Policy Debates and Indigenous Education: The Trialectic of Language, Culture, and Identity

Institute for International Studies in Education
Policy Debates and Indigenous
Education: The Trialectic of
Language, Culture, and Identity
By W. James Jacob, Jing Liu, and Che-Wei Lee (2013-
Forthcoming)
Instructor: Che-Wei Lee
ADMPS 3343 Comparative Education, Spring 2012
Thursday, 23 February 2012, 7:15-9:55 pm
4301 Wesley W. Posvar Hall
University of Pittsburgh
All Rights Reserved © 2012 by Che-Wei Lee

• A Brief Introduction to this Chapter
• Our Standpoint
• Critical Consciousness Raising
• Overview of Indigenous Peoples Worldwide
• Five Country Case Study
• China
• Mexico
• Taiwan
• Uganda
• United States
• Discussion and Conclusion
Agenda

A Brief Introduction to this Chapter
This is one of the chapters by W. James Jacob, Jing Liu, and Che-Wei Lee
from the forthcoming book entitled “Indigenous Education: Language,
Culture, and Identity.” The volume is edited by W. James Jacob, Sheng
Yao Cheng, and Maureen K. Porter. The volume is scheduled for publication
by Springer in 2013.

Our Standpoint
• “Each language constitutes a certain model of the
universe, a semiotic system of understanding the
world, and if we have 4,000 different ways to describe
the world, this makes us rich. We should be concerned
about preserving language just as we are about
ecology” (Ivanov, 1992, p. 11).
• We therefore firmly believe and confirm that
indigenous epistemology has been one of multicultural
contributions for academia, society, state (nation) and
world.

Critical Consciousness Raising
• Attitude: When engaging indigenous issues, please imagine yourself as
diverse subject positions and divergent social designs.
• Question: If you are one of indigenous community members, how would
you react to the overwhelmingly dominant cultures with the corresponding
impacts of globalization, assimilation, modernization, marginalization, and
post-colonization?
• Practice and Reflexivity: What (why/how) do (can/should/must/will) we do
with, by, and for indigenous population from the various stances of
governments, non-indigenous peoples, states, and international
organizations (e.g., UN, NGOs) and so on?
• Anticipated Results: Secular engagement or self-determination or
balanced interface (culturally, politically, economically, and socially)?
• Who Really Benefits From Affirmative Action, and Does It Help Society
as a Whole? Attitudes, ideologies, end-and-means, and contributions

Overview of Indigenous Peoples Worldwide
• Population: more than 350 million indigenous people spread across
70 countries worldwide (5 percent of the world’s population)
• Languages: 4,000 to 5,000
• Common concerns: poverty, discrimination, and marginalization
• General terms: native, aboriginal, first nation, and local
• UN involvement with indigenous rights:
– Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UN 1948)
– International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (UN 1966)
– UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UN 2007)

Who Are Indigenous Peoples?
• For practical purposes, the commonly accepted understanding of the term is
that provided in the Jose R. Martinez Cobo’s Study on the Problem of
Discrimination against Indigenous Populations. The working definition
reads as follows:
• Indigenous communities, peoples and nations are considered those
which, having a historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial
societies that developed on their territories, consider themselves
distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing in those
territories, or parts of them. They form at present non-dominant
sectors of society and are determined to preserve, develop, and
transmit to future generations their ancestral territories and their
ethnic identity, as the basis of their continued existence as peoples,
in accordance with their own cultural patterns, social institutions, and
legal systems.

Indigenous Characteristics
• Self- identification as indigenous peoples at the individual level
and accepted by the community as their member
• Historical continuity with pre-colonial and/or pre-settler societies
• Strong link to territories and surrounding natural resources
• Distinct social, economic or political systems
• Distinct language, culture and beliefs
• Form non-dominant groups of society
• Resolve to maintain and reproduce their ancestral environments
and systems as distinctive peoples and communities

Definition of Indigeneity
We define the term indigeneity as the first inhabitants of a land or nation, and
includes the language, culture, identity, knowledge, science, and technologies
developed or possessed by these indigenous peoples.
Mason Durie’s (2005) Two Characteristics of Indigeneity :
Primary characteristic: An enduring relationship between populations, their
territories, and the natural environment (An ecological context for human
endeavours)
Secondary characteristics (derived from the relationship with the environment):
– The relationship endures over centuries. Time
– The relationship is celebrated in custom and group interaction. Identity
– The relationship gives rise to a system of knowledge, distinctive
methodologies, and an environmental ethic. Knowledge
– The relationship facilitates balanced economic growth. Sustainability
– The relationship contributes to the evolution and use of a unique
language. Language

Indigenous Education
• Dialectical Nature and Challenges: the maintenance, use, survival,
and (inter)national engagement of indigenous people’s cultures,
languages, knowledge, traditions, and identity; how to provide and
develop the knowledge and skills that enable indigenous peoples to
engage fully and equally in the national and international community
• Alien Schooling: the loss of indigenous identity, control and self-
determination; a site of rejection of Indigenous knowledge and language;
a means of assimilating and integrating indigenous peoples into a
“national” society and identity at the cost of their indigenous identity and
social practices
• (Non-)Intentional Educational Policy and Indigenous Genocide:
globalization threats, economic policies and practices, human rights
issues, the media and media culture, and urbanicity

Five Country Case Study

Indigenous Education Policies in China
• Indigenous peoples is a somewhat controversial but acceptable
term because of political implications for the dominant Han
Chinese as well as many of China’s ethnic minority groups.
• Census: 56 officially recognized ethnic groups; ethnic minorities
comprise 9.44% of the total population (1.3 billion people); 61
distinct languages identified by 2008
• Laws and Regulations for Protection of Ethnic Minority
Peoples’ Education and Languages
– National People’s Congress 1982
– State Council of the People’s Republic of China 1988
– National People’s Congress 1995

National People’s Congress 1982
All the nationalities of China are equal [and] every
ethnic minority is free to use and develop their
language.
State Council of the People’s Republic of China 1988
Mandarin Chinese ought to be used for literacy. In ethnic
autonomous areas, the local ethnic languages could
be used as the language of instruction . . .

Every citizen of China, regardless of sex, ethnic
group, economic status or religious belief, has
the right and obligation to education, and enjoys
equal educational opportunities to meet his or
her essential needs.

The standardized spoken and written Chinese language
(Mandarin) based on the northern dialect and the Beijing
pronouncing system, and the standardized simplified
characters approved by the State Council and in common use
in the whole country, shall be popularized and used as the
basic language media of curriculum and instruction in schools
and other educational institutions of the country. But in
schools in which students of minority ethnic groups constitute
the majority, the spoken and written language of the majority
ethnic group or of common use by the local ethnic groups may
be used as language media of curriculum and instruction.

Language Policy Controversies (1/3)
• Bilingual Education: a transitional measure = transitional schooling in
the native languages while students master the dominant language
• Instruction in Ethnic Minority Languages: mainly occur at primary
education level, e.g. first year/first two or three years of their primary
education in most remote rural regions of the country
• Instruction in Chinese Language: often after the completion of their
primary education
• Challenge: a lack of qualified primary and secondary education
teachers in predominantly ethnic minority and rural regions of the
country

• Higher Education: Instruction is in Mandarin except for courses
in Mongolian or Tibetan language and/or literature. At Xinjiang
University, courses were commonly taught in both Chinese and
Uyghur until a government decree in 2002 declared that the
majority of courses would be taught only in Chinese.
• Centralized and Standardized Curriculum: irrelevant to ethnic
minority students
• Results: low examination scores and high ethnic minority
students drop-out rate
• Implication: Bilingual education fails to enhance the preservation
of that aspect of most ethnic minority cultures.

• Bilingual Education Policy: affect ethnic consciousness, national unity,
and ethnic identities
• Textbooks: disconnection to local histories, cultures, and religions of
China’s ethnic minority peoples; religion rejection
• Formal Curriculum & Government-controlled Media producing:
– minimal space for religious contents
– histories of ethnic minority peoples are rarely included except when
they support social evolution and national unity topic
– stereotype formation
• English Potentials: help international communication, find employment
and continue on with one’s advanced studies
• Other Challenges: the problem of lack qualified teachers, geographic
and socioeconomic disparities and disparities of gender enrollment

Indigenous Education Policies in Mexico
(1/2)
• Census: declining
• Indigenous Language Speaking Population: 14% in 1930 
7% in 2000
• Bilingual Education in 1930: Mexicanization (unify the country)
• Politically Predominance of the Spanish Language & A
Formalized Uniform Education Program: inequality of
education, achievement gap
• Years of Schooling: on average 3 years of schooling in the
Indigenous communities vs. on average 8 years of schooling in
the nonindigenous communities
• Academic Achievements: score lower on reading (in Spanish)
and mathematics examinations
• Higher Education Selection: Qualified indigenous students
often choose to colleges instead of universities.

Indigenous Education Policies in Mexico
(2/2)
• Nancy Modiano’s (1972) research on the effectiveness
of bilingual education
• Disconnect between the original concept of bilingual
education in Mexico and subsequent education
policies and implementation of those policies
(designed for or in favor of urban non-indians)
• A gap between bilingual education and biliteracy:
The monopolization of written discourse by Spanish
is the main obstacle for biliteracy and indigenous
language development.

Ethnic Original Identity and Indigenous
Education
• Inequality of Education vs. Ethnic Original identity
• Low Quality of Education vs. Ethnic Original Identity
• Social Structures & Societal Norms: often position
indigenous peoples in Mexico as inferior or subordinate
• Negative Results: indigenous identities rejection;
refusal to speak or study indigenous languages; and the
loss of one’s culture and language

Indigenous Education Policies in
Taiwan
• Census: 14 official indigenous groups commonly called Taiwan
Aborigines, consisting of approximately 2% (approximately
500,000) of the total population of 23.1 million in June 2009
• Geographic Distribution: Most Aborigines live in the central and
eastern mountainous regions or in urban centers of the country.
• Administrative Machinery Establishment: Council of
Indigenous Affairs, Executive Yuan in 1996
• Educational Law: Aboriginal Education Act in 1998

College Entrance Exam and CLPT
Ratio of Preferential Scores No certified in CLPT Certified in CLPT
High schools or 3/5-year
polytechnic schools (apply for or
enroll in accord with schools)
25％ 35％
4-year/2-year technical colleges
and universities (apply for or
enroll in accord with schools) 25％ 35％
4-year universities/colleges
(distributed to schools according
to exam scores)
25％ 35％
TABLE 1
The gap of preferential scores between aboriginal students who are and aren’t certified in CLPT
Source: website of council of aboriginal affairs, Executive Yuan (2006).

A Recognition Dispute for the
Preferential Policy
• Preferential Policies in Taiwan vs. Affirmative Action
Admissions Policies in US higher education institutions
• Backlash: dominant ethnic Han students and their parents
• Flash Point: Prior to 2002, indigenous students qualified based
on their blood lineage, who particularly share the same
educational circumstance.
• Conditional Preferential Policy: After 2002, the government
introduced a new policy requiring aboriginal students pass the
Certification of Aboriginal Culture and Language Proficiency
(CACLP) in order to qualify for the preferential score and comfort
the mainstream Han students’ questions.

Reflections on CACLP
• Cultural Evidence Argument: qualify for the preferential score (insiders’
contradiction vs. outsiders’ requirement)
• Ambiguous Incentive: By using a test to force indigenous students to
learn their own languages and culture, but it’s hard to evaluate their
internally real motives and externally behaviors.
• Value: promote indigenous peoples to treasure/value indigenous native
languages and culture
• Weaknesses: external test-oriented teaching/learning (passive) vs.
internal spontaneous learning (active); easy to become a formalism
implementation
• Critiques: Whose language policy? Language justice or identity politics
or equitable admission? Who really benefits from this policy, and does it
help society as a whole? Indigenous self-esteem? Issues on attitudes,
end-and-means, ideologies and contributions

Indigenous Language Education
• Ethnic Language Environments: Aboriginal schools
are superior to the non-aboriginal schools (from
Grades 1-12).
• The Key of Succeeding in Native Language
Education: School Leader’s Determination, Financial
Budget Support (teachers, materials, and evaluations)

Education Dilemma
• Is education an opportunity or threat for the survival of Taiwan
aboriginal languages, cultures, and identities?
• Social Structure and Societal Pressures: contribute to prevent
indigenous peoples from ancestral homelands for more
opportunities in urban centers
• For those succeed in the formal education system:
– Gain: attend higher education institutions, get advanced economy, gain
mastery of Chinese
– Loss: disregard native language, culture, and identity
• Indigenous identity, Han identity, mixed (hybrid) Identity?
• Several reasons for parents not speaking tribal language in
homes: (1) not fluent; (2) emphasizing Chinese for better
academic development . . .

Indigenous Higher Education in
Taiwan
• Vocational and technical areas of employment,
including nursing, teaching, military service, and the
arts
• A few graduate programs in indigenous studies at
Taiwan higher education institutions
• Those who graduate from academic programs rarely
continue in jobs related to their degrees
• Persistence, retention, drop-out issues in higher
education

Indigenous Education Policies in
Uganda
• Census: 31 million, comprising of 61 different ethnic
groups. The total population of the ethnic minority
groups is 160,799 or 0.7% of the total population.
• Languages: over 50 languages recognized in the
national constitution
• Northern and Eastern Regions: Sudanic and Nilotic
languages
• Western and Central Regions: Bantu languages

Education, Development, and
Challenges
• Educational Challenges: overwhelming many
disparate groups
– Baganda: 18%
– Banyankole: 10%
– Bahima: 10%
• Public and Private Schools: owned and operated by
religious sponsoring organizations; for-profit, non-
profit, and government-sponsored schools
• Curriculum: centralized but accountability to the
government and quality of instruction varies at all
levels
• Factors Limiting Success in Education: poverty

AIDS/HIV Epidemic and Education
• The worldwide AIDS epidemic, for many years had its initial epicenter in
East and Central Africa, has devastated families and communities
throughout the country..
• The AIDS epidemic threatened many social sectors including the
government’s single largest body of employees—teachers,
administrators, and other education staff members in the education
sector.
• The HIV adult prevalence rate has declined since the early 1990s with an
adult prevalence rate of 5.4 percent in October 2008 (Morisky et al.
2006; UNAIDS/WHO 2008).
• HIV education has played an instrumental role in overcoming helping to
curb the epidemic nationwide (Jacob et al. 2006).

Dialect vs. National Language
• Although Uganda is a multilingual society, none of its indigenous
languages are recognized as a national language.
• English remains the only official language, a clear reminder of its colonial
past.
• Official language policy’s direct implications: recognizes and provides
multilingual literacy is contained in the Government of Uganda’s (1992)
White Paper on Education.
• UNESCO’s (2008) report: child’s mother tongue as the primary language
of instruction in most schools for initial literacy and instruction during the
first three years of primary education. The fourth year is generally
characterized by a transition to English. This language-in-education
policy allows both dominant and minority languages to be used for
instruction in the early schooling years.

White Paper’s Difference between Rural
and Urban Areas
• Majority of Ugandans (over 80 percent) live in rural settings:
people who speak the same language live in close proximity
• Increasing rural-to-urban migration results in a multilingual
society
• Rural Areas: the “relevant local languages” would be the medium
of instruction in Primary 1-4 (Grades 1-4) and that English would
be taught as a subject until Primary 5
• Urban Areas: English would be the medium of instruction from
Primary 1 onward, with the “local language” taught as a subject.

Language Education Policy Dilemma
• Attitude toward the policy: positive on promoting local language
use in education to main indigenous culture and identity
• Policy Plights
– difficult for many schools to select a relevant local language
for their students
– The costs of producing textbooks in each indigenous
language is impractical for an already over-stretched Ministry
of Education and Sports.
• Government’s Weak Role: lack of funding for developing relevant
local language teaching/learning materials and training qualified
teachers

Insiders’ Contradiction on Language Status
• General expectations of parents and the local community for their
children is to learn the nonindigenous English language.
• Reasons: interact at an international level and obtain a high-
salary job
• A primary goal for the government and many Ugandans is to
maintain the culture, language, and identity of people from
Uganda’s many different ethnic groups.
• More could be done to convince parents that indigenous
language instruction in schools will not compromise their desire
for their children’s access to the global village

Indigenous Education Policies in the
United States
• Census: American Indians and Alaska Natives comprise less than 2% of
the total US population, approximately 4.1 million American Indians and
Alaska Natives in 2000 (Ogunwole 2002)
• The Nature of Education: the intentional “Americanization” of American
Indians
• Report 1 - National Study of American Indian Education: The
Education of Indian Children and Youth and Indian Education: The
primary importance for American Indian education was to re-evaluate
goals in terms defined by indigenous peoples themselves
• Report 2 - A National Tragedy—A National Challenge: both public
schools and the federal American Indian education system had
continued the impossible policy of turning American Indian children into
Whites

Education Policy for American Indians
• 1975: Indian Self-Determination and Education
Assistance Act greatly facilitated participation, self
governance, and the operation of education programs
by American Indians.
• 1978: Educational Amendments Act resulted in
decision-making powers be granted to indigenous
school boards, enabling the local hiring of teachers
and staff, and direct funding to Bureau of Indian Affairs
and Indian-controlled contract schools.

Critiques for American Indian Education
Polices
Self-Determination Act:
– It did not change the situation of education for indigenous
students.
– The average American Indian student’s achievement was far
below that of most non-indigenous students.
– Native American students did not receive a high-quality
education.
– The Indian language teaching in schools were limited to less
than an hour a day, and usually did not go beyond the level of
teaching basic vocabulary, how to count, greetings, and so
forth.

Critiques for American Indian Language Polices
• Native American Language Act in 1990: demonstrated
the federal government’s willingness to help preserve,
protect, and promote the rights and freedoms of American
Indians to use, practice, and develop indigenous
languages, it did not provide funding to teach indigenous
languages
• The Indian Nations at Risk Task Force: identified one of
the reasons for Indian Nations’ risk was that schools had
discouraged the used of indigenous languages

Overview of American Indian Language Polices
• The amendment of the Native American Language Act in 1984: It
developed into three methods, including maintenance, transitional, and
immersion bilingual education programs
• Maintenance Bilingual Programs: It developed children’s native as well
as English-language speaking abilities.
• Transitional Bilingual Programs: It is designed to teach English to
minority language students and to improve their English speaking. The
first two programs referred to the long-term role of the first language in
education
• Immersion Bilingual Programs: It is referred to the way in which the
second language was taught. Then instruction in English is quickly
phased in to so as to transition to a stage where all instruction is in
English by Grade 4.

Title VII of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001
Content: government’s commitment to provide quality education to
students, professional development for existing teachers and
administrators, and “also the unique educational and culturally
related academic needs of these children.” The NCLB Act
emphasizes the need to focus on reading while at the same time
preserving local cultures
Criticisms: Much of the NCLB research has rightly focused on Title I
and the testing requirements which have encouraged educators to
focus predominantly on English, reading, mathematics, and science
subjects

Endangered and Extinct Languages
• Colonization, Modernization, and Globalization
• Of the 564 federally-recognized tribes there are only a few living
elders who can still speak their native languages fluently. They
belong to smaller tribes; their children either did not have a
sufficient chance to interact with other tribal elders or they no
longer wanted to continue the tradition of their parents (including
learning their parents’ native tongue).
• And these last remaining native speakers are usually seniors;
when they die their native language—and all aspects of living
culture, traditions, and in many cases indigenous knowledge—will
die with them.
• In several tribes the linguistic genocide is already complete with
no remaining native speakers of their respective native languages
living on the earth.

Discussion and Conclusion (1/2)
• Denied Education and Linguistic Rights: Indigenous peoples
are among the most affected and disadvantaged of all peoples on
the earth. Their education has often been characterized by a lack
of access to an education that respects their diverse cultures and
languages
• Government Limitations: Governments are also facing
difficulties regarding the translation of those regulations or
policies into actions.
• Policy Dilemma: Promotion of bilingual or multilingual education
vs. promotion of the majority language/s
• The Increasing Demand for English Learning

Discussion and Conclusion (2/2)
Indigenous Education Curriculum Recommendations
– The basic guideline for preservation of indigenous languages,
cultures, and identities through the formal education system
– Fully involved in the curriculum development decision-making
process and development phase for ownership, buy-in, and
self-determination
– National (state/provincial) curricula should have relevance to
indigenous peoples. Therefore, it is essential to know how to
design a relevant indigenous education curriculum and ensure
that indigenous peoples participate in the curriculum
development process.
– It is necessary to utilize local human resources to participate
in the process of teaching and learning.

Some Issues in
Indigenous Policies and Education
• Lack of sufficient funding
• Lack of qualified teachers and learning materials
• Lack of human resources
• Lack of a relevant environment for using indigenous
knowledge
• Limited access to higher education for indigenous peoples
• Conflicts between indigenous religions and politics
• Dilemma between modernization and globalization
pressures and traditional preservation

Pathways to Succeed in
Indigenous Policies and Education
• Government and indigenous communities required to
collaborate together in order to provide innovative
and relevant approaches which can help protect and
promote indigenous languages, cultures, and
identities.
• Since education is a universal human right, indigenous
education should also be a human right and be
designed with, by, and for indigenous peoples.

Reference
Jacob, W. James, Jing Liu, and Che-Wei Lee. 2013-
Forthcoming. “Policy Debates and Indingeous Education:
The Trialectic of Langue, Identity, and Culture.” In
Indigenous Education: Language, Culture, and Identity,
edited by W. James Jacob, Sheng Yao Cheng, and
Maureen Porter. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
47

Policy Debates and Indigenous Education: The Trialectic of Language, Culture, and Identity

Empfohlen

Empfohlen

Weitere ähnliche Inhalte

Was ist angesagt?

Was ist angesagt? (20)

Andere mochten auch

Andere mochten auch (14)

Ähnlich wie Policy Debates and Indigenous Education: The Trialectic of Language, Culture, and Identity

Ähnlich wie Policy Debates and Indigenous Education: The Trialectic of Language, Culture, and Identity (20)

Mehr von Che-Wei Lee

Mehr von Che-Wei Lee (18)

Kürzlich hochgeladen

Kürzlich hochgeladen (20)

Policy Debates and Indigenous Education: The Trialectic of Language, Culture, and Identity