SCHOOL SOCIALIZATION CULTURAL LEARNING AND CULTURAL CONNECTEDNESS: IDENTITY OF YI ETHNIC MINORITY YOUTH IN RURAL CHINA

This chapter discusses the well-being of Yi minority youth, in particular their cultural learning and connectedness to the Yi group that defines their ethnic identity. In this chapter, we use the terms ethnic identity-exploration and cultural learning interchangeably, and the terms ethnic identity-commitment and cultural connections are also used interchangeably. Yi minority youth are considered to be a vulnerable group in southwestern rural China because of their collective experiences of chronic extreme poverty and parental loss. Instead of adopting a deficit approach in understanding their risk of adverse development, this chapter employs a strength-based perspective to identify promoting factors that can enhance the developmental trajectories of Yi. Based on the Theory of Cultural Trauma and Phinney's Ethnic Identity Development Theory, we hypothesized that the school socialization process of teacher and …