One of the challenges facing Hong Kong schools is the growing cultural diversity of the student population that is a result of the growing number of ethnic minority students in the schools. This study uses semi-structured interviews with 12 American, Canadian, Indian, Nepalese and Pakistani teachers working in three secondary schools in the public sector to examine how school teachers are handling this challenge. The study uses these interviews to establish a model for the creation of culturally responsive environments that may help to improve the academic performance and promote the personal growth of students in Hong Kong's secondary schools. Five aspects of cultural responsiveness are identified: conceptualising cosmopolitanism, raising sensitivity to ?minor acts of racism?, managing the diverse learning needs of students, promoting a deep understanding of cultural values and helping students deal with the challenges of trilingualism. This study argues that ethnic minority teachers are engaged in a continuing cross-cultural process through which they make sense of the cultural diversity of students and re-learn their own beliefs and practices. The implications for the creation of a culturally responsive environment are also presented.
[Copyright of Asia Pacific Journal of Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02188791.2013.823379]

Many Hong Kong schools are concerned about their growing numbers of ethnic minority students. When these students are enrolled in Hong Kong secondary schools, how their cultural diversity is catered for becomes critical. This article examines how teachers narrate the cultural diversity of ethnic minority students, who come from Pakistan, India, Nepal, the Philippines and Thailand. Qualitative data were collected from interviews, through which the narratives of twenty-four teachers from four secondary schools were explored. The study showed that to address cultural diversity, a 'connected' classroom should be established by promoting interpersonal relationships, developing adaptive teaching strategies, keeping the balance between guidance and discipline and strengthening home-school collaboration. Implications for the development of teacher education will be presented.
[Copyright of Pastoral Care in Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02643944.2013.811697]

Presently, there are a growing number of ethnic minority students in Hong Kong schools. This article examines teachers' views of the cross-cultural experience of ethnic minority students, their influence on the performance of these students, and how the diverse learning needs of these students are being addressed. Qualitative data were collected from semi-structured interviews with 32 teachers from three secondary schools. This study shows that teachers struggle to conceptualize a new rationale for responding to cultural diversity. They develop a sense of intercultural sensitivity, promote cultural responsiveness to diversity, and strengthen the home–school connection. This article argues that, like students, teachers simultaneously engage in a cross-cultural process through which they learn the culture of ethnic minority students, relearn their own culture and reexamine the relevant rationale underlying cultural responsiveness. Finally, a framework for the creation of culturally responsive classrooms, based upon the teachers' new rationale of cultural responsiveness, is proposed.
[Copyright of Intercultural Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14675986.2012.686021]

Schools in Hong Kong are concerned about the growing enrolments of students with special educational needs (SEN) and how these students could be included in school guidance. This study examines teachers' narratives of the inclusivity of school guidance. The study was qualitative, being a case study of a Hong Kong secondary school. School documents were collected for textual analysis and semi-structured interviews with 13 teachers were conducted, including nine guidance teachers and four other teachers who worked closely with these guidance teachers. Four dimensions for the inclusivity of school guidance were identified: the development of inclusive practices of guidance, the adoption of a proactive approach, the promotion of inclusive discipline, and the clear definition of the partnership between school guidance and professional organization offering specialised services for students with SEN. The study provides insights into contextual influences of Hong Kong education on school guidance and the development of an inclusive approach to guidance.
[Copyright of British Journal of Guidance & Counselling is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03069885.2011.646950]

Mindfulness-based intervention with adults has been found to be highly effective and as such it has been the subject of much research in the past few decades. However, the study of mindfulness-based approaches with adolescents, especially in the Asian context, is still under-explored. This paper reports findings from a pilot controlled trial assessing preliminary outcomes of a mindfulness-based programme in schools in Hong Kong. Fourteen to 16-year-old adolescents with low academic performance from two secondary schools were invited to take part in intervention and control groups (n = 48). It was hypothesised that a six-week mindfulness-based programme would increase well-being, reduce stress and symptoms of depression. Well-being, stress and depressive symptoms of both intervention and control groups were assessed at baseline and post-intervention. The findings showed that there was a significant decrease in symptoms of depression and a significant increase in one dimension of well-being among both groups. Qualitative data reflected that the mindfulness programme was beneficial and feasible to adolescents at schools. The results support conducting a randomised controlled trial with a larger sample and a long term follow-up.
[Copyright of Roeper Review is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1364436X.2011.639747]

Abstract Hong Kong schools are concerned about how students with behavioural problems could be supported. This article reports the findings of a study investigating teachers’ constructs of students’ resilience. Specifically it examines how it could be promoted through school guidance and factors affecting the development of students’ resilient capability. Twenty-four teachers from four secondary schools were interviewed. Their constructs of resiliency were explored from the perspective of social constructivism and the narrative approach was also employed. The study identifies the challenges school guidance faced in developing resiliency are identified. Also four means through which school guidance could be made more resilient are suggested, including helping students explore the natural tendencies of students’ inner-strength, developing a resilient approach to behaviour management, including the resiliency into whole-school guidance curriculum, and building connections between school, home and community. The findings also show that the construct of resiliency was culturally grounded upon Confucianism. The direction for future research is given
[Copyright of Roeper Review is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02643944.2011.626067]

Promotion of students' spiritual development is one of the goals of pastoral care in schools. The heritage of Chinese calligraphy is traditionally used as a way to enhance an individual's self-reflection and cultivation, and has an educational value in spiritual development. This study aims to examine the cultural meaning of Chinese calligraphy and its practices in general, and specifically its connection to spiritualism. The methodologies of narrative approach and textual analysis were employed. Accordingly, the narratives of five practitioners' personal experiences, including the researcher's, captured in unstructured interviews, plus selected historical texts on calligraphy will be examined. This article suggests that calligraphy serves more than a utilitarian function. The value of spiritualism underlying this art has also been used as a practice of personal development and spiritual discipline, which leads practitioners to reflect in their mind and heart. This value is universal, and can be agreed upon in a pluralistic society and applied to all schools with different cultural backgrounds and also outside of religious traditions. Lastly this article draws school practitioners' attention to the importance of calligraphy for spiritual development of students and its implications for the promotion of pastoral care and spiritual education.
[Copyright of Pastoral Care in Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02643940902733886]

This article examines how Hong Kong secondary school teachers define caring and the strategies they adopt for behaviour management. The influence of Taoism, emerging as a theme from the data, was prominent, as its principles were incorporated into the teachers' knowledge of caring. The findings illuminate the influence of Taoism in local schools. Implications for the promotion of culturally responsive programmes of caring are drawn.
[Copyright of British Educational Research Journal is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01411920903018158]