The social integration of ethnic minorities stemming from migration is still a major political, economic, and societal challenge in the European Union (EU) (Kahanec & Zimmermann, 2011). To tackle the issue of integration, European policymakers have set an important goal to be achieved through education - promoting the social integration of ethnic minorities (Muižnieks, 2010). However, as frontline agents of social integration, some European teachers feel unprepared to teach students of diverse cultural backgrounds (Nilsson & Axelsson, 2013; Trasberg & Kond, 2017), which poses a challenge to education authorities.

Many Asian countries and territories face a similar situation, including Hong Kong. There has indeed been an increase in the population of non-Chinese ethnicity in Hong Kong, particularly South Asians from Nepal, India, Pakistan, and East Asians whose native languages are not Chinese. While learning the mainstream language is key to social integration, many ethnic minorities fail to acquire the Chinese language which is largely spoken by locals. As language is one of the obstacles for ethnic minorities to gain access to further education, lack of which seriously impedes their future ability to find better jobs, this leads to low social mobility and poor social integration. Social integration is a two-way process between locals and ethnic minorities (Arat & Sunuwar, 2019) that also includes respecting and understanding the differences between cultures. The local people’s attitudes to and perceptions of ethnic minorities matter for the social integration of ethnic minorities.

There is therefore an urgent need to get ethnic minority children to learn the Chinese language at an early age, preferably in kindergartens. With the deficits in knowledge and skills for teaching ethnic minority children, an Educator Programme (thereafter referred to as ‘the Programme’) which is part of a larger project named PLEM (Social Service Professionals, School Leaders, Educators, and Multicultural Teaching Assistants) has been offered to train kindergarten teachers on how to teach Chinese to ethnic minority children.

The Programme adopted an integrative model which consisted of theories and pedagogical skills related to three key areas: culturally responsive teaching, meaningful and pleasurable learning, and effective teaching of Chinese as a second language. To put it briefly, culturally responsive teaching refers to using the cultural knowledge of ethnic minority students, their past experiences, and preferred learning styles to make teaching more relevant and meaningful to them (Gay, 2010). Meaningful learning takes place when learners connect new knowledge with learnt knowledge. This process helps them acquire the new knowledge (Ausubel, 2000). Pleasurable learning occurs when learners can master knowledge in a playful learning environment via games and/or technological tools (Kangas, 2010). For effective teaching, teachers use a wide range of pedagogies to facilitate students’ learning (Tabors, 1997) such as real objects, visual aids and different types of activities (Tabors, 1997). Adopting these three strategies results in an increase in the interest of ethnic minority students in learning Chinese. The acquisition of the Chinese language can in turn help promote the level of social integration. 

The Programme comprised theoretical (Introduction and Foundation (I&F) Course) and practical components (Practice Course). The I&F Course provided an introduction and discussion about the theories and pedagogies of culturally responsive teaching, meaningful and pleasurable learning, effective teaching of Chinese as a second language, and social integration. The Practice Course focused on sharing different pedagogies to teach Chinese and understanding the educational needs of ethnic minority students through discussion and class observation.

The present study aims to examine the participant’s perceived changes in attitudes and perceptions towards the social integration of ethnic minority children after attending the Programme.

Using a mixed methods approach, we explored the teacher participants’ changes in attitudes and perceptions towards the social integration of ethnic minority children. The participants were asked to complete the same questionnaire at three different time points: before the I&F Course (P0), at the end of the I&F Course (P1), and at the end of the Practice Course (P2). A total of 39 and 28 participants completed the questionnaires at P0 and P1, and P0 and P2, respectively. The mean score of social integration at P1 was slightly higher than the score at P0 so the percentage increase in the mean score was 1.6% only. Interestingly, the mean scores of two items (“I organized school activities to enable students of different cultural backgrounds to know each other”; “I organized school activities to help my ethnic minority students to make friends with local students”) at P2 were higher than the scores at P0 and reached statistical significance. The results from the qualitative data supported and complemented the quantitative results. We also conducted focus group interviews for the participants to verbalize their changes at different time points. A total of 30, 32 and 24 participants joined the interviews at P0, P1, and P2, respectively. At P1, a few participants revealed that they previously had some negative or stereotypical views of ethnic minorities because of their anti-social behaviors, and they admitted that this was an unfair perception. Most participants stated that the Programme enriched their understanding of ethnic minority students’ cultures, their difficulties in learning Chinese, e.g. because of differences in the directions their languages are written compared with the Chinese language, and heightened their awareness of the educational needs of ethnic minorities when planning the curriculum and pedagogical activities. The participants said they developed more empathy, praised, and showed more caring to ethnic minority children. At P2, some participants said that they used culturally responsive teaching like using photos of ethnic minority students’ native countries, taking them for outdoor or community activities, e.g. visits to Chinese restaurants to learn the names of Chinese dishes, to the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens to widen their life experiences, to provide them with meaningful and pleasurable learning, and to help them integrate into the society. Some participants also organized school activities such as birthday parties to provide a context in which both local and ethnic minority children and parents could interact and make friends.

To achieve a united society, mastering the mainstream language is key as it ensures the smooth integration of immigrants into the society, and education has a role to play to help immigrants learn the local language. Educators must therefore possess the skills needed to teach the local language to ethnic minority students. Therefore, the Educator Programme was designed to build the capacity of local teacher participants to teach a culturally heterogeneous population. The participants used culturally responsive teaching and a wide range of effective teaching skills to provide ethnic minority children with a meaningful and pleasurable learning experience. In addition, the value of the Programme is evident as the participants reported that their attitudes and perceptions towards ethnic minorities have changed after attending the Programme. Since teachers’ attitudes and perceptions can impact teaching and learning, teacher education programmes in universities need to be restructured to allow teachers to acquire positive attitudes and non-biased perceptions towards ethnic minorities in order to teach in today’s culturally diverse classrooms. Aside from the change in negative attitudes and stereotypical perceptions towards ethnic minorities, the Programme helps develop empathy in the participants for ethnic minority students. The Programme also enriched the participants’ understanding of ethnic minorities’ cultures, learning difficulties, and educational needs. It is worth noting that the participants perceived that the Programme can help ethnic minority children integrate into the society through their efforts in organizing different school and outdoor activities which allow ethnic minority children and parents to have more interactions with local children and their parents.

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