Cultural Explanations for Academic Underachievement of Ethnic Minority Students at Secondary Level in Vietnam

Authors

  • Tien Ngoc Tran Hoa Sen University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14738/assrj.411.3251

Keywords:

Cultural explanations, Educational underachievement, Ethnic minority students

Abstract

Ethnic minorities in Vietnam face more disadvantages in accessing infrastructure, financial services, healthcare, and modern technology. In education, their children also have lower educational achievements as well as higher dropout and class repeating rates in comparison with their majority peers. This paper explores the reasons for educational underachievement of ethnic minority students at the secondary level in Lam Dong Province, Vietnam, through an investigation of factors related to the cultural aspects including cultural values, norms, beliefs, and practices towards education. It, furthermore, looks for the explanations of the gaps between the educational achievement of ethnic minority and majority children. The study was conducted in Lam Dong Province, Vietnam, through qualitative approaches with in-depth interviews, discussions observations and informal dialogues in 2010. Additional fieldwork was done in 2015 to provide a more comprehensive understanding and a fuller description of the issue. The findings show that ethnic minority students do not have sufficiently conducive conditions for high educational performance. They undergo the misconceptions and stereotyping from their majority peers for their physical and cultural differences. Furthermore, students do not have positive attitudes towards their learning and lack educational purposes. They hardly believe that education can be of any value or relevant to their future success. Ethnic minority students also lack sufficient encouragement from their parents and are encouraged to drop out of school to help their families in farming or to get married early. The findings confirm that cultural factors do have some impacts on the academic achievement of ethnic minority students.

Author Biography

Tien Ngoc Tran, Hoa Sen University

My name is Tran Ngoc Tien, a lecturer at Hoa Sen University, in Vietnam. I am currently working at the Faculty of language and Cultural Studies. I did my undergraduate in Vietnam and then I went to Japan for my master and doctoral studies in the field of Asia Pacific Studies. I am interested in researching in education, ethnicity, learning and working motivation.

References

Bernard, R. H. (2006). Research methods in anthropology: qualitative and quantitative approaches. New York: AltaMira Press.

Bourdieu, Pierre and Jean-Claude Passeron. (1990). Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture. London: Sage.

Buchmann, C., & Hannum, E. (2001). Education and stratification in developing countries: A review of theories and research. Annual review of sociology, 77-102.

Chavous, T. M., Bernat, D.H., Schmeelk-Cone, K., Caldwell, C.H., Kohn-Wood, L. & Zimmerman, M.A. (2003). Racial identity and academic attainment among African American adolescents. Child Development, 74(4), 1076-1090.

Coenders, M. & Scheepers, P. (2003). The effect of education on nationalism and ethnic exclusionism: An international comparison. Political Psychology, 24(2), 313-343.

Eldering, L. (1997). Ethnic minority students in the Netherlands from a cultural-ecological perspective. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 28(3), 330-350.

Gibson, M. A. (1984). Approaches to multicultural education in the United States: Some concepts and assumptions. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 15(1), 94-119.

Gibson, M. A. (1991). Minorities and schooling: Some implications. In M. A. Gibson and J. Ogbu eds. Minority status and schooling: A comparative study of immigrant and involuntary minorities. New York: Garland Publishing.

Heller, M. (1994). Crosswords: Language, education and ethnicity in French Ontario. Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter.

Hello, E., Scheepers, P., & Vermulst, A. (2004). Association between educational attainment and ethnic distance in young adults: Socialization by schools or parents? Acta Sociologica, 47(3), 253-275.

Hirschman, C. & Lee, J. (2005). Race and ethnic inequality in educational attainment in the United States. In Rutter, M. & Tienda, M., Ethnicity and causalmechanisms (pp. 107-138). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Imai, K., & Gaiha, R. (2007). Poverty, inequality and ethnic minorities in Vietnam. Manchester: Brooks World Poverty Institute.

Jæger, M. M. (2011). Does cultural capital really affect academic achievement? New evidence from combined sibling and panel data. Sociology of Education, 84 (4), 281-298.

Jamieson, N. L., Cuc, L. T. & Rambo, A. T. (1998). The development crisis in Vietnam’s mountains. Honolulu: East-West Center.

Kim, R. Y. (2002). Ethnic differences in academic achievement between Vietnamese and Cambodian children: Cultural and structural explanations. The Sociological Quarterly, 43(2), 213-235.

Mirowsky, J. & Ross, C.E. (2003). Education, social status, and health. New York: Aldine De Gruyter.

Ngo, B., & Lee, S. J. (2007). Complicating the image of model minority success: A review of southeast Asian American education. Review of Educational Research, 77, 415-453.

Ogbu, J. U. (2004). Collective identity and the burden of “acting White” in Black history, community, and education. The Urban Review, 36(1), 1-35.

Ogbu, J. U. (2008). The history and status of a theoretical debate. In Ogbu, U., Minority status, oppositional culture, and schooling (pp. 3-28). New York and London: Routledge.

Patton, Q. M. (2002). Qualitative research and evaluation methods. California: Sage Publications.

Pham Ngoc Chien. (2005). Koho ethnic minority in Lam Dong: Anthropological study of ethnicity and culture (Nguoi Koho o Lam Dong: Nghien cuu nhan hoc ve dan toc va van hoa). Ho Chi Minh City: Youth Publisher.

Rong, X. L., & Brown, F. (2007). Educational attainment of immigrant and non-immigrant young Blacks. In Paik, J.S. & Walberg, J.H. (Ed.), Narrowing the achievement gap: Strategies for educating Latino, Black, and Asian students (pp. 91-107). New York: Springer.

Rury, L. (2005). Education and social change: themes in the history of American schooling. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Salemink, O. (2003). Enclosing the highlands: Socialist, capitalist and protestant conversions of Vietnam’s central highlanders. Amsterdam: Vrjie University.

The World Bank. (2009). Country social analysis: Ethnicity and development in Vietnam. Washington, DC: World Bank.

Tomlinson, S. (1991). Ethnicity and educational attainment in England: An overview. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 22(2), 121-139.

UNICEF Vietnam, MOET of Vietnam, & UNESCO Vietnam. (2008). The transition of ethnic minority girls from primary to secondary education. Hanoi: UNICEF Vietnam, MOET of Vietnam, UNESCO Vietnam.

Van de Walle, D., & Gunewardena, D. (2001). Sources of ethnic inequality in Viet Nam. Journal of Development Economics, 65(1), 177-207.

Wiggan, G. (2007). Race, school achievement, and educational inequality: Toward a student-based inquiry perspective. Review of Educational Research, 77(3), 310-333.

Downloads

Published

2017-06-12

How to Cite

Tran, T. N. (2017). Cultural Explanations for Academic Underachievement of Ethnic Minority Students at Secondary Level in Vietnam. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 4(11). https://doi.org/10.14738/assrj.411.3251