Cultural Conflict or Amalgamation? Higher Education Access and Equity of Ethnic Minorities in China

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Cultural Conflict or Amalgamation?Higher
Education Access and Equity of Ethnic Minorities
in China
Presented in the Workshop of Higher Education at
the University of Hong Kong March 13, 2007

• Zhiyong Zhu Ph.D.
• Fulbright New Century Scholar (2007-2008)
• Institute of Higher Education Administration
• College of Educational Administration
• Beijing Normal University
• Email zzy_at_bnu.edu.cn

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Content

• Origin of the Study
• Introduction
• Research Questions
• Methodology
• Significance of the Study

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Origin of the Study

• Research interest
• Ethnic identity and state schooling assigned
  identity
• school education and local community development
  in ethnic minority regions
• Ethnic minoritys perspective towards their
  ethnic culture
• Educational conceptions and ethnic culture (ways
  of production, life values, living styles,
  viewpoints about nature and its relations to
  human beings)
• Ethnic cultural influence and ethnic minority
  higher education access and equity.

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Introduction (1)

• Social equity and educational equity in China
• Higher education expansion from elitism to
  universalization
• Research focus on disparities between rural and
  urban areas, east and western regions, and
  genders, rather than ethnicities and ethnic
  minorities

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Introduction (2)

• Preferential policies for ethnic minorites in
  higher education since the 1950s
• The lower score line than Han Chinese students
  for admission to higher education
• The building of ethnic colleges and preparatory
  class
• The situation for ethnic minority access to
  higher education is not optimistic
• Comparison between ethnic minority and the
  national
• Comparison between ethnic minorities

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Introduction (3)

• Some ethnic minority regions higher education
  better than others
• Some ethnic minority (Korean, Daur, Xibe, Naxi,
  Hui, etc.) groups higher education higher than
  the national average

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Research Questions (1)

• The general objective is to examine the mechanism
  for higher education disparities among different
  ethnic regions and ethnic minority groups,
  especially the role of the relationships between
  ethnic minorities cultures and mainstream
  culture in the change of higher education.

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Research Questions (2)

• The specific objectives are
• What policies have been implemented to improve
  access to and equity of higher education for
  ethnic minorities in western countries (the USA,
  France, Australia, etc.) and Asian countries
  (Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, etc.) in the
  transferring of new century? And what kind of
  relevance to China?
• How does the concept of equity in higher
  education change in the Chinese historical
  context, especially after the founding of the
  Peoples Republic of China? And what is the
  significance to other ethnic groups?
• What kind of cultural and social norms lead to
  less access to and inequity of higher education
  of ethnic minorities beyond the preferential
  policies in China?
• What kind of cultural and social factors
  contribute to the higher education development
  disparities between well-developed higher
  education of Korean, Daur, Naxi minorities and
  less-developed higher education of Tibetan, Tu,
  Dai minorities?

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Methodology (1)

• Based on the purpose of the project, data will be
  solicited from a variety of sources ethnic
  minority students and their parents, ethnic
  minority school teachers, administrators, ethnic
  (racial) minority educational scholars, and
  professionals, as well as different kinds of
  documents to triangulate a holistic understanding
  of access and equity of ethnic minorities higher
  education in the United States, China, and other
  countries.

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Methodology (2)

• Informal and in-depth interviews with academic
  scholars, stakeholders, and policy makers are to
  be used to explore the understanding of the
  reality of related policies for ethnic minority
  higher education through international exchange
  visits and NCS seminars
• Formal Interviews with Korean, Daur, Naxi,
  Tibetan, Tu, Dai people, teachers, and students
  in China, and minority students and other
  stakeholders in the U. S. are employed to catch
  on their beliefs and values on higher education.
• A questionnaire survey will be designed to
  examine the significance of cultural change,
  population mobility, commercial exchange,
  trans-marriage, religion, history of ethnic
  group, language and characters, and other factors
  to the development of higher education among some
  ethnic minorities in China.

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Significance of the Study

• The significance of this project lies in helping
  professionals in the United States, China, and
  other countries communicate and understand
  ideologies and practices in access to and equity
  of higher education of ethnic minority, and
  contributing to the deep understanding of
  under-representative ethnic groups in higher
  education access and equity in the global context
  through the exploration of cultural and social
  norms of the case of China, and generating
  feasible implications on promoting ethnic
  minority higher education in China drawing on the
  experiences of the United States and other
  countries in this regard.