Session 24: Crossing Boundaries: Studying Ethnicity in Asian Education

Organizer: Mary Ann Maslak, St. John’s University

Chair: Susan D. Blum, University of Notre Dame

Discussant: Dru C. Gladney, University of Hawaii, Manoa

Ethnicity identity presumes meaning that is created through the constant process of recapitulation and reinterpretation in one’s life. The study of ethnic identity, in other words, reference to one’s past (collective or individual), inherently implies reference to societal structures, which, seemingly translucent and mutative, constitute the spaces wherein identities are formed.

One societal system in which individuals participate is education. Understanding how ethnicity functions in and for education means the ability to offer a more appropriate, relevant and ultimately meaningful educational experience for students. This panel examines the many facets of ethnic identity as it relates to education by critically analyzing how social, cultural and political forces overlap and interpenetrate to form and inform the individuals’ ethnic identity.

Two questions guide the papers presented on this panel: How does discursive and strategic positioning of the self in multiple ethnic and religious categories create the sense of the individual? By examining identity in the cross-cultural contexts of Korea, Tibet, China and India panelists will reveal points of convergence as well as divergence for northern, middle, southern Asian countries. They will show how the multiplicity of discourses and practices impinge on students and forge their identities. How does our understanding of ethnic identity inform our goal to improve education for students? Taking the factors, circumstances and conditions that shape ethnicity into account, we are able to examine the role of ethnicity and ethnic identity in terms of educational policy and curriculum. Here, we uncover the dichotomies between individual ethnicity, comprised of indigenous and nationalistic elements, and the largely nationalistic policy and curricula of the studied countries, thus revealing the educational systems’ complex dilemma in serving students.

Girls’ Schooling at the Margins: How Culture Shapes Educational Access and Attainment Programs for Ethnic Minority Girls in Western China

Heidi A. Ross, Indiana University; Vilma Seeberg, Kent State University

This paper examines how ethnicity, including culture and religion, shapes the structure, success, and evaluation of the "spring bud" type of educational access programs for ethnic minority girls in Western China, particularly Yunnan, Shaanxi, Gansu, and Qinghai. The paper explores new data on ethnic girls’ educational projects in different regions of China, and both addresses the growing but contradictory interpretations in the literature and explores the varying interactions of factors relating to ethnicity and economics, including the opportunity costs to families of girls’ participation in schooling, that limit or enhance ethnic minority girls’ participation in schooling relative to their Han counterparts. Further, it addresses the prevailing images of "minority schooling" within China’s development community. Most recent research on rural schooling in China indicates that parents strongly support formal schooling for both boys and girls. Most but not all studies likewise suggest that son preference persists. This paper explores how sweeping economic and social changes, such as urbanization, female education, employment and communication linkages, change incentives for girls attending school. Ethnic girls’ education programs reviewed in this paper suggest that "traditional" attitudes may not be as harmful to girls’ education as is often assumed by development programs and in research and that "tradition" may obscure important material obstacles with which ethnic girls and their families contend. This paper adds to the literature on how perceived ethnicity, cultural values about gender roles and expectations, religion and poverty, as well as school quality, are interrelated in complex and compounding ways as they shape parental decisions regarding schooling for their daughters.

Making Chinese Tibetans: Schooling and Modernization

Gerard Postiglione, University of Hong Kong

This paper examines the context of ethnic identity formation in schools for rural Tibetan children. It reviews rural primary education within Tibet and secondary education for Tibetans in boarding schools across China. Data are presented on policies, student recruitment, curriculum, teachers and the campus environment, as they impact students’ identity formation. Although there is little that is multicultural about the learning process in these schools, these schools do not strictly deny Tibetan culture to Tibetan children. The school architecture, sculptures, photographs, wall paintings and so forth provide representations of Tibetan culture, albeit selectively and interpreted by the state in terms of the ideological themes of national unity, patriotism, revolutionary traditions, civilized behavior and love of Tibet. The conclusion points to a make-or-break opportunity for state education to support a more evenhanded cultural policy, rather than the dichotomy of segregation and impact integration.

Relating Social Policies, Education, and Identity Formation: Ethnic Chinese in South Korea

Sheena Choi, Indiana University-Purdue University, Fort Wayne

Scholars consider 1882 the beginning of modern Chinese immigration to the Korean peninsula. Thus, the majority of the current generation of ethnic Chinese in Korea are third- or fourth-generation immigrants. Acculturated, these ethnic Chinese are comfortable with Korean language and culture, and seek to identify with Korea rather than China. While there is no ethnic hostility between Koreans and ethnic Chinese, structural barriers exist. These barriers, including but not limited to exclusion from citizenship, led to other barriers such as economic opportunity and consequently upward social mobility. Consequently, during the 1970s and 1980s many ethnic Chinese emigrated to Taiwan, the United States, Australia, or other places, leading to a population decrease of ethnic Chinese in Korea. Recently, efforts have been made to level the playing field for ethnic Chinese in Korea, enabling greater opportunities for high-paying jobs and higher social status. Given these changes, fewer ethnic Chinese are leaving Korea in search of a better life. Why have these shifts occurred? What role does education play in this process? How does ethnic Chinese identity straddle social, cultural and economic structures in order to live in the Korean community? Through the examination of historical development, this paper will focus on the relationships between social structure, education, and formation of ethnic identity of ethnic Chinese within the homogeneous Korean society.

Teachers’ Perceptions of the Impact of the Indian Educational System on Tibetan Students’ Ethnic Identity

Mary Ann Maslak, St. John’s University

The Tibetan community in India supports formal education for primary and secondary school-aged children. Both the Tibetan and Indian communities acknowledge that one role of the educational system is to foster identity development amongst the student body it serves. How does the educational system influence the ethnic identity for Tibetan students in India? In particular, what are teachers’ perceptions of the ways in which students’ ethnic identity is formulated? The first part of the study, a content analysis of textbooks used by Tibetan day school students, revealed that textbooks used in the middle school years represent a fixed collection of information and ideas that are largely steeped in the Hindu tradition. The findings from the content analysis should not be surprising, as the political process used to create curriculum is dominated by the majority largely influenced by Hindu philosophy and the ruling party’s ideals. Are these messages influential in shaping students’ ethnic identity? The second part of this study surveyed teachers’ perceptions of the influence the textbook content has on students’ ethnic identity development. During my two-month residence in Majnu-Ka-Tilla in 2004, teachers at the local day school completed survey questionnaires and provided in-depth interviews. Survey questionnaire data from twenty-one teachers indicate school curriculum is a significant factor in the ethnic identity development of students (p < .05). In-depth interview data also uncovered teachers’ perceptions of the complicated nexus between the traditional family structure that emphasizes Tibetan language and culture, and the school structure that promotes achievement based on the successful completion of the nationalized curriculum.