High-Stakes Testing for Adibashi Students: Colonial Approaches to Education for Indigenous Communities of Bangladesh
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Authors
Tahereen, Tanzina
Date
Type
thesis
Language
eng
Keyword
Adibashi Indigenous , Bangladesh , Colonialism , Education , Standardized High-Stakes Testing , Internal colonialism , Nationalism , Ethnicity , Discriminations , Exclusion , Domination
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Abstract
This dissertation investigates how the standardized, high-stakes testing system operates as a political tool used by Bengali elites to advance a nationalist agenda in education that in effect marginalizes Adibashi/Indigenous groups in Bangladesh. To develop an in-depth understanding, this study relies on a qualitative field research methodology to examine the case of Bangladesh and its Adibashi peoples with a focus on the Chakma and Manipuri communities. In addition to employing personal observation, this research collects relevant information and data from both primary and secondary sources, comprising semi-structured and in-depth interviews with 50 Adibashi participants from the two communities and ten Adibashi and non-Adibashi scholars.
This study finds that the language policy, national curriculum, and testing mechanisms manifest Bengali elites’ nationalist ideologies that function against the educational necessities of Adibashi communities and disadvantage them more than Bengali students, thus reproducing a colonial structure of domination and exploitation for Adibashis.
This research reveals that the medium of instruction and the standardized tests have been used as a major political tool of Bengali elites to promote monoculturalism that reproduces linguistic subjugation for Adibashi communities. It finds that the use of Bangla in all educational practices not only creates learning barriers for Adibashi students, it also stigmatizes their linguistic practices, negatively impacts their linguistic choices, and gradually distances them from their ethno-linguistic identities.
This research also illustrates that the national curriculum propagates the nationalist ideologies of Bengali elites and promotes a homogenization process by coercing Adibashis to accept the Bengalicized knowledge system. The curriculum advances homogenization by valorizing Bengali identity, culture, and knowledge while questioning Adibashi identities and knowledge systems. By controlling Adibashi students’ learning experiences, identities, and social relationships, the testing practices and principles reproduce the colonial consciousness of the Adibashis.
This dissertation research contributes to the study of nationalism, critical education research, and Adibashi studies and enhances our understanding of how Bangladesh’s education system is structured around a nationalist agenda of creating a Bengali nationhood that deliberately treats the Adibashis as “the other.”
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States
ProQuest PhD and Master's Theses International Dissemination Agreement
Intellectual Property Guidelines at Queen's University
Copying and Preserving Your Thesis
This publication is made available by the authority of the copyright owner solely for the purpose of private study and research and may not be copied or reproduced except as permitted by the copyright laws without written authority from the copyright owner.
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States