A Study On The Mechanism Of Traditional Ethnical Culture Inheritance Of Naxi Nationality In School Education

On the background of modernization and globalization, the education for ethnic minorities in China has the dual mission which concerns commonality education and individuality education. The former refers to the teaching of the universal basic knowledge of science and culture which facilitates the ethnic minority students to be qualified citizen in China’s modern society and even with international standards, while the later refers to the inheritance of traditional culture of ethnic minorities in school education to make the students qualified successors of their culture. Therefore, it’s crucial to find a balance between commonality education and individuality education to achieve an organic integration of the two, which is the basic starting point for this dissertation as well.A relatively significant effect has been achieved in dealing with the relationship between commonality education and individuality education in school education of Naxi nationality, which sets an example for the other nationalities. What is the necessity of introducing the traditional culture of Naxi into campus? How does the mechanism of traditional ethnic culture inheritance works in school education of Naxi? What about the theoretical basis? And is there any universal significance? All these questions become the focus of this dissertation.The previous studies on how to deal with the relationship between the two issues mainly focus on a side such as bilingual education, curriculum development etc. or simply theoretical speculation, Lacking of a systematic empirical research. In view of this, the study takes the inheritance initiatives of ethnic cultural of Naxi in school education as a case to analyze the above question, mainly using the research methods of field work such as questionnaire, participant observation, semi-structured and non-structured interviews, supplemented by the literature method and comparative method. During the analysis, the study complies with structural functionalism paradigm, from the perspective of cultural symbiosis and cultural adaptation.The study firstly analyzes the necessity of why introducing the traditional culture of Naxi into campus and then explores the inheritance mechanism of traditional culture of Naxi in school education from such aspects as the internal elements, external factors and their interaction way, pointing out the achievements and the problems. Next, the study makes some theoretical thinking on how to deal with the relationship between commonality education and individuality education and then compares and learns from the relevant experience of different countries and areas. Finally, the study, according to the above analysis, reflects on how to improve the mechanism and proposes some specific recommendations.This study suggests that the traditional culture’s being introduced into campus is necessary in the modern context. On the one hand, the traditional culture of Naxi is the product of a unique ecosystem with the feature of integration, distinctness and openness and it achieves its enculturation function such as the training of production and survival skills, the development of national cohesion and collective consciousness etc. on Naxi people during the inheritance from generation to generation, which provides an objective conditions and basis for the inheritance in school education. On the other hand, the traditional culture has gradually lost its original survival basis and heritage space so as to face a survival and development dilemma outside the school system. Therefore, the introduction of Naxi culture into campus is the continuation of its heritage.There are three ways of traditional culture inheritance in school education of Naxi, which includes curriculum development, classroom instruction and group activities. The curriculum developers are mainly researchers and experts of Naxi culture and some teachers. For the content, it mainly involves literacy-based culture and exhibition-style culture of Naxi. Whereas seen from the type, it mainly involves local curriculum, school-based curriculum and potential curriculum. The type of Naxi culture inheritance in classroom instruction includes the establishment of an independent subject and the penetration in the other subjects. The study finds that educatees’interest, educators’ consciousness and quality have an obvious influence on the inheritance in classroom instruction. Group activities mainly involve skill-mastered culture and recreation culture. Usually, organizing kinds of interest groups, art ensembles and carrying out thematic activities are the main methods of group activities. All the above ways of culture inheritance are carried out under scientific planning, research and corresponding management. The commonality education and individuality education are complementary and mutually reinforcing relationship in school education of Naxi. Besides, seen from the outer factors, social environment, policy and financial support are all have some impact on cultural heritage of Naxi in school education. In short, it has formed a "from-point-to-area" heritage mechanism of Naxi culture with the resultant interactive between the internal elements and external factors in school education of Naxi.The study finds that they have achieved some preliminary results on traditional culture inheritance of Naxi in such aspect as the development of national self-confidence of the students, the link of school education and Naxi traditional culture inheritance, the promoting of Naxi education reform and the stimulating of local economic and social development etc. However, there are still some problems to be solved. For instance, the tendency of emphasis on historical knowledge instruction while neglecting the cultivation of humanity in curriculum development, the lack of teaching materials level and without forming system, the lack of teachers of Naxi culture inheritance, the evaluation system being rigidity and convergence of the Han school, the security system and the communication and cooperation needing improving. Combined with the experience home and abroad and related theories, the study proposes that the following pairs of relations should be handled properly to solve the above problem in school education of Naxi, which include the balance of "state and local", the integration of "tradition and modernity" and the unity of "commonality and individuality". The study suggests that the education for Naxi should be repositioned based on cultural adaptation thinking in the modernization process of China, Highlighting the humanistic care of the individual development and focusing on the value demands of teachers’professional development and finally forming the "seed-typed" and "gene-typed" inheritance mechanism of Naxi traditional culture in school education. According to these thoughts, the study provides such recommendations as improving the curriculum development mechanism of Naxi cultural inheritance, emphasizing on the the enhance of multicultural quality of teachers, expanding the space of the penetration of Naxi culture in classroom instruction, adhering to an impartial, rational, scientific principle of culture inheritance, building an integrated transmission system which contains researching, development and instruction of Naxi traditional culture in school education.The study analyzes the relationship between commonality education and individuality education using interdisciplinary theories and methods, which involves pedagogy, anthropology, ethnology and sociology etc.. The study will be helpful on understanding the education status for Naxi nationality, exploring the organic integration path of commonality education and individuality education, repositioning the development direction of education for ethnic minorities in China. In addition, the study may have certain contribution to the expansion of research perspective and enriching the theory of education for nationalities. However, the specific ideas and policy recommendations proposed in the dissertation still need testing in practice in the future.