Educational Aspirations of Working-Class Students in Elite Universities in China

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 2:30 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Division J - Section 1: College Student Learning and Development in College and Beyond Roundtable 2 (Table 7)

Abstract

In the Chinese education context with an increasing opportunity for accessing university, the execution of educational aspirations plays a key process in early adolescent status attainment. Using semi-structured interviews with 21 undergraduate elite university students in China, this study finds that most of working-class students interviewed maintained master’s degree or even Ph.D. degree oriented. Family cultural capital sparked their educational aspirations by setting role-model and providing character education. In terms of purported elite institutional effects, the working-class students in this study benefited from ambitious academic atmosphere, professional navigations to accelerate their aspiration development, meanwhile they adopted low expectations on college networking to strengthen educational aspirations.

Keywords: educational aspiration, working-class students, family cultural capital, college adjustment

Author

• Qi An, The University of Hong Kong