<http://purl.org/dc/terms/description>
"As a country with 54 ethnic groups, including 53 officially designated \"ethnic\r\nminority groups,\" Vietnam has recognized the importance of enhancing education for ethnic\r\nminorities. However, despite the government's efforts to increase educational opportunities\r\nfor ethnic minority students, the latter often do not have access to the same education as their\r\ncounterparts of the major ethnic group, the Kinh. In this study, the concept of \"imagined\r\ncommunities\" (Anderson 1991) is applied to analyze national governmental policies on\r\nethnic minorities, curricular structure in the Department of Ethnic Minority Cultures at the\r\nHanoi University of Culture, Vietnam, and the perspectives of professors and students in the\r\ndepartment. Three months of field research were conducted in Vietnam, and included: (a) an\r\nanalysis of national and institutional policy documents, (b) observation at the university, and\r\n(c) interviews with professors and ethnic minority students enrolled in the program.\r\nThe findings of this study show that imagined communities envisioned for ethnic\r\nminority students by the government, professors and students themselves are diverse and\r\ncontested. The contestation of imagined communities on higher education for ethnic minority\r\nstudents in Vietnam shows a clear intersection between power and knowledge. Through\r\neducation, the government, with its power, has great influence on educational activities\r\nwhich affect the identities of ethnic minority students. Educational settings, in some sense,\r\nbecome the place of social and cultural reproduction where \"organic\" knowledge of ethnic\r\nminority students is discounted. Finally, this study gives a description of my personal\r\ntransformation after conducting this research. It shows how this research has changed my\r\nown mindset and thinking about ethnic minority cultures in general and higher education for\r\nethnic minority students in Vietnam in particular."@en
<https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/831/items/1.0100440>