The function of the primary school in rGyalrong Tibetan areas

Wengmu SANGLANG

Doctoral thesis

A Case Study of Brasdi Primary School

The function of the primary school in rGyalrong Tibetan areas - A Case Study of Brasdi Primary School

Abstract:

Primary education is the crucial stage of national compulsory education, and all school-age children are entitled to receive primary education, which should be guaranteed by the state as a duty. Multi-ethnic China implements a unified school education system based on mainstream social culture. However, the pupils in rGyalrong Tibetan areas were born and live in a unique rGyalrong culture background. They need to make constant enculturation of traditional culture to maintain the stability and development of their ethnic group. Moreover, these pupils are still members of society, and inescapably need to integrate into mainstream society. Thus, pupils' integration into community life and adaptation to mainstream society directly affect pupils' future survival and development. Primary education is the most extensive and in-depth schooling in the country, also as the only schooling under the national system in the many local communities, gives the pupils in rGyalrong Tibetan areas space and opportunities to accept mainstream social knowledge and lays a foundation for pupils to integrate into the mainstream society in the future. At the same time, such primary education, enabling pupils to accept mainstream cultural knowledge without departing from the traditional community life, is a key and crucial stage for inheriting and innovating traditional ethnic culture and integrating traditional ethnic culture and mainstream social culture. This study takes the Brasdi Primary school in Brasdi town, which is located at the rGyalrong Tibetan Cultural Center as an example and collects research data mainly through interviews and observations. It reveals that pupils and parents in ethnic minority areas are full of expectations for schooling, pin their hopes of changing their social and economic statuses on schools, and spend most of their time and energy in schools. They are inadvertently separated from the traditional life of the community. Schooling in ethnic minority areas replicates the content and evaluation system of that in mainstream society and has a gap with the local real life. Because, in the ethnic minority areas, the pupils' cultural background is different from the mainstream culture and the necessary school conditions lag those in the mainstream society as well, the pupils in ethnic minority areas do not have an advantage in the examination evaluation system. The "middleman," "stranger," or "marginal person" that has emerged in ethnic minority areas has caused reflections on the functions of schooling. Therefore, this study holds that the schooling in ethnic minority areas must perform the most basic cultural inheritance function, and ultimately realize the socialization of pupils through the integration of ethnic minority culture and mainstream social culture. This study on the primary school education function of rGyalrong Tibetan areas will provide general literature and research materials on how ethnic minorities or non-mainstream culture people to achieve their stable development through school education under such very advanced science and technology.

Abstract:

Primary education is the crucial stage of national compulsory education, and all school-age children are entitled to receive primary education, which should be guaranteed by the state as a duty. Multi-ethnic China implements a unified school education system based on mainstream social culture. However, the pupils in rGyalrong Tibetan areas were born and live in a unique rGyalrong culture background. They need to make constant enculturation of traditional culture to maintain the stability and development of their ethnic group. Moreover, these pupils are still members of society, and inescapably need to integrate into mainstream society. Thus, pupils' integration into community life and adaptation to mainstream society directly affect pupils' future survival and development. Primary education is the most extensive and in-depth schooling in the country, also as the only schooling under the national system in the many local communities, gives the pupils in rGyalrong Tibetan areas space and opportunities to accept mainstream social knowledge and lays a foundation for pupils to integrate into the mainstream society in the future. At the same time, such primary education, enabling pupils to accept mainstream cultural knowledge without departing from the traditional community life, is a key and crucial stage for inheriting and innovating traditional ethnic culture and integrating traditional ethnic culture and mainstream social culture. This study takes the Brasdi Primary school in Brasdi town, which is located at the rGyalrong Tibetan Cultural Center as an example and collects research data mainly through interviews and observations. It reveals that pupils and parents in ethnic minority areas are full of expectations for schooling, pin their hopes of changing their social and economic statuses on schools, and spend most of their time and energy in schools. They are inadvertently separated from the traditional life of the community. Schooling in ethnic minority areas replicates the content and evaluation system of that in mainstream society and has a gap with the local real life. Because, in the ethnic minority areas, the pupils' cultural background is different from the mainstream culture and the necessary school conditions lag those in the mainstream society as well, the pupils in ethnic minority areas do not have an advantage in the examination evaluation system. The "middleman," "stranger," or "marginal person" that has emerged in ethnic minority areas has caused reflections on the functions of schooling. Therefore, this study holds that the schooling in ethnic minority areas must perform the most basic cultural inheritance function, and ultimately realize the socialization of pupils through the integration of ethnic minority culture and mainstream social culture. This study on the primary school education function of rGyalrong Tibetan areas will provide general literature and research materials on how ethnic minorities or non-mainstream culture people to achieve their stable development through school education under such very advanced science and technology.

Keywords

pupils of rGyalrong Tibetan, functions of school education, case study, interview and observation, cultural heritage, integration function, socialization function

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 19. 6. 2019

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 26. 8. 2019
• Supervisor: PhDr. Jitka Plischke, Ph.D.

Palacký University Olomouc

Faculty of Education

Doctoral programme / field:
Education / Education