Behavioural acculturation of young Pakistani students in Hong Kong: a qualitative inquiry

ABSTRACT

Acculturation is an emerging field of inquiry in the multicultural context of Hong Kong. Behavioural acculturation focuses mainly on cultural practices such as language use, dietary preferences, customs and traditions, socialization and media consumption. Despite a phenomenal growth of research on the educational predicament of immigrant youth based on a deficit-based “stress and coping” approach, there is a dearth of literature on how non-Chinese young people experience the phenomenon of intercultural learning in Hong Kong. This article reports a qualitative study on the behavioural acculturation of a group of Pakistani secondary school students in Hong Kong from a culture leaning perspective. The study findings challenge the deficit-based perspective and advocate a culture-learning approach to the study of acculturation.

KEYWORDS:

• Behavioural acculturation
• cultural practices
• culture learning
• young Pakistani students
• Hong Kong

Acknowledgments

We are thankful to the participants for sharing their experiences. We are also grateful to the schools for their support and facilitation during the data collection process.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The research reported here is drawn from the General Research Fund project, “Exploring the contextual influence of school, home and community on the development of ethnic minority students” sense of belonging in Hong Kong’ [GRF 18607219], funded by the Research Grants Council of University Grants Committee, Hong Kong.

Notes on contributors

Shahid Karim

Dr. Shahid Karim is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK). Before he embarked on his Ph.D. journey at EdUHK, he served at the Aga Khan University Institute for Education Development (AKU-IED) Karachi as a research associate and project manager at the Charter Compassion, Karachi, Pakistan. Dr. Karim has several years of working experience in education as a teacher, trainer, researcher, school administrator, and manager. He has studied at the Aga Khan University Institute for the study of Muslim Civilizations, London, UK, and Karachi University, Pakistan for his postgraduate courses MA in Muslim Cultures and Master of Administrative Sciences, respectively. His research interests include acculturation, intercultural education, and teacher education. His current research engagement focuses on the sense of belonging among Non-Chinese students in Hong Kong.

Ming-Tak Hue

Professor Ming-Tak Hue is currently the Professor at the Department of Special Education and Counselling and Director of Integrated Center for Wellbeing. He obtained his Ph.D. at the Institute of Education, the University of London, England. He has extensive teaching experience in secondary schools, with active involvement in school counselling and discipline and supporting both primary and secondary schools at the various levels of student support, consultancy, and teacher professional development. He teaches graduate courses in school guidance and counselling, classroom management, behaviour management, and inclusive education. He is interested in cultural influence on school counselling, cultural responsiveness, multicultural education, multicultural competency, classroom management, and mindfulness.