Postcolonial realities, cosmopolitan possibilities: School leaders’ instructional efforts to support diverse students’ social inclusion in Hong Kong

Hong Kong is a postcolonial city in which social cohesion, harmony, and inclusion continue to be shaped through policy and practice in educational contexts. A considerable amount of research has uncovered the inequities that South Asian and other diverse students in the city experience in their schooling trajectories and that affect their identity formation and sense of belonging. There is growing research on educational practices that support the identities of diverse students; however, further research on how school leaders support curriculum and instruction in this area is needed. This in-depth case study used 51 interviews, observations, and document analysis to learn about how school leaders collaborated to support diverse secondary school students in ways that connect their cultural identities to the local, national, and global. Drawing on culturally responsive leadership and postcolonial cosmopolitanism theories, the findings reveal the importance of recognizing diverse students’ identities to lay the groundwork for cosmopolitan dialogues and pluralistic conditions to emerge. The study also presents how leaders support the creation of cultural connections to articulate postcolonial cosmopolitanism in Hong Kong and support diverse students’ cultural identities in relation to the local, national, and global. Challenges faced by educators such as accountability demands are also presented to highlight the dynamism in which cosmopolitan practice emerges.