The Choice of Internationally Oriented High Schools: New Parental Choice of School in China?

• In Event: 41.083 - Roundtable Session 15
  In Roundtable Session: 41.083-5 - International Examinations of School Choice Policies

Abstract

This paper looks critically at socially elite Chinese students’ choice of newly established international high school curriculum programs in China. Drawing on critical studies on school choice, Bourdieu’s notion of capital conversions, and neoliberal globalization, this study uses the data from in-depth interviews with 20 focal students and their parents at the Sunny High (pseudonym) International Curriculum Program in Moon City (pseudonym), a cosmopolitan city in China to examine their motivations and decision-making processes of choosing this educational program. In exploring how the students and their parents make sense of high school choices, this paper argues that the marketization and privatization of education facilitated by neoliberal globalization undergird students’ choice and parental influence to attend internationally-focused high schools.

Author

• Shuning Liu, Ball State University