Rural Students, Education and Social Mobility in China

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Objectives of the session

The Chinese education sector has witnessed remarkable growth at all levels since the late 1990s. Amidst this expansion, researchers have been probing whether the system has become more equitable in terms of access, experiences, and outcomes for students from all social backgrounds, especially considering the wealth disparity created during rapid economic growth. Unfortunately, those from rural areas have lagged behind their urban counterparts. Not only are rural students less likely to access education after the nine-year compulsory period, especially to enter more selective schools or universities, they also evidently achieve less favorable outcomes in terms of employment, wealth, and status in the long run. Ensuring equal opportunities in education is vital in preventing their further marginalization and providing greater chance of social mobility.

Despite the unprecedented expansion of education, why have rural students remained underrepresented in higher-level and higher-prestige institutions? Is this primarily due to the market-oriented reforms that shift education costs from the state to individual students and their families? Or do other non-economic reasons also play a part? Despite increased access to higher education, why have rural students consistently made less out of even a top-tier university education when compared to their urban counterparts? What experiences do they have during college that may contribute to their less favorable educational and labor market outcomes?

This panel endeavors to address these essential questions related to rural students' access and inequity in education and their opportunities for social mobility. Various theoretical perspectives and empirical data sources are employed to provide a comprehensive portray of rural students’ real situations and experiences throughout secondary to higher education, which aims at revealing in-depth original insights over some hidden causes for their reproduction of disadvantages through education. For example, robust qualitative data reveals how rural students’ university aspirations were shaped by various family, school, and community dynamics. A large-scale survey uncovers whether opting for the vocational education track can lead to rural students’ upward social mobility. Situating at China’s top-tier universities, the researchers also conducted close-up investigations over rural students’ actual college experiences and sought to uncover the “black box” of their being disadvantaged under advantageous elite institutional environments.

Overview of the presentation

Specifically, paper 1 examines how the low educational aspirations of rural students were inculcated in certain unfavorable yet permeable socio-cultural conditions. Paper 2 explores the impact of secondary vocational education on intergenerational mobility of junior high school graduates by using the China General Social Survey data (2010-2020). Paper 3 investigates rural students’ orientation to the labor market and the way they understand and manage their employability in elite higher education. Paper 4 reveals how the test-free early admission schemes to postgraduate programs at top-tier universities are impacting contemporary undergraduate experiences and, particularly, creating differentiated situations for rural and first-generation undergraduates, which may further accumulate their disadvantages in higher education and social mobility.

Scholarly or scientific significance

The four papers in this panel offer new empirical evidence and rigorous theoretical insights to address the crucial question of whether and how education can(not) facilitate better life chances and social mobility for marginalized, underprivileged social groups—the rural population, in this case—under the unique social and cultural contexts in China’s rural communities, cities, schools, and universities. The four papers cover the range from secondary to higher education, which, when put together, offer a fresh, critical realistic view about how rural students’ interlinked experiences across different educational levels or tracks may have worked together to shape their collective destiny. The four papers, when taken apart, each addresses an important research topic in contemporary sociology of education. The four studies are based in China but share global relevance to educational equity and social reproduction scholarship under other contexts.

Structure of the session

The panel session will begin with a brief introduction (5 minute) of the Chinese social and educational context followed by the sequential presentation of the four papers (15 minutes each), 10 minutes of discussant comments, and 15 minutes of discussion with audience.

Sub Unit

• General Pool

Organizer

• Ying Ma, Fudan University

Chair

• Ying Ma, Fudan University

Individual Presentations

• The Making of Rural Students’ Low University Aspirations in China - Xiaoliang Li, Northwest Normal University

• Does Vocational Education Promote the Intergenerational Mobility? ——An Empirical Evidence from the Chinese Family Panel Studies - quanyong yi, Southwest University, China; Yao Xin-yue, Department of Education，East China Normal University; Jingbo Li

• Ritualist and Retreatist: Cultural Capital and Rural Students’ Orientations to the Labor Market in Chinese Elite Universities - Ailei Xie, Guangzhou University; YUNYUN QIN

• The Baoyan Fever at Top Chinese Universities and Its Heterogeneous Impacts over Different Student Bodies - Ying Ma, Fudan University

Discussants

• Jiexiu Chen, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

• Jingran Yu, Institute of Education, Xiamen University