Nurturing teachers for culturally diverse schools in Hong Kong: How can teachers be equipped to be culturally responsive teachers?
Project Title(Chinese) :
培養教師回應香港學校的多元文化：如何裝備教師成為回應多元文化的教師?
Principal Investigator(English) :
Prof Wong, Jocelyn Lai-ngok
Principal Investigator(Chinese) :
黃麗鍔
Department :
Dept of Educational Administration & Policy
Institution :
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Co - Investigator(s) :
Panel :
Humanities, Social Sciences
Subject Area :
Education
Exercise Year :
2018 / 19
Fund Approved :
607,920
Project Status :
On-going
Completion Date :
30-6-2021
Abstract as per original application (English/Chinese):
Ethnic minority students have long been perceived as a disadvantaged group in schools. In Hong Kong, research on school performance of ethnic minority students has had a key focus on language learning and cultural adaptation but not much has been done regarding the role of teachers. Teachers’ cultural awareness, professional needs and training highly affect their interaction with and teaching of ethnic minority students. Studies focusing on teachers’ competency to develop a culturally responsive learning environment for ethnic minority students are also rare. To bridge this research gap, this study will be guided by the research question “How can teachers be equipped to be culturally responsive teachers?” It will examine teachers’ views on cultural diversity, views that will affect their multicultural daily practice. Their professional needs and whether their needs have been addressed by existing teacher education programmes will be fully explored to seek a basis to develop culturally responsive classrooms. Suggestions on ways to improve the existing teacher training to equip teachers as culturally responsive will also be discussed.
This study will apply a mixed method approach with three stages of the data collection process. Data collected from individual interviews with 20 school teachers and the analysis of school document (Stage 1) will identify teachers’ sense of cultural diversity, their daily practice of teaching ethnic minority students, their professional needs, teacher training and ways to encounter challenges. In Stage 2, documentary analysis of teacher education courses aiming at equipping teachers with competency to teach ethnic minority students will take place. Results of these two stages will serve as the foundation for the design of a questionnaire (Stage 3). It is planned that 300 questionnaires to 60 schools will be delivered in order to collect wider views from teachers who teach ethnic minority students.
Findings of this study will contribute to the global discussions on influential factors and ways to develop culturally responsive teachers by examining their views, daily practice, professional needs and the teacher training they received. It is expected that the current research gap regarding this particular aspect will be reduced by this study. Furthermore, identifying ways to help schools and teachers develop socially just classrooms will not only contribute to the re-examination of the existing teacher education programmes by placing more emphasis on social justice but also may help initiate the reallocation of education resources to support the educational initiative to provide equal learning opportunity for students.
