Thesis work

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For my work I have many people have helped to reach the purpose of study as: supervisors, tutors, friends and people in the family. Therefore the researcher would like to express sincere thanks to all of these people who have done different during study. Firstly, I would like to thanks to the supervisor Mikael Palme who come from Stockholm Institution of Education in Sweden who helped to provide all of the facilities, direct on how to solve problems and monitor during the study. Secondly, I would like to say thank you very much to all co-tutors, especially Buoaphanh LUEDETHMONSONE who has checked the report or gave some ideas how to write the thesis and thank you all the classmates who shared the ideas. Thirdly, I would like to thank you to my directors at LuangNamTha Teacher Training School whose gave me the time and helped me for printing and copying my papers and lastly I would like to thank you to my husband who helped me to take care our children and gave me about the ideas how to write the thesis. So, I wish all of them should have good health and good lack for every thing in their life and their work. 1

ABSTRACT The study that I try to search the female minority students in teacher education and their learning process, especially female students in LaungNamTha Teacher Training School. Since the education for minority is not balance to the majority in general way although the government used to have a plan to upgrade the education for female minority in remote area such as quota, nayoby and to have exam especially to study at LaungNamTha TTS Researcher focuses on the female minority students that who study at 5+4 system in LaungNamTha TTS. TTS has built teachers for primary school to 4 provinces in the northern part of Lao such as Bokeo province, Phonsaly province, Oudomxay province and also LuangNamTha. This students supported by GTZ project when the female minority students finished from TTS, they must come back to teach at their village. Before they come to study at TTS the GTZ buit the school fore these female minority students in rural areas. 2

CONTENTS 4 6 Chapter 1: Introduction 7 7 Chapter 2: Background 8 9 Chapter 3: Literature review 10 Ethnicity and identity 15 Factors influencing the teaching/learning situation 16 Hidden curriculum 16 Symbolic capital and habitus. 16 17 Chapter 4: Research topic and research questions 17 18 Chapter 5. Methodology 18 Selection of students 22 Interviews 24 Questionnaire. 40 Reflection on the method 47 48 Chapter 6: Results 48 Female minority students: questionnaire data 51 Class room observations Interviews with female minority students 3 Chapter 7: Analysis Chapter 8: Conclusion and recommendation Appendix Appendix A - Interview guide Appendix B: Student questionnaire, Luang Nam Tha TTS reference

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION I am Sengamphone, I was born in Vientiane province. I have been a teacher for 6 years. I finished the University in 1999. After that I taught at the secondary school for 3 years in Vientiane province. Then I have been teaching in LuangNamTha Teacher Training School (TTS), my subjects are English language and Methodology of World around us in 8+3 and 5+3 systems. The TTS has built teachers for primary school to 4 province in the northern part of Lao such as Bokeo province, Phonsaly province, Oudomxay province and also LuangNamTha, LuangNamTha share an international border with China, It is the mountainous province and it has many ethnic groups living together, about 26 different minorities groups and they also have different culture, beliefs and different traditional language used in communication. Nowadays, education is playing an important role in society and economy development process, so the Ministry of Education is trying to reform the education in order to meet the educational demands in the society. Lao has many ethnic groups living together especially in LaungNamTha and their education is low if comparing with other provinces in Laos. Therefore, the Ministry of Education aims to upgrade educational level to the minority in remote areas. That is why, to improve of minority teacher trainees learning process in LaungNamTha is my interesting point. LaungNamTha TTS has many systems such as: 11+1, 8+3 and 5+ 3. About 60% of teacher trainees are ethnic minority who come from the remote areas, they cannot read and write even listen to people Lao Language. As a result, the teachers should recognize the tradition and cultures performed at schools because if the teachers do not do so, the students may feel that they are ignored. For instance, minority students do not like to study Mathematic, Political (interview minority students) those students may feel that they are ignored and do not go to school. Maybe they are difficult to understand the lesson because textbook are related to Lao language but minority has the old language, Lao language is the second language so, to improve the minority teacher trainees in learning process, the teachers is looking for many ways and many skills that can help them to understand well during the lesson. In the future, when these people go out to teach in the remote areas they might have a good strategies to the learners to learn 4

well since they can explain the lesson by using their first language as well as these might be one way to fascinated the learners to go to school to learn because they will feel as if they are in the same group with the teacher. I think that, if the students behave like that in the class, they would not get the knowledge or skills that the teacher organize, only a few students listen to the teacher and do the exercise that the teacher control. Now, the question is where the problem comes from? It might from the teacher because teachers do not know what do students need? Sometimes the teachers haven‘t got enough skills to provide a lot of activities in the classroom that is why I interested in is how to improve the minority student‘s learning process. Sometimes it is too difficult for students to understand the language? Or is it in themes of tradition? Or is it in themes of social life? Or is it because what their parents want? There are a lot of answers come up in my mine but I am not sure it is true, I think improving the minority‘s learning process in class, the teacher might need to provide new activity by using a lot of materials to make the lesson interesting as well as the teacher need to have suitable teaching skills or other. Through, I do not know what I am interested in is right or wrong, if I can find the ways to solve this problem, I am sure it is also improve my teaching skills and my teachers‘ student knowledge in the teacher training school, when they become the teacher in remote area to teach the minority I think they can use this knowledge to solve their problem that might happen in their own classroom. 5

CHAPTER 2: BACKGROUND In teacher education, a specially designed program is the 5+4 program targeting minority‘s student. In Luang Nam Tha province, especially female grade 5 students from minority villages have been selected to join in the program. In order to reduce the drop out of trained teacher, the selected teachers are expected to come back and teach in their villages of origin. In Moaung Sing district, 5 minority students currently study on 5+4 and 8+3 system. While most students come from Ahka villages and one come from Lao Soong. During their teaching practice, which appears in to 4 months periods at the end of the second and third years of Teacher training, the students are supporting by a pedagogical advisor (PA) at the District Education Department who makes the regular weekly visits to the villages in which teacher students are stationed. The PA has assisted a number of specially designed workshops at national or provincial levels where the desired teaching approach has been explained. The 5+4 teacher-training program uses textbooks that are specially designed both for the teacher education component and for primary teaching for which the program prepares. Although all teaching is made in Lao, these materials are adapted to the Lao language or second language for minority teaching context. Teachers at the luangNamTha TTS said that the teaching methodology used in for the 5+4 system is the same as the one that applied in other teacher education program with no special adaptation to minority students, for 8+3 and 11+1 systems. They also experience difficulties in making full use of Lao language in teaching. 6

CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW This thesis is about female teacher students and teachers belonging to minority groups. The concept of ―minority group‖ and the role that language plays for ethnicity is much discussed. In this literature review I will start by referring to this discussion. Next, I will explain a perspective on teaching which focuses on factors that influence the teaching process. It takes the so-called frame factor theory as a point of departure, but takes also the teachers‘ teaching styles and the student recruitment into the picture. I will then turn to a perspective on what students learn in the classroom at the same time as they learn the knowledge mentioned in the curriculum, the so called hidden curriculum. Finally, I will explain two useful concepts in Pierre Bourdieu‘s sociology, habitus and symbolic capital. It is possible to talk about the educational strategies of minority students using these concepts. ETHNICITY AND IDENTITY I will start by referring to two perspectives explained by Apple Muysken who summarize the studies of two different researchers.1 Fishman talks about three dimensions of ethnicity, paternity, patrimony and phenomenology. Paternity refers to a feeling of continuity, that you inherit something from your parents and grandparents. Patrimony has to do with behaviors, views, how you dress, how you educate children, rules for how women should behave as opposed to men. Phenomenology means how the world appears and to the meaning that people gives to their membership of an ethnic group. Ethnicity is not only about behavior, but also about meaning and understanding. Another perspective is that of Ross. He separates between an objectivist and a subjectivist definition of ethnicity. An objectivist approach means that you define ethnicity by specific characteristics. You belong to an ethnic group because you speak a specific language, have a specific religion, dress in a specific way, eat a specific kind of 1 René Apple & Pieter Muysken, Language contact and bilingualism, London: Edward Arnold, 1987, pp.12-13 7

food. A subjectivist approach refers to the shared us-feeling of a group. The members may in fact be very different. They may have different traditions, clothing, religion, even different languages, but in relation to a dominant group they may share that they are outsiders, dominated. This may create an ―us/feeling‖, a feeling of belonging to the same ethnic group. For example, in Laos ethnic groups such as Aka, Hmong or Lantan may be very different, for example as regards language, but they have in common that they do not belong to the dominating Lao Lom group and by this group are regarded as ―Lao Sung‖. The subjectivist definition of ethnicity relates to this subjective understanding that you, for a reason that does not correspond to ―objective‖ differences in language or other things, belong to a group. The Lao example is perhaps not a good one, because it is probably mostly for the Lao Lom group that other ethnic groups are ―Lao Sung‖ or ―Lao Theung‖2, while these groups do not see themselves as belonging to the same group.3 FACTORS INFLUENCING THE TEACHING/LEARNING SITUATION As we shall see later, most of the minority students study at a specially designed teacher training program, the 5+4 program, where they are not mixed with majority students or with the minority students who have managed to enter into the other training programs. In the 5+4 program, teaching is made under scarce conditions, as is also the case in the other study programs. In a class, there is likely to be between 35 and 45 students. The number of students in combination with the fact that many of the minority students do not master the language of instruction – Lao – very well, adds to the learning difficulties these students face. This can be seen in the perspective of the so-called frame factor theory. At the school level there are many factors that are important for determining what happens in the classroom. For instance, in a classroom with many students and a 2 The classification ―Lao Lom‖, ―Lao Theung‖ and ―Lao Sung‖ is very common in every-day language in Laos, but has no real support by more sophisticated ethnic classifications. See Mansfled, Stephen: Lao Hill Ttribes. Traditions and Patterns of Existence. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, for a discussion. 3 Apple, René and Muysken, Pieter, Language contact and bilingualism, who refer to Fishman, J.A., ―Language and ethnicity‖ in Giles, H. (ed), Language, ethnicity and intergroup relations. London: 1977, pp. 15-57, and Ross, J.A.,‖ Language and mobilization of ethnic identity‖, in Giles, H and Saint-Jacques, B. (eds), Language and ethnic relations, Oxford: 1979, pp. 1-13 8

lesson of 40 minutes, teachers do not have enough time to assist students individually. According to this theory, the number of students and the time available for teaching are frame factor, i.e. factors that indirectly have a strong influence on what happens in the classroom. In the case described above, teachers are unlikely to have the time to address students‘ learning difficulties, since it is impossible to keep up with the demands of the syllabus under the present conditions with many students and little time. The frame factors, then, build up like a ―frame‖ within which teaching goes on. HIDDEN CURRICULUM In order to understand the experiences of minority students of the TTC and how they relate to the teaching culture, as well as to the social environment at a college where majority students dominate and where most teachers also belong to the majority, a useful concept is what is normally referred to as the ―hidden curriculum‖. This refers to a learning that goes on without anyone realizing most of the time that it‘s happening. For example, a student may learn to obey; learn to wait, learn to listen without understanding, learn not to ask questions if he or she does not understand, and, perhaps most important of all, learn to regard herself or himself as inferior or stupid, a ―bad student‖. The hidden curriculum can teach the students many powerful lessons. Some of these lessons might be positive, but unfortunately many things children learn in this way are negative. For instance a child from a minority group might come to feel that he/she is not good because the official curriculum is all about a world very different from his/her own. Perhaps the teacher has never said anything bad about the child‘s way of life, but the hidden message that comes through to the child is that the school doesn‘t value his /her way of life. Also, since minority children have another mother tongue than the language of instruction, minority students often may feel both that their own language is inferior and has no value and that they are not so good students because they master the dominating language less well than majority students do. Their weaker 9

knowledge of the dominating language not only contributes to learning difficulties and low achievement, but to a hidden curriculum that makes you see yourself as inferior.4 SYMBOLIC CAPITAL AND HABITUS. The minority students come to the teacher training college from social environments, or ―social worlds‖, that often are very different from the world they meet at the college. In their social environment of origin, another language is spoken. From childhood they may have learnt certain social and family values that they respect and they are familiar with traditions and ways of behaving that belong to the world in which they were brought up. Using a concept of the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, this can be seen as a habitus, i.e. a specific way of interpreting the world and relate to it. For Bourdieu, a habitus is a scheme of thinking and acting that exist ―in the body‖ of a person, something that is formed slowly through adaptation to the outer world and which makes it possible to survive in this world. The habitus becomes a natural part of the person having it, it is a sort of cultural competence that makes it possible to act and behave ―naturally‖. Since the habitus for Bourdieu is a cultural competence, it also functions as a resource if this competence is appreciated and recognized by others as legitimate, ―good‖. To have or master cultural resources such as language or recognized knowledge is for Bourdieu to have a resource, a ―capital‖ that can be used for influencing people or getting what one wants. A condition, however, is that the cultural competence is a competence as regards a culture that is respected and dominating. A cultural competence built on a culture or on values that are not recognized is not a resource in this sense. Symbolic capital, which is the concept Bourdieu uses, is then a resource that comes from representing values that are recognized, esteemed by the environment. Boudieu calls this kind of resources or capital a ―symbolic‖ capital, because its foundation is the recognition or respect from others. Symbolic capital is founded on values and beliefs in a dominating culture. A person who represents these values and corresponds to the 4 See Mikael Palme, Formulated and implemented curriculum, mimeo, Stockholm Institute of Education, 2004, and Philip Jackson, Life in Classrooms, New York: Teacher College Press, 1990. 10

beliefs that are deeply rooted in a society has a symbolic capital in Bourdieu‘s sense. A very visible form of symbolic capital is legitimate language. A person, who speaks well a language that is dominating and seen as important, has a symbolic capital through the fact of mastering this language well, for example through a rich vocabulary, a good pronunciation, good reading and writing proficiency. When the cultural values that build up a symbolic capital belong to a dominating culture in society and are connected to developed systems of education, as is the case in modern society, Bourdieu names this symbolic capital a ―cultural capital‖. Cultural capital functions as an asset, a resource, that necessarily also is put into the body of a person as a competence, an ability so speak in a certain way, to have legitimate knowledge, to behave in a way that is valued, etc. Sometimes Bourdieu also calls this capital an ―informational‖ capital, referring to the fact that cultural capital also implies being well informed, knowing how society works and what counts and not counts. As we shall see later on, the minority students belong to a culture that is not valued very much in the modern Lao society in the sense of being a cultural capital. Their habitus is often ―wrong‖, since it is not adapted to the demands of the dominating, modern Lao cultural world. A good example is the language. It is of little or no value to speak well a minority language or, more generally, to have a cultural competence related to a minority culture and its traditions, since this linguistic and cultural competence is not recognized in the dominating culture. The key concepts in Bourdieu‘s sociology, then, are the concepts of symbolic capital and habitus. The habitus and the symbolic capital are related, since much of the recognized symbolic capital exists as an embodied capital, ―in the body‖, as schemes of speaking, thinking and acting. In a modern society like modern Laos, the most important form of symbolic capital is cultural capital, which refers to a competence related to the dominating Lao culture and knowledge and information about the modern society, its institutions and ways of functioning. Part of this cultural competence or cultural capital exists in the form of habitus. Habitus is the way a person thinks, acts, talks and dresses; how a person does things naturally without thinking about it the first, because it is part of whom he or she is.. For example, a Buddhist monk dresses in orange robes and sandals, dresses in simple clothing, walks quietly with an umbrella, such a person gives an impression of calmness. It is the habitus of a monk to do all this naturally. Another example is a successful businessman who may drive around in an expensive car, dress 11

in good clothes and have golden watches and arm laces, may be seen in restaurants eating and drinking with other men, often be on his mobile phone. Such a person gives the impression of power. To act like this ―naturally‖ is the habitus of many businessmen. Another example is for instance a male lecturer at a TTS or TTC. He may be neatly dressed, but usually without a tie unless he a deputy director or director, carry a black bag with books or papers in it, walk confidently, ride a motor-bike, is friendly and helpful to students. He gives great importance to education, in general and for his own family. This person gives an impression of competence, which comes naturally to him. He has the habitus of a lecturer. People all have ways of doing things and ways of behaving that they don‘t even think about. This is a person‘s habitus. It built up over time. The concept of symbolic capital is different or it is not something you can touch or hold. In society some people stand out more than others. For example, someone who is a leader, someone who runs a good business or someone who is the principal of a school has a status, prestige or recognition. These people do things that others respect. Over time these people are recognized because of what they do, bit-by-bit their position in society grows. The recognition rests on a belief that what they are and do is valuable, good. They are recognized by society. This recognition that comes from others Bourdieu calls symbolic capital. An example could be a Buddhist leader. He is respected because he represents religious values in which the community believes. Then he has a religious symbolic capital. Bourdieu‘s idea is that symbolic capital functions as a resource, an asset. You can use it for other purposes, for example for influencing people or make things happen. It can be a benefit to possess symbolic capital, even in the sense that you get economic benefits from it. However, symbolic capital can work that way only on the condition that it is sought for because of its own value. It is not sought for or built up by the fact that it gives power or benefits to the one holding it. The religious symbolic capital of a Buddhist leader exists and functions as a resource only because it is recognized as a value in itself and a value that is not connected to benefits. The Buddhist leader cannot become a religious leader because he wants to have influence or get benefits, for example economic benefit. Bourdieu means that in a society with a dominating culture, like in Laos the Lao Lom culture and the culture connected to modern society and to the education system, there exists a ―cultural capital‖ which is built on the mastery of this dominating culture. One important 12

component is the knowledge and mastery of the dominating language. In modern Lao society this means knowledge of Lao, but also increasingly knowledge of foreign languages, especially English. English has a high value. But cultural capital also includes what Bourdieu often referred to as ―informational capital‖, to be well informed about how society works, for example institutions, the government administration or other things. A symbolic capital of a certain kind, for example a traditional family capital like the one found in traditional peasant society or a ―modern‖ cultural capital achieved through formal education, can be ―converted‖, change into another form of capital, according to Bourdieu. If we think of Laos as an example, a family with a political symbolic capital build on a long service in the army can sometimes use this capital in order to get access to higher education for their children through the so called nayobay system. This means that they are admitted into higher education institutions such as the teacher training colleges not on their previous academic performance in secondary school, but through what is called a ―small letter‖ where a decision-maker at a higher level informs that they should be admitted. In Laos this has been a way of rewarding people who have given a contribution to the country, but is nowadays less frequent. This is an example of what Bourdieu calls a ―conversion‖ of one type of symbolic capital (political) into another type of symbolic capital (educational or cultural).5 In traditional Lao society, as in many minority groups that live in remote areas, respect is an important issue. Family leaders are respected. An important family may have not only more economic resources than others, but also a respect, recognition, a symbolic capital. This is why often a village chairman is elected from important, influential families. In my study I will use Bourdieu‘s concepts of symbolic capital and of conversion of symbolic capital in order to analyze the selection of the female teacher students who are the focus of the study. I will try to examine what role different types of symbolic capital played in the selection of these future teachers. I will also use the concept of habitus in order to examine how the female teacher students relate to their new career and to their own selection to become teachers. 5 The explanation of Bourdieu‘s concepts are based on Mikael Palme, Education as cultural violence, cultural capital and cultural negotiation, mimeo, Stockholm Institute of Education, 2004. 13

A study on Lao education that uses Bourdieu‘s concepts is Laikasone Sayyachtit‘s master thesis on the education of girls in the Lao Theung minority group.6 In the study she compares a Lao Theung girl to a Lao Theung boy, Lao Theung girl wanted to have educated but she cannot because her parents haven‘t got money for sending their daughter to school and a school far from home. So, Lao Theung girl go out school but Lao Theung boy can continues to study while the girl cannot because Lao Theung girl has a lot to do at home such as cooking, cleaning, milling rice, carrying water, finding food in the river and in the forest, planting rice and other vegetables. So, in the perspective of Bourdieu‘s concepts, we can see the importance of economic capital. The families do not have the economic resources to send all children to school. We can also see the importance of habitus. It is ―natural‖ that it is the boy who is educated. The daughter, as a woman, should stay at home and take responsibility for housework. This also prepares her for her future life as a married woman. This habitus, this way of understanding the world, is connected to symbolic capital. In traditional Lao society it would be disrespectful or ―strange‖ to send the daughter to further education and let the son stay home to take care of domestic work. Such a son would loose all respect, and also the parents who let him do this. It is not possible to imagine. 6 Lakaisone Saiyachit: Education for girls in the Laotheng group. Master thesis,National University of Lao and Stockholm Institute of Education, 2006 14

CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH TOPIC AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS This study is about minority students in teacher education. It focuses on three aspects. First it characterizes teaching in the 5+4 study program designed for future minority village teachers. Secondly it analyzes differences between female and male minority students in teacher education. Thirdly also examines how female minority students came to be selected to the 5+4 study program in teacher education and how this selection to become future village teachers affects gender relations. The objective of the study is to create more understanding of the conditions for involving female minority students in teacher education. The research questions that have guided the study are:  How can teaching be characterized in the 5+4 study program and what is the involvement of the female students?  What differences exist between female and male minority teacher students in terms of social origin and school career?  What role do different forms of capital in Bourdieu‘s play in the selection of the minority women who become 5+4 teacher students?  How do the selections of female schoolteachers in minority villages influence gender relations? 15

CHAPTER 5. METHODOLOGY For the study, a number of methodological approaches were used. The most important ones were the following: a) First, information on the number of minority girls and boys attending the TTC was collected using official school documents such as the school statistics for the year 2006. b) Secondly, interviewing minority teacher students, views on their culture and the ways for teaching. c) Thirdly, information on teacher students‘ living conditions at the TTS and at home and their influence on their studies were collected using interview and a questionnaire. d) Fourthly, in order to explore minority students thinking about education, interview with minority students were made at the TTS and at home. SELECTION OF STUDENTS I have selected the student teachers who come from the Mouang Sing district and who after finishing their studies will go back to teach in that village of origin. In all, 5 students were selected for interviews. All were female students and had been selected to become teachers through an AUSAID funded program. INTERVIEWS The interviews were conducted both in their village of origin and at the TTS. Two interviews were made with each interviewee. 16

QUESTIONNAIRE. In a previous study by Mr. Nolasing, a questionnaire was made to students in the 5+4 (all students in all grades), 8+3 (one class in each grade) and 11+1 (three classes) study programs at the TTS. The questionnaire, which is included in the appendix, was computerized. In the present study, only some of the questions have been included in the analysis. REFLECTION ON THE METHOD The methodology approach with the easily and difficulty for making interview, the researcher traveled to the female minority students in the school that selected them in their old villages, it is about 58 km from LaungNamTha TTS to district for example the third interview 13 km from district to the village selection so it is very hard, at that time the rain coming then we walked to that village about 4 km from the road. The first that I went to interview the answers that I have are quiets open.The researcher wants to know the family background as well as the view of culture, teaching, selecting to study at TTS and position as a female village teacher. The researcher had five female that relate to the teachers whom teach the minority children in rural area at Muangsing. Two female students selected in 8+3 program and three in 5+4 program…… #What you do in the methodology chapter is to explain your methodological approach, i.e. what research methods you opted for (interviews) and who you selected to be interviewed (sampling; selection). In both cases, explain what you did and why you did as you did. At the end, write a part on ―reflections on the method‖. 17

CHAPTER 6: RESULTS This study is about minority students in teacher education. It focuses on three aspects. First it characterizes teaching in the 5+4 study program designed for future minority village teachers. Secondly it analyzes differences between female and male minority students in teacher education. Thirdly also examines how female minority students came to be selected to the 5+4 study program in teacher education and how this selection to become future village teachers affects gender relations FEMALE MINORITY STUDENTS: QUESTIONNAIRE DATA I will start by considering some differences between female and male minority students as they appear in the questionnaire mentioned in the methodology chapter. If we first look at how the female minority students are distributed on the three study programs (Table 1), we can see that most of them study at the 5+4 and 8+3 programs, while very few enter into the 11+1 program (3%). For the male minority students, not so many study at the 5+4 program (39%) and 16% attend the 11+1 program. Table 1. Distribution of female and male teacher students on study programs. Percent of each sex. 5+4 Female Male 8+3 50 39 11+1 46 46 Inform missing 3 16 1 100 100 The difference is revealing. In order to enter the 11+1 program, a student must have finished upper secondary school. There are probably very few female minority students who do that, which means that few of them can access a study program like this. This difference also shows in the gender balance at the three study programs (Table 2). 18

Table 2. Gender balance at the various study programs. Percent of total number of minority students at a study program 5+4 Female Male Total 8+3 55 45 100 11+1 48 52 100 15 85 100 As Table 2 to shows, among the minority students at the 5+4, 8+3 and 11+1 study programs, the proportion of female students becomes increasingly low. At the 11+1 study program, the female students only represent 15% of the minority students at this program. What other differences exist between the female and male minority students? One significant difference is related to religion. As can be seen in Table 3, 19% of the female minority students are Buddhists, as opposed to 11% for male minority students. To be a Buddhist means to be closer to the dominating Lao culture. The fact that more often than minority male students, female student with minority origin are Buddhists may be a sign that the family of origin possesses a higher cultural capital than if the parents were animists. Table 3. The religion of male and female minority teachers students. Percent Buddhist Female Male Animist 19 11 Other 80 87 Total 1 2 100 100 This is supported by a difference in the reading and writing abilities of the fathers of female and male minority students (Table 4). 26% of the fathers of the male minority students cannot read, as opposed to only 14% of the fathers of female minority students. 81% of the female students‘ fathers can read at least a little, compare with only 64% of male students‘ fathers. Also, 52% of the fathers of female minority students can read and write well, which is quiet different from the 41% for the fathers of male minority students. Table 4. Father’s reading level. Differences between female and male minority students. Percent Father does not read Female Male Father reads at least a little 14 26 81 64 19

Father reads and writes well 52 41 The same difference exists as regards the mother‘s reading level. 44% of the female minority students say that their mother reads at least a little, compared to 29% for the male minority students. These differences are supported by a difference in educational level. As can be seen in Table 5, 25% of the fathers of female minority students have completed lower or upper secondary school, compared to 18% for the fathers of male minority students. Table 5. Fathers’ education within percent of sex No education up to completed primary Female Male Completed lower secondary or higher 68 70 Information missing 25 18 7 12 As said before, it seems that the origin of female minority students includes a somewhat higher cultural capital in the family than the origin of male minority students. This difference also appears when we look on possessions in the family household, especially for the only three female minority students in the 11+1 program. They all had electricity, a water toilet and a car in their households. How can this be understood? I shall return to this question in my analysis chapter. Among the questions in the questionnaire about attitudes towards the teaching profession and towards the future, I will discuss only one. Table 6 shows the answers to the question which sex is best suited to the teaching profession. As we can see, most minority students of both sexes say that there is no difference between the sexes in this respect. But 20% of the female minority students believe that women are best fitted to become teachers, while 26% of the male minority students believe that men are better suited as teachers. Table 6. What sex is the best suited to be teacher? Percentages of each sex, minority students Women Female Male Men 20 6 No difference 0 26 Missing 78 67 2 1 20

This difference in the answers is interesting if we compare to the answers to the same question among only majority students (Table 7). Among the majority students, male students more often see the teaching profession as a female profession (18% as opposed to 6% for the minority male students) and they less often see it as a male profession (18% as opposed to 26%). It is possible to interpret these differences as a sign that the teaching profession among male minority students is less often seen as a female profession than among male majority students. Table 7. What sex is the best suited to be teacher? Percentages of each sex, majority students Women Female Male Men 12 18 No difference 6 18 82 64 Even if the differences between minority and majority students shown in the previous tables as regards their view of the teaching profession as a female or male profession are not so big, the tendency that the teaching profession in fact is becoming a female profession is much more visible among majority students than among minority ones. As Table 8 shows, the female teacher students dominate among the majority students, while they do not dominate among the minority students. For majority students, the female domination is weaker in the 11+1 program than in the 8+4 program (60% opposed to 40% in the 11+1 program, compared to 77% and 23% for the 8+3 program). For minority students, the gender balance is almost equal for the 8+3 program but changes into a male dominance in the 11+1 program (15% opposed to 85% in the 11+1 program, compared to 48% and 52% in the 8+3 program). Table 8. Gender balance in various teacher training study programs among majority and minority students. Percent. Majority students Female Male Total 77 23 100 8+3 60 40 100 11+1 75 25 100 Total Minority students Female Male Total 55 45 100 5+4 48 52 100 8+3 15 85 100 11+1 49 51 100 Total 21

You can say, then, that the fact that majority students more often than minority students see the teaching profession as suitable for women reflects a real difference between majority and minority groups in terms of the recruitment to teacher education. In my analysis chapter, I will try to combine these findings with my interviews with female minority students. First, I will present these interviews. CLASS ROOM OBSERVATIONS Lesson 1 - Mathematics, year 1 The first observed lesson was a Mathematics lesson. For me as a teacher in the 8-3 study program, where minority and majority students are mixed, it was surprising that the teacher was speaking in a very high voice. Sometimes he sounded angry. In my mind he was not really angry, but it looked as if he were because of the way he addressed the students. Often the things he said had to do with the control of the class, such as telling students to be quiet or to listen to him. Less than in lessons in the 8-3 or 11-1 programs, students were invited to answer questions. Most of the questions of the teacher were directed to the whole class, not to individual students. The few times the teacher invited students to come with an individual answer, he was met by silence, nobody volunteered, and he had to point to an individual student in order to get an answer. In these cases the answer was sometimes correct and sometimes not. When the answer was incorrect, the teacher told the student in a high voice that he had to study at home and improve. Sometimes the teacher gave an extra exercise to solve until the next day. Through the behavior of students in the classroom, they seemed very much to ignore the teaching. They did not seem to listen very much to the teacher and they often talked to each other about other things. Only a few students were doing the exercises and many of them ignored the activity. Some students were talking to each other, while others were reading a storybook. Some students did not do anything at all, just looking out of the window. The teaching followed a very typical or common structure: first a phase of introduction, then a phase of explanation, then a phase of exercise an last a phase of evaluation. Students had a very passive role. They did not ask questions. The only time that a student asked the teacher to explain something once again, the student‘s language 22

(in Lao) was not clear. When students tried to answer the questions of the teacher, this normally consisted of writing the answer on the blackboard, not in using language for explaining or telling the right solution. To summarize, the observed lesson was extremely teacher-centered and the students, who were all minority students, were passive, did not use the Lao language at all, and were addressed by the teacher in a very harsh manner. They were also undisciplined and inattentive, speaking with each other in their mother tongue The differences between female and male students were that the female students were more passive during the group work. Out of 6 groups, a female student only in two groups gave the report from the group work to the class. Generally, the male students took the initiative in the group and were more active. Lesson 2 – Pedagogy, Year 1 The second lesson I observed was a lesson in Pedagogy. First, the teacher explained the content of the lesson. The teacher did not ask any questions to the class or to individual students. He then started group work. He divided the class in groups that had between 5 and 6 members. The teacher gave the topics or task for each group and explained how to do the activity. Groups received different topics. Each topic corresponded to a passage in the textbook. The task was to find the right answers in the textbook to a question like ―Which is the best way to teach Mathematics to pupils by using the 5 star technique?‖ He then let students work. As far as I could see, only one student in each group actually did the exercise. This student found the correct answer in the textbook and wrote it down in the exercise book. The other students read in the textbooks for other subjects, looked outside the window or talked to each other. When the group work finished, one student presented the result from the group to the whole class, normally the one or two students in the group who had found the correct answer. During these presentations, I noticed that some students ignored to listen. A few students looked outside and did other things. When a group had read their answer, the teacher sometimes made a follow-up question to the group. In front of these follow-up questions, the students often did not know how to answer. In these cases, the group had to ask another group for the correct answer from the textbook. When the presentations of the group work was finished, the teacher again explained the main content of the lesson and gave the same questions he had given to the groups as individual homework. During this lesson, the teacher did not 23

speak in a very high voice and students seemed to listen to him during the explanations of the content. However, students were almost totally passive during the lesson. They never asked questions to the teacher and they did not discuss the content between themselves. The talk that students did was about other things. The differences between the sexes observed in the Mathematics lesson did not appear in this lesson. Female students seemed to be as active as the male students. In an interview with one of the interviewed female teacher students, this was explained with reference to this teacher‘s different personal approach. The interviewee believed that this teacher was both ―kind‖ and ―good-looking‖. INTERVIEWS WITH FEMALE MINORITY STUDENTS The five interviews with female students were made. In fact, one of these students was not a minority student, but made her teaching practice in a minority school. Three interviewed students studied at the 5+3 and two at the 8+1 programs. Interview 1, majority student teaching in a minority school, 8+3 program, Family background and present situation The student‘s teacher is 19 years old and belongs to the Lao Loum Leu ethnic group and is therefore Buddhist. She lives in Tinthat village about 2 km out of the town of Muangsing. The school where she teaches lies in the Lao Khao village and is a new one with three grades. The people in the village belong to the Akha ethnic group. Ms K, the name of this student teacher, doesn‘t know how many people that live in Lao Khao village. She did her previous practice in Phonsai Primary School in the village with the same name, Don Koon primary school in the Don Koon village and in Ban Khon Primary School in the Ban Khon village. Both her parents‘ work are farmers. Five people live together in their house, two daughters, including Ms K, and one son-in-law, married with her sister. Ms K‘s mother comes from Bokeo province and has two children in a previous marriage, one son and one daughter. The daughter is married with an employee in the District Education Bureau (DEB) in Muangsing. The son is married 24

and lives in Bokeo province working at his farm. Ms K‘s mother‘s previous husband passed away and she remarried with Ms K‘s father, who comes from Muangsing. As a Lao Loum Leu woman she is a Buddhist, but in Lao Khao village people are animists, so she says she will make an effort in trying to learn how to believe in the same way as they do. When she comes back to her own village, she will believe as a Buddhist does again. Ms K thinks it is important to adapt to the Akha people‘s beliefs when it comes to for example work on the rice field. Then the Akha people use different ceremonies in trying to please the spirits, so they contribute with good fortune for the crop. Selection to become a teacher She has selected by DEB, now she studies at the 8+3 program at the TTS in Luang Namtha and will finish her education next year, 2007. She is selected from Lao Khao village about one hour away with motorbike or car from the district capital of Muangsing. The Lao Khao village belongs to the Akha people (Lao Soong) who worship the belief of spirits. Ms K. believes it will be difficult to work as a teacher in Lao Khao because of the villagers lack of knowledge of the majority language, Lao, which is the mother tongue of Ms Kingkeo herself. There are two teachers in Lao Khao village including Ms K. The village has a house for teachers to stay in but it is too far from the village, so she will later stay in the house of the chairman. Teaching and views on teaching She hasn‘t met the chairman yet, only with the director of the school where she makes her practice. She has had some experience of talking with the directors of the schools on issues related to weak students and the directors gave her examples of how to manage this as a teacher. As a native speaker of Lao, she believes that she can teach Lao in Lao Khao village. If the pupils don‘t understand her Lao, she will use the Akha language to explain. Some of this language she has learned with friends at the TTS. The best subject of Ms K is the Lao language and she likes to read novels. The books she gets from a national project in Laos founded with the aim to improve the Lao people‘s reading skills, supported by a Japanese donor organization. The books are delivered to the library at the TTS. The last title Ms K red was ―Bai mai bai soththai‖, 25

which can be translated as ―Only one leaf is left on the tree‖, from 1989. The book contains 19 short stories by Bonseum Sengmany written when he was a student in the Sovietunion, Japan and New Zeeland. She is interested in the Lao language because of the need for this knowledge for here coming profession as a teacher. Her task will be to teach Akha children the Lao language. Through the teaching at the TTS she has learned how to make lesson plans, teaching skills and also how to use different teaching aids like picture cards to help explain to pupils who don‘t understand Lao very well. She believes the PES (Provincial Educational Services) will pay her salary, but she has no idea if this salary will be enough for living. If it is not enough, she will try to sell food to the pupils to enlarge her income. She also believes she will have contact with parents when it comes to issues of naughty pupils. Position as a female village teacher (what changes, plans for marriage and the future) Ms K thinks there are no differences in the position between men and women when both have the same job, but she also thinks that men posses higher positions in the school in Lao Khao village. Ms K has one more year to go before her exam as a teacher. Then she will dress differently from being a student. She will dress in traditional Lao female clothes, i.e. a dress which has a sarong-like skirt called ―sin‖ and a shirt with collar. This is a tradition from the Lao Loum, the majority group. Education is very important because if children cannot read and write there will be problems. For example when they travel, they will have problems reading signs. According to Ms. K, the teachers at the TTS don‘t make a difference between students coming from different ethnic backgrounds. Ms K doesn‘t have a boyfriend. She‘ll plans to get married in two or three years, if she has a boyfriend by then. She doesn‘t want an Akha man proposing to her, because ―it is impossible because we belong to different religions‖. She would not marry an Akha man, even if her parents would accept that. A man from the Lao Loum Leu would be the best, but a man from any Lao Loum group is also suitable. When she gets married her husband will have a higher position in the family than her. This means in the Lao Loum tradition that the man possesses higher authority than a woman and that she has to ask him when she wants to do something. Also, only the women in her Lao Loum Leu family plant the rice, while the men drives the Tektek 26

Ms K says that if there are possibilities for her to be selected for higher education, she will take them. Her family doesn‘t have enough money to pay further education for her. In that case she would like to study in Luang Prabang. Interview 2, Hmong minority student, 5+4 program Family background and present situation Ms D is 18 years old and lives together with her parents and 7 older brothers in Nasai village. She belongs to the Hmong people and is selected to become a teacher in Nasai Village. Her father has finished Grade 3 in the French primary school in colonial times. Her brother finished Grade 3 in the new system but had to come back to the farm. She will finish the TTS in this year. Ms D believes in the animistic religion. Her mother tongue is Hmong. In the house there are 13 people living together. She will continue to live in her parents‘ house until she gets married and she, as a woman, moves to her husband‘s house. Her father works at the farm and the family has about two hectares for rice cultivation, two hectares for rubber tree plantation and some area for corn plantation. Her sisters and brothers all work at the farm, except for one brother who stays in Luang Namtha to study at the Saipatana Economics School, which is a private school for among other subjects Accounting and English. It costs a different amount of money depending on the subject, but about 600.000 Kip or 60 USD per term. The school has a dormitory for students who live far away. The persons living in the house comprise three families. Two of her brothers are already married and live there with their families. One brother is the chairman of Nasai village. One of the sisters is married to a student teacher at the Luang Namtha TTS. The beliefs in the village, which is inhabited a Hmong village, is related to ―satana Phi‖, worship of spirits. In December, the Hmong people celebrate ―Kinjang‖ which refers to the Hmong New Year, when people come together and dress up in Hmong traditional clothes. Ms D says she doesn‘t know why the Hmong people celebrate this event, only that her father knows. But the father is now hospitalized in Luang Namtha for curing his back, which is injured. During the New Year celebrations, Hmong men and women stand in lines in front of each other and threw a ball like cloth between each other. This way the often meet the person with whom they will marry. 27

Selection to become a teacher Ms D says that the DEB selected her to the 5+4 program through her brother who is the chairman. The brother asked her if she wanted to study as a teacher and she agreed and came to the TTS. She claims she could have said no to the selection and the DEB then would have chosen another person to teach in Nasai Village. When she was chosen, GTZ, the German donor organization, supported the village with the construction of a new school. The school has three grades and receives also pupils from Huay Kaem village to study the third grade because Huay Kaem village only has two grades. Teaching and views on teaching She expects herself to meet with the Chairman in cases when pupils don‘t attend class. The same goes for parents. She believes it will be a change of her position when she starts working as a teacher and that she‘ll acquire a higher position among the villagers. She has no idea if her salary will be enough or not. The money she received as a trainee was not enough (90.000 Kip/month). Ms D says it is sometimes difficult to teach because the children don‘t manage the Lao language too well. When it comes to the Hmong children it‘s easier because she can use the Hmong language and teaching aids like different materials, as picture cards. But when the Akha children don‘t understand Lao, it is more difficult because she doesn‘t know any Akha. Then she must rely on the teaching aids. The last book she red was ―Ko men pai?‖, which means ―Who is the teacher?‖ It is about responsibilities for the occupation of a teacher. She also read ―Bia mai bai sotthai‖, ―Only one leaf is left on the tree‖, the same book as the Lao Loum Leu teacher in the first interview. Ms D says that it is important especially for the children from minorities to learn how to read and write, so that they can get by in society. For example, if a family has rice or corn to sell in the market, it will be difficult to do that without some education. Position as a female village teacher (what changes, plans for marriage and the future) If it is possible she rather teaches in a non-Hmong village, because she needs to practice the Lao language and it is too easy to slip into Hmong because the children know she knows Hmong. She thinks it should be better to have teachers from a majority group to teach in Nasai. That should give the children better knowledge in the Lao language. Ms 28

D has difficulties to express herself in Lao and obviously needs to improve her Lao. Ms D also adds that she understands all Lao words, but she has problems to speak. Through the training she has received at the TTS she has learned to make lesson plans and learned the skills to teach and know how to use teaching aids. Ms D believes that she will have the same position as the male teachers in her school have when she starts working as a teacher. But in the village, the men possess the highest positions: ―The men can make decisions‖. She will wear different clothes from the one she has as a student, a sin (Lao skirt) with a special pattern and shirt with a collar. The colors she can choose herself. Before her practice in Nasai village, a female Thai Dum teacher was working there as well as a male Lao Loum teacher who by then was educating himself at the TTC in Luang Prabang. When Ms D arrived, the Thai Dum teacher left. One reason, Ms D says, is that this teacher lived far away from Nasai village and she didn‘t want to be a teacher anymore. The male Lao Loum teacher finished his teacher exam and stayed in Nasai village on the proposal from the Chairman. Today the school has three teachers including Ms D. Two men, except from the Lao Loum teacher also another male Lao Loum teacher who finished his education at the TTS in Luang Namtha. Ms D doesn‘t have a boyfriend yet. No one has come to see her in the village, she says. Ms D gives a somewhat shy impression. If and when she marries she‘ll move to her husbands house, to her parents-in-law. It is possible for Ms D to marry a man from Akha or Lao Loum people. For her parents it‘s ok to marry with whom she wants as long as they love each other. She believes that women are better caretakers of the children than men are. The decisions in her family, Ms D thinks will be equal between the man and the woman. If it is possible she will work as a teacher for some time and then if there is a selection she would like to continue her education in Vientiane or Luang Prabang. Her father, says Ms D, has no economical means to support her study otherwise. 29

Interview 3, Akha minority student, 5+4 program Family background and present situation Ms S is 19 years old and has finished the 5+4 program at the TTS. She lives together with 10 other people in a wooden house they have area 2 heata to planting her mother, two elder brothers and their wives, and altogether 4 nephews and nieces. A son of an older sister of Ms S‘s also lives in the house. She‘s the last child in the family. Huay Kaem village, where her family lives, has 294 inhabitants. Her family works on the farm, except from her elder sister who lives in another village and works for the German donor organization GTZ as an interpreter for the Akha language to Lao in the projects of the organization. The sister is not educated, but was identified by the organization as interpreter in Akha villages. The GTZ also funds a program for the building of schools in the district and to educate female village teachers. Ms S lives with her mother who is 70 years old. Ms S says that the age counting in the Akha tradition is quite complex. She gives an example. If a child is born the day before New Year this child will be considered as one year after this day. If the child is born one day before next month this child will be considered as one month the day after. If the child is born on the 15th of June this child will be considered as one month of age on the first of July. Ms S‘s mother stays home because of age. Her father has passed away. Today two brothers together with their wives and five children and Ms S live together with their mother. This son will marry soon with another teacher named Ms Wan. They met while Ms Wan was working as a teacher in Huay Kaem village. Her future husband will next year continue his education in secondary school. Now Ms S teaches in the Akha village of Seuadaeng, 9 kilometers away. The distance between Seuadaeng and Muangsing, the district capital, is about 13 km. During the weeks she stays in a dormitory built for teachers in this village, but she returns to her own village every second or third weekend. To be absent from the village where she teaches too often is not good for her relationship with the community. According to her ethnic background her religion is ―satana Phi‖ (beliefs in spirits). Her mother tongue is Akha that is very different from Lao. She is selected for Seuadaeng village. It‘s very difficult to stay in Seua Daeng, she says, because first she stayed in a room close to the school, where there already was a family living, with a husband, wife and two children. The parents also work as teachers in the school in Seuadaeng. They also had a small 30

shop in the room; Ms S only had a very small space to live on. Now, the new dormitory for teachers has been built and it is easier for her. Selection to become a teacher When she started to teach she was not afraid and she had no special expectations for her coming work as a teacher. The Pedagogical Advisor (PA), Ms Seng selected Ms S to the 5+4 program for Seuadaeng village, since there was nobody in this village who had finished grade 5. Seuadaeng has 4 grades and two teachers for grade 1 and 2 and the second teacher teach grade 3 and 4. In grade 1 there are 20 pupils, in grade 2 there are 10 pupils, and in gr 4 there are 6 pupils. She does not remember how many there are in grade 3. The village wants to have also grade 5, but probably there will be none, says Ms S, because there are not enough grade 4-pupils. She thinks that she was selected because the PA, who selected her, knows her elder sister who works for GTZ. She could have refused the selection if she‘d wished so and DEB should have chosen another student, but she thought it would be better to accept because through the fund and the selection she could now have a profession, which is very important to her. If she had continued to secondary school, there would perhaps not have been funds for her later on. Therefore it was never a question for her to accept or not. When she was selected, she had already started the first year of lower secondary school. Teaching and views on teaching Sometimes she meets the chairman several times per week. Other weeks she does not meet with him at all. When they meet they talk about the teaching and the pupils who are undisciplined. If children don\\t come to school, first she goes to the Chairman and then to their parents. She discusses with the parents why the children don‘t come to school. The villagers help her with food because she is a new teacher who has nothing extra in this village and she is regarded as an important person as a teacher. Ms S says it is more difficult to teach in a minority school because of that. Asked if Ms S wants to teach in a majority school, she answers that it is the District Education Bureau that decides if they want her there. Ms S says that she has no best subject. She had more or less the same scores in all subjects, but she is very interested in a new subject where students have possibilities to discuss issues related to sex and how to live together. Among many other things, HIV and other sexual transmitted diseases are discussed. The second subject she says that she is interested in is Political education. 31

Asked about this subject, Ms S has difficulties in telling what it really is about, but emphasizes that her teacher in this subject at the TTS was very kind. The third subject she is interested in is teaching methodology. But she says that she will have problems when she begins to work because she will have a multi-grade class mixing two grades at the same time. It will be difficult to make lesson plans. A minority school is different from a majority school mainly because of the language situation. The minorities often don‘t have enough knowledge in the Lao language and the teacher will have use for her/his knowledge of their mother tongue in order to teach. She will use the Lao language in her teaching. Only if the pupils don‘t understand she‘ll use her mother tongue. Otherwise she‘ll use different teaching aids TTS supply the village with. In this school the women and men are equal, but she expects herself to have a lower position than the teachers who have more experiences than her in teaching. The other teachers in the village do not get help, she says, because they already have a shop from where they can get an extra income. She doesn‘t yet know if the salary she will get from the DEB is enough or not. She doesn‘t know what to do if it is not enough to pay her living. During her practice she sometimes asked the chairman to help her when the money wasn‘t enough and the chairman then asked the villagers for support. She will buy things like shampoo and body lotion her salary. The villagers will supply her with food. Position as a female village teacher (what changes, plans for marriage and the future) The chairman in the village, who always is a man, has the highest position. As a teacher she will wear typical Lao clothes for teachers, including a sin of a certain kind, together with a shirt with collar. The colors she can choose herself. This dress is quite different from the ones of the student who always where black Lao skirt and white shirt with collar and scarf. The last novel Ms S red was ―Bai mai bai sotthai‖, ―Only one leaf is left on the tree‖. It is a novel that was red by most of the students I interviewed. It is very important for the children to learn how to read and write because they must get knowledge. The future society will perhaps be more ―civilized ―. The children and the other villagers too have to learn for the future. It can be difficult to live in the future society otherwise. The villagers, says Ms S, know about this and they want their children to have knowledge for the future. 32

In this Akha village people believe in the worship of spirits. Ms S followed her Buddhist friends to the temple because she wanted to see how they worship in Buddhism, but she is a believer in her own religion. She hasn‘t felt that anyone has looked down on her religion at the TTS. Ms S doesn‘t have a boyfriend yet, she says. Her family (mother, brother and sister) told her to teach one, two or three years and then get married, so she is following this advice. It is possible nowadays for Akha people to marry people from other ethnic groups, so yes, it is possible also for Ms S to marry a person from another ethnic groups. It seems that it is her family who decides in the first place whom it is possible to marry and that her own will comes in the second place If it is possible that she will teach some years and then continue her education and learn the English language. She says that she actually is dependant on funds to be able to continue her education. Next year it is perhaps possible to study English in the TTS in Luang Namtha, but she claims that she probably will not have enough money. If it is possible she would like to teach English in the future. But she‘s not so sure if she will manage that. Ms S says the people in TTS don‘t make a difference between minority and majority. She believes that teachers and students regard all people in TTS as equal. At the same time, she stresses that the teacher in Political education was very nice, indicating that other teachers may not be so nice. She mentions particularly one teacher who is very hard on discipline Interview 4,Lao Huay (Lanten) minority student in 5+4 program Family background and present situation Ms N is 19 years old and lives in Hong Leuay Village. The village comprises 60 families. The village is situated around 5 km from Luang Namtha town in the district with the same name. Ms N says that she belongs to ―Lao Huay‖ (or ―Lanten‖) which is an ethnic group normally classified as Lao Soong. Her father and mother have divorced. Her father married again with a very young girl who is now Ms N‘s stepmother. The father is a farmer, but a rich farmer with many rubber trees. Her grand-father used to be the village chairman, but is now retired. Her father‘s younger brother, her uncle, is a 8+3 teacher who has worked as a primary school teacher in a Thai Dum close to Luang Namtha. Thai Dum is a Lao Loum ethnic group, a majority group. However, he has 33

stopped teaching because it is more lucrative to have a rubber plantation. She also speaks Lao Huay as her mother tongue. She lives with her relatives. Ms N says that people in her village combine talking in the Lao language and the mother tongue Lao Huay Ms N is a Lao Huay girl (Lao Soong). It means that she believe in worship of spirits (satana Phi). Ms N tells during the interview how people of Lao Huay conduct a scarifying ceremony. For ex if a person is sick from something, a pig is sacrificed by cutting the throught off. Then the animal is carefully slaughtered and involves cleaned up than put back in the body. Then the body is layer in a basket together with a bowl of its blood. Another basket is brought to be filled with ceremony clothes from the person who has the problem, together with for example a glass of alcohol, cigarettes, beetle nut, and kinds of vegetables for the spirit in power to consume. Then a medicine man chants from his memory to get contact with the spirit to heal the person who is sick. After the ceremony people gather together to have a feast on the left over from the pig. Everything is cooked and consumed now by the people. The ceremony is carried out in the Lao Huay village of Ms N and she. Ms N did visit the Buddhist temple together with her Buddhist friends to se what it was like. Still she is a believer of the worshiping of spirits. Selection to become a teacher She was selected to become a teacher within the program supported by the German GTZ. I met and interviewed her at to occasions, during her final practice in the village school and after her examination from the TTS. The first part of the interview relates to the first of these two meetings. One reason for selecting Ms N, she believes, is she was the only student to have finished grade 5 in the village at that moment. She says that she could have said no to the selection and that the DEB then would have chosen a student from another village. If she hadn‘t been selected she would have continued to secondary school. However, her father told her that it was good for her to become a teacher. Teaching and views on teaching In September she will start her new job as a teacher in Hong Leuay. The school is situated just nearby her house and contains from this year five grades plus two classes 34

for preschool. The school has seven teachers. The school has few male teachers. The pupils in the school belong partly to two ethnic groups, Lao Huay and Phounoi. Ms Noi will stay in her village to teach. She expects the teaching to be quite difficult because of the different ethnic groups. The main difficulties will be the language. She will use the Lao language when she teach, but the ethnic groups don‘t share the same mother tongue and Ms N will have use for the Lao Huay language to teach the Lao Huay children when they don‘t understand the majority language. She will have greater difficulties with the children with whom she doesn‘t share a common language. Then she will use teaching materials like the black board, picture cards, drawings, etc. Another difficulty in terms of communication, she says, is being a teacher for all five grades. The first grade is the most difficult to teach because they cannot speak Lao language at all. During her teaching practice she will teach each grade one week continuously and start again with the first grade after five weeks have past. The education is taken over by another teacher when Ms N goes back to the TTS for her final training session. So far Ms N has done practicing. Some weeks she has had weekly meetings with the chairman, some weeks she hasn‘t met him at all. The discussion has been about naughty pupils. Either the Chairman or other villagers have helped her with anything else except this. She is not expected to do anything else but teaching, she says and she claims that she is not treaded in any different way than other villagers. She believes that the government will pay her salary. She doesn‘t give a comment on if it will be enough for living. She lives in the village and has her relatives there. In her practice Ms N before used to teach in the majority language, Pasa Lao, and will continue to do so as a professional teacher. Sometimes she explained some tings in her mother tongue, Lao Huay, and if f ex the Phounoi pupils (Lao Soong) didn‘t understand she told the more experienced teachers to help her out. Ms N says that the DEB in future will help with workshops on how to teach in multi ethnic situations in school. The second interview was conducted after Ms N‘s examination as a 5+4 teacher. Ms N has not many personal reflections to give on her education other than that she has experienced a change in her Lao language to the better. This was also verified in the interview, when she speaks Lao with more ease. Ms N tells that she has made friends at the TTS with students from majority groups like Lao Loum Leu and Thai Dum, and that she was able to improve her language skills. She adds that she has learned how to make 35

lessons plans, how to teach and how to use teaching materials like technical aids for easier understanding for example Mathematics. Position as a female village teacher (what changes, plans for marriage and the future) Ms N gives no opinion of possible differences between women and men when it comes to become a teacher. At the same time she claims that the villagers have more respect for men as teachers than for women. At the Hong Leuy School, the teachers who have high positions are men, both the director and the deputy director. Men also have the highest position in the village. The highest position in her family is that of her grandfather. Ms N thinks it will be different for her to work as a teacher when it comes to for example clothing. While she as a student wore a certain kind of uniform she will as a teacher use another. This and the fact that she now is a teacher will give her a higher position. When it comes to possible differences in viewing minority students at the TTS she has no other comments than believe that all people respect each other equally. (We are aware of that the question could have been put the question in another way in another way but weren‘t done at the moment) If the children cannot read and write they will face problems transporting themselves. Education helps them also to develop when it comes to daily shopping and how get by when traveling by reading signs. It is difficult to live in the society without education. Ms N doesn‘t have a boyfriend and she doesn‘t know when she‘ll have one. It‘s ok for her to marry a man from another ethnic group, like Akha, and her parents will not have anything to say about that. During the coming time when she will meet a boyfriend, she tells, the boy cannot visit her house before marriage. After the marriage, which is an agreement between the couple‘s parents, the girl move to stay at the boys house. A dowry will traditionally be pay by money. Her husband will have the higher position according to the Lao Huay culture. She will take care of the children and the housework while the man takes care of the decisions to be made for the household. She isn‘t sure about her future. If there will be another selection for more education, she can think of accepting that. But she also tells that she most of all will stay in her village to work as a teacher and not goes anywhere else. Her parents will have nothing to say about her future possible education. 36

Interview 5, majority student teaching in a minority school, 8+3 program Family background and present situation Ms W is 22 years old and the religion she believes in now is worshiping of the spirits. She lives in Siang Njeun village near the town of Muangsing and she has worked as a teacher in Huay Kaem village for one semester. The religion in this village is worshiping of spirits. Her mother tongue is Lao Lom Leu. She hasn‘t met any problems in the village. She claims to be able to speak the Akha language and that helps her out. Last year she for a while lived in the school building. Her parents live at Tha Ou village in Laung Nam Tha town near TTS, her father got education from the Buddhist temple in colonial times, now he works with the federal elderly Union in that village, her mother has finished Grade 2 in the French primary school in colonial times, they work at the farmer. She has an older brother finished 8+3 at LaungNamTha TTS now he is a teacher and teaching in Long district and two younger sisters, first studies grade 6 at secondary school. Second studied grade 3 primary schools then she drop out Ms W said she is not good memory. The Buddhist religion is easier to worship, Ms W thinks. For example, she says, when a person have mare dreams he or she can go to the temple or visit older people to be blessed by binding a string around the wrist. It is believed in this custom that this clear away obstacles the person otherwise might face. In comparison the Akha tradition is quite different, says Ms W. The Akha people have many celebrations for many things. They must have contact with the sprits for many reasons, f or ex when planting rice and when harvesting rice and many other occasions. A pig must be sacrificed during the ceremonies while having contact with the spirits. It‘s quite complex in comparison with Buddhism. Her parents had some objections about her future marriage, but not too much says Ms W. It‘s an Akha tradition to share all work between man and woman and her parents said that if Ms W really manage to do all these things it‘s ok for them if they marry. Her future parents in law, says she, had no objection too. They thought it would be a good thing to marry their son with a Lao Lom Leu girl. She will have a higher position than her husband. 37

Selection to become a teacher She was selected to the 8+3 program until three year ago when she graduated from TTS and begun teach in Pijeu village, to where the Provincial Education PES had selected her. She stayed in Pijeu for two years until DEB told her to teach in Huay Kaem village. Teaching and views on teaching The school has two grades and Ms W is the teacher for both grades at the same time. She doesn‘t like to stay by herself in the school building so she asks a pupil to stay with her. Her salary is ok. Usually a teacher earns about 200.000 Kip/month, says Ms W, but because she‘s teaching two grades at the same time her salary rises to around 320.000 Kip/month. The villagers are kind enough to pay her food. The village built the school by them selves and got no supply from any place. Ms W doesn‘t know how many people live in Huay Kaem. The Chairman told her but she has forgotten. Ms W uses the Lao language when she teaches the pupils, but explains in Akha to the small children in grade 1, because they usually cannot speak any Lao yet. She herself knows the Akha language because she‘s been working in Pijeu village for two years. The pupils in Pijeu she considers more advanced than in them in Huay Kaem because they have better supply from supporters like GTZ. Only one textbook is given from the DEB and that is to the teacher. But, Ms W says, this book is designed for majority children and doesn‘t suit children in Huay Kaem very well. These children have no teaching aids at all and this, Ms Seewan say, is a big problem for the children in Huay Kaem. In the syllabus the books are mention to be used, but how can she make use of any if there aren‘t any? Ms W makes her own picture cards and uses a study group system in her teaching. She has asked for help in the DEB two times this year, but she hasn‘t yet received any supply. All together there are 29 children in two grades in the school. It is very tiring to teach the children in Huay Kaem village because of this situation. Position as a female village teacher (what changes, plans for marriage and the future) There are no differences between men and women in that school because there is only one teacher and that is Ms W herself. On the question of the strongest in the Huay Kaem village, men or women, Ms W answers the women has the strongest positions, because Ms Sulisais sister, Mrs W, has a high position, which in turn gives that the villagers have high belief in female abilities in possessing high position. 38

Ms W will soon get married with an Akha man who next year will finish Secondary School. Though it is not at all a common sense in the Lao Lom or in the Akha cultures they live together in her future husbands house together with his family near Muangsing. They live six people together in that house including Ms W and her future husband. This agreement is made between their families. Ms W claims herself having a higher position than her future husband. In comparison with Pijeu village, Ms W adds, men in Pijeu village possess the higher positions. Women cannot do everything there. They cannot control money for example: The women are holding back in Pijeu village, is her impression. Ms W meets with the Chairman in Huay Kaem village several times per week. Then they talk about the school, teaching and pupils. Several times Ms W has talked with the Chairman about the needs for teaching aids and he agrees to look closer upon this issue every time, but seems to forget it once the issue is mentioned, she says. Otherwise she has good relationships with the parents of her pupils. Before she stayed together with her future husband she often used to ask the parents to let their children stay in her house during night so she would not be alone. In the future her husband must finish his education and continue to study, she says. Yet they don‘t know whether it will be in Vientiane or Luang Prabang or Luang Namtha. She herself will also continue to study but don‘t yet know when and where. Perhaps, when and if, TTS changes to TTC in Luang Namtha, it will be possible for her to study the 11+3 program. 39

CHAPTER 7: ANALYSIS My research questions included the following points:  Teaching minority students at the TTS  Differences between female and male minority students  The selection of female teacher students in relations to the possession of various forms the capical in Bourdieu‘s sense  The effect on gender relations inminority villages of the creation of female scool teachers In this chapter I will address each one of these questions, althrough my analysis fore some of them can not go so deeply because of the limitation of my data. TEACHING MINORITY STUDENTS AT THE TTS As was explained in the methodology chapter, only two classroom observations were made, both in the 5+4 program. The students at this program have finished only primary education and have been selected to be teacher education on a special program designed for future village teachers in minority areas. More than half of them are female, partly because of donor funded projects that give scholarships to female teacher students. These scholarships are normally connected to the building of a school in the minority village where the teacher student later is supposed to teach. If we look at the character of the two observed lessons, student participation was very low. Many students were inactive and behaved in an undisciplined way. They were often talking to each other or did other things than listening to the teacher or doing the exercises they were expected to do. The teaching was very teacher-centered in both lessons and the teacher did almost all the talking. When the teacher asked questions to the students in the second observed lesson in Political education, these questions were always about information that could be found in the textbook. The group work in this lesson consisted of finding the correct answer to a task in the textbook. When individual 40

students were asked to answer a question by their teacher, the question was often met by silence or the answer was wrong. Then the teacher passed on the question to another student. In one of the lessons, the teacher spoke in a loud, almost angry voice. To summarize, both lessons can be said to be particularly non-communicative, with very little interaction between teacher and students. Language use was very poor and reduced on the side of the students. Many students obviously also were absent in their minds. As regards gender differences, girls were generally less active than boys, but they participated as actively as the boys in the group work in the second observed lesson, although only two out of six reporters from the group work were female. Teaching at the TTS is generally teacher-centered, but it seems that in the observed lesson teaching was more teacher-centered than usual. As mentioned above, in one lesson the teacher also had a very disciplinary attitude, controlling students all the time in a high voice. It is probable that this particularly non-communicative character of the lessons depended on he fact that the students did not have Lao as their mother tongue and did not very well master the language of instruction. Also, they were primary school leavers and had little educational capital, if we apply Bourdieu‘s concept. In other words, the conditions for a teaching that was at least a bit more communicative did not exist. As a result, many students were absent-minded and especially one of the teachers assumed a very disciplinary, military-like teaching style. It should be noted, however, that the second observed teacher, who had a kinder attitude towards students also was referred to in one of the interviews as a ―good teacher‖. An interpretation is that in the meeting with majority teachers, minority students at with this low academic level are very dependant on a positive and understanding attitude from the teacher. If we connect this to the discussion in the literature about ethnicity and identity, it could be said that the students‘ patrimony7 – what the ethnic identity is in terms of what a member of the group has, such as language, connections, habits, knowledge – is not enough in the teaching situation, especially not language. The students‘ patrimony is questioned. In Bourdieu‘s terminology it could be said that the symbolic capital of the students connected to their ethnic group and partly connected to their own language is not recognized in teaching and that teaching here has a very clear character of what Bourdieu calls symbolic violence. It is also possible to apply Fishman‘s third category, 7 See the discussion in Apple & Muysken, p. XX, on Fishman‘s three categories, paternity, patrimony and phenomenology. 41

phenomenology, which refers to how the ethnic identity is experienced. In the teaching situation just described, the ethnic identity is probable experienced as something opposed to and different from what the students are expected to be in the teaching situation. In Bourdieu‘s terminology, we could say that the habitus connected to life in the minority village and group in teaching is not valid. Another habitus is expected from the students, especially as regards the language you speak. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN FEMALE AND MALE MINORITY STUDENTS As was shown in the presentation of the data from the questionnaire, female minority student disappear in the 11+1 program. They are very few in the 11+1 program. This tells us that few female minority students attend upper secondary education. They drop out earlier in the education system. For minority students, men much more often enroll in upper secondary school and attain a Grade 11 exam. The 5+4 program is especially designed for minority students and a special target group has been female grade 5 leavers. The program aims at improving education for females in minority rural areas, since the traditionally in the culture of minority groups the woman should stay at home doing house work, take care of the children. In contrast, the man or boy can leave the household and go to other places, for example study in lower secondary school or upper secondary school at a distance from the village. However, if we analyze the differences between male and female minority students in all programs, one striking difference is that the minority female students generally have a different social origin compared to the male minority students. More often, female minority students have a stronger educational capital (and, by definition, cultural capital) in the family than male minority students. Their fathers more often can read and write and they also have a higher educational level than the fathers of the male minority students. It is also interesting that they also more often are Buddhists. Buddhism is closer to the majority culture than the animist religions that minority ethnic groups worship. It is also a religion where the Lao language is used, for example in the temples. Probably, both these differences between female and male majority students can be said to show that the selection of female students is much stronger than for male students. For a minority girl to become educated, it is necessary that her family possesses a higher 42

educational and cultural capital and is relatively closer to the dominating culture than other minority families. The female minority students more often come from families with a stringer cultural capital. This also probably means that these families are a bit different in terms of habitus. They believe a bit less than other minority families in that the woman or girl must stay home and they more often believe that she could be educated. THE SELECTION OF FEMALE TEACHER STUDENTS AND FORMS OF CAPITAL In the discussion of the second research question, we could see that educational capital plays a role in the selection of female minority students. What role does it play in the selection of the interviewed female students in the 5+4 and 8+3 programs in relation to other forms of capital? I will now discuss this, which is my third research question. First, it is worth mentioning that the two interviewed female teachers who studied at the higher 8+3 program – where lower secondary education is required – both came from a majority group, Lao Loum Leu, not from minority groups. I only interviewed five teachers and this could be by chance, but it is also significant. However, if we look closely on the kinds of capital that the female teachers selected for a scholarship to become teacher have in their family background, it seems clear that they all come from families with a rather strong total volume of capital but composed by different forms of capital.8 If we look first on forms of symbolic capital that are not ―cultural‖ or ―educational‖ because they are not connected to the dominating culture or to the education system, we can see that among the families to which the selected teacher belonged there is in two cases a village chairman. One of these female teachers obviously belonged to an influential family also for other reasons (Interview 4), but one foundation for this influence was the fact that the grandfather had had a position as chairman in the village and still had much respect. In the interview, this teacher said that he was the person in the extended family who had most power. In the other case (Interview 2), an elder 8 For the concepts of symbolic, cultural, educational and economical capital, see the literature review. 43

brother was the village chairman. In two other cases we can see the importance of what Bourdieu calls ―social capital‖, i.e. connections of different kinds. One of the selected teachers had an elder sister who worked with the German donor organization as an interpreter and through this position knew well the Pedagogical adviser at the District Education Bureau (DEB) who selects the candidates for the teacher education scholarships. This was important for her selection. In another case, the brother-in-law of the selected teacher was working at the DEB and had close insight into the project where female village teachers were to be trained. We can also see the importance of cultural capital, especially in the form of educational capital. Even if this capital is relatively weak if we compare with the modern sector of society, for example in the town of Luang Nam Tha, in the context of these minority villages it is sufficient for making a difference between families and it can be used as a resource. First of all, the selected teachers had at least a Grade 5 exam, which is more than most women in the minority villages. For example, in some cases a female Grade 5 leaver had been selected from another village, because there were no girls who had finished primary school in the village for which the selection was made. Further, in most cases of the selected students there are elements of educational capital that were active in the selection. As already mentioned, two selected teachers were not themselves from a minority, but belonged to the majority groups who have Lao as their mother tongue. Both these students also had finished lower secondary school and had a higher educational capital than the other selected students. The selected Lentan female teacher (interview 4) had an uncle who was an 8+3 teacher but had left the teaching profession in order to work with rubber plantations that gave a higher income. Also, the second selected 8+3 teacher (Interview 5) had a brother who had a 8+3 teacher exam. From the interviews, it can be seen that the existence of educational or cultural capital in the family network works a resource in two ways: first, the family is more informed about the education system and in some cases also about the existence of the scholarships for female village teachers; secondly it is probably that the existence of this educational or cultural capital goes along with a belief in formal education and a willingness to invest in it, in other words is manifested in a habitus. Thirdly, there is obviously a relatively strong economic capital in at least some of the families of the selected female teachers. One selected minority teacher (Interview 2) came from a family with a large production, including three hectares of rubber threes. 44

Another (Interview 4) equally belonged to a family that was rich because of its rubber plantations. Three other selected teachers (Interviews 1, 3 and 5) came from families where there was at least one member with an employment and a regular salary, which is not common in remote rural areas. More importantly perhaps, in most cases these different forms of capital interact. The clearest case is the female Lanten minority teacher (Interview 4). Her family possessed various forms of capital. Symbolic capital existed in the form of a traditional capital9 represented by the grandfather who had been elected as chairman of the village for many years and also in the form of cultural and educational capital represented first of all of the uncle who was a trained 8+3 teacher, although he now worked with rubber production. Finally, this family also possessed considerable economic capital compared to other minority families in the village. For all this reasons it was a very influential family. FEMALE SCHOOLTEACHERS AND GENDER RELATIONS? This is the topic which has been most difficult to explore, simply because the interviews made with village people, and especially the young female teacher students who were the mian target for the interviews, were difficult to make. A mong the interviewees there was a very clear tendency to provide answers that could said to correspond to the ―official‖ image of either government education policy, as it was understood, or to local hierarchies of authority. For example, the interviewees never put in question that the will of the family of origin (normally the father) to send the daughter to the TTS in order to become a teacher could come into conflict with the desire of the teacher student herself. Neither did the interviewees admit that the appearance of young female village teachers might to some degree have an effect on gender relations in the village or have implications for marriage strategies. However, the interviews tend to show that there are contradictions. Normally, the interviewees confirm that there are a divition of labor 9 Perhaps it is not entirely adequate to call this a ―traditional‖ symbolic capital, since the chairman position is part of the modern Lao administration, at its lowest level. But chairmen in rural villages are elected to represent the village and deal with its affairs because they are respected in the village, for many reasons. This includes their capacity to show respect for customs and traditions and create a balance between families in the village. 45

between men and women in the villages where interviews were made. They also seem to imply that there are power relations or hierarchies that give men authority of making decisions, both in public and in family affairs. One interviewee confirms that the husband is expected to have a superior position in family. At the same time, the interviewees seem to agree that the village teacher is a person of a certain status and distinguishes herself from ordinary village members without any particular position as head of influential families or the like. However, the social relationships indicated by these statements are not seen as coming into potential conflict with the fact that a young village girl now becomes the village teacher. Only one interviewee hints that she would not easily marry anyone because the husband should not have lower education than his wife. In other words, potential tensions or difficulties are not at all emphasizes. The same goes for other aspects of the entry into the teaching profession. The important question of the language for instruction or, in a wider perspective, of the relationship between the dominating majority culture and dominated culture is never touched upon. This also includes the question of religion, since most minority villages are animist while the majority Lao Loum culture is Buddhist. The interviewees normally street the importance of education and their own will to contribute to teach children to read and write, but never mention any such dimensions of the form and content of teaching as a cultural process. Of course, this may very well be because the interviews did not enter sufficiently into such questions and because the young female teachers and teacher students who were interviewed probably did not have any opinion of their own on such matters and, hence, could not be expected to express an opinion. With all these reservations in mind, it still is plausible to say that the fact often young women who come from a village – although they most often come from dominating families – become village teachers do change gender relations. This may not be a dramatic change and the effects may appear only gradually and slowly as a result of interaction and negotiations in the villages between the school teacher and other village members, but it remains that women who used to be and remain present wives now have a profession and a salary. This change is also pointed out in a few interviews when the interviewees say that they would like it be models for young girls in the village 46

CHAPTER 8: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION The study found out the female minority students in teacher education at TTS have a chance to study because of the assets or capital of that their families of origin posses. In comparison they have the richer social origin than other students, both male minority students and majority students. It also shows that even if the new female village teachers in minority areas in the educational and national social hierarchy find themselves in perhaps the lowest position among all positions connected to formal employment and probably by this very fact could not be expected to be very active vehicles of change, advocating radical reforms in the education system, the very fact that minority women occupy formal positions in the education system does represent a major change in the local minority society. The results of the study lead to the recommendation that the government in collaboration with donor organizations and NGOs should continue to support the education of female minority students. This could be done through the kind of scholarships provided by the GTZ-funded program that had supported the female teacher students in the study or by encouraging female access to teacher education by other means. It should be remembered that the weakest families in team of cultural capital and economic capital are the ones who have the smallest opportunities to access the education system and that one of the most forceful inputs for encouraging them to send their girls to further education is that at least the economic sacrifices that this normally implies become less a sacrifice and less a burden. My classroom observations indicate that female minority students are given a very marginal role in the teaching/learning process at the TTS, compared to male students. The funding points to the necessity of a government policy as well as a local policy that the teacher training institutions which favors female participation in the classroom. Teachers seem to lack a strategy for involving especially minority female teacher students. 47

APPENDIX APPENDIX A - INTERVIEW GUIDE 1. Introduction Who I am and why I do this interview! 2. Present living conditions Name? Age? Religion? Mother tongue? Where do you live now? Where will you teach? Religion in the village? What are your expectations? Nervous? How will you live in the village when you start work as a teacher? Opinion? Family situations - father, mother, brothers, sisters, uncles etc – what do they do? 3. School and teaching The school in the village of selection – is it old/new, how many grades, etc? Is this school different from a majority school? How? How far from Muang Sing? How many people live in this village? What is the health situation in the village? 4 Selection and education Which was your study programme? Are you content? Why were you selected to be a teacher? Could you have said no? What was your best subject at the TTS? Can you describe? How will you have use for your education in your work as a teacher? (teaching skills, etc) Is it different for a man from a woman to be a teacher? 48

Who do villagers respect the most as a teacher, a man or a woman? Who has the highest position in the village, a man or a woman? Teaching - will anything be different now from when you were a student? (Clothes, speech) Do you read books? Novels? What was the last title? Why is it important for the children to read and write? (give situations) What use do the villagers have for education? What do the teachers, students at the TTS think about the minority cultures? 5. The village teacher –relationships (Chairman, village adviser, villagers, parents) How often do you meet the chairman? What do you talk about? (teaching, pupils, parents, the school, etc) Do the villagers sometimes give help with anything? What? Are you expected to do other things than teaching? (intermediary with the modern world, etc) Are you regarded as an educated person? In what way? Are you treated differently from other villagers? Does the position as a teacher change your appearance? (clothing, speach etc.) Who pay your salary? (government or the village)? Is this enough for living? What do you do if the money is not enough? 6. Language. How important is the language? Does she know Lao language well? In what language does she teach? Does she sometimes speak other languages? When? When is it not appropriate to speak other languages? 7. Religion in the village Are these beliefs accepted in the ―modern society‖? 49

Are they accepted at the TTS? What does it mean to respect ethnic backgrounds? 8. Marriage Do you have a boyfriend? When will you marry? Is it possible for an Akha girl to marry a Lao Loum boy? What do the parents think? What do the parents in law say? What position will you take in your marriage? (who make decisions, take care of children, etc) 9. Expectations for the future What does he/she expect for the future? Where does he/she want to teach? Further education? Is it possible? What happens if he/she wants to be transferred or to be further educated? What happens to the family? 10. End Do you have anything to add? Have I forgotten anything? Thank you for answering my questions 50