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Examining Narratives of Place: Representations of Xinjiang in Tourism and Geography Education

This thesis examines how Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, located in northwest China, is represented in tourism and geographic education literature. The research demonstrates the limited and distorted place narratives of Xinjiang that are promoted by the government-backed tourist enterprise in China for consumption by English language speakers; as well as, the inadequate and uncritical representations of the region currently available to students in the United States. Qualitative content analysis methodology is employed to investigate the narrative representations of Xinjiang contained within tourist brochures, geography textbooks, and regionally appropriate curricular guides. The thesis includes a body of geographic lesson plans pertaining to Xinjiang I created that are informed by the research results. The purpose of this thesis is to move toward a more nuanced understanding of Xinjiang as a dynamic region of global significance, challenge prevailing stereotypes of the region, and strengthen geography literacy, particularly among school aged students.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:MONTANA/oai:etd.lib.umt.edu:etd-08272010-150640
Date22 September 2010
CreatorsChurch, Michael
ContributorsSarah J. Halvorson, Jeffery A. Gritzner, Steven I. Levine
PublisherThe University of Montana
Source SetsUniversity of Montana Missoula
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf, application/msword
Sourcehttp://etd.lib.umt.edu/theses/available/etd-08272010-150640/
Rightsunrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Montana or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report.

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