This book explores Hui (one of the Muslim minority groups in China) students' lived experiences in an elementary school in central P. R. China from the perspectives of philosophical foundations of education and the sociology of education, the impact of their experiences on their identity construction, and what schooling means to Hui students. The book describes a vivid picture of how the Hui construct their own identities in the public school setting, and how the state curricula, teachers, and parents play roles in student identity construction. The objectives of the book are to discover factors that impact Hui students' identity construction and have caused Hui students to know little about their own culture and language; and to explore what should be done to help teachers, administrators, and policy makers appreciate minority culture and include minority culture and knowledge in school curriculum in order to meet the needs of Hui students.
The book provides historical, policy, and curricular contexts for readers to understand Hui students' experiences in central China, and discusses the cultural differences between Han and Hui from a philosophical level. The book uses postcolonial theory to critique the assimilative nature of school education, the construction of Hui students' identity from Han ideology, and the cultural hegemony of the mainstream Han group. It also discusses curriculum reconceptualization both in China and globally, and the possibility of multicultural education in China.

In Minority Students in East Asia: Government Policies, School Practices and Teacher Responses authors discuss their research on minority students' schooling (elementary to higher education) in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. Minority students' educational issues are often neglected in literature and in practice; social and educational conditions that have resulted from globalization - in particular issues pertaining to minority groups' education, language and other human rights - receive little attention. In addition, many areas of East Asia have viewed themselves as single-ethnicity countries and have not articulated strong agendas around minority rights. The purpose of this book is to highlight key educational issues for specific minority populations in East Asia. Themes addressed include government policies related to minorities; equity issues in the education of minorities; school practices and teacher perspectives on minorities; identity construction in terms of language and culture; national versus ethnic identity; teacher education issues; and parental concerns. The authors also discuss new theoretical orientations to understanding minority educational issues. A particular strength of this book is the use of multicultural education theories to both articulate concerns related to the education of minority students and to provide solutions to these concerns.