China's Minorities without Written Scripts: The Case of Education Access among the Dongxiang

Autor/inn/en	Wang, Jiayi; Postiglione, Gerard A.
Titel	China's Minorities without Written Scripts: The Case of Education Access among the Dongxiang
Quelle	In: Chinese Education & Society, 48 (2015) 6, S.381-399 (19 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1061-1932
DOI	10.1080/10611932.2015.1119505
Schlagwörter	Minority Groups; Access to Education; Questionnaires; Ethnic Groups; Interviews; Foreign Countries; Language of Instruction; Native Language; Educational Policy; Written Language; Illiteracy; Learning Problems; Academic Achievement; Language Role; Correlation; Observation; Case Studies; Elementary School Students; Chinese; Teaching Methods; Low Achievement; Dropouts; Uncommonly Taught Languages; Language Minorities; China + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ethnische Minderheit; Education; Access; Bildung; Zugang; Bildungszugang; Fragebogen; Ethnie; Interviewing; Interviewtechnik; Ausland; Teaching language; Unterrichtssprache; Politics of education; Bildungspolitik; Geschriebene Sprache; Analphabetismus; Lernproblem; Schulleistung; Korrelation; Beobachtung; Case study; Fallstudie; Case Study; China; Chinesen; Teaching method; Lehrmethode; Unterrichtsmethode; Unterdurchschnittliche Leistung; Drop-out; Drop-outs; Dropout; Early leavers; Schulversagen; Minderheitensprache; Sprachminderheit
Abstract	The Chinese state sees language as an essential determinant in ethnic minority schooling. The use of minority language as a medium of instruction is viewed as a way to increase attendance rates and strengthen socialization into a national ideology. However, the policies differ for those ethnic minorities with or without a commonly used written script. Among the minorities without a script are the 300,000 strong Dongxiang, an ethnic group with the lowest level of literacy and school access in China. There is virtually no systematic research on the role of language in school access for Chinese minority groups without a written script. In particular, there is a lack of analysis of the Dongxiang (and similar groups without a written script) learning and school discontinuation. This research aimed to identity the major difficulties in school based learning for the Dongxiang speaking children. Specifically, it explores local perspectives on how language and other factors are related to school enrolment and achievement. In order to accomplish this, the research combined a variety of data gathering methods, including survey questionnaires, open ended interviews, in-depth interviews, field visits, observations, and case studies to analyze the difficulties of language transition faced by Dongxiang ethnic minority children. The results reveal that although native language does not directly cause schoolchildren to discontinue their studies, it has an important indirect influence, especially on the girls. The research results also show that Dongxiang ethnic minority schoolchildren in the early years of schooling generally cannot understand their teachers' Chinese teaching, which results in poor school performances, a decline of interest in learning, a frustrated sense of achievement, and a decline in self-respect. Many students drop out as part of a vicious cycle that sees a reproduction of poor conditions for learning. [This paper was originally published in "Journal of Asian Pacific Communication" vol. 18, no. 2, and is reproduced here with permission from the publisher.] (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01