Background of this Research

III Work done by us

A focus of our recent research has been on diversity in Hong Kong classrooms with a particular emphasis on ethnic minority students and the contexts in which their school education takes place (Kennedy,Tsui, and Hue, 2008 , Kennedy, 2008 , Hue, 2008 , Lam, 2008, Lam and Yeung, 2005 ) . The emphasis of this research has been identifying the conditions and contexts that support the learning of all students and in particular ethnic minority students in schools where they remain a minority in classrooms dominated by Chinese students and teachers. This is the case even in what are called “designated” schools that have been identified by the Hong Kong government as being schools that ethnic minority students are encouraged to attend. Such schools are seen to be a way to focus resources to support both teachers as well as students in what is generally regarded as a challenging task.

 

The outcomes of this research provide the basis for the current proposal. It is clear from our work that at the level of policy the issue of catering for the needs of ethnic minority students remains a challenge for the government (Kennedy, 2008). There has been a constant battle between advocacy groups for more and more support and a marked reluctance on the part of the Education Bureau, the main government department dealing with ethnic minority students, to accede to these requests. The battles have usually ended up being played out on the floor of the Legislative Council with ground more often than not given by the EDB once issues become publicly contested (Kennedy, 2008). It is not that the government is reluctant to support ethnic minority students. Rather, there appears to be a long held cultural belief about equity that means providing more for one group (in this case ethnic minority students) is not fair to others (in this case Chinese students). Thus while there is a policy in place to support ethnic minority students and it has attracted resources leading to an active implementation process, the policies themselves remain contested.

 

At the same time, our work with teachers in designated suggests that while they are aware of ethnic minority students in their schools and classrooms, they do not convert this awareness to action in the classroom (Kennedy, Tsui and Hue, 2008). The results of a survey administered in 2007 (n=253) clearly indicated that teachers do not see the needs of ethnic minority students as being any different from Chinese students. The qualitative responses of teachers in the survey suggested that teachers were aware of cultural differences between Chinese and ethnic minority students (Hue, 2008) but it seems they did not view these differences as requiring any special attention in terms of curriculum, teaching or assessment. A subsequent analysis of these survey results using multi-group factor analysis demonstrated clearly that in terms of teacher efficacy, the sample of teachers surveyed hold exactly the same views towards Chinese students and ethnic minority students/ This result indicated in a different way that cultural differences appear to have no implications for professional practice for these Hong Kong teachers.

 

Another strand of our work has been concerned with classroom assessment and its cultural contexts in Hong Kong classrooms (Kennedy and Lee, 2008, Kennedy, Chan, Fok and Yu, 2008, Brown, et al., in press, Yu, Kennedy, Fok, and Chan, 2006). This complemented more general work that we have done on theory and practice in classroom assessment (Brady and Kennedy, 2005). Yet none of this work has taken into consideration the needs of ethnic minority students. In researching the cultural basis of classroom assessment environments in Hong Kong, the emphasis has been on identifying in the contexts of mainstream Hong Kong classrooms the way teachers conceptualise assessment and the implications of these beliefs for classroom practice. This work has grown out of the education reforms in Hong Kong where alternative forms of assessment have been advocated (Curriculum Development Council, 2000).

 

Our work has pursued two directions. First, we have shown that the reform agenda itself is so westernized in its underpinnings and recommendations that it takes no account of whether conditions in local classrooms can easily respond to the changes needed. At the same time we have shown (Brown et al., in press) that teachers remain very examination oriented in their approach to teaching and assessment and they see assessment largely in terms of school and student accountability. This is in contrast to teachers from more westernized societies. Thus the reform agenda has been confronted with deeply held teacher views –that we see as cultural – and they are at odds with the reforms. There is a distinct cultural bias in the classrooms we have studied favouring exam preparation, testing, holding students accountable for their results and treating all students the same. The assumption of this bias is that classrooms are monocultural or, in the words of the reform agenda, that ‘one size fits all’ (Education Commission, 2000). This does not seem to us to be perverseness on the part of teachers. Rather, it is more likely to be teachers’ values rather than resistance to change that seem to account for these conditions. Yet when the monocultural assumption no longer holds, when classrooms are multicultural, will teachers values change?

 

It is this last question that we wish to address by bringing together the two strands of our research discussed above. The focus will be on ethnic minority students and the conditions for learning that are created in designated schools by classroom assessment environments. These conditions will be viewed through several lenses: the policy contexts at system and school levels that create the macro context for assessment, the observation of actual practice of assessment in classrooms and the views of teachers and students about these assessments and their role in catering for diversity.

 

 

References

Brady, L. and Kennedy, K. (2005). Celebrating Student Achievement-Assessment and Reporting. (2 nd Ed.). Sydney: Pearson Education Australia.

Brown, G., Kennedy, K., Fok, PK., Chan, JKS. & Yu, WM. (in press). Assessment for improvement: Understanding Hong Kong teachers’ conceptions and practices of assessment. Assessment in Education.

Curriculum Development Council. (2000). Learning to learn: The way forward in curriculum development consultation document. Hong Kong: The Council.

Education Commission, E. (2000). Education blueprint for the 21st century: Learning for life, Learning through life - Reform proposals for education system in Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Printing Department..

Hue, M. (2008). Cross-cultural experience of immigrant students from mainland China in Hong Kong’s secondary schools. . Ethnography and Education, 3 (3), 229-242.

Kennedy, K. (2008, March 28 ). Policy, Action and Theory: Tensions in Hong Kong’s Response to Educational Provision for Ethnic Minority Students. Paper prepared for the Interactive Symposium, Ethnic Minority and Immigrant Students’ Experience of Language, Culture an. New York: Culture and Identity Development in Hong Kong, Canada, and U. S (Session 67.060) Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association .

Kennedy, K and Lee, J. (2008). The Changing Role of Schools in Asian Societies – Schools for the Knowledge Society. London: Routledge.

Kennedy, K., Chan, JKS, Fok, PK & Yu, WM. (2008). Forms of assessment and their potential for enhancing learning: Conceptual and cultural issues. Educational Research for Policy and Practice, 7(2), 197-201.

Kennedy, K., Tsui KT and Hue, MT. (2008, January 23). Comparing Hong Kong Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy for Teaching Chinese and Non-Chinese Students. . Hong Kong: Annual Conference of the Comparative Education Society of Hong Kong.

Lam, B.H. ( 2008). The issue of diversity in the Hong Kong school curriculum: Student communities in the maonstream school. Studies in Education, 5 (1/2), 96-117.

Lam, B.H. & Yeung, A. S. W. (2005). Inclusion or Exclusion? – A Study of Hong Kong Students’ Affective and Social Outcomes in a Mainstream Classroom. Educational Research for Policy and Practice, 4 (2/3), 145-167.

Yu, WM., Kennedy, K., Fok, PK. & Chan, KS. , Si. (2006 , May). Assessment reform in basic education in Hong Kong: The emergence of assessment for learning. Retrieved October 8th, 2008, from IEAA 2006 Singapore 32nd Annual Conference: http://www.iaea2006.seab.gov.sg/conference/download/papers/Assessment%20reform%20in%20basic%20education%20in%20Hong %20Kong%20-%20The%20em

 

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