Educating vulnerable youth in China’s urbanizing context: the schooling of rural, migrant and ethnic minority children

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

The speed and scale of urbanization in China is unprecedented in human history. In contemporary China, over 50% of the Chinese population now live in cities, compared to 17.9% in 1978. The urbanization trend is expected to continue, as China is predicted to have 1 billion urban residents by 2020 (World Bank, et al 2014). Importantly, urbanization has not only fueled the nation’s economic boom, but also affected the lives of all children in China, especially those who are particularly marginalized such as rural migrant and left-behind youth. Among the estimated 106 million children (38 percent of China’s total child population) impacted by rural-to-urban migration in 2010, 35.81 million children migrated with their parents to urban areas, while 70 million were left-behind in predominantly rural areas (Unicef 2014). The rural youth who have been influenced by China’s massive rural-to-urban migration face formidable educational challenges to realize their potential and for socio-economic mobility.

This panel investigates the education of vulnerable youth — rural, migrant and ethnic minority youth— impacted by migration and urbanization in contemporary China. Drawing from fieldwork across different regions of China, each of the panel’s four papers reveal distinct, yet complementary insights on the educational challenges and opportunities emerging from rapid urbanization for China’s vulnerable youth. Findings aim to refine prevailing cross-national theories on education as an institution of empowerment and social reproduction, as well as contribute to the existing scholarly discussion on China’s education system. Lastly, our panel considers what “education for sustainability” looks like in China’s rapidly urbanizing context. Particularly as China’s National new-type urbanization plan (2014-2020) prioritizes a sustainable and people-centred approach to urbanization, insights from this panel illuminate critical ways to re-consider China’s future and identify systemic changes to improve the lives of vulnerable youth highlighted in this panel.

Paper 1 provides a broad overview for the panel, by using photovoice to analyze the discourse of suzhi in rural and migrant schools over time. Its analysis on the dynamic relationship between education and suzhi argues for a paradigm shift beyond the rural-urban divide, as well as recognition of education’s role in the emergence of working class youth who are neither rural nor urban.
Building on the first paper, Paper 2 continues the investigation of education as a site of social reproduction. It examines how differences in parental social capital are linked to higher education access for ethnic minority and Han migrant children. While previous studies either examine ethnicity or hukou status, this analysis uniquely examines the double disadvantage of ethnicity and hukou status on educational inequality.
Finally, Papers 3 and 4 provide another lens on education for China’s vulnerable youth by conceptualizing schools as transformative places that develop individual and community potential. Paper 3 argues teacher practices in public and migrant schools are acts of empowerment for social transformation in China’s strong state context. In applying a cross-cultural lens to consider the role of context in conceptualizing “empowerment,” it advances critical pedagogy theory beyond its Western roots. Paper 4 applies the capability framework to identify the gendered cultural norms that hinder rural Han and Mongolian female students from realizing their agency. In exploring the empowerment of these female students, it identifies government policies and poverty as critically shaping whether education can promote individual agency and community development.

Collectively, the papers of this panel illuminate new insights on how urbanization has influenced education in China. By providing empirically-based analyses across China’s vast terrain, papers will provide a rich perspective on the educational barriers and opportunities for vulnerable youth highlighted in the papers. Lastly, the findings from this panel aim to ground and enrich the discussion on what “educating for sustainability” can look like for China’s vulnerable youth and future.



REFERENCES

UNICEF. 2014. "Children in China: an atlas of social indicators." United Nations Children’s Fund, Beijing.

World Bank; Development Research Center of the State Council, the People’s Republic of China. 2014. Urban China : Toward Efficient, Inclusive, and Sustainable Urbanization. Washington, DC: World Bank. URL accessed on Sept 7, 2018: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/18865

Sub Unit

• SIG: East Asia

Individual Presentations

• What do shifting narratives of suzhi tell us about the nature of migrant and rural children’s education in China? - Jingjing Lou, Beloit College

• Han and ethnic minority migrant student college access in Gansu, China: investigating family social capital and hukou status - Xiaoran Yu, Lehigh University; Peggy A. Kong, Lehigh University

• Empowerment from what and for whom? teacher practices in a migrant children school and public school in China - Lisa Yiu, University of Hong Kong; Min Yu, Wayne State University

• Han and Mongolian migrant girls’ educational empowerment: a comparison - Ya Na, Kent State University; Liangtao Ni, Kent State University; Yu Li, Kent State University; Debra Clark, Kent State University; Vilma Seeberg, Kent State University