Document Type
Book Chapter
Date of this Version
4-17-2013
Abstract
This paper reviews Chinese- and English-language literature on ethnic minorities and education in China. Six major research topics emerge from the Chinese-language research: (1) Marxism and ethnic minority education; (2) patriotism and national unity in education for ethnic minority students; (3) multicultural education; (4) determinants of ethnic differences in education; (5) school facilities and teacher quality; and (6) preferential / affirmative action policies. Four research themes are identified from the English-language literature: (1) policy overviews; (2) education and ethnic identity; (3) incentives and disincentives for buy-in to the education system; and (4) educational stratification. The majority of quantitative research from both Chinese- and English-language literature investigates ethnic minorities as a collective group. Qualitative research focuses on individual ethnic groups, although no one group is the focus of particular attention. More qualitative studies currently exist, but the number of quantitative studies is growing, given the growing availability of survey and census data containing information on ethnic minorities. Both literatures focus on the complex interrelationships of ethnicity with cultural, policy, development, and language issues. Yet, these literatures draw on different ideological starting points, conform to different norms of academic composition, and speak to different audiences in different sociopolitical contexts. For these reasons, the English literature tends to adopt a more critical tone. Overall, very little of the work in either language comes from the field of sociology of education. More comparatively and theoretically framed work is needed to enable the Chinese experience to be informed by and inform global research in sociology of education.
Keywords
sociology of education, ethnicity, China, minorities
Included in
Asian Studies Commons, Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons, Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Demography, Population, and Ecology Commons, Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons, Educational Sociology Commons, First and Second Language Acquisition Commons, International and Comparative Education Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons
Date Posted: 04 June 2012
This document has been peer reviewed.
Comments
This version is an ELMM Network working paper. Version of record:
Cherng, Hua-Yu Sebastian, Emily Hannum, and Chunping Lu. 2014. “China.” In The Palgrave Handbook of Race and Ethnic Inequalities in Education, edited by Peter A. J. Stevens and A. Gary Dworkin, 205–37. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/9781137317803_8.