Balancing aspirations with efforts: Learning to interpret evaluating numbers in preparing the National College Entrance Examination

• In Event: 3429 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 18. International Topics in Higher Education: China

Abstract

Considering the population involved (9.6 million in 2016), the National College Entrance Examination (NCEE) in China is the biggest high-stakes standardized test in the world and it is the main path for Chinese students to enter universities. The main instrument of preparation is repeating mock exams. Students are trained to take exams, face results and interpret them. They are then frequently ranked by different level of rankings and form their educational aspiration based on them. How do rankings shape the way in which students form their educational aspiration? The study shows how repeating exams and rankings help students to prepare mentally their educational aspiration. By constructing a typology of different responses to evaluating numbers, I argue that a collaboration of schools and students in the interpreting work shape the unequal skill and the attitude of students face to rankings. I argue that the dispositions to manipulate symbolic boundary in interpreting rankings and to accept the decisive effects of instable academic performances are two main fruits of socializing process during the preparation.Meanwhile, they are the pillar of the NCEE institution, legitimating its necessity and efficiency. The data are drawn on a total of 12 months ethnographic work in two high schools with different academic performances in Beijing, and 149 interviews with students, teachers and parents.

Author

• Siyu Li, University Lille 1- Ecole Normale Supérieure-CASS