Hybridity and Tibetan language education policies in Sichuan

Abstract

This paper presents the Sichuan case study: Badi Primary School, a semi-agro-pastoral town primary school in Danba County of Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province. Section 1 introduces the context of the town and the school. This is done by analyzing discourses of education policy in the town and the school. Through this analysis I contextualize the hybridity and Tibetan language in Sichuan which is the subject of this study. This section is used as a basis for hybridity policy enactment processes of Tibetan language education policy actors – agendas – actions – artifacts, which is detailed presented in Section 2. Interaction of hybridity in discourses and discursive strategies in this school community is discussed in the final section. Focusing on the concern relating to Hybridity and Tibetan language in Sichuan, Sichuan’s Tibetan language education as research site, and discourse theory as analytical tool I also consider the language education policy trajectory over the last 20 years of economic and social change in Sichuan, including the impact of neo-liberalism and marketization on education policy for Tibetans.