Researching ethnic minority students in a Chinese context: mixed methods design for cross cultural understandings

Research on and with ethnic minority students is characterised by a growing international literature that privileges ‘liberal multiculturalism’ as a lens through which to understand their experiences, yet ethnic diversity is constructed and responded to in many societies that are not underpinned by liberal democratic values. In this paper we use Joppke's binary to show how researching ethnic minority students outside of a liberal democratic framework requires methodologies that enable researchers to see beyond the invisibility that is often attached to ethnic minorities. We show how invisibility (i.e. antidiscrimination) can also be further culturally constructed, confounding even more any broader multicultural project. We canvass four broad areas including the role of legally binding legislation that seeks to prohibit racism, the views of policymakers attempting to implement policy consistent with the legislation and the views of teachers about their roles in supporting ethnic minority students. Acknowledgements The research reported here was supported with a Public Policy Research Grant (HKIEd 8001-PPR-2) from Hong Kong's Research Grants Council. The views expressed are those of the authors. Notes Sex Discrimination Ordinance (SDO) and Disability Discrimination Ordinance (DDO). Educational Provision for Ethnic Minority Students in Hong Kong: Meeting the Challenges of the Proposed Racial Discrimination Bill, a Public Policy Research Project (HKIEd 8001-PPR-2) funded by Hong Kong's Research Grants Committee.