The American Indian Education Of Deconstruction And Reconstruction: Anthropological Points Of View

The present comparative education research mostly focuses on the advancededucation experience in advanced countries or areas, rarely reaching the oppression ofrights issues of the people under specific political environment. It also pays littleattention to the disadvantaged students and teachers’ voice of the third world countriesor within developed countries. But with the development of education globalization,only by putting the education inequality research into the comparative educationalresearch scope can we make a more complete understanding of a regional education’sphenomena. Besides, the vision of comparative education is now the macro policymacroeconomic policy. If we want to fully understand the other’s education problems,we should study the reasons behind the phenomena of education to their social andcultural background. This requires a microscopic perspective. Anthropology not onlystudies the interaction between people at the micro level, but also pays attention tohow people are dominated by the specific political and power. This feature ofanthropology can not only help the theory building problems in comparativeeducation research, but also broaden the vision of comparative education into themicro level.This paper tries to use structural analysis theories of anthropology to analyze theAmerican Indian education’s deconstruction and reconstruction in the process ofmodernization of the United States. The structure of the paper is as follows:Chapter One: This Chapter introduces analysis theory in anthropology, whichdoes with the structural functionalism, the structuralism, the Structural Marxismtheory, and the post-structuralism, to the study of American Indian education.Education is embedded in society, so, educational problems need to search for theircauses and solutions in the society. Chapter Two: The Indian tribes’ society andeducation before the arrival of the white people. The Indian education was suitable tothe ethnic group life. It was a kind of original general education. There was obviousdifference between the Indians and the white in the aspect of education, whichbecame one of the reasons for the white’s misunderstanding toward the Indianeducation. The construction of the nation and government’s attitude toward theIndians gave rise to the Indian nationalism under the background of socialdevelopment. The Indian education started to be deconstructed in this process. Whenlands were occupied, Indians were forced to migrate to the west. Education was increasingly dominated by whites and ethnic group culture gradually collapsed.Chapter Three: This chapter is about the analysis of American Indians’ education from1776to the1960s. I will interpret the construction of the national and the governmentattitude toward the Indians and Indian nationalism how to rise under the backgroundof the social development, and the Indian education started to be deconstructed in thisprocess. As land was occupied, the Indians began to be forced to migrate to the west.What’s worse, the education was also gradually dominated by the White and ethnicculture gradually collapsed.Indian problems have not been eliminated. After the policies of oppressing andmelting pot, the state started to have a new attitude toward American Indians’ socialproblems. This section analyses the nationalism problems in Indian education sincethe civil rights movement. Indian education problem, like other ethnic problems, inthe final analysis is the land problem. When in the social class analysis where Indiansare general marginalized, it also reflects that the Indian education problems can beblamed on the two completely different methodology basis of government of theUnited States in dealing with Indians and non-Indians. The former is ethnicnationalism, the latter is citizen nationalism.Conclusion: The American Indian education problem is actually a kind of socialvulnerable groups’ problem in the process of social transition. In the process of themodernization of American society, the deconstruction and reconstruction of Indianeducation were beyond their control. The American Indian education is not theIndians own education. That is to say, Indian education is a kind of unfair education.This is the result of the Indians marginal role in the American society. In order tosolve the problem of the American Indian education, we must first solve their socialissues.