Swotting, Idling, or Quitting: Rural Students’ Learning Practices and the Plight of County-Seat High Schools

• In Event: Sunday Roundtable Session 11:25 am
  In Roundtable Session: Examining School Contexts and Student Experiences (Table 38)

Abstract

In China, many county-seat high schools serving rural students declined in their graduates’ access to prestigious universities. Current studies focused on those schools’ loss of high-quality students and teachers, seldom did they examine the learning routines of rural students. Inspired by Bourdieu’s theory of practice, this paper investigates the learning routines of rural students at a county-seat high school: swotting, idling, or quitting. While the gaokao expected students to learn and employ textbook knowledge creatively, rural students relied heavily upon swotting. As efforts at swotting fell short of the gaokao requirements, many rural students opted to idle or quit. Improving the university access of graduates from county-seat high school necessitates transforming the schools’ routine teaching and learning practices.

Author

• Xiaoliang Li, Northwest Normal University