Ethnic Minority Teachers in the People's Republic of China: Their Role as Change Agents

• In Event: 392 - Section on Asia and Asian America Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 08. Education and Social Inequality. The Role of Teachers

Abstract

Like other multiethnic states, China faces numerous challenges, foremost among these ensuring educational access and equity for members of its 55 officially designated ethnic minority groups. Chinese policymakers hoped to have a nine-year compulsory education plan in place nationwide by the year 2000, yet millions of children, many of them ethnic minority, still quit school well before graduation. China is becoming an increasingly polarized society, and among the key reasons for this are the quality and accessibility of basic education for children. What is needed is a new breed of ethnic minority teachers who will return to their home regions and improve the system of compulsory education there. There are clear advantages to having ethnic minority children taught by teachers from their own nationality groups. These advantages include validating students’ identities, providing essential role models, and perpetuating minority languages and cultures. This paper first describes China’s critical shortage of qualified ethnic minority teachers. Next, the various kinds of teacher training programs for ethnic minority students are outlined. Factors discouraging teacher education students from returning to their hometowns after graduation, namely China’s economic reforms and the allocation policy, are addressed. Finally, barriers to minority teachers becoming change agents are presented. These barriers are teaching conditions in ethnic minority schools and nationality teachers’ commitment to their profession.

Author

• MaryJo Benton Lee, South Dakota State University