Teaching and Learning in Tibet: A Review of Research and Policy Publications

by NIAS

Ellen Bangsbo

2004, 160 (x + 150) pp., 4 tables
Paperback, 140 x 215 mm

The issue of schooling and education for Tibetan children in the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) is the focus of increasing national and international attention. Here, special attention has been given to the concept of “quality education”. One should be aware that this concept is understood differently by different groups. Educationalists and NGOs with programmes in Tibet view “quality education” from the international perspective of methodology and pedagogy; here, the aim is to teach children to think independently. In contrast, Chinese authorities promote “quality education” as an antidote to “exam‐oriented education” and as a means to support nationalistic, patriotic and moral education. The challenge is to bridge these two views.

To this end, Teaching and Learning in Tibet provides an unbiased and comprehensive guide to documents and publications on schooling and education in Tibet, dealing with issues relating to “quality education”, teaching and curriculum, bi‐ and trilingual teaching policies, teachers’ education, “key‐schools”, access to schools, and other challenges related to schooling in Tibet.

What others are saying

“… brilliantly informative. . . . Bangsbo has done the fields of Tibetan studies and minority education in China a great service by collecting and summarizing the state of scholarly knowledge about education in Tibet up to 2003. Her work is distinguished . . . by its survey of the entire Tibetan cultural region. . . . This is still the best and quickest way for people interested in the current conditions and future prospects of education in Tibet to learn about the issues through a review of important English‐language materials on the subject. Given the large number of people around the world concerned about Tibetan culture, Bangsbo has performed a valuable service.”—Gray Tuttle, Assistant Professor of Modern Tibetan Studies at Columbia University (China Review International)

Highlights

Reviews literature on education in Tibet.
Focuses on the concept of “quality education”, understood quite differently by NGOs and the Chinese.

About the Author

Ellen Bangsbo is a Danish researcher specialising in India and Tibet. She has worked as a consultant on various development projects and has a particular interest in education.