The school-based multicultural education curriculum in China: a case study of two Yugur middle schools

Abstract

ABSTRACT In China, the school-based multicultural curriculum development in ethnic minority-concentrated areas has long been disregarded or marginalised. Drawing on case studies in two Yugur-dominant schools in Gansu Province, China, this qualitative study explored how a school-based multicultural curriculum was developed and implemented within the framework of duoyuan yiti geju (a framework of diversity within unity), proposed by Fei Xiaotong and recently metaphorized as pomegranate seeds. Collected data evince the importance of the policy initiation, the local elites’ agentic commitment as well as the support of school administrators, practitioners, and minority communities for initiating and enacting the school-based curriculum. The findings also unravel various structural/institutional barriers, such as the dominance of the national curriculum, the lack of bilingual teachers, and the need for the sustainability of the Yugur language and culture to develop school-based multicultural curricula.