The (im)possibilities of becoming: Hmong youth and the politics of schooling and *development in Thailand
Author(s):
Johnson, Tracy Pilar
Format:
Thesis
Degree granted:
Ph.D.
Publisher:
Ann Arbor : Columbia University, 2005.
Pages:
347
Language:
English
Abstract:
This study examines the varied and multiple conceptions of history, ethnicity and culture embedded in three curricula available to a Thai public school operating in a Hmong village: the Thai national curriculum; a Hmong “local” or “indigenous” curriculum, the laksut thongthin recently developed by the Hill Tribe Development Organization (HTDF); and a version of the laksut thongthin taught by one particular Hmong villager. Each of these curricula, in their varied ways, attempted to articulate a particular sense of “Hmongness”, as well as a particular sense of “Thainess”. In turn, these identifications are embedded in discourses of what it means to be modern and civilized in Thailand today and are productive of specific cultural practices. In this way these curricula attempted to structure how Hmong youth use the identifications proposed to them within the setting of the Ban Rongrian school as they negotiate varied understandings of their current and future place in Thai society. I also draw on various symbolic statements to demonstrate the different ways in which Hmong and Thai identifications were constructed and manipulated by four groups of stakeholders: the HTDF, the Thai teachers of Ban Rongrian, the Hmong residents of Ban Rongrian, and their youth. I analyze these statements in relation to the various discourses of ethnicity and cultural identification, and the language ideologies that are entwined with these discourses, that each group draws upon in their efforts to articulate Hmong and Thai identifications. I argue that each group's attempt to represent particular views of “Hmongness” and “Thainess” demonstrate the extent to which people do not “have” particular histories, cultures or identities. Rather individuals and groups construct their cultural forms and their identities within and against the politics of cultural representation during the current era of globalization and the attendant restructuring of such notions such as the “local” and the “global.”