What if it is the taiga that he is meant to know inside out?" Educational traj ectories of Tsaatans and Tozhu Tuvans

The article explores some topics concerning formal schooling for the Tsaatans and Tozhu Tuvans. To this end, a notion of educational trajectory is used to refer to a dynamics of human presence within an education system and of a transition from one educational stage to another during a lifetime. Here, it is implied that this educational trajectory is, to a great extent, determined by the social and cultural environment surrounding a human being. The research draws on the field material collected by the author in June-July 2016 in the sum of Tsagaannuur in the Khovsgol aimag of Mongolia and in the villages of Toora-Khem and Adyr-Kezhyg of the Tozhu kozhuun in the Republic of Tuva (Russia). The research method of semi-structured interview was used. Despite the extensive body of literature on the Tsaa-tans and Tozhu Tuvans, so far there have been no works published that study the issues of these people's education. The author focuses on how the informants assess their own educational experience as well as language- and gender-related aspects of education and identifies main aspects of the informants' perception of their educational trajectories - from the implicit underestimation of schooling to the evaluation of education as an important resource. The author concludes that these educational trajectories are closely linked to social capital which is perceived in different ways depending on the socio-cultural context. This social capital can consist in knowing the Russian language, following certain economic models, having the serviceman status, or being able to establish contact with a foreign tourist.

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