A Comparative Study Of School’s Multicultural Education In Frontier Minority Areas

Gengma Dai—Au tonomous County of Yunnan province is located in the southwestern frontier of the motherland,its unique natural environment,population structure and the living pattern of the multi-ethnic "big living and small settlements" have formed the state of multi-ethnic culture coexistence within the county.There are many commonalities and differences in multicultural education carried out by the day primary school directly under the county— C,the semi boarding and Ethnic primary school—M and boarding primary school at the centre of a village—H.It was found that there is no significant difference in the multicultural literacy of teachers of three primary school through the investigation,and showing the upward trend.However,there are significant differences among students and the best is primary school M,followed by C and H,but all are higher than the whole level of the county.There are differences among principals,teachers and students of three primary schools in understanding goals of multicultural education,but the views of principal,teachers and students in each primary school are similar and in line with their respective school.Three schools all put emphasis on Chinese classical culture and national characteristic culture in the selection of multicultural contents,but showing their own characteristics in innovation of campus culture,especially primary school C and M focus on Western culture and H stresses surrounding national culture in absorbing foreign culture.Three schools all develop five ways in implementing multicultural education: firstly,strengthen cultural identity by the curriculum as a medium;secondly,expand cultural skills by taking group activities as the driving force;thirdly,enhance cultural literacy on the basis of theme education;fourthly,strengthen national consciousness by local festivals as an opportunity;fifthly,build harmonious atmosphere rely on creating campus’ cultural environment.Multicultural education of three primary schools has formed certain characteristics and achievements,but still there are many problems.Its characteristics mainly reflect in the definite object,trying to build a multicultural and educational brand;flourishing flowers,promoting the development of multicultural education;seizing opportunity,creating multicultural and educational contents.The main achievements include promoting multicultural literacy of teachers and students and deepening the ethnic and national identity;breaking the barriers of school andsociety and making school a main role of multicultural education;promoting cultural heritage and educational fairness,and safeguarding national unity,harmonious frontier and social stability.There are three main problems: the lack of professional teachers and infrastructure in terms of the internal environment;the lack of educational resultant force of family,community and government departments in terms of external conditions;the differences in the supply of teachers and needs of students and emphasis on the form of activities instead of cultural connotation in terms of educational process.Reasons for these include:the negative impact of market economy,blind conformist mentality caused by the mass media and the lack of relevant policies for actual poverty in the economic aspect;the difficult "pluralistic integration" caused by different ethnics and the dual effects of bad culture of mainstream and community(village)in the social aspect;the mainstream value orientation of modern education,the lack of teachers’ multicultural knowledge and ability and the greater pressure of life and spirit in the school aspect;the misunderstanding of multicultural education of parents and their preparedness and conflict against foreign culture in the family aspect;weak support and assistance,single evaluation standard system and pressure of exam-oriented education in the policy aspect.The paper highlights the balance between "integration" education and "pluralistic" culture,the harmony between "top-down" and "bottom-up" and the unity between balanced development of education and gradual promotion in order to promote the development of multicultural education in the frontier minority areas and enhance the educational fairness,national and social harmony,which mainly includes the policies implementation,capital investment and personnel training in the government aspect,a good ecosystem lead by community,participation by family,cooperation with schools in the social aspect,and innovative educational channels with the cultivation of teachers,integration of resources,construction of curriculum in the school aspect.