In multicultural education, empathy has been regarded as an essential teacher disposition that enables teachers to better understand culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students through perspective-taking. However, less is known about the mechanism that underlies how empathy fosters teachers’ competence in supporting CLD students, i.e., their multicultural teaching competence. This study fills the research gap by investigating multicultural beliefs as a potential mediator between teacher empathy (operationalized via perspective-taking) and multicultural teaching competence (as indicated by knowledge, skills, and relationship-building abilities). A total of 445 Chinese preschool and kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong (188 pre-service and 257 in-service teachers) completed a self-report questionnaire assessing teacher empathy, multicultural beliefs, and multicultural teaching competence. Mediation analyses revealed that teacher empathy was related to higher support for multicultural beliefs, which in turn predicted better multicultural skills, knowledge, and relationship-building abilities. The multi-group analysis further indicated equivalent mediation paths for both pre-and in-service teachers. Extending past research underscoring empathy as an essential teacher disposition for multicultural teaching competence, the present study showed that the crucial role of empathy in transforming teachers’ belief in favor of multiculturalism helps foster teachers’ multicultural teaching competence. A practical implication of the present study calls for including perspective-taking and critical examination of teacher beliefs as key elements in teacher education programs that are aimed at facilitating early childhood teachers’ multicultural teaching competence. Copyright © 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.

This case study explored how the principles of multicultural and intercultural education are reflected in a minority-majority Hong Kong secondary school (that is, a school where most students are ethnic minorities). The findings suggest that the school illustrates several aspects of multicultural and intercultural education, especially content integration, prejudice reduction, equity pedagogy, and democratic deliberation, particularly in relation to school-based material, teacher sensitivity, and dialogical reasoning. The main hurdles discovered are language learning difficulties and an unsupportive social environment. This study contributes to literature on the development of multicultural and intercultural education in Hong Kong and offers directions for generalizable future research. Copyright © 2023 Peicong MA et al.

After the government of Hong Kong branded Hong Kong as "Asia's World City," there has been more interest in addressing the needs of multicultural education in the city. This is also the intent of this study, which discusses the impact of a sports program that involves a South Asian sport called kabaddi on intercultural competence. The program was conducted in a multicultural setting in secondary schools and social communities with participants of different ethnic backgrounds. These participants included students, school teachers and kabaddi coaches. Four schools were purposefully selected, and the data collection methods comprised interviews and participant observation. The findings of the study revealed that the program which adopted the approach of teaching games for understanding (TGfU) could enhance the intercultural competence of both Chinese and South Asian students. The students gained new knowledge about heritage/minority cultures, learned to appreciate them, and developed bonding and bridging social capital. The implications of this study validate the feasibility and merit of integrating intercultural education into physical education. However, it is important to identify the ethnic composition and relations of the participants and devise a suitable pedagogy and curriculum when implementing the program for optimal results. Copyright © 2023 Taylor & Francis.

香港的中文作為第二語言教學的課程，除了由大專院校開辦的對外漢語課程及國際學校提供的中文課程外，還有近年備受關注的面向非華語學生（Non-Chinese Speaking Students）的中文課程。本文旨在評介香港非華語學生中文課程的實施狀況及其特色，通過對有關文獻及統計資料的考查與分析，探討當中的教學困境與對策。研究針對目前非華語學生中文教學在課程、評估及師資方面的不足展開論述，建議當局考慮從以下三方面加以改善：一、改革課程設置，重新審視對非華語學生的語文教育政策，積極考慮另設一個適應非華語學生學習需求的中文課程，與本地華裔學生的中文課程雙軌並行；二、優化評估機制，建立適用於香港本地的中文作為第二語言能力的評核基準，客觀反映非華語學生的中文學習進度和能力水平；三、加強校本支援及師資培訓，針對目前非華語學生中文教材不足、教師工作量大的情況，增撥資源加強校本專業支援，並與大學及研究機構合作，提供合適的教師培訓及開發教材資源等，以改善目前的教學困境，提升教學成果。In Hong Kong, there are mainly three kinds of curriculum in the field of teaching Chinese as a second language (TCSL), namely the Mandarin Chinese courses run by the tertiary institutions, Chinese curriculum offered by international schools, and the Chinese curriculum for the Non-Chinese Speaking (NCS) students. Through the analysis of documentary materials and statistical data, this paper aims at giving an overview of and discussion on the historical background and development of Chinese curriculum for the NCS students, as well as to investigate the challenge and measures followed by its implementation. It reveals that there is still inadequacy of the on-going curriculum implementation process in the aspect of curriculum planning, assessment system and teacher’s training. The research proposes that the government should consider making improvement in the following ways: firstly, the government should have a review on the language education policy for the NCS students, re-consider to plan an independent Chinese curriculum which tailors to students’ specific learning needs; secondly, modification of the assessment system should be made, a new Chinese language proficiency test system designed for the NCS students is required in order to assess students’ learning progress and the actual level they have attained; thirdly, measures should be taken to give professional support for school teachers, encourage teachers to design NCS Chinese curriculum together with educational experts from tertiary institutions, hoping to reduce teacher’s workload

This article examines nine secondary school teachers’ narratives and perspectives about the determinants of their ethnic minority students’ sense of belonging in Hong Kong. The thematic analysis of their in-depth interviews reveals three sets of determinants of belonging, including demographic, personal, and intercultural factors. The study findings underscore the importance of students’ socialisation contexts and the critical role of the Chinese language curriculum and the social reception towards non-European immigrants in Hong Kong. The paper discusses the potential avenues of educational policy and practice interventions for developing a stronger sense of belonging among young people with immigrant and ethnic minority backgrounds in the multicultural societies of settlement. Copyright © 2022 Informa UK Limited.

Using multicultural education as a lens, this article details the discursive formation of Hong Kong’s linguistic landscape with a focus on policy arrangements around teaching Chinese as a second language for non-Chinese ethnic minorities since the early 2000s. We pose two research questions: What are the identifiable policy trends in education for ethnic minorities? And how effective are the policy provisions in managing diversity and social justice for ethnic minorities in Hong Kong? The study draws upon documentary analysis to review existing local literature, which highlight the school admission, curriculum design, language teachers’ professional development practices, and assessment pertaining to the education of ethnic minority students. Our analysis reveals a narrow concentration of policies that focus exclusively on supporting ethnic minority students’ Chinese language learning regarded as the barrier to their advancement in education and an omission of other nonlinguistic, structural and ideological challenges and barriers. This barrier contributes to prejudices in school access, curriculum and assessment that function within an assimilationist integration framework. We call for policy measures that broaden the focus of multicultural education for ethnic minorities and that seek to manage ethnolinguistic diversity for equal citizenship rights in the Asian context. Copyright © 2020 Fang Gao, Jan Gube.

Improving mainstream perceptions of diversity in Hong Kong is fundamental to enhancing equality and human rights in the society in the future. The importance of mainstream members of society learning to recognize diversity with less prejudice undergirds many of the aims of a recent educational reform, Liberal Studies. This paper evaluates the capacity of Liberal Studies to educate for multicultural understanding of cultural difference. Its primary data source is Liberal Studies textbooks, and it employs a qualitative content analysis to consider how diversity and ethnic, cultural, and religious differences are represented in the texts. The analysis is complemented by an examination of related resources teachers may use in the classroom (and are encouraged to use by the Hong Kong Curriculum Development Council): mainstream news articles and resources from the (government-provided) Web-based Resource Platform for Liberal Studies. The voices and views of some practicing teachers and pre-service teacher education students related to multicultural Liberal Studies resources are also included to provide a balanced picture. Based on this analysis, multicultural education as provided in major resources within the Liberal Studies curriculum appears inadequate. As diversity is reflected upon in resources analyzed here most often as problematic and stereotypical, interventions are needed if Liberal Studies is to enable multicultural appreciation and understanding among students in Hong Kong in the future. Copyright © 2016 De La Salle University.

Although multiculturalism in education has become dominant in many societies, Hong Kong does not have a tradition of multicultural education. This paper asks whether and how multicultural education, or a new variant, “interculturalism,” might be usefully employed in considering diversity and inequality in Hong Kong education. After giving a brief overview of multiculturalism and interculturalism in education, the paper examines the needs of Newly Arrived Students (NAS) from mainland China and ethnic minorities to receive greater educational representation through content integration, and interventions to increase student empowerment and reduce prejudice (in line with a multicultural approach). However, students can also benefit from programs labeled as “intercultural” today: linguistic interventions that assimilate students to dominant languages used for work and equal opportunity in society. The paper compares Hong Kong’s challenges with those of other countries that employ multicultural and/or intercultural education programs, Canada, the United States, France, Japan, and South Africa, and also considers educational implications of the latest Moral and National Education controversy, to argue for the need for a more active role for multiculturalism and interculturalism in Hong Kong education today. Copyright © 2013 Comparative Education Society of Hong Kong.

Teaching young people to understand and appreciate diversity is crucial in Hong Kong efforts for a just and inclusive multicultural society. History is the main place where the cultural identity and values of Hong Kong society have been reflected on, questioned, and problematized in the curriculum, as changes to this curriculum interface with larger social and political changes of the society. Although diversity is emphasized in Hong Kong history curricula, representations of ethnic minorities provided in education may not always be effective toward multicultural aims. This research explores how multicultural content is expressed in Hong Kong Chinese history textbooks. In particular, we focus on how relationships between Han and minority cultures are represented in the texts, using qualitative content analysis. Based on the analysis, we elaborate three main descriptive codes and themes: (1) only majority perspectives are provided, (2) cultural superiority of the dominant group (the Han), and (3) plural monoculturalism, where minority views are treated as threatened and/or as threatening in relation to the society as a whole. We argue that these codes are in contrast with a multicultural stance that aims to enhance social justice and equity in relation to diversity, through providing balanced perspectives, including positive ethnic minority recognition and support for just forms of pluralistic integration. Copyright © 2019 National Institute of Education, Singapore.

We examine school choices made by western expatriate parents in post-colonial Hong Kong in order to understand the essence of imagined global citizenship and its implications for existing ethnic and class inequalities in the education system. Responding to changes in the global job market, a small but increasingly visible group of parents are seeking to challenge what they see as the constraints of expatriate life by developing global opportunities for their children through Cantonese language acquisition in the local education system. Drawing on the sociological literature on school choice and middle-class identity, we argue that these parents are negotiating for themselves a global imaginary in which cultures can easily be traversed and social class is levelled. But such global desires, we suggest, can also replicate colonial privilege in a way that marginalises poorer schools and other ethnic minorities in the education system.
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