ABSTRACT

In Hong Kong, minority South Asian students experience social exclusion in mainstream classrooms, which lowers their school engagement and performance. This study investigated the effectiveness of a classroom-based intervention in reducing Chinese children’s anti-South Asian bias and increasing their socialising preference for South Asian children. A quasi-experiment was conducted with 43 Chinese kindergarten children (intervention group: 22 children, Mage = 54.14 months; control group: 21 children, Mage = 54.67 months) and their parents. Children completed direct assessments on racial attitudes and socialising preferences while their parents provided sociodemographic information. Children in the intervention group were told a story concerning diversity and inclusion, followed by discussion and explicit teaching regarding respecting and accepting diverse groups. Cooperative learning activities that promote the interactions between Chinese and South Asian children were also organised. For the control group, a story irrelevant to the topic of interest was told. After controlling for sociodemographic factors, a two-way Analysis of Covariance revealed a significant Group X Time interaction effect on racial attitudes. Follow-up tests showed that children in the intervention group scored significantly lower than those in the control group in post-intervention anti-South Asian bias.

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