The cultural diversity in schools has demanded teachers to meet students’ various learning needs and motivational levels. In response to this challenge, a wide range of pedagogical approaches (e.g., culturally responsive teaching, culturally relevant pedagogy) has emerged to transform teachers’ beliefs and practices in order to accommodate students’ cultural experiences and promote educational equities (Au & Jordan, 1981; Banks, 1993; Cazden & Leggett, 1981; Gay, 2002; Ladson-Billings, 1992). As crucial actors in educational contexts, teachers play a critical role in challenging school inequities and reversing the underachievement of culturally diverse students. The main theoretical foundation for this research is the multicultural education theories, including multicultural education and culturally responsive teaching.

During the past decades, research has widely examined teachers’ beliefs and practices about cultural diversity in educational contexts. Nevertheless, multiple limitations have been identified in the literature, which deserves further investigation (Agirdag, Merry, & Van Houtte, 2016; Civitillo, Juang, Badra, & Schachner, 2019). Firstly, White teachers and immigrant students in Western nations have been dominant research contexts to investigate topics on teachers’ beliefs and practices (Agirdag et al., 2016). Secondly, a majority of empirical studies on teachers’ cultural diversity beliefs and practices focus on qualitative research methods. Thus, the objective of this study is to utilize the questionnaires to explore both Chinese majority and minority teachers’ beliefs and practices about cultural diversity, particularly in mainland China (hereafter referred to as China).

China is a country accommodating a total of 56 ethnic groups (Lin, 1997; Zhou, 2001). The Han majority account for 91.6% of the total population and the other 55 indigenous minority groups constitute the remaining 8.4% (approximately 112 million) according to the Sixth National Population Census of 2010. While these ethnic minorities share about 60% of China’s land and more than 90% of its border regions, they are concentrated in peripheral regions markedly poorer than those inhabited by the Han majority (Lin, 1997; Postiglione, Teng, & Ai, 1995). Such ethnocultural diversity has presented significant challenges for the Chinese government and education policymaking (Shen & Gao, 2019). However, the discussions of cultural and linguistic responsiveness and multicultural education are mostly found in academic and policy discourse and much less in practices (Postiglione, 2009). National standard curricula remain dominant and ethnic minority culture remains marginalized in schools in ethnic minority regions (Chu, 2015; Gao & Wang, 2017; Postiglione, 1992). Studies have shown that the marginalization of home culture is negatively related to ethnic minority students’ psychological well-being, school belonging, learning motivation, and school performance (Agirdag, Phalet, & Van Houtte, 2016; Phalet, Fleischmann, & Hillekens, 2018; Van Avermaet, 2010). This phenomenon, therefore, poses great challenges to minority-dominant schools, raising the need for teachers to achieve the teaching competence needed to improve the well-being and school success of ethnic minority students.

Data was collected during the 2018–2019 academic year in China. Convenient sampling was applied because it is an effective tool that facilitated mirroring the ethnic diversity of the teaching force and student population in Yunnan. The multiethnic autonomous county in this study was selected from 29 autonomous counties in Yunnan. Ten primary schools from this county were selected because it provides most diverse student population. Two schools were in urban areas, while eight were in rural locations. Ethnic minority students accounted for more than 80% of the total student population of each school selected. Before the researchers went to the research site, the survey was field tested with several teachers and then revised before data collection. The survey questions were prepared in simplified Chinese. Teachers’ participation in this study was voluntary and based on the informed consent of all the respondents. A total of 606 primary teachers completed the survey during February and March 2019. In the survey, teachers’ culturally responsive teaching beliefs and practices were measured with Likert-scale items. Information about gender, age, ethnicity, teaching experiences, level of education, culturally relevant training, and intercultural experiences was collected to examine if they directly influence the extent of teacher beliefs and practices. SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) was used for data analysis. First, descriptive analysis was used to assess the extent of teachers’ culturally responsive teaching beliefs and practices. Second, Pearson’s correlation analysis was applied to assess whether there was a correlation between teachers’ teaching beliefs and practices. Third, multiple regression analysis was performed to examine whether demographic factors, teacher training, and intercultural experiences predicted teachers’ beliefs and practices. Missing data were handled by excluding cases listwise.

First, the majority of teachers in the study hold highly favorable beliefs about culturally responsive teaching in minority-dominant schools. In other words, the teachers in this study are aware that different ethnic cultures have their values, and acknowledge that students’ home cultures and experiences should be appreciated and integrated into classroom instruction. However, the teachers reported moderate practices of culturally responsive teaching practices, indicating that they did not often translate their positive beliefs into their educational practices. Pearson’s correlation analysis further suggests a marginal, weak relationship between teachers’ teaching beliefs and practices regarding cultural responsiveness. Second, teachers’ culturally responsive teaching practices are influenced by demographic characteristics. Han majority teachers were more likely to engage in culturally responsive teaching practices than their Indigenous minority colleagues. This interesting finding is not consistent with previous research in other sociocultural contexts arguing that ethnic minority teachers are more involved in multicultural teaching (Agirdag, et al., 2016; Vervaet, Van Houtte, & Stevens, 2018). That is, the teachers from the same minority group as the students did not necessarily act upon culturally responsive teaching practices more than ethnic majority teachers. Third, teachers’ culturally responsive teaching practices are influenced by intercultural experiences (i.e. intercultural interactions, news exposure, language background), indicating that multicultural education approaches are not isolated from wider sociocultural contexts. In other words, although teachers’ engagement with culturally responsive teaching practices is limited, the extent of such practices can be increased by encouraging (prospective) teachers to build intercultural experiences in their professional development.

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