Indigenous Students’ Negotiation of Cultural Differences:
The construction of linguistic identities amongst Amis students in Taiwan
Wen-Ding HUANG
University of Bristol, UK
Paper presented at the British Educational Research Association Annual Conference,
Institute of Education, University of London, 5-8 September 2007
The main purpose of this article is to investigate the Amis students’ construction of
linguistic identities and to review the implementation of the educational principle of
‘dual cultural identities’.
The analysis of the Amis students’ linguistic identification
will be conducted in the light of Cornell and Hartmann’s (1998) constructionist
approach that incorporates both the primordialist approach and the instrumentalist and
circumstantialist approaches and stresses the interaction between individuals and the
environment in identity construction.
Based on the constructionist perspective on
ethnic and ethnocultural identification, the article adopts both the circumstantialist
and the primordialist approaches to analyse the Amis students’s construction of their
linguistic identities. First, as the circumstantialists suggest, the article examines the
sociocultural environment where the Amis students reside by interrogating how
different languages functioned in two case study schools and the communities the two
schools served.
The impact of language function on the Amis students’ linguistic
identification is then explored.
After that, the influential forces from within the
Amis group on the Amis students’ identification with their mother tongue is
scrutinised in terms of the primordialist perspective.
Grounded on the above
analysis, the general picture of the Amis students’ construction of linguistic identities
is portrayed.
This article is concluded by reviewing the implementation of the ‘dual
cultural identity’ educational principle and proposing a critical constructionist
approach to cultural-identity construction.
Key terms: indigenous student, primary schooling, cultural difference, cultural
identity, cultural politics, language education, Taiwan
1
As Mercer puts it, ‘identity only becomes an issue when it is in crisis, when
something assumed to be fixed, coherent and stable is displaced by the experience of
doubt and uncertainty.’ (Mercer, 1990:43) For Taiwan’s indigenous students, the
difference in schooling between Han and their traditional ethnic cultures is one of the
main sources of the experience of doubt and uncertainty.
Their cultural
accommodation to the mainstream Han culture and their negotiation with cultural
differences are hence the issues of great significance.
Since 1996 when the
Commission on Education Reform proposed the guiding principle of ‘dual cultural
identities’, it has become a common phase and principle in Taiwanese educational
discourses pertaining to indigenous students torn between their own and mainstream
Han cultures. Despite the seeming desirability of this principle, there have been
difficulties or even paradoxes when the principle was put into practice. Therefore,
this article will probe deep into the indigenous students’ construction of cultural
identities, and the potential difficulties in their pursuing ‘dual cultural identities’.
Research Background: From Assimilation to ‘Dual Cultural Identities’
Academic studies, based on physical characteristics and cultural traits, generally
subsume Taiwan’s existing indigenous people under the Austronesian ethnolinguistic
group (Bima, 2001; Huang, 2005). They were generally classified into highland
indigenous people and plains indigenous people mainly according to where they
resided and to what extent they are assimilated into Han culture. Today, there are
eleven officially recognised highland indigenous groups including Amis, Atayal,
Truku, Bunun, Paiwan, Puyuma, Rukai, Saisiyat, Tsou, Thao, Tao.
officially recognised plains indigenous group is Kavalan.
The only
The population of the
Amis people is the largest.
Taiwanese indigenous peoples and their cultures have been marginalized for a long
time. This is because they have been subjected to the minority status since the
beginning of the period of European colonialism in 1642. At the present time, they
can be regarded as minority ethnic groups in terms of both population and power
relation.
As far as population is concerned, indigenous peoples as a whole in Taiwan
are the smallest ethnic group who makes up less than two percent of the population.
2
In the political domain, they are dominated by the majority Hans.
Most of them are
in the lower socio-economic status and have difficulty in gaining social mobilisation.
In addition to kinship, the cultural differences between their cultural heritage and that
of Han people in Taiwan are manifested in language, custom, manners, values,
religion, lifestyle, thinking style, and worldview.
Due to the previous assimilationist
policy, their cultural heritage had been marginalised and neglected in schooling.
It
has been widely noticed that indigenous groups are losing their own traditional culture
rapidly (Tan, 2002).
A series of high-profile protests launched by the Alliance of Taiwan Aborigines (ATA)
and other indigenous organisations in the 1980s have promoted public awareness of
the importance of preserving indigenous cultures and promoting indigenous people’s
ethnocultural self-identification.
Many educational programmes and measures
aimed at reviving indigenous cultural heritages were proposed and implemented by a
range of government agencies.
Amongst the efforts of reviving the indigenous
culture, the consultants’ report produced by the Commission on Education Reform
(CER) is of great significance in the sense that it is an important reference document
for educational policy decision makers.
In the Consultants’ Report on Education
Reform IV, the commission advises that the principle of ‘double cultural identities’
should be the common guideline for the educational practices for indigenous students.
It suggests that ‘Education should, on the one hand, help indigenous students to meet
the demands of modern life and explore individual potential. On the other hand,
education should ensure the entitlement for all indigenous students to learn their own
ethnic culture so as to conserve their cultural heritage’ (Commission on Education
Reform, 1996).
Although the principle of ‘dual cultural identities’ had been proposed and become the
common guideline of the education for indigenous students, the indigenous students’
pursuing for ‘dual cultural identities’ is not without difficulties.
In order to reveal
the potential difficulties in indigenous students’ pursuing ‘dual cultural identities’, the
article will focus on the Amis students’ construction of their linguistic identities.
Prior to the investigation of the Amis students’ linguistic identification, the theoretical
insights from various perspectives on ethnic identification will be discussed to
underpin the research’s viewpoint of linguistic identification.
3
Theoretical Insights from Various Perspectives on Ethnic Identification
There has been much debate concerning how a person’s ethnic and ethnocultural
identity is formed.
Amongst various theoretical standpoints proposed by different
researchers, three existing perspectives of ethnic identity are renowned and often
referred to: the primordialism, the instrumentalism and circumstantialism, and the
constructionism.
The primordialist perspective focuses on the intense and internal
aspects of ethnic group solidarity, and the subjective sense of belonging associated
with ethnic group membership.
One of most important sources and starting points of
ethnic solidarity and belongingness is the family ties which lie at the heart of the
concept of ‘primordial’.
According to the proponents of primordialism, it is the
social relationship and cultural practice within our ethnic group that have an ineffable
and coercive power to drive our strong attachment to our ethnic group and to make us
ethnic.
The primordialist perspective can not only contribute to the understanding of
individuals’ identification with their ethnic group, but also provide an important
ground for the explanation of their attachment to and internalisation of their own
cultural heritage.
In the interaction with parents and significant others in the ethnic
community, children internalise their cultural heritage and construct their
ethnocultural identities.
This process also generates an effective sense of attachment
to their ethnic culture.
Language, beliefs, norms, and nonverbal behaviours are
intertwined with intimate personal relationships between relatives and between
community members.
This is how a sense of ethnocultural identity develops, and
people can not simply do away with the initial cultural attachments which they have
developed at a tender age. This also suggests the important role of family and
community in providing an adequate environment for the younger generations to
construct their positive identities with their own ethnic culture.
By way of contrast to the primoridalism, the advocators of instrumentalism maintain
that ethnic identity should be understood as a medium through which individuals are
organized to defend or pursue their interests. In other words, ethnic groups are
interests groups for which ethnic identity serves as an effective strategy.
Following
a similar line, a person’s identity with particular cultural elements, either in-group or
4
out-group, can also be seen as instrumental, and the identified cultural elements are
treated as tools for political, economic, or social advantages.
Based on instrumentalism, the researchers who are coined ‘circumstantialists’ focus
more on the contexts and conditions that lead to the emergence of interests and the
ethnic identities through which these interests are expressed.
Their analyses
concentrate on the circumstances that put ethnic individuals and groups ‘into
particular positions and encourage them to see their interests in particular ways’
(Cornell and Hartmann, 1998: 59). That is, the emphasis is laid upon the specific
social, political, and/or economic conditions that give rise to certain interests, and
thereby shape the expression and saliency of ethnic or ethnocultural identity and the
importance ethnic and ethnocultural identity assumes.
As several researchers (Cornell and Hartmann, 1998; Scott, 1990; Verkuyten, 2005)
suggest, both primordialist and instrumentalist and circumstantialist approaches
should be regarded as complementary rather than contradictory. Hence, there have
been a few attempts to combine the primordialist and the instrumentalist and
circumstantialist approaches to ethnic identity (e.g., Scott, 1990). Amongst these
efforts, Cornell and Hartmann’s (1998) constructionist approach is of significance.
The fundamental essence of the constructionist approach which Cornell and Hartmann
(1998) outline is the statement that ethnic identities form in an interaction between
circumstances and individuals.
On the one hand, the constructionist view on ethnic
identity shares the circumstantialist idea about fluidity that identities change in their
nature and significance across time and situations due to the pursuit and defence of
the interests.
On the other hand, the constructionist perspective retains the key
insight from the primordialism that group members may be bound to one another by
their participation in a common culture. However, it stresses that the primordial ties
are constructed.
It is embodied in the significance human beings attach to them, a
significance that is changeable and contingent.
From the above discussion, it can be
argued that, beyond both primordialist and instrumentalist and circumstantialist
approaches, the constructionist approach highlights the active and creative role played
by ethnic individuals in identity construction.
In what follows, the analysis of the
Amis students’ ethnocultural identification will be based on the constructionist
5
approach in that it provides a comprehensive framework for the analysis of the
construction of ethnocultural identities.
Research Design and Methods
According to the constructionist perspective, case study is adopted as the research
strategy in order to attain the research purposes.
Case study can be a proper strategy
to investigate the interaction between the Amis students and their real-life
environment in schools, families, and communities, and in turn to understand the
Amis students’ formation of ethnocultural identities in depth.
The two selected case
study schools were mainly composed of the primary students of Amis origin.
Both
of them will be presented in the article by pseudonymous Amis names, Panay and
Futing.
The major participants in the research were the 4th to 6th Amis graders in
the studied primary schools.
The data collection was conducted over a period of six
months in the two researched schools and communities. Questionnaires were given
to the Amis students.
Participant observations in the two studied schools and
communities and semi-structured interviews with the school teachers, the Amis
students, their parents, and the community members were also conducted to collect
data.
Meanwhile, research-related school documents and teaching materials were
also collected in the field.
Amis Students’ Construction of Linguistic Identities
As mentioned above, the article adopts Cornell and Hartmann’s (1998) constructionist
approach as the standpoint to investigate how the Amis students constructed their
linguist identities.
Cornell and Hartmann combine the primordialist angle and the
instrumentalist and circumstantialist perspectives, and stress on the interaction
between individuals and their environment.
In what follows, the language functions
revealed in the studied schools and communities will be first examined in that the
analysis of language function in a certain context can reveal the socio-political
condition that, as the circumstantialists suggest, puts the Amis students into particular
positions and encourages them to see their interests in particular ways.
grounded on
the above analysis, this article will explore how the Amis students perceived the
difference of language function between Mandarin and the Amis language and how
6
their perceptions of both language affected their linguistic identification.
Following
that, according to the primordialist perspective, the analysis of the impact from the
Amis students’ families and communities on their linguistic identification will be
conducted.
The Analysis of Language Function
There are three manifest functions of the Amis language and Mandarin identified in
the researched field: language as bridge, language as performative stage, and language
as game for fun. All of them are discussed further below in turn.
Language as Bridge
As Joseph (2004) indicates, there are two primary purposes of language which can be
identified. The first is to represent the world to ourselves in our own minds; in other
words, to learn to categorise things using the words our languages provide us with.
The second purpose of language is to communicate with others as it is impossible for
human beings to live in isolation.
In terms of the first purpose, language can be
regarded as a bridge between ourselves and the outside world.
Through the
representation of the world by language, one can learn the world through other’s
description and explanation, either oral or written, and conduct higher-level and
abstract thinking which are supported by language (Stubbs, 1983).
As far as the
second purpose is concerned, language can be regarded as a bridge between people,
groups, or nations.
1. Language as Bridge for Learning:
The acquisition of Mandarin is so important in
learning activities in schools that it is never overestimated that Mandarin acquisition
is the prerequisite for the academic success.
In the school-based curriculum
formulated by teaching staff in Futing School, the promotion of students’ reading,
writing, and speaking ability of Mandarin was set as the major goal which the
formulated curriculum attempted to achieve. Both schools’ emphasis on Mandarin
learning can be observed from the ratio of weekly learning period of Mandarin.
In
the school-based curriculum structured by Futing School for the fourth, fifth, and
sixth graders, the weekly length of Language Arts consisted of nine learning periods
7
which included seven for Mandarin, one for the Amis language, and one for English.
In the school curriculum formulated by Panay School, the weekly length of Language
Arts contained eleven learning periods including nine or eight for Mandarin, one for
the Amis language, and one or two for English. Within the language curricula
structured by both schools respectively, the teaching length of Mandarin
overwhelmingly outnumbered those of the other two languages.
Mandarin as an
official language is regarded as a bridge which facilitates the Amis students to obtain
modern knowledge, and as a kind of cultural capital which can make profit of learning
more, obtaining higher academic achievement, and gaining upward social mobility.
2. Language as Bridge for Communication:
In terms of communication, the
selection of a language as an interactive medium often depends on the
inter-intelligibility of a language to interlocutors.
In such a multi-ethnic context as
the two case study schools, Mandarin was dominantly adopted by both the Han and
indigenous teachers to communicate with the Amis students, and vice versa, in the
sense that Mandarin as the official language in Taiwan is the common language used
by both indigenous and Han people.
Although Mandarin was the dominant language
adopted in both studied schools, it was relatively less used in both studied villages.
In the multi-ethnic Futing Village1, the Amis language as the mother tongue of Amis
people could be an intelligible communicative medium between people, mainly Amis
people, who can speak the Amis language, whereas it has no communicative function
between individuals, mainly Han people and some of Amis younger generations, who
cannot speak the Amis language. Therefore, in the whole-community public events,
bilingualism was required based on the communicative needs. Dissimilar to the
multi-ethnic Futing Village, the Amis language played a pivotal, though not exclusive,
role in the communication of the public affairs in Panay Village in which Amis people
are the absolute majority.
As the administrative director of the village noted,
although he is of Han origin, it was necessary for him to master the Amis language
since the communication with and coordination between villagers were in the medium
of the Amis language (IV-DVAD-050524).
Language as Performative Stage
1
Futing Village is the multi-ethnic community which Futing School mainly served, and Panay Village
is the Amis community which Panay School served.
8
Language Arts as a significant learning area in schooling consisted of more than one
fourth of the total weekly learning periods. Amongst the three taught languages in
schools, as analysed above, Mandarin had been laid on a special emphasis.
In
Mandarin classes, there were plenty of opportunities for the Amis students to display
their literacy of Mandarin by replying questions posed by teachers, making sentences
containing required words or phrases, reading texts loudly in front of their classmates,
and gaining high scores in tests.
Hence, it is beyond question that Mandarin as a
learning area, is an important performative stage where the Amis students win praises,
and construct their self-concepts and self-confidences.
In addition to the ‘stage’ available in the classrooms, a variety of ‘stages’ for the
usage of Mandarin could also be found in the school rituals and events.
In the
weekly flag-raising rituals, the students of Futing School were required to read loudly
or recite one article in the Mandarin textbooks in front of all students.
The same
activities were also held regularly every week during the period of the flag-raising
ritual in Panay School.
Meanwhile, the annual language competitions containing
Mandarin, mother tongues, and English also provided the Amis students with the
opportunities to display their language talents in both schools studied.
In order to encourage students to practice Mandarin writing skills, both schools
provided students with platforms to publish their articles in which they shared their
reading and daily experiences with the readers.
In Futing School, each class
published at least one monthly student poster to which students could contribute.
These posters were displayed on the notice board in the hallway, and appraised by
students and teachers.
In Panay School, the platform students could communicate
with peers and teachers and post their writings was the school website.
After
reading one book, the students could type down what they thought about the book
they read and send it to the school website where everyone could read their writings
and give feedbacks. Compared to the printed student posters in Futing School, the
digitalised student column had the advantage of facilitating interpersonal
communication between teachers and students, and between students.
9
Language as Game for Fun
Contrast to Mandarin as the dominant language in the above-mentioned functions in
schooling, i.e. language as bridge and language as stage, the function of the Amis
language could be obviously found in the daily school life in both schools was making
fun. For example, the Amis teacher, Lafi2, employed the Amis language to draw the
Amis students’ attention to him by speaking the Amis language in a comical way
(IV-D05-050322). Similarly, the adoption of the Amis language in a funny way by
the Han teacher, Janice, also led to the Amis students’ entertainment
(IV-D09-050425).
In Futing School where there was no Amis-speaking full-time teacher, the participant
Amis students noticed the language difference between them and their Han teachers,
and utilised it as a medium for playing games with the Han teachers. The following
extract from the field notes is the record of the language game the sixth Amis graders
played with me.
I went to the sixth grade classroom to give the students my
questionnaires this morning. When answering the questionnaire, Katal
asked me ‘Do you have a poki [vulva]?’ Having no idea about this
Amis word, I simply asked her what poki means.
She replied to me by
saying ‘watch’ which was a wrong answer to guide me to the wrong
direction. As soon as I gave her a positive answer [which means I am
wearing a watch] according to the meaning of the word she told me, the
whole class burst out laughing. One student asked me with laughs ‘Sir,
you have a vulva?’ (FN-S050317)
The school teachers’ reaction to the Amis students’ language game, though not
always related to sex as showed above, was ignorance without any response
(IV-S01-050419; IV-MTC-S804; IV-MTC-S601).
Their attitude of ignorance partly
implied that they had no interest in the Amis language, or such behaviours should not
be encouraged.
As a matter of fact, the language games played by the Amis students
in Futing School to some extent reflected both the Amis students’ attempt to create
2
The names of participants presented in the article are all pseudonymous ones.
10
‘otherness’ and the ethnic boundary drawn by linguistic difference between the Han
teachers and the Amis students.
Language Functions and Amis Students’ Language Evaluations
The above analysis of functions displayed in the Amis language and Mandarin in the
two researched schools and communities reveals an extreme contrast.
In the
function of language as bridge for learning, Mandarin played a decisive role in the
pursuit for academic success while the Amis language had no function at all.
In
terms of the function of language as bridge for communication, although the Amis
language was widely used among adult Amis villagers in both communities, the place
where the Amis students spent most of their day time during the week days was the
schools in which Mandarin was the dominant language.
Similarly, as far as
language as stage is concerned, it was mandarin which provided the Amis students
with the most opportunities to win applauses and build self-confidences.
By contrast,
rather than the above two important functions, to be more specific, the ladder for
upward social mobility and the avenue towards modernity, prestige and decency, the
function apparently displayed by the Amis language in the schools was the medium of
frolicking language game played either by the school teachers or Amis students.
According to Stewart’s (1968) functional categories, in the Amis students’ daily life,
the functional domains which Mandarin filled in contains official, provincial, wider
communication, capital, group, educational, school subject, literary, and religious
functions, whereas those which the Amis language filled in includes merely group,
school subject, and religious functions. The contrast of language function between
Mandarin and the Amis language simply reflects the following dichotomy:
formal/informal, useful/useless, decent / frolicsome, and modern/traditional (or
progressive / backward). The image of informality, uselessness, frolicsome, and
tradition projecting onto the Amis language to a large extent accounts for Gadi’s
(Panay School) lack of confidence to speak out the Amis language in my interview
with him (IV-B-D507), and the reason, given by Adaw (Panay School), as to why the
Amis language is of no significance for him (IV-L-D505).
By contrast, the representation of Mandarin emerged as formal, useful, decent, and
modern illustrates the Amis students’ positive evaluations of Mandarin.
11
More than
half of the nine interviewed Amis students in both schools confirmed that being able
to speak Mandarin signifies being educated.
Also, most interviewed Amis students
(7 out of 8 in Futing School and 5 out of 6 in Panay School) agreed that Mandarin
acquisition is extensively important.
Most of those who recognised the importance
of acquiring Mandarin agreed that Mandarin is useful for them to find good jobs,
acquire more knowledge, and/or make more friends in the future.
In the Amis students’ eyes, Mandarin as a major communicative medium in the
Taiwanese mainstream society is the necessary means for attaining higher academic
achievement and, in turn, obtaining desired social and economic status.
This can be
partly manifested by the fact that many Amis students spoke only Mandarin in daily
life.
This echoes to Ogbu (1995a; 1995b) and Ogbu and Simons’s (1998) research
finding that voluntary Chinese immigrants tended to instrumentally look at speaking
English as a route to future employment and upward social mobility.
The Primordial Ties and Amis Students’ Identification with Mother Tongue
Nevertheless, to say that the Amis students highly recognised the importance of
Mandarin acquisition does not mean that they did not identify with their mother
tongue. This will be discussed more in the following analysis of the influence from
the primordial tie.
As mentioned above, the primordialist perspective focuses on the
role of the primordial bond between members of ethnic group in the construction of
ethnocultural identities, and the subjective sense of belonging associated with racial or
ethnic group membership and related culture.
The fact that some Amis students had
a strong emotional attachment to their mother tongue can be understood as the
influence of the primordial tie.
It is through the intimate interaction with their
family and group members that the Amis students developed a sense of belonging to
their ethnic group.
And the very medium the members of their group have adopted
for long to communicate with each other was their mother tongue.
In the process,
the link between the Amis language and the intimate in-group relationship has been
strengthened.
As a mother-tongue teacher spoke to the students in the
mother-tongue speech competition in Futing School, ‘The Amis language is our own
mother, and it is untradable property’ (FN-S050505). The word ‘mother’ within the
12
term ‘mother tongue’ implies the intimacy of mother tongue with its associated ethnic
members. This is the reason why Owai (Futing School) indicated that he felt more
intimate with the Amis language than Mandarin and English (IV-L-S601).
The influence of primordial tie on the Amis students’ identification with their mother
tongue can also be observed in the connection between their fondness of learning
mother tongue and their need for communication with their family members.
The
Amis language provided Amis children and their family members with a channel to
communicate with each other and build an interactive and meaningful community.
All of the five interviewees in Futing School who were fond of learning the Amis
language admitted that the communication with their family members was one of the
main reasons why they liked to learn the Amis language, so did the four interviewees
in Panay School who liked to learn the Amis language. The need for communication
with their family members was also the reason why all the four interviewees in Panay
School recognised the importance of mother-tongue acquisition.
Meanwhile, most
of them emphasised the importance of transmitting their mother tongue from
generation to generation.
Hence, the influence of the primordial tie on their
linguistic identities can be obviously found in the above analysis.
The bond of ethnic primordial ties was so strong that many Amis students felt
obligated to pass on their mother tongue to their posterity. Among the thirteen
interviewed Amis students in both schools, all of them agreed that the Amis language
should be transmitted from generation to generation, except for Kolas in Panay
School who regarded the Amis language as out of date.
In addition to as a communicative instrument between group members, the Amis
language as an important ethnocultural element also symbolises one’s Amis
membership especially in a multiethnic context where the ethnic difference is salient.
The following excerpt exposes the association of ethnic membership and ethnic
language.
WH: So you think it is important to acquire the Amis language?
Namp: Very important
WH: Is it because it is useful in the future daily life?
13
Namp: No
WH: Or because for the communication with your parents and
grandparents?
Namp: No
WH: If not, what’s the reason?
Namp: It [the Amis language] is our custom! Because we are the
children of the Amis group, we have to learn it. (IV-L-S404)
According to the above excerpt, the reason why Namp thought that acquiring her
mother tongue is of significant importance is not because of the utility of her mother
tongue, rather because she belonged to the Amis group where the Amis language has
been adopted for a long time.
The tie between her, her group, and her mother tongue
was so strong that she regarded mother-tongue acquisition as an utterly imperative for
Amis members.
The Portrayal of Amis Students’ Linguistic Identification
According to the above analysis of the Amis students’ construction of linguistic
identities, what can be seen is that the portrayal of Amis students’ linguistic identities
appears to be a mixed, dynamic, and heterogeneous picture.
Underlying their
construction of linguistic identities were two competitive forces.
realistic pragmatism.
One was the
The other was the family and ethnic primordial tie.
The
strategy whereby the Amis students negotiated with the two forces seems to be
emotionally and morally identifying with their mother tongue while cognitively
recognising the practical utility of Mandarin and widely adopting Mandarin in daily
life.
The Amis students’ linguistic identities had been constructed within the
interaction between them and the two competitive forces.
Conclusion: Toward a Critical Constructionist Perspective
The Amis students’ linguistic identification has been analysed from both the
standpoint of primordialism and the perspectives of instrumentalism and
circumstanialism.
As the above portrayal, the Amis students’ linguistic identity can
14
be regarded as a heterogeneous mixture.
However, can this heterogeneous mixture
be regarded as desirable ‘dual cultural identities’ proposed as the educational
principle for indigenous students?
To put it differently, can it be simply declared
that the principle has been fully implemented regardless of the loss of their mother
tongue?
If the above mixed identity is exactly the desirable ‘dual cultural identities’,
can we do justice to their strong will (including their parents and grandparents) to
transmit their mother tongue from generation to generation?
If it is not the case,
what kind of ‘dual cultural identities’ is desirable for these Amis students and other
indigenous people?
All these questions raised by the vagueness of ‘dual cultural
identities’ would recur throughout the implementation of the principle.
Although
unpacking these conundrums is beyond the capacity of the article, they are worthy of
being thought of by all the educational practitioners who work with indigenous
students.
Grounded on the above analysis of the Amis students’ linguistic identification, it can
not be difficult to conclude that neither the primordialist perspective nor the
instrumentalist and circumstantialist standpoints can provide a complete theoretical
framework to understand the Amis students’ formation of linguistic identities.
Throughout the above analysis, there are two magnificent forces influencing the Amis
students’ linguistic identification: the instrumental pragmatism (which is the focus of
the instrumentalist approach) and the ethnic and family primordial ties (which is the
stressed point by primordialist supporters). Both forces play a part in the formation
of the Amis students’ linguistic identities through the interaction between them and
the ethnocultural environment surrounding them.
Hence, the understanding of
cultural identification should be grounded on a comprehensive approach as
constructionists have proposed.
However, as far as the studies that investigate into minority ethnic members’ cultural
identification are concerned, it is not enough to merely understand minority students’
cultural identification.
What is also imperative is to critically interrogate the
socio-cultural environment surrounding minority students in terms of cultural politics.
To put it more specifically, in reviewing cultural practice, the researchers should
always be aware of how minority culture are conducted, valued, and represented.
To
take the above analysis of language function as an example, although the Amis
15
language had been taught in the two studied schools, what was selected to be
emphasised in the school curriculum and dominantly used in daily communications
was Mandarin, rather than the Amis language.
As Phillipson (1992) indicates in his
analysis of arguments used to promote English, and in relation to the Taiwanese
context, Mandarin as the only official language owns the structural power, and hence
is stressed in schooling.
At the core of the selection of Mandarin as the only official
and formal language is the issue of power.
Through the contrast of language
function between Mandarin and the Amis language, the Amis language was
represented as informal, useless, playful, traditional and backward in schooling.
The
negative image of the Amis language can to a significant extent do harm in the Amis
students’ constructing positive identities with their mother tongue and, in turn, their
pursuing ‘dual cultural identities’.
Hence, a critical investigation into the
construction of cultural identities is imperative, and that investigation should never
neglect the analysis of power behind cultural practices.
Only through the trinity of
cultural identification, cultural practice, and power can a critical analysis of identity
construction be achieved.
Acknowledgement
I would like to express my gratitude to those who participated in my research.
Meanwhile, I would like to acknowledge the academic guidance from my advisor,
Professor Leon Paul Tikly.
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