Purpose: Empirical research on leadership for social justice is in progress in many parts of the world. The purpose of this paper is to explore principals' school-leadership journeys in response to social-justice issues caused by specific contextual changes at times of uncertainty. It seeks to answer the following key questions: What social-justice issues do principals identify as arising from their schools' transformation due to contextual changes? How do principals practise leadership for social justice in response to these contextual changes at different levels? Design/methodology/approach: This paper is based on qualitative data from a cross-case study of two principals' school-leadership journeys. The authors pay particular attention to the understanding of leadership for social justice grounded in principals' efforts to foster equality in learning development for a diverse student population. Findings: Timely adverse conditions may be required to foster leadership for social justice in schools. The principals reacted to contextual changes at several levels, planning and implementing innovative and flexible interventions to ensure equality in students' learning development. These findings contribute to international accounts of educational leadership. Research limitations/implications: This study of leadership for social justice in schools is contextually specific. Therefore, more empirical comparisons of school leadership are required in future studies, as principals' practices vary between education settings. Originality/value: This paper offers insights into the evolution of leadership for social justice in schools in response to contextual changes. Principals' leadership strategies can be reoriented and their actions reshaped to overcome threats to social justice in schools. Accordingly, although leadership for social justice in school communities is culturally and pedagogically inclusive, it is also socially distinctive.
[Copyright © 2017 Emerald Publishing

Many Hong Kong schools are concerned with the growing number of enrolment of ethnic minority students. This article examines ethnic minority teachers’ cross-cultural experience and their view of the diverse needs of ethnic minority students and how these needs were fulfilled. Qualitative data were collected from unstructured interviews, where the views of fifteen teachers of Pakistani, Indian, Canadian, Pilipino, from three primary and three secondary schools, were explored. This finding was illuminated by the interview study, showing that the diverse learning needs of ethnic minority students and their classroom behavior were culturally different from the majority of Hong Kong Chinese students. To manage the classroom diversity and promote cultural responsiveness, the teachers struggle for conceptualizing a new rationale for cultural responsiveness to diversity, developing a sense of inter-cultural sensitivity and promoting cultural responsiveness to diversity. This paper argues that like students, teachers simultaneously engage in a crossculture process through which they learn the culture of ethnic minority students, re-learn the culture of their own and re-think about the relevant rationale underlying cultural responsiveness. For ethnic minority group of school practitioners, there was a need to give them hope as a way to get them motivated to learn, face new challenges and explore the new opportunities. At last, the implication of the creation of a culturally responsive classroom will be given.

An important feature of Hong Kong's education reform over the past decade has been the articulation of the "no loser principle". This policy statement was meant to signal that all students are valuable and will benefit from both basic and senior secondary education. Yet barriers remain for the 2.9% of students under the age of 15 who can be classified as ethnic minorities. Until the 2008 Racial Discrimination Ordinance (RDO), the educational needs of these students remained an invisible issue for the school system. This article examines the policy context in which Hong Kong schools have made provisions for ethnic minority students, and reviews classroom practices that operationalize these policies on a daily basis. In an interview study involving 32 teachers' narratives of how they managed the cultural diversity of ethnic minority students in classrooms (Hue & Kennedy, 2012, 2013), it was reported that at the practical level, teachers struggle to meet the diverse needs of students and to conceptualize a new rationale for responding to cultural diversity. The implications of promoting ethnic minority education at the three levels of policy, practice and research are discussed.
[Copyright © Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia (UNED)].

Enhancing quality early childhood education and enabling access for ethnic minority South Asian (SA) children in kindergartens have increasingly been a social concern in Hong Kong. This empirical study examines the beliefs and perceptions of kindergarten teachers and principals towards educating SA children in their own educational settings. The research focus was sharpened by a case-study method to examine the effectiveness of SA children from two different kindergartens with significant demographic differences. In total, 10 focus group interviews with 29 teachers and individual interviews with the 2 principals were conducted to understand their perspectives on the learning and transitional needs of SA children. The findings reveal a remarkable difference between the beliefs and perceptions of both teachers and principals from the two kindergartens in response to the diverse needs of SA children. School policy, practice and the implications for the development of early years education are discussed.; Enhancing quality early childhood education and enabling access for ethnic minority South Asian (SA) children in kindergartens have increasingly been a social concern in Hong Kong. This empirical study examines the beliefs and perceptions of kindergarten teachers and principals towards educating SA children in their own educational settings. The research focus was sharpened by a case-study method to examine the effectiveness of SA children from two different kindergartens with significant demographic differences. In total, 10 focus group interviews with 29 teachers and individual interviews with the 2 principals were conducted to understand their perspectives on the learning and transitional needs of SA children. The findings reveal a remarkable difference between the beliefs and perceptions of both teachers and principals from the two kindergartens in response to the diverse needs of SA children. School policy, practice and the implications for the development of early

Many Hong Kong schools are concerned about how diverse learning needs of ethnic minority students could be better fulfilled. This study examines local teachers’ constructs of assessment classroom environments. Using qualitative data collected from semi-structured interviews with 32 teachers from three secondary schools, this study shows ways in which summative assessment influences teachers’ formative assessment practices. Cultural responsiveness in this study is not limited to the notion of multiculturalism. It can be constructed under the ethos of respect, care and equality. The culturally responsive approach to assessment described in this study foregrounds considerations of cultural influence in teachers’ beliefs regarding assessment. Principles of culturally responsive assessment identified include: (i) integrating the ‘part’ of assessment with the ‘whole’ of teaching, (ii) managing the diverse learning needs of students, (iii) removing language barriers from the assessment process and (iv) examining the influence of the public examination on teachers’ classroom assessment practice.
[Copyright © 2014 Taylor & Francis.]

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]

Many Hong Kong schools are concerned about the growing number of ethnic minority students. How they are supported and how the diversity of their pastoral needs is fulfilled become critical. This article examines teachers', students' and parents' narratives of the cross-cultural experience of ethnic minority students from India, Pakistan, Philippines, Nepal and Thailand, and the diversity of those students' pastoral needs. The qualitative data were collected from interviews, through which the constructs of 32 teachers and 32 students from three secondary schools were explored. Four groups of focus-group interviews were conducted, in which 15 parents were involved. This article argues that to implement the ethos of caring, it is not only necessary for the school to promote the intercultural sensitivity of all practitioners, but equally important to develop a connected school system where ethnic minority students and parents can be consistently supported in the subsystems of classroom, school and home.
[Copyright of Educational Studies is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03055690903425383]