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Many Hong Kong schools are concerned about the effective use of educational planning for fulfilling the diverse needs of ethnic minority students particularly given their growing numbers. No matter what educational plans for ethnic minority students are made, how they are implemented becomes critical. This article examines teachers 'narratives of the cross-cultural experiences of ethnic minority students from India, Pakistan, Philippines, Nepal and Thailand, and the diversity of those students' different learning needs. Qualitative data were collected from interviews, through which the constructs of thirty-two teachers from three secondary schools were explored. This paper argues that when devising and implementing an educational plan for promoting the welfare of ethnic minority students, it is not only necessary for the plan to promote the intercultural sensitivity of all practitioners, but it is equally important to develop a connected school system where ethnic minority students and parents can be consistently supported in the subsystems of classroom, school, and home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article considers Chinese calligraphy as an expression of aestheticism and spirituality that allows the artist to explore the self and Chinese culture and how important it is to teach calligraphy to students. The author feels that instruction in calligraphy would provide a multicultural education to Chinese students and help them to develop as people. Calligraphy as a vehicle for the author's personal narrative and storytelling is considered and the author relates his own education in calligraphy. When discussing the spiritual aspects of calligraphy, the author describes the method for making brush strokes and its emotional and physiological impact on his body. The author also discusses the connection between the Tao and calligraphy.

Teachers in Hong Kong, as elsewhere, are concerned with students' misbehaviour. In secondary schools two teams of teachers, a guidance team and a discipline team, deal with it. This article examines how teachers make sense of their caring work and strategies for behaviour management. Taking an interactionist perspective, the framework suggested by Stebbin (1969, 1975) was adopted for exploring how teachers defined the situation in which they participated. Qualitative data were collected using interviews and classroom observation. Sixty teachers were interviewed. Eighteen classrooms were observed. The influence of the Chinese philosophy of Confucianism, emerging as a main theme from the data, was prominent, as its key principles were incorporated into the teachers' personal system of caring. The findings illuminate the influence of Chinese culture in Hong Kong schools. Implications are drawn for the promotion of culturally responsive programmes of pastoral care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]