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 ISSN: 1559-5692 (Print) 1559-5706 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/hdim20 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 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15595692.2015.1098611 Published online: 22 Jan 2016. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 179 View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=hdim20 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 descrip- tions 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 coun- tries 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

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