Sociological Perspectives on Ethnic Minority Teachers in China: a Review of the Research Literature

Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education Studies of Migration, Integration, Equity, and Cultural Survival

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Sociological Perspectives on Ethnic Minority Teachers in China: A Review of the Research Literature

MaryJo Benton Lee

To cite this article: MaryJo Benton Lee (2016) Sociological Perspectives on Ethnic Minority Teachers in China: A Review of the Research Literature, Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education, 10:1, 55-68, DOI: 10.1080/15595692.2015.1098611

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Download by: [Jordan Univ. of Science & Tech] Date: 13 January 2017, At: 23:11 DIASPORA, INDIGENOUS, AND MINORITY EDUCATION 2016, VOL. 10, NO. 1, 55–68 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15595692.2015.1098611

Sociological Perspectives on Ethnic Minority Teachers in China: A Review of the Research Literature MaryJo Benton Lee Department of Sociology and Rural Studies, South Dakota State University, USA

ABSTRACT Improving the quality of education has been a central goal of the People’s Republic of China since its founding in 1949. Particular concern has been focused on ethnic minority areas where educational quality lags behind that of other regions. Since 1986 the State Education Commission has been working toward the implementation of nine years of compulsory education for all Chinese children nationwide. Implementing this policy has been particularly challenging in the less developed areas of western China where many ethnic minorities live. The solution rests in training an ade- quate number of teachers who are themselves from ethnic minority groups or who are willing to teach ethnic minority children. This article reviews a significant and growing body of English-language literature, drawn from the sociology of education, on minority teachers and teachers of minorities in the People’s Republic of China.

Who are China’s ethnic minorities, and why is their education a matter of concern to scholars both inside and outside of China? The Chinese state has recognized 55 ethnic groups as “minority nationalities” since its decades-long identification program began in the late 1950s. Detailed descriptions of this process and its results can be found elsewhere (e.g. Mackerras, 2003, pp. 1–4). In short, the minority nationalities have traditionally been regarded as those who have cultures (particularly languages and religions) that are distinct from the Han Chinese majority. The 2010 census put the proportion of the minority population in China at 8.49%. Understanding China’s minority nationalities and their well-being is important. Only 10 countries in the world have populations that surpass in size that of China’s nationalities (Postiglione, 2009, p. 501). In addition, the minority nationalities occupy more than 60% of the country’s territory, much of it near sensitive borders. While minorities constitute less than 10% of China’s population, they represent between 40% and 50% of the country’s poor (Bhalla & Qui, 2006, p. xv). In ethnic minority areas, educational quality lags well behind that of other regions of the country (Chapman, Chen, & Postiglione, 2000, pp. 300–301). Since 1986 the State Education Commission has been working toward the implementation of nine years of compulsory education throughout China. Implementing this policy has been particularly challenging in the poor regions of western China where many ethnic minorities live. Postiglione (2002) argues that “the role of teacher education is central to the goal of achieving a system of nine-year compulsory education” (p. 87). “From the mountains we come, to the mountains we go” (cong shanli lai, dao shanli qu) once described the policy of allocation (fenpei), that is, of sending ethnic minority graduates of normal colleges back to their hometowns to teach (Postiglione, 2002, p. 103). During the past decade, however, economic, social, and political changes in China have had a profound impact on education, especially minority education. The status of the teaching

CONTACT MaryJo Benton Lee [email protected] Department of Sociology and Rural Studies, South Dakota State University, Brookings, South Dakota. © 2016 Taylor & Francis 56 M. B. LEE profession has been lowered, which explains, in part, why so few minority teacher candidates now want to commit to teaching as a lifelong career (Su, Hawkins, Huang, & Zhao, 2001, p. 631). Minority graduates of teacher training programs increasingly are looking for opportunities in the more developed coastal areas rather than returning to teach in their hometowns (Guo, Guo, Beckett, Li, & Guo, 2013, p. 253). As a result of these changes, the shortage of qualified teachers in minority areas is dire, and the body of literature addressing these concerns is growing. The purpose of this article is to review English-language research literature on ethnic minority teachers—and on teachers of ethnic minorities—in the People’s Republic of China, in a systematic way that has not been done previously. Sixty-four academic articles, book chapters, and books were critically read and analyzed for emerging themes. Various challenges that China faces relative to the training, placement, and retention of ethnic minority teachers were revealed through the search. This work provides researchers with a substantial foundation on which to build their future studies. Suggestions for such studies will follow in the final section of this article.

Methodology Following a methodology developed by Cherng, Hannum, and Lu (2014,p.210),Isearchedthe SocINDEX (Sociology Index) and ERIC (Education Resource Information Center) databases for articles, using the terms “China,”“teacher,”“ethnic” and “minority.” I then performed the same searches in the WORLDCAT database to obtain books in the disciplines of sociology and education on these topics. (Cherng, Hannum, and Lu used the same English-language research databases as I did.) While I did not put date restrictions into my searches, works found dated from 1978 through 2014. Initial searches yielded 206 articles and 26 books. I then supplemented the materials found in these systematic ways with other materials of which I was aware, materials that related to ethnic minority teachers (and teachers of ethnic minorities) in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Forty-three articles and 21 books (or book chapters) were selected for review, based on quality and relevance.

Results Table 1 summarizes the results of my literature review. Six themes emerged. The first four are substantive: teacher quantity and quality; teacher training; multilingual education; and girls’ education. The final two are methodological: ethnographies (that focus on ethnicity and identity) and comparative studies. Literature classified under each theme will be reviewed and evaluated in the following sections.

Teacher quantity and quality China is becoming a polarized society, in large part because of the inaccessibility of basic education for minority children. The challenge of recruiting and retaining teachers in minority communities is addressed repeatedly throughout the literature. Cao (2008) describes some of “the unfavourable teaching conditions” (p. 345) that cause high teacher turnover in Gansu Province. Yin (1998)

Table 1. Six Themes, Number of Articles and Books, and Examples of Literature. Theme No. of articles and books Example Teacher quantity/quality 15 Cao, 2008 Teacher training 9 Chapman et al., 2000 Multilingual education 11 Ma, 2009 Girls’ education 3 Zhou et al., 2001 Ethnographies (focusing on ethnicity/identity) 15 Zhao, 2010 Comparative studies 11 Su et al., 2001 DIASPORA, INDIGENOUS, AND MINORITY EDUCATION 57 explains that many schools in western China, on high mountains and in remote valleys, have just one or two teachers. Housing provided for these teachers is poor, often consisting of just one room. The teachers who are recruited seldom stay long. Xu (2005) reports that some schools in rural areas of western China experience a teacher turnover rate as high as 30%. Guo et al. (2013) note that the withdrawal of the state from the financing of public education has increased teachers’ workloads and has decreased their salaries, status, and well-being. While these factors certainly impact the quantity of teachers willing to serve in minority areas, they also impact the quality (Yang, 2006, p. 148). Teacher quality is the major determinant of overall educational quality in ethnic minority regions (Meng, Chen, Zheng, Lu, & Chapman, 2002). Popularizing compulsory nine-year education depends upon convincing ethnic minority parents to send their children to school. Parents must believe that schoolteachers can provide high-quality education relevant to family and local needs. The problem of finding competent teachers for minority areas runs throughout the literature. Jiang (2002), while visiting ethnic boarding schools in Yunnan Province, finds that the minority teachers and the newly- graduated Han teachers are “conspicuously incomparable to the teachers of the 1980s” (p. 43), who were more experienced, but are now retiring. Dai and Xu (2009) agree that finding competent teachers for Yunnan’s minority areas is a problem. They fault “teachers who come from the local community, receive their education in the local colleges, and teach in local schools. . . .Their limitations constrain the overall development of their students” (Dai & Xu, 2009, p. 111). Wang (2007) finds a similar situation with Tibetans in western China and argues that improving education there must mean upgrading the quality of secondary school teachers. Iredale, Bilik, and Su (2001) maintain that a good indicator of school quality is a high proportion of gongban (state paid) teachers relative to minban (community paid) teachers. While major cities like Beijing and Shanghai have no minban teachers, minority regions do rely on them to varying

extents. Cherng et al. (2014,pp.216–217) mention another indicator of school quality, and that is the percent of the workforce that are substitute teachers. The authors found in 2009 that many ethnic minority regions had a higher percentage of teachers who were substitutes than the national average. Other research reveals some signs of improvement. Bhalla and Qui (2006, p. 60) report an increase in the number of primary teachers working in minority areas. Surprisingly, little research has been devoted to the question of whether it makes a difference if minority students are taught by teachers who are themselves minority. Thus, those studies that shed light upon this are notable among the literature on teacher quantity and quality. For example, Wang (1985) says that “the key to developing minority education lies in the cultivation of local minority nationality teachers” (p. 25). Zhang (1989), writing about the Tai in Yunnan Province, agrees that “minority teachers have a strong bond with the people of their own nationality. ...Ifwecanmobilize these local minority teachers, their contributions can surpass pedagogues from other nationalities” (pp. 53–54). Mackerras (2003) also points out advantages for minority children to be taught by minority teachers, noting the ability of these teachers to “help strengthen and perpetuate ethnic identities” (p. 133). The writings of Wang (1985), Zhang (1989), and Mackerrras (2003) make a significant contribution because they link questions of ethnic identity with those of academic achievement. These works are building blocks for further study by scholars interested in minority teacher quantity and quality. A key to increasing the quantity and quality of minority teachers is training. Training, while closely related to teacher quantity and quality, emerges as a separate and distinct theme and will be addressed next. 58 M. B. LEE

Teacher training Several of the articles reviewed trace the history of education, and more specifically of teacher education, in the People’s Republic of China since its founding in 1949. During the PRC’s early decades, Han specialists were sent from the interior to minority areas to establish both teacher education courses and colleges (Hawkins, 1978, p. 157). The focus was on filling an immediate need for elementary and middle school teachers and a longer-range need for minority teacher educators. From the very beginning, the provision of quality teachers for China’s minorities has been motivated by two considerations (Sharpes, 1993). The first is national security. China hopes to satisfy the minorities living on its borders by providing them with schooling. The second considera- tion is Marxist philosophy. Ensuring the equality of the working class, in this case the national minorities, is a fundamental socialist principle. The literature outlines critical differences between the PRC and the United States relative to teacher education. In China, unlike in the United States, separate but equal educational facilities for minorities are viewed as not only legitimate but also as necessary. Such facilities allow the minorities opportunities to maintain their native languages and cultural beliefs through a state-controlled educational system. In a quick aside it should be noted that the Hawkins (1978) and Sharpes (1993) articles just cited make important contributions to an overarching understanding of the history of national minority education and of the education of ethnic minority teachers. More contemporary scholars of ethnic minority education might consider updating these foundational works, as Wan and Jun (2008) have begun doing in their excellent book chapter titled “How China Best Educates Its Ethnic Minority Children: Strategies, Experience and Challenges” (pp. 139–157). Since the end of China’s Cultural Revolution in 1976 the number of teacher education institutions in minority areas has increased. Courses of study at many of these institutions have lengthened from two or three years to four or five years. Nationality, normal colleges play an important role in training “a breed of ethnic minority teachers who will return to their regions and improve the system of compulsory education, thereby contributing to the economic development of these regions,” explains Postiglione (2002,p.88). Also mentioned in the literature is another critical difference between teacher education in the PRC and in the United States. China has a vigorous system of state-sponsored preferential policies (similar to affirmative action) that exist to level the playing field for the national minorities. Among these preferential policies are ethnic minority classes at higher education institutions, including teachers’ colleges. These classes provide a catch-up year of studying for minority students who do not score high enough on the national examination to be admitted to college (Ministry of Education, 2001, p. 96). At the end of the year the students are allowed to retake the college entrance examination. College graduates produced via these ethnic minority classes “can go down to the field, be useful, and carry on,” according to a Ministry of Education (2001, pp. 98–99) news release, which also commented, “In the classrooms, they can teach in putonghua (China’s official spoken language) freely and can also use their mother tongue to help students who do not understand Han.” “People’s governments at all levels should adopt measures to cultivate and train teachers for ethnic minority areas and for remote and poverty-stricken areas,” suggests the Standing Committee of the Eighth National People’s Congress (1999, p. 31). Implementing nine-year compulsory education for China’s ethnic minorities clearly is dependent upon having an ample supply of well-trained teachers. Does teacher training make a difference? The literature provides mixed answers. Chapman et al. (2000) find that more preservice teacher training (at normal schools, normal colleges, and normal universities) was related to significantly less teaching by graduates of those programs working in ethnic minority regions. Du (2008), however, in a study involving minority children in western China, discovers that as the amount of training elementary teachers have increases, so, too, does their students’ ability to adapt to school. DIASPORA, INDIGENOUS, AND MINORITY EDUCATION 59

Ou and Du (2012) suggest that the training of all teachers in the PRC be reformed to include a greater emphasis on “multicultural awareness” (p. 212). In a case study, the authors find that teachers who know how to strengthen students’ ethnic identity can, in turn, increase their academic achievement. “With the development of society and global economic integration, cultural diversity is increasing and how to deal with cultural diversity is growing in significance for every teacher,” explain Ou and Du (2012, p. 225). Ou and Du’s work is particularly strong because, unlike much of the other literature reviewed in this section, it is well theorized. In other words, the article is framed in a way that facilitates comparative dialogue on theories of ethnicity and education (Cherng et al., 2014, p. 231).

Multilingual education Beckett and Postiglione (2012), at the start of their edited volume titled China’s Assimilationist Language Policy: The Impact on Indigenous/Minority Literacy and Social Harmony, write:

The twenty-first century has already seen an evolution of language policies to sustain an assimilationist trend through schooling. The national language, Hanyu, as the medium of instruction within a discourse of progress, opportunity, national unity, and harmonious society, continues to marginalize indigenous and minority languages. (p. 3) Against this backdrop, the book presents several studies with significant sections on minority teachers—in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, in the Dongxiang Autonomous County of Gansu Province, and in the multi-ethnic Yunnan Province.

Bilingual education Bilingual programs are steadily increasing across China, and more and more students are enrolling

in them. Consequently, there is a growing need for more and better-trained bilingual and biliterate teachers. The urgency of this need is reflected in the numerous times it is mentioned in the bilingual education literature. Teacher quantity and quality are key issues in bilingual education just as they are in minority education more generally. “Poor transportation, lack of information, poverty, low educational development and low social status of the minority people have driven away and restricted the inflow of qualified teachers,” Lin (1997, p. 201) explains. Lin, in an article on bilingual education, cites measures implemented to encourage graduates from teachers’ colleges to work in minority regions— the elimination of the probationary period, the improvement of working and living conditions, wages greater than the national average, and permission to have a second child. The case studies described below illustrate the difficulty of attracting and retaining bilingual teachers in minority areas. Anaytulla (2008) looks at the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China’s largest province and one with a 60% minority population. The hiring of teachers is complicated by the fact that a majority of Xinjiang’s elementary and secondary schools use one (or more) of six languages—Uyghur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Mongolian, Xibe, or Russian—for teaching. Han is taught as a subject course. Ma (2009) also examines the development of bilingual education in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Ma (2007, p. 19) notes significant problems with the quality and quantity of teachers, especially in math and science, who are able to speak minority languages. Ba (2007) observes two teacher-led initiatives to introduce Western Yugur language into schools having no bilingual instruction. The Yugurs are one of China’s smallest nationalities, and their language has no written form. Both initiatives were relatively short-lived, because of the scarcity of Western Yugur-speaking teachers. Wang (2011) studies schools in Yunnan Province, another ethnically and linguistically complex area. Unexpectedly, Wang finds school systems that do have sufficient numbers of minority teachers, yet relatively few of these individuals are engaged in bilingual education. 60 M. B. LEE

Trilingual education Under China’s policies of bilingual education, primary school pupils from minority groups are required to learn Mandarin. When they reach secondary school and higher education, they have to learn English as their foreign language. Due to the forces of globalization, English has become the language most useful for virtually all peoples in the contemporary world (Mackerras, 2003, p. 132). Hu explains that China’s goal is for minority students to become trilingual in their native language, Mandarin, and English. Hu (2007), in a book on the trilingual education of ethnic minorities in Yunnan Province, says, “The outcomes are so poor that the government has called on English language educators to seek solutions to raise the students’ English learning proficiency, particularly for those who are from minority groups” (pp. 2–3). Hu (2007) places the blame in Yunnan on “the unqualified academic attainments of the English teachers, including their poor teaching methodologies” (p. 281). Introducing English into the curriculum exacerbates the educational inequities already faced by minority and Indigenous peoples. Requiring minorities to learn both Mandarin and English comes at a real expense to their native languages. “Insofar as the services of these teachers with high English proficiency are expensive, they tend to benefit the children of political and financial power elites whose investment in education brings them greater political and financial power,” write Beckett and MacPherson (2005, p. 305).

School choice In Qinghai Province (which has the third highest proportion of minorities of all of China’s provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities), parents can choose what medium of instruction teachers will use by selecting the type of school their children will attend. Lin (2006) interviewed a group of teachers, students, and parents from an “ordinary” school, in which putonghua was the

medium of instruction, and a similar group of individuals from a minority school in which Tibetan was the medium of instruction. Choosing mainstream schooling was thought to contribute to socioeconomic mobility, but often at the expense of lost connections to Tibetan language and culture. Lin (2008) later turned his attention to Muslims living in the same area as his previous study. Although the Muslims there belong to minority groups (primarily the Hui), they speak Chinese, so their only educational choice is the mainstream schools that use Chinese as the medium of instruction. In these schools, Lin observed teachers treating Muslim students far more harshly than Han students. Because the mainstream school curriculum excluded Islamic knowledge, the establishment of a Muslim minority school was suggested. The literature just reviewed, on multilingual education, is particularly rich for two reasons. First, major contributors to it include individuals such as Gerard A. Postiglione of the University of Hong Kong and Ma Rong of Peking University, both regarded as leading scholars of national minority education. Second, in a subject area that was until recently lacking in ethnographic research, the field studies by Lin (2006, 2008), Ba (2007), Hu (2007), Anaytulla (2008), and Wang (2011) provide more nuanced understandings of multilingual teaching than were formerly available.

Girls’ education As mentioned previously, the work of universalizing nine-year compulsory education has been laborious in ethnic minority areas. School attendance rates for girls, and particularly for girls in Islamic areas, have lagged far behind. To address this problem, the State Education Commission issued a series of policy statements, 10 years after the 1986 passage of the Compulsory Education Law (General Office of the State Education Commission, 1999). Cultivating more female teachers and principals, willing to work in ethnic areas, was one of the suggestions made in order to increase minority girls’ school attendance. DIASPORA, INDIGENOUS, AND MINORITY EDUCATION 61

Zhou, Zhang, Lu, Ma, and Peng (2001), in a Chinese Education and Society article, describe an action research project focused on girls’ school attendance in the poorest minority areas of western China. At the 28 experimental schools involved, girls’ attendance increased 40% over a four-year period. Policy recommendations resulting from the project included the recruitment of more teachers, particularly females, from developed urban areas, to serve in disadvantaged minority regions. Qualitative research on the education of minority girls is scarce. Wang and Phillion (2011), in a study using “narrative inquiry” (p. 44), interview two Hui nationality girls attending a predominantly Han elementary school in eastern China. Wang and Phillion (2011) find that the girls’ identities “were constructed by teachers who believed that they were the same as the Han students” (p. 49). Consequently the girls, “who had no power, accepted the identities their teachers constructed for them” (p. 49). Clearly the findings of Zhou et al. (2001) have greater validity than those of Wang and Phillion (2011), given the larger number of subjects involved and the longer time frame employed in the earlier study.

Ethnographies that focus on ethnicity and identity Ethnicity and identity have become increasingly conspicuous issues in China. Indeed, these issues are garnering more and more attention in the sociology of education worldwide. Such issues are especially suited to exploration using ethnographic methods. Postiglione (2000, p. 57), writing in 2000, explains that previously there had been little ethnographic work on minority education in China, by either Chinese nationals or foreign scholars. Ethnographies such as the ones included in Postiglione’s edited volume, China’s National Minority Education: Culture, Schooling, and Development, are useful in shedding light on issues of

educational access in ways that many earlier quantitative studies did not (Postiglione, 1999). The book includes case studies of minority schooling among the Yi, the Tai, the Tu, and Tibetans. Throughout these case studies, reviewed in greater detail elsewhere (Lee & Kayongo-Male, 2015), teachers and teaching receive considerable attention. For example, in Chapter 8 Hansen writes about “Teaching Backwardness or Equality: Chinese State Education Among the Tai of Sipsong Panna.” The chapter represents only part of Hansen’s extensive and informative work on minority teaching and ethnic identity (Hansen, 1999). Other early examples of ethnographic work dealing with minorities and teaching in China include a study conducted at two minzu (or nationalities) universities by Trueba and Zou (1994) and fieldwork done at a normal university by Lee (2001). The focus of both was on ethnic identity and the empowering role it can play in helping students achieve academically. Today Postiglione, together with students he has mentored at the University of Hong Kong, are at the forefront of ethnographic research exploring issues of ethnicity and identity in education. Postiglione’s series, Emerging Perspectives on Education in China, is groundbreaking because it makes the work of a new breed of Chinese scholars accessible in English to a global community reaching well beyond the borders of the PRC. Brief descriptions of the five books in the series, along with their treatment of teachers and teaching, follow. In State Schooling and Ethnic Identity: The Politics of a Tibetan Neidi Secondary School in China, Zhu (2007) observes the influence of state schooling on the ethnic identity of Tibetan students. Zhu’s account, based largely upon student diaries, devotes considerable attention to teachers—their perceptions of students and students’ attitudes toward them. China’s Ministry of Education specifies that these teachers have “good political behaviour, moral integrity, strong responsibility, a great deal of teaching experience, high-level professional skills, healthy physique and love of Tibetan students” (Postiglione, Zhu, & Jiao, 2004, p. 207). In Muslim Uyghur Students in a Chinese Boarding School: Social Recapitalization as a Response to Ethnic Integration, Chen (2008) looks at a group of Uyghur students from Xinjiang who were 62 M. B. LEE recruited to attend a special class (just for Uyghurs) at an inland (neidi) boarding school. This ethnography is particularly strong in its description of teacher–student interactions because the author was himself a Han teacher at the school. Teachers in the classroom emphasize the speaking of Hanyu, the majority language. After class, however, the students retreat to a “Little Xinjiang” community where they speak mainly Uyghur, their native language (Chen, 2010, p. 13). In Identity and Schooling Among the Naxi: Becoming Chinese with Naxi Identity,Yu(2010) reports on fieldwork done at the elite Lijiang No. 1 Senior Secondary School in northwestern Yunnan Province. The teachers’ influence on student identity construction receives considerable attention. The Naxi “do not inhabit other countries and have no aspirations to political indepen- dence,” explains Yu (2007, p. 243). Thus the expression of Naxi identity, inside of and outside of the classroom, is acceptable in the present political climate in China. In China’s Mongols at University: Contesting Cultural Recognition, Zhao (2010) presents three case studies conducted at Inner Mongolia Normal (Teachers) University, Beijing Normal (Teachers) University, and South China University for Nationalities. Using critical discourse analysis, the author examines Mongol students’ responses to a wide array of university policies governing everything from minority culture to daily life. In Becoming a Model Minority: Schooling Experiences of Ethnic Koreans in China, Gao (2010) considers how ethnic Korean students living in Northeast China construct selves within a larger structural context that labels them a “model minority.” Gao (2009, 2010) observes fourth graders and their teachers at a bilingual school in order to learn about students’ educational aspirations and success strategies. Gao’s work closely parallels that of Shih (2000), who studied minority teachers in a Korean nationality school in Liaoning Province 10 years earlier.

Comparative studies

Comparative literature reviewed includes cross-national, cross-cultural, and historical studies. Each of these will be explained and illustrated in the following sections.

U.S.-China cross-national studies Cross-national studies at their simplest involve teachers from one country observing education in another country. Fine (1978) describes one such visit, shortly after the normalizing of U.S.-China relations. A group of American educators were invited to visit the Guangxi-Zhuang Autonomous Region and to learn how teachers there were trained. Carjuzaa et al. (2008) write about their visit 30 years later to Beijing Normal University and the Yunnan Nationalities University to observe teacher education in general and ethnic teacher education in particular. Crossing national boundaries—and writing about that experience—is also the approach taken by Nan Li, a Chinese educator living in the United States. Li (2002, 2005) offers suggestions, aimed at achieving educational equity, for teachers of minority students. Works by Fine (1978), Carjuzaa et al. (2008), and Li (2002, 2005) are largely descriptive, almost like travelogues. More useful are writings by Bleistein and Tao (2011) and by Gouleta (2012) that could be loosely grouped under the heading of “action research.” Action research involves inquiry aimed at contributing to social change. For example, Bleistein and Tao (2011) discuss a professional development support group they created for Chinese and non-Chinese teachers (including themselves), working at neighboring universities in the Ningxia-Hui Autonomous Region. The group explored differences between Chinese and Western teaching methods. Gouleta (2012) explains another professional development project, this one designed for Tibetan primary teachers in China’s Gansu Province. A team of educators (including Gouleta), from the United Kingdom and from Gansu Province, instructed participants in successful bilingual education strategies that included both Western-based techniques and traditional Tibetan methods. DIASPORA, INDIGENOUS, AND MINORITY EDUCATION 63

Cross-cultural studies within China These studies involve comparisons between the Han majority and ethnic minority cultures within the PRC. Bahry (2012), for example, asks “what constitutes quality in minority education” (p. 376) in a case study of stakeholder perspectives performed in the Sunan Yugur Autonomous County of Gansu Province. Bahry notes that definitions of “quality education” often neglect to mention the teaching of cultures and languages of nondominant groups. Opinions of Han and minority teachers are cited. Some see the teaching of Yugur as stimulating students’ interest in school, and others see it as increasing comprehension of curriculum content. Zhao (2011), working in the same vein as Bahry, suggests to math teachers in China that they include “native knowledge” (p. 429) in the lessons they prepare for minority students. Currently math curriculum for Han and minority students is identical. Zhao’s argument is based on cultural discontinuity theory. Zhang, Fu, and Jiao (2008) compare the teaching styles of Han and Tibetan university professors. The authors find the Tibetans’ style to be more “conservative” (Zhang, Fu, & Jiao, 2008, p. 29). This is attributed to Tibet’s geographical location, its economy, a system deeply rooted in monastic education, and traditional values such as modesty and respect. Bahry’s article, growing out of the critical pedagogy tradition, is among the most heavily theorized of all the cross-cultural literature reviewed. Consequently it is an exemplar for others wishing to contribute to this field.

Historical study within China Lewin and Wang (2011) revisit three schools they first studied in 1991 shortly after nine-year compulsory education was introduced. The schools include one in a rich district in Beijing, another in a poor district in Shaanxi Province and the third in a national minority area in Sichuan Province.

The researchers find that while participation in education has increased, so, too, has inequity. For example, in the Yi nationality area of Sichuan Province, the county town schools have the best facilities, accommodations, and amenities, and so are able to attract the most qualified teachers. The primary village schools, however, must make do with whatever staff is available.

A final comparative study—cross-national and cross-cultural Su et al. (2001) compare “profiles and perspectives” (p. 611) of students preparing to be teachers in the United States and in China. Only 12% of the Chinese national sample and 51% of the American national sample plan to commit to teaching as a lifetime career. Within each national sample, the authors look for similarities and differences between minority and mainstream teacher candidates. Particularly troubling was the fact that only 5% of the Tibetan students surveyed saw teaching as a lifetime career. “The lack of passion and commitment to teaching and even a disliking of the teaching profession among the Chinese teacher candidates, especially minority students, should be a critical issue in Chinese teacher education,” note Su, Hawkins, Huang, and Zhao (2001, p. 631). Within the field of comparative education, researchers employ different units of analysis. In the literature just reviewed, Lewin and Wang (2011) compare times and places, while Su et al. (2001) compare (educational) systems and (student) values. Not surprisingly, studies involving multiple units of analysis are usually undertaken by teams. These studies are particularly useful because they “can amass a systematic body of evidence through standardized questionnaires, and thus can permit directly comparable judgments” (Bray, Adamson, & Mason, 2014, p. 421).

Discussion The implementation of nine years of compulsory education throughout China has been challenging, particularly in minority regions. The role that teachers play in this process has received considerable 64 M. B. LEE attention throughout the academic literature of the past three decades. This paper has identified six themes that run through this literature. Many scholars, such as Cao (2008), argue that China is becoming an increasingly polarized society, in large part because of a shortage of qualified teachers willing to work in minority areas. Some articles and books detail conditions, such as poor housing and low wages, that discourage normal college graduates from returning to their home areas to teach (Guo et al., 2013). Others (Lin, 1997) suggest incentives that might reverse this trend. Mackerras concludes that there are definitely advantages for children to be taught by teachers from their own nationality groups. “Such teachers . . . can help strengthen and perpetuate ethnic identities,” writes Mackerras (2003, p. 133). “So it is a real achievement to train large numbers of teachers from the ethnic minorities.” Teacher training is viewed by many as the key to solving the problems just discussed. Two trends, addressed in the literature, set the United States and China apart relative to teacher training. The first is the establishment in China of a vigorous system of preferential policies (similar to affirmative action) that exist to level the playing the field for the national minorities (Ministry of Education, 2001). Preferential policies ensure educational access for ethnic minorities, allowing them easier entry into teacher training institutions than might otherwise be possible. The second difference between the United States and the PRC is the existence in China of “separate but equal” teacher training institutions, deliberately placed in ethnic minority areas. Nationality normal colleges play an important role in training “a breed of ethnic minority teachers who will return to their regions and improve the system of compulsory education, thereby contributing to the economic development of these regions,” explains Postiglione (2002, p. 88). Multilingual education and girls’ education are also points of emphasis. In the first case, that of multilingual education, a tension runs through the literature as educators debate the importance of teaching minority language for cultural preservation as opposed to teaching putonghua for social

mobility (Anaytulla, 2008). Requiring minorities to learn English as well comes at a real expense to native languages. Another tension is found in the writings about girls’ education in minority areas. Teachers struggle to convince parents to send their daughters to school, all the while working to ensure that the formal education girls receive there is worthwhile (Zhou, Zhang, Lu, Ma, & Peng, 2001). The most fruitful theme revealed by the literature review was that of ethnographies, focusing on issues of ethnicity and identity. Work both performed and collected by Postiglione (1999) and others from the University of Hong Kong (Chen, 2008; Gao, 2010; Zhu, 2007) forms a solid foundation for this focus of study. Ethnography is a method particularly well-suited to complex processural issues such as identity construction (Yu, 2010) and institutional recognition (Zhao, 2010). The ethnogra- phers’ settings range from primary to secondary to tertiary institutions serving ethnic minority students. Teachers’ roles in identity work receive considerable attention. Numerous studies reviewed employ comparative perspectives to address issues related to minorities and teachers. One example is the work of Su et al. (2001), who look at Chinese and American teacher candidates, both mainstream and minority. Chinese education is tightly linked to happenings in the rest of the world. This highlights the importance of sharing experiences through comparative education research (Wan, 2012, p. 17). The review of literature just summarized, like similar ones done previously (Cherng et al., 2014; Wan, 2012), has limitations. Research on Chinese education and ethnic minorities is flourishing. This review, while comprehensive, makes no claim to covering the entire body of work written in English on minority teachers and teachers of minorities. Cherng et al. (2014) point out that studies of race, ethnicity, and education published in English and published in Chinese “operate from disparate theoretical starting points, conform to different norms of academic writing, and speak to different audiences in different socio-political contexts” (p. 210). It is well beyond the scope of this article to review Chinese-language literature on this topic. DIASPORA, INDIGENOUS, AND MINORITY EDUCATION 65

Conclusion Among the 64 articles, books, and chapters reviewed, two cross-cutting currents emerged. They are ethnic identity and action research. Both are significant and merit further discussion. The first current, a substantive one, is ethnic identity. Works by Wang (1985), Zhang (1989), and Mackerras (2003) question whether the ethnic identity of teachers affects the quality of the education their students receive. Wang and Phillion (2011), writing about girls’ education, and Ou and Du (2012), writing about teacher training, explore the role that ethnic minority teachers can play in students’ identity construction. Finally, ethnographies in the Emerging Perspectives on Education in China series (Chen, 2008; Gao, 2010; Yu, 2010; Zhao, 2010; Zhu, 2007) all contribute to a better understanding of the transmission of culture (both ethnic and mainstream) through education. As ethnic consciousness rises worldwide, so, too, does its impact on schooling. This appears to be a fruitful area for further sociological study. The second cross-cutting current that emerged from the literature review, action research, is a methodological one. Action research aims to build a more equitable society through collaborative problem solving. One example is the work of Zhou et al. (2001), aimed at increasing girls’ school attendance. The authors maintain that “there is no unified system or standardized action research methods in China” (Zhou et al., 2001, p. 10). That said, using the broad definition of action research they provide in their article, the work of Bleistein and Tao (2011) and Gouleta (2012), focused on minority teachers’ professional development, would definitely qualify as action research. Such approaches hold great promise for minority education theory and practice, and they should be used as models for future scholars working in this field. More research, comparatively framed and heavily theorized, is needed to better understand the important role played by ethnic minority teachers in the PRC. Such work would benefit the sociology of education and those in the field concerned with access and equity.

Notes on contributor

MaryJo Benton Lee holds a PhD in sociology, with a minor in Asian studies, from South Dakota State University. During her 29 years at SDSU she has held a number of positions, both teaching and administrative. Currently she is an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Rural Studies at SDSU and is a member of the graduate faculty. She has been an exchange professor and visiting scholar at Yunnan Normal University, People’s Republic of China. She has written two books and edited a third, all on race, ethnicity and education.

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