In their article, Zhang, Ben Jiao and Fu confirm the difference between the intellectual style of TAR Tibetans and Chinese in Nanjing, something that can be seized upon to improve the way in which instruction is delivered. Through systematic examination of the teaching styles of Tibetans at Tibet University and the learning styles they preferred, we get a refined understanding of higher learning in the TAR. Tibetan teachers’ styles were not, as expected, significantly more conservative than those of Nanjing University teachers. To deal with the rapidly changing world, Tibetan university teachers have become more creative in their teaching. Yet, teaching and learning in Tibet University remains relatively conservative due to remoteness, economics, and traditions in monastery education, as well as Tibetan people’s strong sense of culture preservation.
At the other end of the education system, Bass points out how primary school education has become politically conservative, even while the rest of China moves in the other direction. Through careful examination, she discovers that Tibetan culture has been hallowed out from the content of school textbooks, while the theme of Tibetan cultural backwardness remains salient. Tibetan culture is disengaged from Tibetan Buddhism as historical figures are ridiculed or condemned as rich, evil, lazy aristocrats or duplicitous and corrupt monk teachers. The backward state of the TAR's economy is officially attributed to Tibetan Buddhism and mental attitude, as well as the popular idea that Tibet is unique. For Bass, this education will not produce a produce a generation of Tibetans with the confidence and skills to compete with those from other areas of China, unless they are also educated with relevant Tibetan language skills that permit access to their rich cultural heritage.
Seeberg provides new empirical research to explain the struggle of Tibetan girls for education in Qinghai province. She examines how girls become part of new social networks that both bind them to their traditional place, while creating new space for their educational empowerment. Based on narrative data by girls about their pursuit of education, Seeberg sees these girls as advantageously situated for primary schooling. Moreover, schools function as change agents that open possibilities for girls’ demands for parity in promotion to secondary and higher learning. As males leave home for work in the urban market economy, secondary education places remote Tibetan girls into a habitus where they acquire a modern subjectivity, despite remaining materially locked into a pre-modern terrain and poor socio-economic conditions. Seeberg’s empowerment perspective takes us beyond the grim developmentalist view. Within the current seeds of change, she appeals for more culturally responsive policies that have salutary effects of expanding human liberties.
Bangsbo argues that there is a preference for community based schools in nomadic areas of Sichuan and Qinghai, where it is often a struggle to attend school. She conveys the perspectives of nomadic households about the long distance from home to school, the irrelevance of school learning to daily life, and the lack of available jobs upon graduation. Thus, not unexpectedly, the choice by some parents is to keep their children at home to perform domestic work that contributes directly to the household economy. Although some parents consider state schooling of limited value, most parents acknowledge that proficiency in Chinese and other basic knowledge gained in school are essential to life outside the pastoral community. While life in remote, high-altitude herding areas is under transition, this has made Tibetan parents more open to schooling for their children. However, many households prefer community run schools if they better reflect the rugged realities and practical aspirations of nomadic life.
Maslak’s study investigates ways in which ethnicity is represented in India’s primary school curricula and conceptualized in the Tibetan refugee community by Indian and Tibetan public school teachers. While curricula support the national ethos of the majority, teachers play a significant role in shaping Tibetan students’ understanding of their ethnicity. A Delphi study identified teachers’ perceptions of factors that contribute to the ethnicity of Tibetan students. Her research demonstrates a multiplicity of practices in the school – particularly in curricula and teachers, which contribute to how ethnicity is conceptualised. Teachers believe they communicate information about ethnicity to students and can help students become critical consumers of the nationally issued textbooks that fail to capture the refugee perspective. Maslak suggests a review of all textbooks to gauge the frequency with which and ways in which India’s diverse population is depicted. In short, this research supports revisions that recognize the multicultural and eliminate pedagogy of the excluded.
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