The question of means-and-end in teaching non-Chinese speaking students in Hong Kong

The influence of a very small group of ethnic minority students in Hong Kong has started to gain attention of the public when the school aged population of this group of mainly South East Asian students grows, the problem has been seen more eminent in secondary schools where education is to prepare young people for their future participation into the society, and especially the designated schools which serve to support this specific group. This paper reports the common pedagogical practices teachers used for teaching a relatively large proportion of non-Chinese speaking, South East Asian students in an integrated classroom. By gaining into the “actual site” of an interdisciplinary group of secondary school teachers from four schools in Hong Kong, a series of cultural responsive pedagogical strategies which are closely aligned with the progressive pedagogy are identified. The shaping of a cultural responsive classroom discourse which interwoven with games and competitions are found to be adopted as a powerful tool to fully engaged students for maintaining classroom discipline. In evaluating the pedagogies, teachers in the study was found to have trapped in a dilemma of means and end of teaching/education for this unrecognized minority group-whether school curriculum can help these students to make a successful life and what is the successful life of this group as understood by teachers – in an education system that is largely determined by academic success in Hong Kong. Implications are made towards the vision of multiculturalism.