National versus Ethnic Language: How Does the Language of Instruction in Schools Shape Ethnic Minorities’ Political Support?

Abstract

Does the language in which minorities were educated during schooling affect how they perceive the state? Is there a difference in political support based on whether minorities were educated in the national language or their mother tongue? The answer to the question is not yet clear, although the importance of language in nation-building has long been highlighted in the literature of nationalism. In this study, we for the first time study the effect of language of instruction on minority citizens’ political support using the empirical case of China. The parallel school systems in China, where minorities have the option to enrol in either Chinese-medium schools or ethnic-language-medium schools, provide us with a unique opportunity to employ a rigorous quasi-experimental research design with causal mediation analysis. Utilizing a series of longitudinal household national surveys, our results show that having the ethnic language as the language of instruction has a considerable negative impact on minorities’ political support. With the finding, this article contributes not only to the studies of nationalism and nation-building, but also to scholarship across multiple fields, including public opinion, language planning and policy, and education policy.