This presentation explores acculturation and identity of ethnic minority students in Hong Kong schools, and how they are associated to their learning needs in schools and to what extend culturally responsive classroom environment has been created for fulfilling their diverse learning and cultural needs. This study was qualitative in nature. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in three secondary schools where large numbers of ethnic minority students from low socio-economic backgrounds were enrolled. With school permission, thirty-two teachers were invited to attend one-on-one interviews. Eighteen were female and 14 were male. The enrolment of ethnic minority students was regarded by the teachers as one of the key factors which made the classroom more diverse and multicultural, with the range of diversity covering race, culture, religion, customs and socioeconomic background. When fulfilling their students’ needs, the teachers struggled with conceptualizing a new rationale for cultural responsiveness to diversity, developing intercultural sensitivity, promoting cultural responsiveness among the students, strengthening the home-school collaboration and broadening ethnic minority students’ aspirations for their education and careers. Copyright © 2019 CiCea.

This article illustrates the interface of ethnic identities and a multi-ethnic learning environment in a predominantly Chinese society. Hong Kong – whilst reputed as an Asian international city – has displayed reticence in promoting multicultural initiatives and inclusiveness at a policy level. In this context, this study draws on a sociocultural perspective and interviews with a group of ethnic minority Filipino secondary school students. The interview data point to juxtapositions of ethnic identities with reference to students’ interactions with peers from same and different ethnic groups, ethnic in-group practices, and a schooling discourse that reflects Chinese language expectations and recognition of cultural diversity. The analysis, as a result, specifies how schooling experiences in this case become grounds for identity tensions in being a Filipino and a Hong Kong person. These tensions caution against tacit sociocultural relations in learning environments resulting from school-initiated multicultural practices without broader and explicit policy support for culturally diverse student population. Copyright © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

In the post-9/11 era, growing scholarly literature and social concern have focused on Islamic education in Muslim-majority countries and for Muslim minorities in the West. However, public attention and academic research concerning the teaching of Islam as a world religion and a commonly shared human civilization, are barely understood in secular contexts and in public education. This issue requires more attention, especially in Asia. For the sake of future dialogue and further discussion, this paper is a tentative attempt at initiating this understudied issue of teaching Islam as multicultural literacy. It inquires about the pedagogy of teaching Islam in an East Asian context by first briefly reflecting on the dilemmas of introducing Islam to the West and its implications for the university curriculum. Departing from the experience in North America and European societies, this article then attempts to explore alternative pedagogical discourse in teaching Islam to Chinese students in the East Asian context by considering its specific geographical position in global politics and the recent development of Hong Kong. This article finally foresees the developing pedagogy of Islamic teaching that challenges students to break away from the media cliche and apathy towards human suffering, leading them to understand that they themselves are the potential peacemakers of a future global multiethnic and multicultural society.
[Copyright of Asian Ethnicity is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14631360802041893]