clandinin and Connelly (1995)

was used to explore which constructs the teachers used to depict the changes in the

professional “landscape” of their classroom experience and their views on the cultural

diversity of students. The “landscape” was examined from the following dimensions: the

changes in (1) the “space” from the school to the community of ethnic minorities; (2) the

“place” of the Hong Kong classrooms and that of their own countries, where they once

worked; and (3) the “time” spent in the classroom, the school and the community and

interacting with students and teaching staff. Furthermore, the analytical concepts of

moving “inward”, “outward”, “backward” and “forward” were adopted to reveal the

nature of the “landscape” of the teachers’ school experience. Moving “inward” was a way

for the teachers to discover their inner feelings about their cross-cultural experiences and

those of their students, whereas moving “outward” was a way to explore the narrative

about the cultural diversity of students. Moving “backward” and “forward” allowed these

teachers to relate the stories of their “past” experience to “the present” and to discuss how

it shaped their aspirations for “the future”.

Research methods

This study was qualitative in nature. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in three

secondary schools in the public sector in which large numbers of ethnic minority students

were enrolled. In these schools, all of these students studied the same curricula as local

Hong Kong Chinese students. In other words, there was no special curriculum devised for

ethnic minority students, apart from learning the Chinese language. Three schools with

high percentages of ethnic minority students were identified. The number of teachers with

non-Chinese or minority backgrounds in these schools were, respectively, seven out of

62, three out of 47 and six out of 77. Although these teachers were from medium/high

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socio-economic backgrounds, to match the constructs from the Hong Kong Population

Census they were categorized as belonging to ethnic minorities, as discussed below.

Having received permissions from the schools, 12 non-Chinese teachers of American,

Canadian, Indian, Nepalese and Pakistani ethnicity were invited to attend one-on-one

interviews. Seven of them were male and five were female. They were primarily

responsible for teaching languages and mathematics. Each interview lasted about 60min

and was recorded with a voice recorder. The interviews were conducted in English. As a

researcher, I treated the interviewees as human beings, rather than as the subjects of my

research. I provided the teachers with substantial freedom to talk about the issues and I

made it clear to them that I did not intend my research to be covert, or to conceal from

them that their behaviour was the subject of scrutiny. Further, I felt obliged to treat them

with respect and to show that I cared for their feelings. To keep the participants

anonymous, their real names were changed in all of the recorded transcripts, and in this

paper. The semi-structured interview method adopted for this study could be considered a

type of active interview, as proposed by Holstein and Gubrium (1995), in which all of the

participants play significant roles in constructing the conversation.

A constant comparative method, as proposed by Glaser and Strauss (1967), was

adopted for the data analysis. The analysis was designed to reveal the similarities of the

social constructs used by the ethnic minority teachers in the context of this study; it was

not intended to represent all of the ethnic minority teachers in Hong Kong. The first step of

the analysis was transcribing the 12 units of collected audio data. The “richly detailed”

descriptions and accounts (Denzin, 1998, p. 335) were intended to illuminate the teachers’

constructs of their classroom experiences. Categories and concepts were generated from

each unit of data collected. After processing the 12 units of audio data separately, the

similarities and differences between the teachers’ constructs were identified; then relevant

categories and concepts generated from the audio data were compared and contrasted. In

short, the analytic procedure was a cycle of constant comparisons, moving in and out of the

data, and reading for meaning. The analytical procedure was advanced by the intensive use

of the above stages. Finally, the similar features of the teachers’ constructs, as generated

from the data, were categorized and presented in this study with the support of some

quotations extracted from the transcripts.

As this study involved gathering information about individuals or individual

situations, it was necessary to take some important ethical considerations into account

(Ball, 1981; Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, 1999; Hargreaves,

1967; Hill, Laybourn, & Borland, 1996; Lacey, 1974). For example, participation was

voluntary and we ensured that it would not result in harm to the teachers or to other school

members. Further, potential confidentiality issues were addressed, and the teachers were

given a clear understanding of how their contributions would be reported (Bentley,

Oakley, Gibson, & Kilgour, 1999).

The findings

Teaching in Hong Kong schools made ethnic minority teachers more aware of their

minority identities. Their interactions with their students and the ways in which they

managed cultural diversity were part of a process through which they re-thought their own

identity, beliefs and practices. The ethnic minority teachers were able to make sense of the

cultural diversity of students in positive ways, to connect their own sociocultural

experience and minority identity to their students and, accordingly, to create culturally

responsive environments that improved students’ learning and promoted the students’

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adaptation to the host city of Hong Kong. The themes that emerged from the data included

developing a sense of cosmopolitanism, raising one’s sensitivity to “minor act of racism”,

managing the diverse learning needs of students, enhancing the understanding of cultural

values and helping students deal with the challenges of trilingualism. These themes are

explained below.

Developing a sense of cosmopolitanism

As teachers in schools where ethnic minority and local students were mixed, the

interviewees expected to address issues related to cultural diversity, such as traditional

customs, religious beliefs, gender roles, learning styles and classroom behaviour. The

school was regarded as an ideal environment for ethnic minority students to learn to accept

and appreciate cultural diversity, and they were encouraged to integrate themselves not

only into Hong Kong society, but also into the cultures of various ethnic groups. The

teachers insisted that a sense of cosmopolitanism should not be grounded solely on Hong

Kong society and Chinese culture, as different ethnic groups have different cultural values.

Students were expected to learn to live with people who were culturally different from

themselves. As one Nepalese teacher said,

If Hong Kong needs to qualify as an international city, it is necessary to have a multiculturalenvironment, regarding language, the attitude of the people, family functions andcelebrations. If we look at all of the multicultural international cities, they develop the kindof internationalism which holds people altogether and makes sure no one feels like anoutsider . . .By ridding themselves of only being Chinese, they will develop internationalperspectives. They should be proactive, learn English and speak with non-Chinese people.They need more support to understand the rationale behind internationalism.

This sense of cosmopolitanism can be traced back to the teachers’ extensive travel

experiences. The teachers acknowledged that many of their students, especially those from

ethnic minorities, frequently travelled between their home countries and Hong Kong for

familial and religious reasons, and, more importantly, aspired to study or work abroad. For

example, many Indian and Pakistani students travelled back to their home countries for

religious festivals and to visit friends and relatives. They also dreamt of studying in other

cosmopolitan cities, like London and New York. It was the same for Nepalese students. In

addition to travelling back to their home country for social and religious purposes, the

students with Gurkha backgrounds aspired to study in the UK, due to their extensive

family networks there. Similarly, many Filipino students planned to pursue a university

education in their home country, due to relatively low tuition fees and easier admission.

From the teachers’ point of view, the schools had a crucial role in promoting this sense

of cosmopolitanism as a way to help students realize their aspirations to study and work

aboard. However, the extent to which students were able to live with others from different

cultural backgrounds depended very much on their socialization not only in school, but

also at home and in their communities. It was therefore a challenge to connect these three

contexts so that students could be brought up in a more cosmopolitan environment. This

environment would make it easier for students to develop the intercultural skills and

attitudes necessary for living with people from different cultural backgrounds.

Raising one’s sensitivity to “minor acts of racism”

Ethnic minority teachers were sensitive to inadvertent or unwitting racism directed

towards students. Inside the school, most students felt accepted and respected. However,

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when they interacted with others in the community, some students experienced occasional

“minor acts of racism”. In helping the students deal with these experiences, the teachers

used their own personal cross-cultural experiences as resources and associated students’

experiences of “minor acts of racism” with their own. They normalized what their students

encountered by sharing with them how they interpreted the incidents. As one Nepalese

teacher said,

My student told me that some of the local kids in the tutorial centre say “we don’t want you,because . . . ” During that time, there was news of terrorism and students said “you are aMuslim”. My student said, “I want to go [be friends] with them. Why do they say somethinglike that?” [I replied] “It is not your fault. It is the international environment, so don’t worry.”Kids are kids. They are affected by the media.

As constructed by the teachers, face-to-face discussion between the teachers and

students was an important way of dealing with the sensitive issue of “minor acts of

racism”. To help the students deal with this problem, the teachers made an effort to

develop the student’s resilience. They helped the students to rationalize and normalize the

fact that they had to live with the reality of unwitting or deliberate racism, which could

happen anywhere and at any time. This racism did not only happen in Hong Kong, but

occurred in other cosmopolitan cities. As the teachers explained to the students, these

minor acts of racism could be the result of a lack of understanding, ignorance, racial

stereotyping, well-intentioned actions that used words or actions that came across as

superior or even a misunderstanding of other people’s traditions.

The teachers therefore helped students cope with inadvertent or unwitting racism

whenever they encountered it. As many teachers explained, they had themselves

developed a “try-and-try” attitude, which helped them to overcome the difficulties of

adaptation and eventually helped them to develop a sense of identity as “one of the Hong

Kong people”, “part of the city” and “an insider in the society”. They liked to use their

cross-cultural experiences as a point of reference and to help students develop an

optimistic view of “minor” racist issues, so that they could use them as a constructive part

of their cross-cultural experience. This attitude allowed students to avoid falling into the

trap of a self-fulfilling prophecy; if students held consistently negative views about their

cross-cultural experiences and regarded themselves as being unaccepted and discriminated

against, their anger towards the majority group in the host society would be increased.

They could eventually end up isolating themselves from the host society. As a Canadian

and an Indian teacher, respectively, said,

To tell them even in my community, in Canada, there are some people that are kind of racist aswell, they don’t want change either, but as the younger generation gets older, they are moreaccepting. I just say, sometimes people don’t accept us and we have to try our best, [but] youwill find people do accept [you] if you are different, and . . . Oh, Yes. Try! Try! Because Ithink there are people who are not accepting now, but we shouldn’t get upset, if there isone person who doesn’t accept us. He wouldn’t affect us? You just have to be open-minded.(A Canadian teacher)

I am sort of an optimistic person. I don’t know if what I am giving you might not be what they(students) actually thought. I think it really depends on the students. How immersed you are. Ifyou immerse yourself into the society more, then you will think the society accepts you. Thesociety is open to everyone in Hong Kong, I believe, but if you hide yourself you say, thepeople have discriminated against me. It is equal opportunity I would say. I have worked inthis school for six years. I have the same opportunity as my Chinese colleagues. I do the sameamount of work. I work hard. I pursue my education. I get my education. I get involved indifferent things. I think if you work in Hong Kong with a goal, I think you can achieve it. Ofcourse, you have some people in society who are not very educated, but I don’t think it

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generally represents everyone. I think the students if they are more involved, they will beimmersed. They will be okay. (An Indian teacher)

Managing the diverse learning needs of students

Managing the diverse learning needs of ethnic minority and Chinese students was regarded

by teachers and school managers as a burning issue. When developing ways to fulfil

students’ needs, the teachers tailored the existing curricula and adopted a variety of

teaching strategies to improve students’ learning. Although the academic performance of

ethnic minority students was not as good as Chinese students, the interviewees insisted that

the pre-conception held by many Chinese teachers that the learning motivation of ethnic

minority students was “relatively low” was incorrect. As a Nepalese teacher said,

I have heard that many people say that the non-Chinese [students] have low motivation, butfor me there is no such thing, because when I go to the classroom these students are motivatedto learn. They pay attention in class. There is no problem . . . I hear a lot of people saying non-Chinese students are not motivated. It is not true! Not true at all!! There was a meeting lastweek. I was attending a meeting at Yuen Long. Somebody said the same thing. It is not true! Itdepends on who you are and how you communicate with them.

When talking about the diverse learning needs of students, the teachers regarded

teaching in a class where Chinese and ethnic minority students were together as

challenging. In this kind of “mixed” class, the learning needs of students became

prominent and divergent. Chinese students expected the classroom to be more teacher-

centred, whereas ethnic students expected it to be more student-centred. Chinese students

tended to be “conceptual learners”, who could learn without touching real objects or

engaging in experiments, whereas ethnic minority students were “non-conceptual

learners” and tended to be experiential learners who learnt through touching real objects,

engaging in action and participating. In general, Chinese students had better

organizational and presentation skills, whereas ethnic minority students were more active

and creative. As one Indian teacher said,

Like the Chinese, they believe that when the teacher is talking, the students think. They thinkthe classroom is good, if students sit and listen. But for non-Chinese students – No! It isanother thing. They move around and keep talking, but actually they are learning. But I don’tknow if their marks are different. I teach Chinese students too. Chinese students are veryquiet; non-Chinese students are active.

The teachers recognized that their ethnic backgrounds were the first point of reference

for understanding the learning needs of students, particularly when they had similar cross-

cultural experiences. It was also beneficial when the teachers spoke the students’ first

language, shared the same numerical and mathematical thinking as their students and were

in a good position to serve as role models for their students. The teachers’ cross-cultural

experiences and ethnicity allowed them to incorporate the knowledge of cultural diversity

into the school lives of students and to therefore improve the students learning and

promote their personal growth. As an Indian teacher explained,

We had staff like our students, like I can speak Urdu and Hindi. And we have Canadian staff.And also we had some tutors from different ethnic backgrounds, so when it comes to, like[sic], the translating problem, we don’t have that problem. We can handle it. Teachers haveexperience. I think it is due to the history that we have. I think it is one of the comparativeadvantages, or where we are better than the government . . .We know what our students’ needsare; and we know what their parents’ needs are . . . I think the school here has done quite wellwhen it comes to various cultural issues.

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Deep understanding of cultural values

In managing the cultural diversity of students, the teachers engaged in a process of

associating their own cross-cultural experiences with the students’ experiences, and thus a

sense of empathy was developed. This process allowed the teachers to see the world from

the perspectives of the ethnic minority students. For example, a white teacher from Canada

visited the Nepalese students’ community, shopped there and visited their homes and

neighbours. He even dined with one of his Nepalese students in their community. These

types of experiences not only enhanced the teachers’ understanding of the cultures of

ethnic minority students, they caused them to reflect on their own cultural values and

expectations. This self-reflection was illustrated in a Canadian teacher’s construct.

Firstly, the difficulty would be I didn’t know much about different cultures. I didn’t want tooffend anybody because my race was very different to theirs, so I think at first I didn’tunderstand they are different and now that is much better. I feel I understand a little bit . . .I guess I am open-minded a little bit. The only thing that I can’t understand is that perhapsstudents are not allowed to participate in certain things, so it is not their problem. It is theirparents’ problem. You know, one student cannot go to a picnic today because she is a girl.I can’t understand it at all, so I have to be more open-minded to accept other people’s opinionsand what they believe.

Whenever the teachers encountered a behaviour that went against their values, they

tried to examine the practices or values with which they disagreed, and to accept and

respect them. To resolve conflicting values, they extended not only the students’ thinking

about the cultural values that were the basis of their behaviour, but also their own thinking

about these values. As a “white” teacher from Canada explained, it was like trying “to put

the students a little on edge to discuss things. I really try to make them think beyond what

is okay”. The teachers hoped that the students would connect their behaviour with their

self-esteem, examine and reflect on their values, go beyond their culturally accepted

boundaries and gradually work on new ways of life. The same strategies were used by

another “white” teacher from Canada who explained how she helped female students who

were being married at the young age of 16; this was totally against her values, but was

regarded by some ethnic minority people as “kind of natural”. The process through which

she helped the students was constructed with the “I-learn-and-they-learn” approach.

(The girl was) married in summer; came back in Form 4; got pregnant and left. So that’s kindof hard, because teenage pregnancy is not a new thing from Canada, but she is married!Teenage marriage! You know, a lot of students will tell me their parents choose their marriagepartner and the time when they will marry. That is something hard for me to believe andaccept, so I will tell them what is different for me, but I am pretty good at doing this. I don’tthink I have any problem with them. It is a learning experience. I learn, and they learn too.

Dealing with the challenges of trilingualism

In Hong Kong schools, ethnic minority students had to struggle to master three languages

at the examination and everyday life levels: Chinese, English and their first language.

Although they recognized the importance of helping ethnic minority students to learn their

first language as an academic or examination subject, the teachers simultaneously stressed

that helping students to master English and Chinese was the key to their academic success

and effective acculturation. When ethnic minority students cannot communicate

effectively with others in all of the three languages, it can create misunderstandings.

Minority students who spoke Chinese and English as second languages, considered

English the most effective medium of communication. It had the potential to connect

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everyone at the school and to promote cultural harmony as, apart from the new immigrant

students, most students could use English for oral communication, especially those

Pakistani and Indian students who were born in Hong Kong. However, in practice, the

teachers recognized that the different English accents became a barrier to mutual

understanding. Indeed the variety of accents was a challenge even for the teachers. As one

Nepalese teacher said,

If you want to integrate different peoples, Chinese and non-Chinese, forget all the harmoniousthings. The language, with the language, they can ask what they want. With the language, theycan say what are their difficulties. You see there are lots of programmes; they do differentcultural programmes for one day or four or five days. Does it help to integrate the community?I don’t think so. One program of multiculturalism only makes us smile. That smile would lastfor few minutes. So my suggestion is help with language.

Although the importance of English for effective learning and acculturation was

emphasized, the teachers considered it equally important for ethnic minority students to

master the Chinese language and their first languages. In the teachers’ construct, the

Chinese language was a subject in public examinations and one of the requirements for

entering university. By the time this study was carried out, a pass grade in the Chinese

language in either the Hong Kong Certificate of Education (HKCEE), or the General

Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE), was a basic requirement for post-secondary

education. As the syllabus of the GCSE was easier, students were more likely to get a pass

grade in the GCSE than in the HKCEE. However, questions were raised in the interviews

about the extent to which the Chinese language results from different public examinations

reflect actual language proficiency. The teachers also highlighted the fact that although

students could master their first language perfectly in their everyday life, they had great

difficulty learning it as an academic or examination subject. Overall, the teachers noted the

lack of any language policy on ethnic minority education and seriously questioned this

language requirement for university admission. As a Canadian teacher explained,

Yeah, from what I know, a lot of students when they get to a higher level, they have difficultyfinding a university in Hong Kong, because they don’t have Cantonese. They are restricted alittle bit in that way... I know some of our students who are in F.6, they have English. Becausethey don’t have Cantonese, they have to take the GCSE in Uriah, or Hindi, or Nepalese, to getthe second language requirement to continue. They speak that language, but have neverstudied it before, so they may have difficulty . . . I know two of my students, they took, I don’tknow, maybe Cantonese for the HKCEE, and they got U (an unclassified grade, which is thelowest in the grading system). But they then took it for the GCSE and they got A (the highestin the grading system). The A is wonderful, but the U means they know nothing, so I thinksomething needs to be done about the curriculum.

In the teachers’ construct of trilingualism, deep concern was expressed about ethnic

minority students’ abilities to use the Chinese language in their everyday life. It was

particularly crucial for those students who had no plan for migration. What concerned the

teachers was that getting a pass grade in Chinese in the examination did not mean that the

students had the necessary level required for acculturation and career development. When

explaining why these students had enormous difficulties in reading and writing Chinese,

apart from the shortfalls in the current Chinese language curriculum, the teachers stressed

that what was missing for the students was the home environment in which they could learn

and use Chinese regularly. With this in mind, they suggested that Chinese should be taught

beyond the school, in students’ homes and the community. As a Nepalese teacher said,

If you send a child to Chinese schools, [it is assumed] that child will become Chinese. It is awrong assumption! And a wrong expectation! Because it is not something for the school; it issomething to do with the environment at home . . . When they go home, they are talking with

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their father and mother, uncle and aunt, looking at the TV. It is a different environment. Anon-Chinese student, even studying in a local Chinese environment for four hours, goes homefor another 15 h; that’s what we cannot change. We cannot change every home . . . Myconcern is why the government doesn’t help these helpless kids regarding the language. Howdo you want the future to be for Hong Kong people? Because today they are the ethnicstudents, but tomorrow they will be called Hong Kong people, so what do you want futureHong Kong people to be like? Do you want them to be reading in Chinese? Making thingseasier may help people to adapt.

Conclusion

In this study, ethnic minority teachers’ expressed their views through narratives, showing

vividly how they constructed the cultural diversity of ethnic minority students, and how

they associated these students’ school experiences with their own. Their constructs

showed how they managed cultural diversity, and how students acculturated into Hong

Kong society – a culture that is totally different from their home countries. Like the

students, the teachers who interacted with them engaged in a reflective process through

which they learnt about the diverse needs of students, re-learnt their own culture and re-

analysed the rationale underlying ethnic minority education. Through this process, the

teachers constructed their professional growth and sociocultural experience as part of a

culturally responsive curriculum; they examined their ideologies, confronted their

misconceptions and ignorance, and thought about their students’ ethnicity so that a sense

of empathy towards the needs of ethnic minority students could be developed through

lived experience. If it was widely adopted, this process could internalize the knowledge of

both the majority and the minority cultures into the teaching profession and create a

culturally responsive curriculum.

The analysis identified three dimensions for creating culturally responsive

environments; the focus was the creation of cultural harmony, successful adaptation and

new hope. This is distinct from the promotion of social justice and equality that is the ethos

stated in the Western literature. The three dimensions were building a sense of

cosmopolitanism, enhancing school practitioners’ sensitivity to racism, and effectively

managing cultural diversity.

The discussion of cosmopolitanism suggested that the cross-cultural experience of

school practitioners should be taken into account when a policy of cultural responsiveness

is formulated. This new framework stressed that cross-cultural integration should not be

focused only upon assimilation with the culture of the host society, that is, Chinese culture

in the context of this study. Rather the attitudes should be relevant to any cosmopolitan

city where the students might live in the future. The message to school practitioners is that

everyone has a responsibility for other individual members of the school and even the

community. Any divisions in a culture or society, Appiah (2006) claimed, are morally

unnecessary and irrelevant. Beck’s (2006, p. 45) five dimensions of “otherness” could

serve as foundations for cosmopolitanism: “the otherness of those who are culturally

different”, “the otherness of the future”, “the otherness of nature”, “the otherness of the

object” and “the otherness of other rationalities”. Regardless of ethnicity, culture or

religion, all of the school practitioners should have favourable feelings towards cultural

diversity, and to the practices and beliefs of people with different cultures of origin.

With regards to the second dimension, enhancing sensitivity to racism, this study

argued that it is difficult to categorize specific incidents as racist, especially when they are

performed unwittingly and inadvertently or regarded as “minor acts”. Students were not

always aware that they were victims of racism. In other cases, they might face racism, yet

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not want to recognize it, for a variety of reasons. The teachers recognized that these types

of experiences made some students feel annoyed, helpless and depressed. According to the

teachers’ understanding of their own cross-cultural experiences, the most effective way to

cope with issues of this kind was to strengthen students’ resilience by encouraging

students to use positive thinking, build personal goals and immerse themselves in the host

society. They taught ethnic minority students to be open-minded to whatever they

encountered and to constantly seek new opportunities.

The third dimension of culturally responsive environments identified in this study was

contextualizing the cultural diversity of students and developing effective strategies for

fulfilling the diverse cultural needs of students; especially, to help them master three

languages, that is, in this study, Chinese, English and their first language. This study

argued that this will produce students who are citizens with the ability to see beyond

themselves, to constantly learn from the diversity of others and to assimilate the cultures of

“otherness” from the minority and majority groups in any cosmopolitan city that they live

in. In practice, the ethnic minority teachers demonstrated to their students how different

cultures should be respected, accepted and adapted to. They also helped students to

recognize their obligations to others, whether or not they were related by ties of kinship or

race. The students learned that this sense of obligation and cultural responsiveness should

be extended to not only school members, but to all of the people with whom they interact

in the community.

The education of ethnic minority students is no longer peripheral to mainstream

schooling. It is a central topic in general education, bringing together concerns about the

management of cultural diversity, and redefining the concepts of cosmopolitanism,

trilingualism and ethnicity. All of these issues need to be properly addressed; particularly

as ethnic minority groups constitute an important part of Hong Kong society and the

government is currently promoting the city as an international and cosmopolitan centre.

Recruiting ethnic minorities to the teaching profession and to teacher training, and

retaining and supporting them throughout their work in schools will have multiple

benefits. They will not only provide role models for ethnic minority students, they will also

dispel the myths and stereotypes held by the ethnic majority; specifically, that Hong Kong

society is dominated by Chinese culture and that there is little room for ethnic minorities.

This would be one of the ways to create a just and fair society.

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the Hong Kong’s Research Grants Council: Exploring CulturalDiversity in Chinese Classrooms: Can Assessment Environments Cater for the Needs of EthnicMinority Students in Hong Kong (GRF-HKIEd840809). The views expressed are those of theauthors.

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