State Intervention in Disciplining Family Education: Official Construction of Parenting Discourse in China

• In Event: Analyses of International Education Policy Issues

Abstract

International research has documented the increasingly dominant discourse on parenting in context-specific education governance. Drawing on family education policies and reports on parenting in People’s Daily, the study examines how the official discourse on parental rights and responsibilities has evolved since the foundation of China. The analysis shows a historical process in which the state increasingly respected parental choices, holding parents responsible for their children’s education for private as well as common good. It also illustrates the dynamism between the market and the state in competition for disciplining Chinese parents. The state has always tried to retain dominance in face of challenges imposed by the market, which was in some cases, out of its own making.

Authors

• Shu Cao, East China Normal University
  Presenting Author

• Wei Zhang, East China Normal University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Chunlu Zhu, East China Normal University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Tian Li, East China Normal University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Zhipeng Wu, East China Normal University
  Non-Presenting Author