National Identity Of National Schools And The Construction Of National Identity

This is a case study of the identity construction of Chinese-Korean students in ethnic minority schools. The research methods, which included questionnaires, in-depth interviews and participant observations, were designed to collect data of how Chinese-Korean students consider their ethnic and national identity. This study analyzes the relationship between national identity and ethnic identity of Chinese-Korean students, discusses the roles that ethnic minority school, family and community play in the students'national and ethnic identity construction.The findings suggest that the school plays a vital part in students' national identity construction, characterized as systematic, formal and authoritative. As an institution of the state, the school conveys national ideology, instills a sense of ethnic unity and an understanding of the culture of the Chinese nation inside and outside the classroom. Meanwhile, Chinese-Korean students' ethnic identity are mainly constructed in family and community, characterized as flexible,informal and life-related.However, the processes of. national identity and ethnic identity construction are not separated from each other. Schooling also contributes to Chinese-Korean students'ethnic identity construction; meanwhile family and community help the students to form a strong national identity as well. In general, the culture inheritance in school is the continuation of ethnic identity construction in family and community, and family and community played the role of complement and enhancement to students' national identity.B.F.Williams argued that ethnic identity generated from nation-state building process, and he emphasized that ethnic identity is the product of asymmetric power relations, which made tension and even confrontation continued to exist between.minority ethnic identity and national identity. Based on China's experience, Fei Xiaotong proposed the idea of "Plurality and unity in the configuration of the Chinese people". He argued that besides their ethnic identity, Chinese ethnic minorities also maintain national identity as a higher level of identity. This dissertation reveals that Chinese-Korean students form their national identity at the base of their ethnic identity and the two kinds of identities are adhesive and harmonious, therefore verified Fei's theory of "Plurality and unity in the configuration of the Chinese people".