Struggle and Sally--Emotional Experience of Rural Students from Ordinary Undergraduate to Elite University Master

• In Event: Negotiating Belonging and Identities

Proposal

"Striving Elites from Modest Origins" has emerged as a prominent topic of concern in the Chinese education sector in recent years, particularly in the domains of educational equity and social mobility, where discussions abound regarding "bottom-layer cultural capital", "field adaptation", "cultural reproduction" and the phenomenon of "township exam-takers". Scholars have extensively examined the phenomenon of "social mobility" and the experiences of "first-generation college students" focusing on the emotional journey during upward mobility. Particularly, they have explored the impact of transitioning between different environments and habits on the rural youth's sense of identity, cultural affiliation, and family dynamics. In contrast, there remains a glaring lack of attention to the emotional experiences of rural students, a distinctive group, during the process of cross-field mobility.

This study centres on the growth narratives of rural students who transition from regular undergraduate to elite master's programs, aiming to explore new understandings of their growth trajectories through the lens of Bourdieu's theory of social practice. From the perspective of habitus, the study will discuss how and why the interviewed individuals, as upward mobility achievers, undergo changes in habitus in the three fields of rural, regular undergraduate, and elite university environments, with particular attention to the emotional experiences during the process of habitus transformation. From the standpoint of field, the study will examine their educational history and life experiences in their hometown, regular undergraduate institution, and elite university, respectively, to understand how these experiences reinforce habitus. Through the interaction and hysteresis effects between habitus and field, they encounter varying degrees of social mobility, leading to diverse emotional experiences. From the perspective of cultural capital, the study will discuss the formation of unique bottom-layer cultural capital for the participants, which becomes a critical factor shaping their struggles and breakthroughs, promoting the generation of positive emotional experiences. However, due to the lack of cultural capital, they may experience a discrepancy between personal capabilities and family expectations, leading to feelings of inferiority when compared to urban students, resulting in negative emotional experiences.

The research subjects of this study were selected from rural students who transitioned from regular undergraduate programs to elite universities through postgraduate entrance examinations or recommendation admissions. Elite universities were defined as institutions included in the original 985 and 211 projects. Rural students were defined as those who had significant rural living experiences, with at least one of their parents engaged in physical labor, farming, or migrant work, and who experienced family economic constraints during their upbringing.

From February 2023 to July 2023, the author conducted semi-structured interviews with 8 rural students, with each interview lasting 1-2 hours. Although the interviewees were the objects of study, being highly educated individuals, they engaged in varying degrees of self-reflection and social analysis during the interviews. In this sense, the interviewees also served as subjects of the research.

The movement from rural areas to ordinary undergraduate education represents a short-distance mobility, where the positive experience lies in the "diversity of experiences," such as the novelty of transitioning from rural to urban environments and the sense of pride and satisfaction parents feel when their child is admitted to an undergraduate program. The negative experience, on the other hand, lies in the "anxiety of reciprocation," which arises from the discordance between the ideal of rewarding one's family and the reality, and the predicament of not fitting into either high or low societal levels. The movement from an ordinary undergraduate program to an elite master's program constitutes a long-distance mobility, where the positive experience lies in the "achievement of breakthrough," arising from successfully transitioning from rural areas to urban elite universities and diligently acquiring cultural capital of the target social class. The negative experience lies in the "schism of departure," as leaving one's original social class to enter the target one can lead to a cultural and habitual schism, and brings about pressure and complex emotions. The emotional experiences at these three distinct stages are primarily divided based on the developmental trajectory and educational history of rural children. In the first stage, rural children, through experiences like college entrance examinations, limited family capital, parents' unwavering support, and individualized moral thought patterns, recognize that the opportunity to change one's destiny through education is characterized by individual heterogeneity. The second stage sees rural children in ordinary undergraduate programs experience the differentiation of universities, the intensification of prestige university worship, and degree devaluation-induced educational anxiety, which prompts them to consider pursuing postgraduate studies at elite universities. The third stage focuses on the narratives of rural children's cultural transitions and the emotional experiences contradicting each other in rural-urban geographical domains and between different school domains. Rural children, despite their disadvantaged positions in terms of economic and cultural capital, still exhibit relatively rational and creative aspects.

This study advocates for re-conceptualizing so-called emotional experiences from the perspective of rural children, dividing their emotional experiences into two major transitions. When experiencing social mobility of varying distances, individuals will consider the social symbols of the place they are moving to and their symbolic meanings. Due to the inherent metaphors in social structures, cultural planning and practice-related disparities are attributed to hierarchical relationships, and the lack of initial cultural capital investment from their families and rural upbringing leads to a negative self-assessment in these rural children when they first enter the city and elite universities. However, behind this negative self-assessment lies the self-construction and subjective agency of rural children. Their unique experiences in dealing with cultural conflicts between rural and urban areas, and between ordinary undergraduate programs and elite universities during upward mobility across dual domains, can continue to expand the path to success for other rural children. Meanwhile, the emotional experiences of the eight rural children described in this article can serve as a form of cultural enhancement and empowerment, inspiring other rural children to be proactive and strive for better, while helping to break "social cognitive biases," eliminate unreasonable stereotypes and prejudices, emphasize individual autonomy, self-efficacy, and self-determination, and build positive intrinsic motivation and lasting willingness to act.

Author

• luhan huang