Racial challenges and finding meaning in ethnic identity: ethnic-racial socialization experiences of indigenous college students in Taiwan’s higher education

ABSTRACT

The culturally diverse higher education settings is conceptualized to facilitate indigenous university students in Taiwan to establish a deeper connection with and understand the meaning of their ethnic identity. Guided by the ethnic identity development theory and school ethnic-racial socialization framework, we asked two research questions: (1) What racial challenges did indigenous students in Taiwan experience at their colleges? (2) How did students utilize college resources to overcome racial challenges and develop a meaningful sense of ethnic identity? A participatory research approach using narrative inquiry was employed (N = 20). Convenience sampling and thematic analysis were adopted. Six themes emerged. Racial challenges were: (1) intergroup discrimination; (2) internal stratification; (3) ethnic identity confusion. Social resources in higher education were: (4) confronting discrimination together; (5) peer appraisal support and encouragement; (6) multicultural social interactions. Research, practice, and policy implications were discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethnic identity
• ethnic-racial socialization
• Indigenonous

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research is supported by the General Research Fund [Project No: 12605320]

Notes on contributors

Ciwang Teyra

Ciwang Teyra is an associate professor at the Department of Social Work at the National Taiwan Universty. She specialised in indigenous social work, cultural and collective trauma, microagression and intersectional identities of indigenous people in Taiwan.

Angel Hor Yan Lai

Angel Hor Yan Lai is an assistant professor at the Department of Applied Social Science at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. She specialised in positive youth development, mutliculturalism, ethnic-racial socialisation and ethnic identity development.

Yu-Chien Hsieh

Yu-Chien Hsieh obtained a M.A. in Sociology from the Department of Sociology at the College of Social Sciences at the National Taiwan University.

Jia-Wei Shen

Jia-Wei Shen is a graduate student at the College of Social Sciences at the National Taiwan University.

Cynthia Leung

Cynthia Leung is a research assistant at the Department of Applied Social Sciences at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.