Being a Mongolian student in an ‘enclosed-wall’: an exploration of social identity construction of the Mongolian students in Minzu universities of China

Countries with domestic ethnic diversity confront many similar educational challenges: on one side, there is a need to address equalities in the public education system, thus ensuring that minority groups are able to access opportunities in education which engage their own cultures and languages; on the other side, it is apparent that equality is extremely complex and minority students across the world still confront obstacles in access to the full range of opportunities enjoyed by dominant social groups. In the context of China, the dual education system (Putong education system and Minzu education system) aims to address such challenges. Whilst these two systems run in parallel on an equal basis, they also implicitly segregate the ethnic minorities they are designed to serve.In order to explore the impact of the Minzu education system on minority students’ experiences, perceptions, and opportunities in China, this research sets the focus on minority students in higher education, specifically, the Mongolian students studying in the Minzu universities in China. ‘Social identity’ is used as the conceptual lens to explore the perceptions of Mongolian students and their experiences in the Minzu universities. Particularly, three aspects of social identity are focused upon: ethnic identity, learning identity and how these aspects of social identity are negotiated within the institutional context of Minzu universities. In order to investigate this, a total of 31 semi-structured interviews with Mongolian students were carried out in two Minzu universities.The major findings of the study suggest that the metaphor of an ‘enclosed-wall’ reflects the impact of the Minzu higher education system. More specifically, Mongolian identity and learning identity as two aspects of social identity are being constructed within the ‘enclosed-wall’ and this is manifested in two ways: the ethnic identity of Mongolian students becomes stronger within the Minzuuniversity but there is also a sense of segregation from others; there is a positive learning identity in Mongolian students but the disadvantages are meanwhile embedded in the learning identity. The disadvantages are reflected such as their vulnerable basis in English or Chinese language to compete in the employment market and the Mongolian language medium majors which they engage lack affirmation and applicability in the wider society.‘Enclosed-wall’ is not necessarily of negative connotations. Sustaining the education of Mongolian students in an ‘enclosed’ system offers valuable opportunities in terms of preserving the heritage of cultural and language diversity and engaging them in the learning process. However, when the ‘enclosed-wall’ is examined in the wider context where the challenges from labour market and global HE competitiveness become intense, it seems that the effects of the ‘enclosed-wall’ would pose barriers for Mongolian students to succeed outside the ‘wall’. Thus, the social identity construction of Mongolian students can illuminate the contradictions between the protection and development of opportunities for ethnic minorities in higher education and the continuance of their segregation and their experiences of disadvantages in education and the wider society

Foreign Puppets, Christian Mothers or Revolutionary Martyrs? : The Multiple Identities of Missionary School Girls in East China, 1917-1952

My PhD thesis examines the experience of girls who attended missionary middle schools in East China 1917-1952. I look at four schools across three cities: In Shanghai, St. Mary’s founded by the American Episcopal Church in 1881 and McTyeire, an American Methodist school founded in 1892. In Ningbo and Hangzhou, I focus on two union schools for girls established by the North American Presbyterian and Baptist Missions; Riverside Academy established in Ningbo in 1923 and Hongdao, established in Hangzhou in 1912. Using pupils’ writings in their school magazines, alongside interviews with ex-pupils, missionary reports and newspaper sources, the thesis seeks to understand missionary school girls’ agency in shaping and influencing new forms of modernity emerging in early twentieth century China. How did they navigate their school environment and negotiate their identities as both Christian and Chinese within an increasingly nationalistic setting, characterised by anti-imperialist and anti-Christian movements in the 1920s? How did mission school pupils use a gendered Christian rhetoric to fashion their identities within debates about women’s roles in a newly emerging public sphere in the Republican era? What can the experience of missionary school girls tell us about the relationship between Christianity, Communism and the Women’s Movement in China? This research breaks new ground by examining the missionary enterprise from the point of view of pupils who attended missionary schools rather than from the missionary perspective. By placing the experience of pupils at the centre of enquiry, we can see how Chinese women were active agents in the creation of a transnational modernity in treaty port East China. I argue that the hybrid cultural environment at missionary schools unintentionally created a free space or ‘laboratory’ where girls could experiment with more fluid gender identities, which challenged traditional binaries and allowed them to forge new conceptions of Chinese womanhood

ISCHE 42 - Looking from Above and Below:Rethinking the Social in the History of Education – Book of Abstracts

ISCHE 42 was conducted as a virtual conference due to the covid-19 pandemic. In adapting to this situation, the conference period was extended to two weeks, June 14-25, 2021, with a preconference on June 11, 2021. The abstracts for this conference are compiled in this volume