Description

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This book offers a unique focus on the well-being of Chinese and South/Southeast Asian students in the context of Hong Kong, and in particular the experience of integrating these young people into its schooling system. Yuen uses a narrative method that captures and offers a vivid insight into the actual experience of students from disadvantaged backgrounds, whilst providing fascinating comparisons between students coming from Mainland China and those whose parents are South/Southeast Asian immigrants. Readers will be particularly interested in the attention given to spiritual well-being and how religious participation and affiliation make a difference in giving meaning to life and in creating a positive mindset, as viewed and explained by students themselves.

This well-organised volume begins by laying out the major themes relating to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, followed by a richly elaborated theoretical chapter which defines core concepts and their interconnection. This is followed by substantive chapters where the voices of each of the different diverse groupings of students, Chinese Mainland immigrants, Chinese Cross-boundary youth, South/Southeast Asian ethnic youth and mainstream HK youth from underprivileged backgrounds, are heard and interpreted in relation to themes of inclusion and well-being. It then builds upon the narratives to provide bottom-up solutions and pathways towards the inclusion and well-being of all students, as well as the professional development of teachers who can take up the challenge of ensuring that all young people are nurtured to fulfil their potential.

Providing readers with practical implications and takeaways for education practice, this must-read work will appeal to a wide range of education practitioners and students involved in providing or researching inclusive education relating to mainstream and non-mainstream Chinese, South Asian, and other ethnic minority students.

About the Author

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Celeste Y.M. Yuen, PhD, is an Associate Professor of the Faculty of Education, and Associate Director of the Leadership Centre, the Hong Kong Institute of Educational Research at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Celeste is also the President-elect of the Hong Kong Educational Research Association (2021). Celeste earned her doctorate from the UCL-IOC, University of London, UK. Currently, she lectures in intercultural teacher education, school leadership, foundations of education and life and death education. Her research employs a mixed-method empirical approach to study interculturalism, Chinese immigrant and South Asian minority education, youth studies, well-being, religiosity and spirituality, and student engagement. Her scholarship in minority studies has been recognised locally and internationally, and has enabled her to win 20 projects funded by, for example, the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, Education Bureau, Oxfam Hong Kong and HSBC, in each case as principal investigator. Celeste has authored multiple articles and books in these fields.