Nation-building in Exile: Teachers’ Perceptions on the Goals of Teaching History in the Tibetan Refugee Schools

Abstract

ABSTRACT History teaching is often seen as essential to the project of nation-building and construction of national identity. Despite the rise of disciplinary approach, national master narratives and nationalist history teaching remain predominant in many countries. While most of the extant research were done on large nation-states, this study is focused on a refugee community. By employing qualitative thematic analysis of interviews conducted with fifteen teachers, it investigates Tibetan teachers’ perceptions on the goals of teaching social studies and history in the Tibetan refugee schools in India. It argues that, for Tibetan refugees, who are engaged in a nationalist struggle for freedom and whose identity is threatened by displacement, history is perceived as pivotal to the construction of their ethno-national identity and the nationalist struggle.