Thailand and Taiwan have indigenous minority populations which central authorities have sought to assimilate into the national mainstream. In both countries public education has served as an important tool of assimilation. This study examines the political ideology of the moral education curricula as applied to state primary schools serving indigenous populations in three localities in each country. The direct and indirect implementation of moral education was observed and interviews were carried out with teachers, students, parents and community leaders. The results show that as the indigenous minority children become more familiar with the national culture and its value system, they become more aware of ethnic discrimination against them, which in turn leads to a heightened sense of marginality and engenders antipathy toward members of the dominant ethnic group.

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