Class, Ethnicity, Neoliberalism, and Choice: A Comparative Study of School Choice in China and Israel

• In Event: Comparison of educational systems and students' experiences in different social contexts

Proposal

Purpose: Given the increasingly global nature of marketized school choice policies, it is crucial to investigate how the multiple scales, forms, and emphases of school choice in different national, class, and ethnic contexts are influenced by particular historical, political, economic, and cultural conditions. In recent years, emerging literature on school choice policies in non-Western countries (e.g. Dong & Li, 2019; Gabay-Egozi, 2016; Gurney, 2017; Hill, 2016; Lee & Bagley, 2017; Author 1, 2016, 2018; Author 2, forthcoming; Moschetti & Verger, 2020; Rd’Aiglepierre & Bauer, 2018) has expanded the traditional focus of the exploration of school choice issues in the West. This research joins this field of research by providing comparative and international perspectives on parental choice of school, an increasingly widespread practice throughout the world. The purpose of this research is twofold: (1) to extend the discussion of school choice from its Western-oriented focus by exploring and comparing studies of school choice in China and Israel; (2) to offer a critical analysis of school choice that highlights the complicated relationship between class, ethnicity, neoliberal educational reforms, and the state in non-western contexts.
Design/Approach/Methods: The study design involves the review of existing studies on school choice issues in China and Israel. The study also draws on data from our own empirical research of parental choice of schools in China and Israel, specifically middle-upper-class and upper-class parents’ choice of emerging internationally-oriented high schools in China and Palestinian middle-class parents’ choice of Palestinian-Jewish bilingual (Arabic-Hebrew) education in Israel. Examining the ways in which historical, political, economic, and cultural dynamics influence school choice issues in these two countries, the study addresses the similarities and differences in how school choice is interpreted and exercised in each and analyzes the implications for policy-makers and future research on this topic.
Findings: In both countries, school choice policies were not initiated by governments in contrast to what is often the case in the West. Rather, they emanated mostly from parents and local community initiatives due to their dissatisfactions with existing educational options. While school choice policies are in essence market-oriented education reforms, China and Israel remain with centralized educational systems and an ethos of collectivism and equality, which run counter to neoliberal, market-based education reforms. Both the Compulsory Education Law of the People’s Republic of China 1986/2006 and Israeli Compulsory Education Act 1949/2007 set fundamental principles of compulsory and free education, exemption from entrance examinations, and enrollment based on place of residence. Both states, moreover, highlight the importance of integration and equality. Hence, we not only discuss the tensions between parent-initiated school choice movements and government efforts to control choice in China and Israel, but also present school choice policies in both countries to be, as elaborated elsewhere, a form of “not seeing” policy (Kipnis, 2008; Liu & Apple, 2016; Wu, 2014).
Originality/Value: This research seeks to contribute to the growing literature on school choice policies in non-Western contexts. Despite enormous differences in school choice between China and Israel, both countries have been influenced by the increasingly global nature of marketized school choice policies. We will conclude the discussion with an emphasis on the importance of using a critical, sociological approach to examine school choice issues to better understand the complicated relationship between social class, ethnicity, neoliberalism, school choice, and the state in non-Western societies.
References

Dong, H., & Li, L. (2019). School choice in China: Past, present, and future. ECNU Review of Education, 2(1), 95-103.

Gabay-Egozi, L. (2016). School choice in a stratified geography: Class, geography, otherness, and moral boundaries. Journal of Education Policy, 31(1), 1-27.

Gurney, E. (2017). Choosing schools, choosing selves: Exploring the influence of parental identity and biography on the school choice process in Delhi, India. International Studies in Sociology of Education, 26(1), 19-35.

Hill, L. D. (2016). Race, school choice and transfers to opportunity: Implications for educational stratification in South Africa. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 37(4), 520-547.

Kipnis, A. B. (2008). Audit cultures: Neoliberal governmentality, socialist legacy, or technologies of governing? American Ethnologist, 35(2), 275-289.

Lee, A. N., & Bagley, C. (2017). School choice with education vouchers: An empirical case study from Hong Kong. International Studies in Sociology of Education, 26(1), 3-18.

Moschetti, M. C., & Verger, A. (2020). Opting for private education: Public subsidy programs and school choice in disadvantaged contexts. Educational Policy, 34(1), 65-90.‏

Rd’Aiglepierre, R., & Bauer, A. (2018). The choice of Arab-Islamic education in sub-Saharan Africa: Findings from a comparative study. International Journal of Educational Development, 62, 47-61.

Wu, X. (2014). School choice in China: A different tale? Routledge.

Authors

• Shuning Liu, Ball State University

• Assaf Meshulam, Ben Gurion University of The Negev