タイ山岳地域における少数民族の教育意識の変遷 : チェンマイ県チョムトン郡P村の事例から 【調査報告】

Ethnic minorities retain a conservative and traditional sense of values is a commonly held belief. In many cases,this means that the attitudes they hold may be negative towards schooling. In Thailand, however, this does notseem to be the case with the Hmong living in one of villages located in a mountainous area. This study considersthe survey results the author compiled that show a positive attitude toward schooling in the process of Hmong inte-gration into Thai socio-economic structures.Previously, the Hmong in village P had no interest in schooling because the community was able to be self-suffi-cient and did not fully understand the benefits schooling may provide. As the Hmong have settled in this area, theyhave been involved in the trend of the modernization of Thai socio-economic structures, including developments intransportation and the communications networks. With these changes, schooling has become relevant since mostcannot remain self-sufficient or fully succeed without schooling in Thai society. One aspect of interest in village Pis that primary school students are eager to acquire Thai language skills and the parents support this as well. Boththe students and the parents understand schooling to be a means of access to wealth in Thai society and thus, theydemonstrate a more positive attitude towards education.This newfound interest in schooling and the benefits that can be reaped may not be unique to village P. In manycases, ethnic minorities often hold a negative attitude towards schooling because they have not understood or con-sidered the necessity of schooling for their lives. Village P's reality runs in direct contrast to the previous assump-tions that poor attitudes towards schooling were due to conservative and traditional sense of values.