China, a country with a significant number of ethnic groups, has established a form of multiculturalism known as "preferential policy" to foster social cohesion between a dominant ethnic group and minority ethnic groups and to reduce social and economic disparities. In addition, preferential policies have been integrated into educational policy and practice. This led to the development of a school curriculum based on ethnicity. Through the lens of critical pedagogy, this paper examines the Dai language curriculum implemented in an ethnically and linguistically diverse school located in Yunnan. The data was collected through conducting in-depth interviews with the school's principal, teachers, and students and observing teaching sessions without participation. An examination found that ethnic Dai pupils were taught language, history, cultures, and Dai values by a Dai school teacher who is the school principal. This has enormous ramifications for Dai students' identity preservation. Yet, when the multicultural curriculum focuses exclusively on the Dai ethnic group despite the presence of other ethnic groups in the school, it contradicts the tenets of multiculturalism and perpetuates educational disparity based on ethnic identity. Keywords: Multicultural Education; Critical Pedagogy; Education Equity; China

This research was a participatory action research which aimed to develop and study the results of art education teaching and learning management for student teachers to have multicultural competence according to Gay’s (2001) culturally relevant pedagogy with the content integration of Bank and Bank’s (2005) concept. The sample in this research consisted of the stakeholders involved in the research process including lecturers in the course, the head of the Art education program, the head of the Fine and Applied Arts department of the university, Heads of art departments in schools, mentors in schools where students practiced their teaching experience, and alumni who were art teachers in schools. The sample group was selected using purposive sampling method. The research instruments were a semi-structured interview, observations, focus group discussion record forms, and a questionnaire. The qualitative data were analyzed based on content analysis, whereas the quantitative data were statistically analyzed for percentage, mean, and standard deviation. The findings showed that 1. all stakeholder groups participating in the participatory action research process had positive views and positive experiences toward the cultural diversity. They viewed the cultural diversity that students brought to the classroom as a great opportunity for teaching and learning management. Moreover, teaching art education played a great role in promoting understanding, acceptance and respect for cultural differences. The stakeholders believed that the culturally relevant pedagogy should be integrated with the Art Instruction 2 course. The integration should be applied for some related topics in order not to reduce the contents of the original course and new contents could be added in some topics as appropriate. In this regard, the lecturers applied the guideline of teaching and learning management to experiment with students and involved stakeholders, supervised and followed up operations to achieve goals. 2. The results of teaching and learning management after studying had changed in all aspects at a high level. The knowledge aspect had the greatest change, with mean of 3.78, standard deviation of 0.78, and mean difference of 0.59; followed by the skill aspect with mean of 3.85, standard deviation of 0.78, and mean difference of 0.57. There was the least change in the attitude aspect reflecting that students still lacked knowledge and skills in teaching and learning management according to the aforementioned concept. However, students had better knowledge and skills after studying. Furthermore, instructors and student teachers had an understanding of multicultural learners, and a positive attitude towards the diversity of learners. They had to be careful with their speeches, minds and behaviors that could be sensitive to the feeling of the learners; thus, this did not cause bias against each other and they could live together peacefully. In addition, student teachers were able to manage the art teaching and learning in various schools that corresponded to the cultural diversity of the learners.

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken its toll on children’s education worldwide, albeit with different impacts. Children in impoverished families have to suffer the direst impacts from a lack of access to education, public health, food and various forms of threats. In Thailand, the first confirmed COVID-19 infection was identified in January 2020. The government eventually imposed the Emergency Decree on Public Administration in the State of Emergency (the Emergency Decree) in March 2020, to put in place social distancing and closure of schools, among other things. In May the Thai government also introduced “online learning” in an effort to continue the education of children. Such “online learning” hinges on using homes as a base to provide learning. This article is an attempt to analyze the impacts of such “online learning” policies on the accumulation of human capital among the second-generation of migrant children in the context of the urban poor in the city of Chiang Mai. This analysis is based on data acquired from the research on “The adaptation of second-generation Shan migrant children through education in Thailand”. The paper analyzes 13 migrant families whose children studied at Grades 6 and 9 at municipal schools in Chiang Mai city. Semi-structured interviews were employed to collect data from representatives of 13 migrant families during August and September 2020. It was found that the announced online learning was not implemented effectively because most of the children’s homes lacked resources to access online learning tools. Such findings indicate a structural problem in which the Thai authorities make the migrant workers vulnerable in terms of economic citizenship and public health at the expense of their children’s education. Such workers and families are forced to stay outside the public welfare, security and social safety net both before and in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis.