Reimagining Curriculum and Education in Migrant Communities in China

• In Event: Education for Whom and for What? Reconceptualizing Rural-Urban Educational Inequality in China

Abstract

This paper reveals the challenges and rewards of constructing school curriculum that fit the needs and interests of migrant communities in urban China that are yet entered the mainstream discourse. It discusses how the lives in China’s migrant communities shape perspectives that migrant children and teachers bring to school and places special emphasis on the need for the involvement of the public in addressing what kinds of schooling is worthwhile for migrant children.
This study pays close attention to collective efforts of parents and teachers working in migrant communities for the education of migrant children. Previous studies have addressed the power of ordinary people coming together to create change in their communities to reverse serious educational problems (Anyon, 2005; Apple, 2006; Binder, 2002) and historical accounts of describing the challenges and rewards of community organizing (Payne & Strickland, 2008; Reese, 2002; Siddle-Walker, 1996). This study brings the practices of teachers and community activists who work closely with migrant students to examine how their community-based collective actions changed students’ and other community members’ perceptions of who they are, what they can do, and how they can do it. The reflective analyses of social relations and detailed accounts of structures of inequality provide spaces for a politics of recognition and redistribution that has been denied to migrant workers and their families for over three decades. These struggles are particularly true for those who have mobilized for the schooling of migrant children in complex and uncertain social and political environments.
This study was conducted in five different migrant communities in and around Beijing. As part of a longitudinal, multi-sited study, I used ethnographic methods for data collection, including in-depth interviews and participant observations at homes, schools, and community sites with migrant children, their parents and teachers.
By documenting the history of migrant children schools and sharing the stories of community-based activities, this study recognizes the collective efforts of parents and teachers in the migrant communities. These community-mobilized activities highlight the need for collective responsibility and a more just-oriented representation of migrants. It is part of a larger project aimed at providing a platform for making migrants voice heard as a collective and seeking their recognition by the state and society at large.
As a former teacher in migrant children schools and now a researcher who examine schooling and community organization regarding the education for migrant children, I further highlight the complexities of educating children from migrant families in China. In addition to acknowledging that their struggles and agency are subjected to China’s household registration system (hukou), I argue that intersectional analysis is needed to expose the multifaceted inequality faced by migrant families and children. At the same time, the community-based curricular activities also represent an emerging movement of migrant schooling that provides emotional, cultural, and social support for migrant students and their families through collective action.

Author

• Min Yu, Wayne State University