Education for Whom and for What? Reconceptualizing Rural-Urban Educational Inequality in China

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

The dualistic conception of China’s rural-urban inequality—dominant in existing literatures—presents a dualistic institutional hierarchy that structures disparities amongst four groups of Chinese children: rural, left-behind, migrant and urban children. This panel seeks to reconceptualize the rural-urban educational inequality through a systematic analysis of the Chinese case. Theoretically, it argues for a rethinking of what rural-urban educational inequality means and how it interacts with class and gender, as well as socio-cultural and political norms in the Chinese context. Empirically, it challenges the taken-for-granted boundaries between the four groups of Chinese children, examines the changing meaning of “suzhi” (quality), and advocates for educational research that centers the meanings, strategies, and experiences of marginalized families, children and their teachers.

Sub Unit

• SIG-International Studies

Chair

• Min Yu, Wayne State University

Papers

• Vicious Cycle of Rural Decline: Rural Educational Migration in China - Dan Wang, University of Hong Kong; Yuan Teng, Central China Normal University

• Remapping Rural-Urban Divide in Chinese Education Studies: The New Implications of Suzhi - Jingjing Lou, Beloit College

• Reimagining Curriculum and Education in Migrant Communities in China - Min Yu, Wayne State University

• The Production of "Bad Children" and Youth Subculture in Migrant Schools in China - Xin Xiang, Harvard University; Yu Sun, London School of Economics and Political Science

Discussant

• Dan Wang, University of Hong Kong