Mother tongue-based education in Hmong ethnic schools in Phu Chi Fah area

Abstract

This dissertation examines the influence of the mother tongue-based multilingual education (MTB-MLE) on having transnational ethnicity of the Hmong people, who are ethnic minorities in the area of Phu Chi Fah in northern Thailand. This dissertation’s comparative studies between international and Thai-based research on MTB-MLE contribute to developing educational, and ethnic and national knowledge systems. The intersection between the preferences for MTB-MLE and the choices between Romanized Popular Alphabets (RPA) and Thai scripts between the Lao-Hmong (or Hmong-Lao) and Thai-Hmong (or Hmong-Thai) contributes to understanding the reason for emerging transnational ethnicity in the area. In particular, the studies for the diverse objectives based on the MTB-MLE project among the stakeholders contribute most to developing systems for underdeveloped education and identity issues surrounding the ethnic minority groups in Thailand. Overall, the MTB-MLE and language conservation are consistent except for their correlation with the implementation of policies of assimilation that serve as a means to the political goal of national unification. I also found that the value orientation for the choice of their language writing system between the Lao-Hmong and Thai-Hmong in Huai Khu is different. Yet, the remaining Hmong from the surrounding areas do not concern themselves whether RPA or Thai scripts are used for Hmong writing. They try to be assimilated and accepted by the mainstream of Thai. This fact shows that the Lao-Hmong’s tendency for having a transnational ethnicity is stronger than the Thai-Hmong (or Hmong-Thai). It also proves that the Lao-Hmong’s interest in MTB-MLE is also different from the Hmong-Thai, whose identity is closer to Thai or those who want to be in the process of Thai-ization in education. It will be important for future studies to consider the historical factors experienced by the Lao-Hmong and the Thai-Hmong and the geographical factors in which the peoples are distributed worldwide. In particular, this research suggests that having multilinguality and plural culturalism as a transnational ethnicity is the environmental and historical product of the Hmong. Having a transnational ethnicity will be a way for them to survive and prosper in this era of globalization and regionalism. These results also provide evidence that the traditional values of the Hmong tribe are changing (Vang, 2010, and Leepreecha and Meixi, 2018). This dissertation has yielded five major findings: (1) MTB-MLE can act as a significant source of constructing the transnational ethnicity, which is the main focus of this study. (2) Maintaining the Romanized Popular Alphabet (RPA) script for the Hmong language writing is the key to forming and practicing the transnational Hmong ethnicity. (3) Social attributes of the languages practiced in MTB-MLE are the critical resources of forming transnational ethnicity. (4) Using RPA assures the maintenance of one of the most important cultural values of the Hmong: ‘appreciating and respecting the elders and engaging together.’ Other traditional values include language, playing the bamboo flute, costumes, and rituals and festivals. (5) The objectives of the Hmong’s negotiation with the Thai government are to maintain the MTB-MLE project and let the Hmong children continue to use their language ‘Hmong’ at school and write their mother tongue in RPA. Connecting with other Hmong communities and people scattered all over the world is to avoid failing to keep one of their most important cultural values. That is why the people, even if it means losing the opportunities of gaining economic and educational benefits provided by the government of Thailand through the national education system, endure and want to keep their mother tongue with the Romanized Hmong writing system. The impact of this dissertation lies in the significant theoretical contribution as (1) the complementarity of in the studies of mother tongue-based multilingual education analysis as a methodological contribution. (2) the complementarity of assimilation/integration and multilingual education interaction as a double analytic lens in ontological contribution. (3) the epistemological consideration especially in the studies pertaining to transnational ethnicity constructivism. I found evidence of transnational ethnicity and power negotiation phenomena as consequences of the Hmong’s Phu Chi Fah area’s MTB-MLE. I tried to reconstruct ethnic language orthography-related issues, and grounded reflection, opposition, and negotiation on education discourse in the Phu Chi Fah Area. In conclusion, this thesis argues that the transnational Hmong entails the essential of ethnic identities and power negotiation for the implementation of MTB-MLE in local schools. This study opens a new discussion on mother tongue-based multilingual education in the context of transnational ethnicity, which can be a powerful source of negotiation to maintain the MTB-MLE project for culture and mother tongue preservation among the Hmong in the Phu Chi Fah area.