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.
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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.