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Ethnicity, temporality and educational mobilities: Comparing the ethnic identity constructions of Mongolian and Tibetan students in China

Abstract

This paper explores the impact of educational mobilities on the ethnic identity construction of minority students in China. Adopting ‘temporality’ as an analytical tool, this paper highlights the dynamic temporal multiplicity in ethnic identity construction by comparing longitudinal in-depth interviews of a Mongolian and a Tibetan student. This multiplicity of temporality is manifested in three aspects: temporality of ethnic othering, temporality of ethnic identity awakening, and temporality of ‘worldly time’ and ‘ethnic time. The ‘worldly time’ and the ‘ethnic time’ entail distinctive understandings about these students’ pace and priorities in life. Both students defer their ‘permanent’ ethnic identity to an imagined future. Yet, adopting the gaze of the dominant others, both students subconsciously constructed an essentialist view of their ethnic cultures as fixed and stable and those of the dominant cultures as alive and fluid. This paper enriches our understanding of the politics of subjectivation through the lens of ‘temporality’.

Acceptance Date Dec 3, 2018
Publication Date Jul 4, 2019
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal British Journal of Sociology of Education
Print ISSN 0142-5692
Publisher Routledge
Pages 631-646
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2019.1576121
Keywords mobility, ethnicity, temporality, Tibetan, Mongolian, China
Publisher URL https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2019.1576121

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