This book introduces an ethnographic case study of two English majors of
ethnic minority at YUN, a local university of nationalities in southwest
China. Drawing on the theories of post-structuralism and critical
multiculturalism, this book mainly studies two female multilingual
individuals in Yunnan, China. By scrutinizing university policies,
curriculum, personal learning histories, and by discussing the unequal
power relationship between national policies, school curricula, and
ethnic multilingual learners,this book provides information at a
micro-level on how the two ethnic minority students, who have acquired
three languages (L1-native, L2-Mandarin Chinese, and L3-English),
successfully navigate the Chinese higher education system as
multilingual learners despite various tensions, difficulties, and
challenges. How these students construct their multiple identities as
well as significant factors affecting such identity construction is also
discussed. This book will contribute to the scholarship of policy and
practice in ethnic multilingual education in China by addressing the
challenges for tertiary institutions and ethnic multilingual learners.
The author also points out that multiculturalism as a discourse of
education might help ease the tension of being an ethnic minority and a
Chinese national, and reduce the danger of being assimilated or being
marginalized.