| This dissertation describes the findings of an ethnographic study on cultural identity and schooling conducted among Tibetan refugees in the United States and India. I draw mainly from four interdisciplinary theoretical perspectives---cultural anthropology, critical social theory, cultural studies, and postcolonial theory---to explain the relationships and connections between identity, culture, and schooling. Data included formal and informal interviews with students, parents, Tibetan government and educational leaders, participant observation, field notes, and archival sources. The constant comparative approach was used to analyze and interpret data, in which key linkages generated the research findings.;Tibetan refugees negotiate their cultural identities in the context of their complex socio-political history. They move from a sort of hyper-visibility due to their fetishized image in the West into the shadows of racism as the immigrant "other." Sometimes idealized, sometimes denigrated, they negotiate a struggle between a need for political recognition required for them to achieve self-determination in their homeland with one for cultural survival. In their effort to gain political legitimacy, participants engage in various strategies that often require them to reconcile the competing values of Tibetan Buddhism and predominant Western ideologies of nation-statehood.;Tibetan identity was expressed as ethics-based in contrast to what the West has labeled as religious or spiritual . Politically, that identity acts as a cultural marker that is used strategically to solicit support for their political cause, while at the same time assuming a reclaiming stance against what they argue is the misappropriation of Tibetan Buddhism by the West. Most importantly, it serves as the cornerstone of their ethical agenda to share the values and ethics of Tibetan Buddhism.;Notions of selfhood emerged as an organizing value around which Tibetan participants identify. They critique what they describe as US individualism because it runs counter to Tibetan Buddhist notions of selfhood, summarized in the Tibetan school slogan, "Others Before Self." What they termed the "I factor" was viewed as part of a broader pattern of US ignorance, or the systemic denial of the histories, geographies, world views, and suffering of others beyond US borders. There are perceived to be very high personal and societal costs of assimilating to the I factor, because it conflicts so fundamentally with Tibetan Buddhist ethics which they believe to have transformative potential for social change. Yet this stance is often compromised as they encounter a new range of economic opportunities and US discourse that promotes personal ambition. |
