Asian Migrants and Education

EDUCATION IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION: ISSUES, CONCERNS AND PROSPECTS

Volume 2

Series Editors-in-Chief:

Dr. Rupert Maclean, UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centrefor Education, Bonn; and Ryo Watanabe, National Institutefor Educational Policy Research (NIER) of Japan, Tokyo

Editorial Board

Robyn Baker, New Zealand Councilfor Educational Research, Wellington, New Zealand Dr. Boediono, National Office for Research and Development, Ministry of National Education,

Indonesia Professor Yin Cheong Cheng, The Hong Kong Institute of Education, China Dr. Wendy Duncan, Asian Development Bank, Manila, Philippines Professor John Keeves, Flinders University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia Dr. Zhou Mansheng, National Centre for Educational Development Research, Ministry of

Education, Beijing, China Professor Colin Power, Graduate School of Education, University of Queensland, Brisbane,

Australia Professor J. S. Rajput, National Council of Educational Research and Training, New Delhi,

India Professor Konai Helu Thaman, University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji

Advisory Board

Professor Mark Bray, Comparative Education Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong, China; Dr. Agnes Chang, National Institute of Education, Singapore; Dr. Nguyen Huu Chau, National Institute for Educational Sciences, Vietnam; Professor John Fien, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia; Professor Leticia Ho, University of the Philippines, Manila; Dr. Inoira Li­lamaniu Ginige, National Institute of Education, Sri Lanka; Professor Phillip Hughes, ANU Centre for UNESCO, Canberra, Australia; Dr. Inayatullah, Pakistan Association for Continuing andAdult Education, Karachi; Dr. Rung Kaewdang, Office of the National Education Commis­sion, Bangkok. Thailand; Dr. Chong-Jae Lee, Korean Educational Development Institute, Seoul; Dr. Molly Lee, School of Educational Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang; Mausooma Jaleel, Maldives College of Higher Education, Male; Professor Geoff Masters, Australian Council for Educational Research, Melbourne; Dr. Victor Ordonez, Senior Education Fellow, East-West Center, Honolulu; Dr. Khamphay Sisavanh, National Research Institute of Educa­tional Sciences, Ministry of Education, Lao PDR; Dr. Max Walsh, AUSAid Basic Education Assistance Project, Mindanao, Philippines.

Asian Migrants and Education The Tensions of Education in Immigrant Societies

and among Migrant Groups

Edited by

MICHAEL W. CHARNEY SchooL of OrientaL and African Studies,

University of London

BRENDA S.A. YEOH NationaL University of Singapore

and

TONG CHEE KIONG NationaL University of Singapore

SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.

A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

ISBN 978-90-481-6302-1 ISBN 978-94-017-0117-4 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-0117-4

Printed on acid-free paper

AII Rights Reserved © 2003 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 2003 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1 st edition 2003

No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording

or otherwise, without written permis sion from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose ofbeing entered

and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.

SERIES SCOPE

The purpose of this Book Series is to meet the needs of those interested in an i'n-depth analysis of current developments in education and schooling in the vast and diverse Asia­Pacific Region. The Series will be invaluable for educational researchers, policy makers and practitioners, who want to better understand the major issues, concerns and prospects regarding educational developments in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Series complements the Handbook of Educational Research in the Asia-Pacific Region, with the elaboration of specific topics, themes and case studies in greater breadth and depth than is possible in the Handbook.

Topics to be covered in the Series include: secondary education reform; reorientation of primary education to achieve education for all; re-engineering education for change; the arts in education; evaluation and assessment; the moral curriculum and values education; technical and vocational education for the world of work; teachers and teaching in society; organisation and management of education; education in rural and remote areas; and, education of the disadvantaged.

Although specifically focusing on major educational innovations for development in the Asia-Pacific region, the Series is directed at an international audience.

The Series Education in the ASia-Pacific Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects, and the Handbook of Educational Research in the Asia-Pacific Region, are both publications of the Asia-Pacific Educational Research Association.

Those interested in obtaining more information about the Series, or who wish to explore the possibility of contributing a manuscript, should (in the first instance) contact the publishers.

* * *

CONTENTS

List of Figures IX

List of Tables X

Acknowledgements xi

Introduction by the Series Editors Xlll

Introduction. Michael W. Charney, Brenda S. A. Yeoh, and Tong Chee Kiong XVll

Chapter 1. Wang. Gungwu "Social Bonding and Freedom: Problems of Choice in Immigrant Societies"

Chapter 2. Anthony Reid. "Globalization, Asian Diasporas, and the Study of Asia in the West" 15

Chapter 3. Robbie B. H. Goh. "The Mission School in Singapore: Colonialism, Moral Training, Pedagogy, and the Creation of Modernity" 27

Chapter 4. S. Gopinathan & V. Saravanan. "Education and Identity Issues in the Internet Age: The Case ofthe Indians in Singapore" 39

Chapter 5. Hong Liu. "Interactions Between Huiguan and Education in Postwar Singapore" 53

Chapter 6. Elwyn Thomas. "The Case for a Culture-sensitive Education: Building Cultural Bridges Between Traditional and Global Perspectives" 65

Chapter 7. Pang Yew Huat. "Immigrant Societies and Environmental Education: Revisiting Forgotten Lessons in Holistic and Traditional Wisdom" 83

Chapter 8. Jennifer Wang. "Health Education of Hmong Refugees in Sydney" 93

Chapter 9. Karen Leigh Harris. "Confucian Education: A Case Study of the South African Chinese" 105

Vll

Chapter 10. Tan Liok Ee. "A Century of Change: Education in the Lives of Four Generations of Chinese Women in Malaysia 115

Chapter 11. Christine Inglis. "Contemporary Educational Issues in Multicultural Societies" 133

Chapter 12. Robyn Iredale. "International Approaches to Valuing the Professional Skills of Permanent and Temporary Migrants" 149

Chapter 13. Johanna L. Waters. "Satellite Kids in Vancouver: Transnational Migration, Education and the Experience of Lone-children" 165

Chapter 14. Ravindra Jain. "Indian Diaspora and the Prospect of Open Learning: A Perspective on Modem Social Science Education from India" 185

Contributors 193

References 197

V111

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 6.1. A Pedagogical Components Model 71

Figure 6.2. A Pedagogical Components Model with Main Influencing Factors 72

Figure 7.1. Integrated Model for Environmental Learning 85

Figure 7.2. The Role of Formative Influences in Environmental Learning 88

IX

LIST OF TABLES

Table 5.1 The Rebuilding of Huiguan Schools 56

Table 5.2 Newly Established Huiguan Schools, 1945-54 57

Table 5.3 The Native Place of Tao Nan Schoolteachers 60

Table 5.4 Native Place ofTuan Moung Schoolteachers 61

Table 5.5 Native Place of Tao Nan School Students 62

Table 5.6 Native-Place ofTuan Moung School students (1958) 62

Table 5.7 Native-Place ofKhee Fatt School Students (1958) 62

Table 5.8 Sex Ratio ofKhee Fatt School Students 63

Table 5.9 Professions ofTuan Moung School Students' Families (1958) 63

Table 7.1. Three Views of Environmental Education 86

Table 10.1. Occupational Distribution by Gender, 1993 129

Table 12.1. Inflows of Temporary Skilled Workers, 1992, 1996, and 1997 (OOOand%) 163

Table 12.2 Recruitment and Residence Criteria for Temporary Foreign Highly-skilled Workers 164

Table 14.1 Diasporic Matrix 187

Table 14.2 Program Structure 191

x

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This volume is a result of the international conference, "Immigrant Societies and Modem Education," held in Singapore 31 August-3 September 2000. This conference was jointly organized by the Tan Kah Kee International Society and the Faculty of Arts and Social Science of the National University of Singapore. Over the course of 1999-2000, the preparations for the conference involved close collaboration and interaction between the Society and F ASS. The success of the conference is thus due in large part to the commitment, organizational skills, and vision of those with whom we served on the organizing committees for the ISME conference: Prof. Wang Gungwu (Chairman of the Tan Kah Kee International Society and Professor, East Asian Institute), Mr. Tan Keong Choon, Dr. Tong Ming Chuan, Dr. Phua Kok Khoo, Prof. Hew Choy Sin, Prof. Goh Thong Ngee, Prof. Lim Hock, Prof. Hew Choy Sin, Associate Prof. Lee Fook Hong, Dr. Low Hwee Boon, Associate Prof. Chen Kang, Associate Prof. Hui Weng Tat, Associate Prof. Lee Guan Kin, Associate Prof. Lee Cheuk Yin, Dr. Low Hwee Boon, Prof. Ong Choon Nam, Prof. Shang Huai Min, Mr. Han Suan Juan, Miss Tan Kuan Swee, Miss Cher Meng Chu, Miss Joelle Cheng, and Miss Kathleen Melissa Ke.

The editors of this volume also wish to thank the individuals whose assistance was necessary, after the dust had settled from the conference, for the compilation of this volume. Miss Ke and Mr. George Wong served as contact persons and organizers of incoming materials. Miss Lynsey Lee Yoke Cum compiled the reference list for this volume. The staff of the former Centre for Advanced Studies also provided various essential services during both the conference and in the year that followed. Ultimately, the editors would like to thank the authors of the articles themselves for putting up with the various demands that we, as editors, placed upon them and for sticking with us to the completion ofthis volume.

Michael W. Charney Brenda S. A. Yeoh Tong Chee Kiong

July 15,2002

Xl

INTRODUCTION BY THE SERIES EDITORS

Education and schooling do not exist in isolation from the social, political, cultural and economic context in which they are located. Rather, education systems exist to serve the needs and interests of the various groups and individuals within a particular society, many of whom will have different (and often conflicting) expectations and viewpoints regarding the purposes of schooling.

From ajimctionalist perspective, the main purposes of education and schooling include socialisation, social selection and the preparation of individuals with the knowledge and skills necessary to gain employment

However, the static functionalist model has received widespread criticism from symbolic interactionists, Marxists and others for being too simplistic, and for not taking sufficient account of the fact that numerous interest groups in a society will have differing 'social constructions of reality' concerning the purposes of school. What eventually passes for schooling occurs as a result of negotiations between those with different expectations for schooling, these vested interest groups not being equally able to impose their views on the debate, so that the eventual purposes of schooling becomes highly politicised.

The tensions that occur between different sections of a society regarding education and schooling are often particularly pronounced in immigrant societies and amongst immigrant groups.

Migration has been a key feature of countries in Asia for at least a century, with large waves of people moving between countries mainly to improve their way of life by increasing their economic status, and for political reasons.

In immigrant societies, there is a potential clash between those who belong to the so-called mainstream of the society concerned, and those classed as migrants, particularly if they are recent immigrants. There is also the matter of the inter­generational clash that needs to be resolved, between the older generation (parents) who may be set in their ways and those who are younger (the children) who may be more readily adaptable to, and willing to embrace, the new culture.

Education needs to accommodate the fact that while some migrants may enthusiastically embrace all or most aspects of their new country, others may try to keep their feet in two different camps (societies) at the same time, the old and the new. In addition, in the past many of those who migrated were unskilled workers, but this situation has changed in recent years, with a greater proportion of migrants being well educated. These matters have major implications for education and schooling.

Xlll

XIV INTRODUCTION BY THE SERIES EDITORS

This publication, the second to be published in a Book Series devoted to examining Education in the Asia-Pacific Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects, presents a range of differing viewpoints concerning the education of immigrants. It is clear from the research studies reported upon in this volume that many of those who migrate from one country to another have a great deal of faith in, and place a great deal of reliance on, the education and schooling available in their adopted country and expect this to equip them (and especially their children) to cope with the new social, cultural, economic and political environment.

The authors in this volume ably probe and illustrate the tensions that occur with regard to education in immigrant societies and among migrant groups in the Asia­Pacific region.

The research studies reported upon have much to say that is of relevance and value to educational policy makers and practitioners as they seek to re-engineer education systems to ensure they effectively cope with the challenges associated with the education of immigrants.

In adopting what is mainly a sociological perspective, the authors in this volume show how schools are political institutions which, particularly through their functions as agencies of social selection, favour certain groups in society. Schools teach some learners to expect and accept failure just as effectively as they teach others to expect success. Schools in many societies favour those from the mainstream culture rather than those from other ethnic and racial backgrounds; they favour those living in urban areas compared to those living in the country; and they favour males rather than females.

Teaching is also shown to be a social process to which both the teacher and the students bring different expectations and resources. These expectations and resources have a profound effect upon the learning of individual students.

Education and schooling are also historical products and the current practices in education systems and schools are the result of a long period of struggle and dispute. For example, the present choice and ranking of certain aspects of knowledge as school subjects is not immutable; rather, it is a consequence of a historical process which still continues today.

Administrative decisions about the way in which education is organised can have considerable consequences for classroom teaching. For example, streaming, open plan classrooms and different class sizes all have implications for the practice of teaching in the classroom.

In providing what is predominantly a sociologically perspective regarding the education of migrants, the authors in this volume help to identify the social, economic and political forces that influence the education of immigrant groups:

'Unlike puppets we have the possibility of stopping in our movements, looking up and perceiving the machinery by which we have been moved. In this act lies the first step towards freedom'. (P. L. Berger, 1963, Invitation to Sociology, Penguin, Harmondsworth)

As the articles demonstrate, the acquisition of such a perspective is the first step towards influencing those social forces, towards tampering with the machinery in a realistic rather than an idealistic way.

INTRODUCTION BY THE SERIES EDITORS xv

Although this book specifically examines the situation regarding Asian migrants and education in the Asia-Pacific region, the lessons learnt have much to offer to researchers, policy makers and practitioners working in other parts of the world.

Rupert Maclean, Director of the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre, Bonn, Germany

and

Ryo Watanabe, Director, Department for International Research and Cooperation, National Institute for Educational Policy Research (NIER) of Japan, Tokyo

MICHAEL W. CHARNEY, BRENDA S. A. YEOH, & TONG CHEEKIONG

INTRODUCTION

Education, both formal and informal, has always had an importance place in modem immigrant societies. The education experience in these societies has also been very diverse. Certainly, the chapters in this volume will discuss different kinds of school (religious schools, ethnic schools, and so on), different sites for the transmission of education, different kinds of education (traditional knowledge as opposed to "modem" education, environmental education, and so on), and the differing impact of education and education policies upon Asian migrants. Today, as globalization further encourages the development of multicultural societies, the transnationalization of labor migration, the global marketing of educational opportunities, and challenges to traditional educational curricula, the relationship between education and migrants is becoming even more important, and more problematic.

This volume considers three questions central to the evolving relationship between immigrant societies and modem education. First, what is the role of education in mediating the negotiation between social identities and identifications (questions of gender or ethnicity, for example)? Second, how do educational systems and policies in immigrant societies approach the diverse cultural agendas of immigrant groups? Third, how do the various actors in the global marketing of skills and education, such as labor migrants, students, and policy-makers, balance the relationship between education and skills-training?

Educational systems, their policies, and schools are critical sites for the negotiation of identities of gender, ethnicity, and class in immigrant societies. They thus playa fundamental role not only in reflecting social change and identities, but also help to condition the terms of identity negotiation and (re)negotiation. Wang Gungwu, Anthony Reid, Robbie B. H. Goh, S. Gopinathan and V. Saravanan, and Hong Liu thus consider the critical interaction between learning and emerging immigrant societies. Wang provides the opening insights into these processes with a broad historical approach to changing cultural identities and attitudes among Chinese migrants to the Nanyang. Wang first discusses Tan Kah Kee, the Chinese entrepreneur who directed his fortune into the promotion of education in British Malaya and Fujian province in Mainland China. Tan Kah Kee represented a departure in Chinese migrant education, from the simple approach (limited to basic reading and writing skills and traditional forms of knowledge) of Chinese education in British Malaya during the early days of the British Straits Settlements, to an education that did not forget its roots, but also incorporated newer, more practical (economically) kinds of subjects that could be applied in developing British Malaya

xviii CHARNEY, YEOH, & TONG and Southeastern China economically. Tan Kah Kee also saw in education the key to both community bonding and social freedom, and how education would determine what kind of community would emerge. Wang builds upon this aspect of the philosophy behind Tan Kah Kee's educational philanthropy, to discuss migrant communities in four kinds of societies, with varying degrees of freedom, and the role education has played in their emergence and maintenance.

Reid shifts attention to more contemporary social changes taking place currently in California. He begins by discussing the shifting fortunes of area studies in the United States and how Southeast Asian studies suffered in particular, primarily due to the Vietnam War. As Reid explains, times, and the importance of Southeast Asia area studies, have changed due to three results of globalization: growing economic integration of Southeast Asia with Northeast Asia and North America and thus economic growth; the end of the Cold War and the inclusion into ASEAN of former Communist states; and, perhaps most importantly, Southeast Asian migration, particularly the emergence of a large and self-aware Asian-American community. The growing influence of this migrant community and the kind of education they wish to have in California is having an increasing impact on education. As Reid explains, this emergence has prompted a readjustment of educational priorities in California, including the emergence of Asian-American studies and Southeast Asia­oriented university courses.

Goh turns to two mission schools in colonial Singapore and stresses the mission schools' mediating role in negotiating a western value system in service, in an Asian migrant culture and value system. Mission education appealed to a class of Chinese with a new kind of Chinese identity, involving both leadership and respect in the local Chinese community and an English education. The mission school did not utilize literature, its chief medium, to push for conversion. Instead, literature was viewed as a key to creating other conditions that would make it possible, at a later time, to encourage conversion. As a result, the mission school could transmit western values, without necessarily directly encouraging conversion.

Gopinathan and Saravanan discuss the challenges facing the Indian migrant community in Singapore in the context of globalization. Although globalization presents certain universalizing challenges it also allows opportunities to maintain ethnic knowledge and education.

Liu looks at the relationship between education and huiguan (Chinese voluntary associations) in 1945-1954 Singapore. The Chinese schools supported by Huiguan, Liu explains, were the sites for the formation and localization of Chinese migrant identities and social interaction. Liu supports his discussion with extensive data he collected on the huiguan and the dialect backgrounds of students and teachers in huiguan-supported Chinese schools in Singapore.

One of the most important challenges facing educational systems in migrant societies is the diverse educational and cultural agendas of different migrant groups and the difficulties of incorporating them into a single educational system. Elwyn Thomas, Christopher Pang Yew Huat, Jennifer Wang, Karen Leigh Harris, and Tan Liok Ee focus on how educational systems in different immigrant or multicultural societies have approached these challenges and what impact these processes have had on educational systems themselves, as well as foundational assumptions of what

INTRODUCTION xix

education is and what its functions should be. As Thomas explains, migrant communities need a culture-sensitive education, that is, an education that can both accommodate their special cultural needs and prepare them for life in an increasingly globalized world. To meet this need, Thomas discusses planning strategies and the special role of teachers in transmitting this education. As Thomas warns, however, a culture sensitive education is continually threatened by the dominance of the West and religious traditions, such as Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism in global cultural flows.

Pang raises the problem of modem, especially new and migrant, societies being unable to face the challenges of environmental issues. Some claim, for example, that these societies lack the right approaches to the environment or suffer from the inability to develop the proper "eco-ethic." To meet this problem, Pang draws the discussion back to the continued relevance of traditional education to contemporary issues facing a shrinking world: how immigrant societies and their diverse storehouses of traditional knowledge can inform current approaches to environmental management. In order to develop the necessary eco-ethic, migrant and other societies need to utilize old traditions relevant to environmental preservation in their production of modem education.

Wang (Jennifer) problematizes the uniformity of immigrant approaches to traditional medical knowledge and health education, by focusing on the reliance upon Western medicine by the Hmong in Sydney, in sharp contrast to the reliance upon traditional medicine among the Hmong in the United States. As Wang explains, health education is necessary for the improvement of health in any community, especially in migrant communities, as socially disadvantaged and marginalized groups. As Wang finds, health choices, and better health, occur within the context of the migrant community, including the availability of Asian doctors for Hmong migrants. However, although the entire community may be exposed to health knowledge, how they make use of it is clearly a result of individual choices.

Two chapters focus on the tensions with tradition among Chinese migrants. First, Harris looks at the Chinese migrant community in South Africa and explains how the commitment of Chinese migrants to a specifically Chinese education has evolved out of shifting needs. At first, the emphasis on Chinese education was a result of the importance of education per se in Chinese culture and a way to keep the community together. In more recent times, however, a commitment to Chinese education developed out of the need to maintain living standards and to avoid succumbing to the detrimental effects of racial legislation. As Harris demonstrates, traditional cultural influences among the Chinese not only persist even when Chinese schools per se are not available, but can be a critical factor in their success in adapting to a host society, even within a non-traditional educational system. Second, Tan interrogates the role of educational change in shifting social roles and gender perspectives among Chinese women in Malaysia, elsewhere outside of China, and within China, from traditional restriction to the greater opportunities of the present. To do so, Tan integrates the narrative of four generations of females in her own family within the overall historical framework to provide a better understanding of the transitions that Chinese women, and their relationship with education, have undergone.

xx CHARNEY, YEOH, & TONG

As skills and educational programs are increasingly marketed on a global level, labor migrants, students, and policy-makers in global (izing) cities increasingly consider education and skills training alongside transnational migration as interconnected phenomena. Christine Inglis, Robyn Iredale, Johanna L. Waters, and Ravindra Jain examine the special challenges of education to transnational migrants and migrant diasporas. Stressing the mediating role of schools, Inglis analyzes the problematics of educational policy-making in the context of the intersection of mass education and increasingly mobile, transnational populations. An important problem involves the need by migrant groups to have their special cultural and religious needs recognized and provided by schools in host societies.

Migrants possess a diverse range of educational backgrounds and skills. In the increasingly global economy, the movement of highly educated and skilled migrants has produced a new kind of migration system, welcomed by advanced economies, especially in the Asian, Pacific Rim states. Iredale looks at "skilled professional migrants" and the international agreements and national policies that encourage the increasing flow of highly educated/skilled labor across national boundaries. As part of this process, Iredale provides a critical examination of policies intended to assess the level of skills education among transnational migrants.

Waters addresses the problems resulting from the phenomenon of the "Satellite children." These children are sent from Hong Kong to live in Vancouver in order to benefit from educational opportunities available in Canada. Waters includes her interview material, which yields valuable insights into the perspectives of these children, whose existence is conditioned by the intersection of education and migration.

Jain examines the importance of "self knowledge" among youth in the Indian Diaspora as this youth attempts to find its own identity while simultaneously interacting with local cultures in host societies. This knowledge, as Jain explains, is produced in India through sociological and anthropological research, which has prompted the Indira Gandhi National Open University to harness current information technologies to develop and transmit a curriculum oriented to the Indian diaspora.