Education and Hmong culture change: A study of two Hmong villages in northern Thailand
Author(s):
Chuamsakul, Songwit
Format:
Thesis
Degree granted:
Ph.D.
Publisher:
Ann Arbor : Trent University (Canada), 2006.
Pages:
365
Language:
English
Abstract:
Besides providing knowledge including science, technology, social science, and the arts, education is the most powerful tool for socializing, integrating, and assimilating children. Educators aim to instill and shape all aspects of human culture and identity. Modern Thai education, which began in the 1960s, has been provided to integrate the Hmong, an ethnic minority, into the Thai majority society. The Thai education has had both positive and negative effects upon Hmong culture and identity. Issues such as kinship, beliefs, spiritual ritual ceremonies, language, and traditional clothing have all been effected and changed by the formal education system. For example, many of the Hmong have changed their clan names and taken Thai last names in order to assimilate. Many of them have converted to Buddhism and some of them have converted to Christianity. Young Hmong prefer to speak Thai rather than Hmong. Fewer Hmong wear Hmong traditional clothing and Hmong occupations have changed from the subsistence swidden agricultural system to the raising of marketable fruits, such as, lychee and mango fruits. Many of them now participate in trading goods. On the one hand these changes have marked the success of the process of the integration of Hmong into the mainstream society. On the other hand, the diminishment of Hmong culture and identity are obvious. Hmong social cohesion has lessened and as a result alcohol consumption, criminal acts, and orphaned children in the Hmong communities have increased dramatically. However, the culture has remained strong in some respects as Hmong develop adaptive strategies to cope with their integration into Thai culture. In the two villages studied in this thesis there are clear differences. Sky Village, is a tourist village close to a large city, and accessible with respect to communications. The Hmong in this village have more opportunities to choose and participate in educating their children both in and outside of the village. While Water Village is a remote village which is not accessible with respect to communication. In this village Hmong have fewer opportunities to choose and participate in educating their children. However, in my study I found that in both of these villages students in the two minority mountain schools have shown no difference in academic standing. It is my conclusion that in order to protect and retain Hmong culture and identity, multicultural education should be one of the alternative approaches in the efforts to provide Thai formal education in Hmong schools.