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TitleGuanxi exclusion in rural China: parental involvement andstudents' college access
Advisor(s) Postiglione, GA
Author(s) Xie, Ailei.;Œ r xÊ
.
Citation
Issued Date 2012
URL http://hdl.handle.net/10722/173833
RightsThe author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights)and the right to use in future works.
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GUANXI EXCLUSION IN RURAL CHINA:
Parental Involvement and Students’ College Access
By
XIE Ailei
A thesis submitted for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Education
at The University of Hong Kong
March 2012
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ii
ABSTRACT OF THESIS ENTITLED
Guanxi Exclusion in Rural China: Parental Involvement
and Students’ College Access
Submitted by
XIE Ailei
For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
at The University of Hong Kongin March2012
This study examines the differential patterns of access to higher education of
students from rural areas in transition from a planned to a market economy. In
respect to college access, the research argues that market reforms have reproduced
the advantages for students from the cadre‟s and the professional‟s families while
simultaneously creating new opportunities for the children of the new arising
economic elite. Yet, it has performed less for traditional peasant families whose
children still fail to gain access to college in proportions higher than the size of
the population.
Based on the literature, this research places a special emphasis on how economic
and cultural resources become the main influence on rural students‟ college access.
The process dimension -- how families from different social backgrounds within
rural society involve themselves in the schooling of their children and how this
contributes to inequality of college access within rural society, are investigated.
This research unpacks this process by examining the school involvement
experiences of parents in Zong, a county located in the province of Anhui.
Parental involvement is conceptualized in terms of how economic and cultural
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resources are converted to social capital as part of family strategies within the
increasingly stratified social context of rural China. The research identifies the
consequences of activating different types of social networks within family and
community, and also between family and school to facilitate this process by
gaining advantages in access to college. Household interviews and field notes
were used as the main methods of data collection with a range of parents and
teachers involved in this ethnographic study.
The data analysis suggests that state, schools and teachers provide few formal and
routine channels for rural parents to become involved in schooling. This raises the
importance of family strategic initiatives to employ interpersonal social networks
( guanxi) within family, community and between school and family. Parents from
cadres and professional backgrounds are capable of maintaining these social
networks that are useful for their children‟s chances of entering higher education.
Their counterparts from the new economic elites‟ backgrounds have developed
the means to capitalize upon their families economic and cultural resources by
converting them into social capital that creates advantages in college access for
their children. Peasants, however, rely heavily on teachers and relatives in
education and are substantially marginalized from those important interpersonal
social networks of capital conversion.
Although this research found the structure constrains interpersonal social network
of peasant families, it also highlights the agency of parents from different families.
For example, in some cases it found, that peasants actively use their kinships to
create chances for school involvement to potentially improve the chances of their
children‟s college access.
This research is one of the first empirical studies to inquire about the mechanism
of capital conversion in affecting higher education opportunities in the
post-socialist era, which will help to re-evaluate the influence of market reforms
over rural education system in China.
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DECLARATION
I declare that this thesis represents my own work, except where due
acknowledgement is made, and that it has not been previously included in a thesis,dissertation or report submitted to this University or to any other institution for a
degree, diploma or other qualifications.
Signed ...............................................................................
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT OF THESIS ................................................................................................................ II
DECLARATION ............................................................................................................................ V TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................................. VI
LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................................ IX
LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................... X
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................................ XI
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................. XII
CHAPTER ONE ............................................................................................................................. 1
INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1
1.1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 1
1.2 BACKGROUND ....................................................... ................................................................. . 1
1.2.1 Higher education in China: expansion, marketization and equality ....................... 1
1.2.2 Who goes to colleges and universities and why? .................................................... 4 1.3 RATIONALE OF THIS STUDY ............................................................. ............................................ 9
1.4 RESEARCH PROBLEM .............................................................................................................. 10
1.5 THE DEFINITION OF TERMS ............................................................. .......................................... 11
1.6 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS STUDY ............................................................................................. 12 1.7 STRUCTURE OF THE DISSERTATION ............................................................. ................................ 13
CHAPTER TWO .......................................................................................................................... 14
MARKET, RURAL SOCIETY AND EDUCATION IN TRANSITION .................................................... 14
2.1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 14 2.2 MARKET TRANSITION, RURAL SOCIETY AND ITS TRANSFORMATION .................................................. 14
2.2.1 Market reforms and rural economy ....................................................................... 14
2.2.2 Wealth, poverty and inequality ............................................................................. 17 2.3 RURAL SCHOOLING AND CHILDREN IN THE TRANSITIONAL ERA ........................................................ 23
2.3.1 The changing landscape of rural education .......................................................... 23
2.3.2 Challenges to Rural Schooling and Beyond ........................................................... 29
2.4 CHAPTER SUMMARY .......................................................... ..................................................... 33
CHAPTER THREE ....................................................................................................................... 34
LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ............................................................ 34
3.1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 34
3.2 STATE, MARKET AND FAMILY .......................................................... .......................................... 34 3.2.1 The redistributive system and its influence on educational attainment .............. 35
3.2.2 Market economy and educational attainment ..................................................... 37
3.3 PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT AND SOCIAL CLASS ......................................................... ..................... 38 3.4 FORMS OF CAPITAL AND THEIR CONVERSION ............................................................................... 41
3.5 SOCIAL CAPITAL, INEQUALITY AND EDUCATION ....................................................... ..................... 47
3.5.1 Social capital: origins and definitions .................................................................... 48
3.5.2 Social capital as a process ...................................................................................... 53
3.5.3 Social capital in creating advantages for school success ...................................... 56
3.6 CHINA’S SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION, CULTURE AND GUANXI ............................................................ 61
3.7 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ..................................................................................................... 65
CHAPTER FOUR ......................................................................................................................... 71
METHODOLOGY ....................................................................................................................... 71
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4.1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 71
4.2 WHY ETHNOGRAPHIC APPROACH .............................................................. ................................ 71 4.3 ACCESS ..................................................... ................................................................. .......... 73
4.3.1 The selection of filed site and entry ....................................................................... 74
4.3.2 Sampling and access to informants ....................................................................... 77 4.4 DATA COLLECTION ............................................................ ..................................................... 81
4.4.1 Interview ................................................................................................................. 82 4.4.2 Documents .............................................................................................................. 86
4.4.3 Field notes............................................................................................................... 87 4.5 DATA ANALYSIS ..................................................................................................................... 88
4.6 REFLECTION .......................................................... ................................................................ 91
CHAPTER FIVE ........................................................................................................................... 94
INSTITUTIONAL SOCIAL CONNECTIONS BETWEEN SCHOOL AND HOME: THE MISSING LINKAGE
................................................................................................................................................. 94
5.1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 94
5.2 STATE SCHOOLING AND THE PATHWAY TO COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES ............................................ 95
5.2.1 School system and enrollment ............................................................................... 95
5.2.2 Selection and competition...................................................................................... 97
5.3 TOWARD-SOCIAL-CAPITAL CONVERSION: PARENTS’ VOICES ABOUT SCHOOL INVOLVEMENT ................. 100
5.3.1 Material and emotional support 物质和情感支持 ...................................... 100
5.3.2 Managing ( 管 ) ...................................................................................................... 102
5.3.3 Tutoring ( 教
) ......................................................................................................... 104
5.3.4 Knowing the academic scores ( 知道分数
) ........................................................... 105
5.3.5 School Choice ( 择校
) ............................................................................................. 107
5.4 VAGUE SANJIEHE (三结合) : MISSING THE LINKAGE BETWEEN FAMILY AND SCHOOL ........................ 108
5.5.1 Trinity become one force: the interdependence of family, school and community
109
5.5.2 Vague way of Sanjiehe: the separation of family and school ............................. 111
5.5 RESTRICTED ACCESS TO SCHOOLING: TEACHERS’ VOICES ABOUT PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT .................. 113 5.5.1 Marginalized roles: the perceived importance of parent by teachers in schooling
113
Providing information ........................................................................................................ 113
Supervising after-class activities ........................................................................................ 114
Managing the exceptional case ......................................................................................... 115
5.5.2 Limited inter-connectedness: formal channels for parents to involve................ 117
5.5.3 .................................................................................................................................... 117
Home visits .......................................................................................................................... 117
Parents meeting.................................................................................................................. 119
Academic Performance Notice (APN) ................................................................................. 121
5.6 CHAPTER SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION ........................................................ .............................. 122
CHAPTER SIX ........................................................................................................................... 125
PARENTS’ STRATEGIES: GUANXI AS A RESPONSE .................................................................... 125
6.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 125
6.2 PEASANT: RELYING ON TEACHERS AND THE STRONG TIES WITHIN FAMILIES ...................................... 125
6.2.1 Relying on teachers .............................................................................................. 125
6.2.2 Skipped generational raising ( 隔代教养 ) ............................................................ 127
6.2.3 Kinships and relatives ........................................................................................... 131 6.3 CADRE AND PROFESSIONALS: REPRODUCING STRONG TIES WITH COLLEAGUES .................................. 134
6.3.1 Family and community ......................................................................................... 134
6.3.2 Colleagues and friends ......................................................................................... 138
6.4 THE NEW ECONOMIC ELITES: PRODUCING INTERPERSONAL TIES WITH TEACHERS ............................... 142
6.4.1 Peidu (accompany studying) 陪读 ................................................................... 142 6.4.2 Giving gifts and hosting banquets for teachers .................................................. 145
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6.5 CHAPTER SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION ........................................................ .............................. 147
CHAPTER SEVEN ..................................................................................................................... 151
CONSEQUENCES: INTENDED AND UNINTENDED ..................................................................... 151
7.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 151
7.2 INTENDED CONSEQUENCES .................................................................................................... 151 7.2.1 School engagement and promotion .................................................................... 151
7.2.2 Access to model schools and key classes ............................................................. 154
7.2.3 Teachers’ care关照
.......................................................................................... 156
7.3 UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES ....................................................... ......................................... 157
7.3.1 Complains and distrust ......................................................................................... 157
7.3.2 Social relations reproduced .................................................................................. 159
7.4 CHAPTER SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION ........................................................ .............................. 160
CHAPTER EIGHT ...................................................................................................................... 162
CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSIONS .......................................................................................... 162
8.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 162
8.2 MARKET, GROWING NEEDS IN SCHOOL INVOLVEMENT AND THE WEAK FORMAL LINKAGE BETWEEN FAMILYAND SCHOOL ................................................................................................................................ 162
8.3 SOCIAL STRATIFICATION, GUANXI EXCLUSION AND CAPITAL CONVERSION ......................................... 166 8.4 INEQUALITY IN SOCIAL CAPITAL AND ITS CONSEQUENCE ............................................................... 169
BIBLIOGGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................... 172
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1.1: Expansion of the Chinese higher education system 2
Figure 1.2: Ratio (%) of rural Students in the top two universities 5
Figure 1.3: Ratio of beichulv from different social backgrounds in different types of HEIs
8
Figure 2.1: Rural labor involved in agricultural sector 16
Figure 2.2: Rural families‟ net income 18
Figure 2.3: Gini coefficient in rural China 21
Figure 2.4: Inequality of incomes in rural China 22
Figure 2.5: Per capita income for the rural in the east, central and west 22
Figure 2.6: Ration of rural primary schools to those in cities and townships 25
Figure 2.7: Ration of rural junior secondary schools to those in cities and townships 25
Figure 2.8: Number of rural primary, junior secondary and senior secondary schools 26
Figure 2.9: Number of students enrolled in rural primary, junior secondary and seniorsecondary schools 26
Figure 2.10: Number of students‟ transitional rate at national level 27
Figure 3.1: theoretical framework 70
Figure 4.1: General Economy of Zong County 75
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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1.1: A typology of researching into college access 4
Table 2.1: Rural families‟ net income 19
Table 3.1: Parental involvement with definition 39
Table 3.2: Social capital and its uses by different authors 52
Table 4.1: Employment and income gap in Zong County 76
Table 4.2: School profiles 81
Table 4.3: Interviewees in the field 82
Table 4.4: Family profiles 84
Table 4.5: Households and their children 85
Table 4.6: Teachers and principals 86
Table 4.7: Documents at different Level with examples 87
Table 5.1: Student enrollment in primary and secondary schools of Zong 96
Table 5.2: School transition rates in Zong and a comparison with the national level (2007)
96
Table 5.3: Central school and ordinary rural school, with reference to the statistics at
national level 98
Table 5.4: The transitional rate for three types of senior secondary school 99
Table 5.5: Plan Enrolled Students and Out of Plan Enrolled Students in Zong 99
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
APN Academic Performance Notice
CCP Chinese Communist Party
IPES Plan Enrolled Students
MOE Ministry Of Education
OPES Out of Plan Enrolled Students
SCS School Chosen Students
SHSAE Senior Secondary School Admission
Examination
RDICASS Rural Development Institute of Chinese
Academy of Social Science
TVEs Township and Village Enterprises
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I want to thank my parents, Xie Linfeng and Zhang Shou feng for their support
over the years. I am especially grateful for those helps provided by my
parents-in-law, Guang Shanlin and Ruan Jianping. They took care of my daughter
when I was in the field and preoccupied by the academic writings. Lastly, I wish
to thank my wife, Guang Tingting, and daughter, Xie Xiangyi. They put up with
my frequent absences required to complete the fieldwork and write the thesis.
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providers. Minbangaoxiao (民办高校) also gained momentous development in
recent years and provided more places for secondary school graduates (Tao &
Wang, 2010).
Introducing the user-charge principle and encouraging private institutions in the
Chinese higher educational sector, told but only part of the story brought by the
market reforms. Postiglione (2006) has indicated that the momentous change from
a planned to market economy brought significant reforms to China‟s higher
education system. Market, instead of plan, is reconsidered the key mechanism to
allocate resources and revive and promote competitions among different HEIs
(Yan & White, 1994). Decentralization is supposed to be a strategic way of
enforcing marketizing and adjusting institutional governance (Mok, 1999).
Canceling guaranteed job placement for graduates and introduction of labor
markets are a significant step in rebuilding the producer and customer relationship
between institutions and students (Duan, 2003; Huang, 2005; Postiglione & Xie,
2009).
The current system has been characterized this way:
Education becomes a commodity provided by competitivesuppliers; educational services are priced and access to them
depends on consumer calculation and ability to pay (Yan &
White, 1994).
Therefore, there is a need to consider the impact of market forces on equality of in
access to colleges and universities. As the way of how higher education is funded
has changed, the financial burden has shifted from the state to the individual
student and their family, which may frustrate the educational expectation of those
who cannot afford the cost of college. The withdrawal of the universal student
maintenance grant, replaced by loans (and tuition fees), may also place a number
of new financial burdens on both current and potential students. Canceling
guaranteed job placement for graduates and introduction of a competitive labor
market may even lower the benefits of higher education for poor families and
hamper the willingness of poor parents to invest in higher learning(Y. Liu &
Zhang, 2007).
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An alternative way to ask this is: who suffers and who is advantaged by the
market driven access to college and university, and why?
1.2.2 Who goes to colleges and universities and why?
As college education becomes an important credential with which individuals can
compete for better jobs in the labor market and higher social status in society, the
body of literature researching college access also rapidly grew. The majority of
newly enrolled college and university ( Putonggaoxiao普通高校) students are
recent secondary school graduates. Numerous studies have been done to examine
who among these graduates are advantaged in college access and why.
According to the units of analysis, this literature can be categorized into two
types. Babbie (2007) claims that the unit of analysis is the major entity being
analyzed in a study and posits that it could be individuals, groups, organizations
and social artifacts. Riordan (1997, p. 64) suggests two units of analysis for
analyzing studies in the sociology of education: individual, and groups or
organization, with the former being the characteristics of individuals such as
socio-economic status and gender, and the latter being characteristics of groups or
organizations such as the contextual environment of communities. The studies of
college access, according to the unit of analysis, can be categorized as follows
(see table 1.1).
Table 1.1: A typology of researching into college access
Units of analysis Variable used
Individuals SES, gender,
Groups ororganizations Urban and rural, east and west, ethnicity community,
The first type of research looks at those characteristics of groups and
organizations and claims that such group-level variables such as geographic
locations and ethnicity are important predictors of who can gain access to colleges
and universities and why.
From studying the urban and rural gap in college access, researchers found
children whose parents are residents of east and urban areas are more likely to
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enroll in colleges and universities (X. Y. Chen & Min, 1999; W. Wang & Xie,
2006; Zhong & Lu, 2003). Through comparing matriculating rates of urban and
rural residents, Wei and his colleague reported that urban students‟ matriculating
rates of going to HEIs were three times that of rural students (H. Wei & Yang,
2004). Urban students were not only more likely to enroll in ordinary HEIs, but
also showed more interest in attending selective universities located in eastern and
urban regions. On the contrary, their counterparts from western and rural areas
were meaningfully disadvantaged in going to any type of college and university
(Zhong & Lu, 2003). Moreover, they also tended to choose HEIs located in the
western and middle parts of China and enrolled in disciplines like education and
agricultural studies. Yang (2006b) claimed that a possible explanation for the
choice might be that the living costs in West and Central China are much lower.
Some students could even be exempt from tuition fees and receive subsidies from
the government if they enrolled in programs in teacher education and agricultural
studies (Yang, 2006b).
Figure 1.2: Ratio (%) of Rural Students in Top Two Universities
Source: Wei, H. (2004). “Woguo chengxiang gaodengjiaoyu jihui jundeng de shizheng yanjiu”(A empirical study on the college access gap between urban and rural China). Unpublished MPhil thesis, Beijing Normal University, Beijing.
The privileges of urban residents in gaining access to college were evident even
before the market reforms. It increased despite the overall expansion of the higher
education system. According to Wei (2004), the percentage of rural college
students in top HEIs substantially decreased from 1994 to 1997 (see figure 1.2).
0
5
10
15
20
25
199119921993199419951996199719981999
Tsinghua University
Peking University
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His research is supported by several later studies. For example, Jiang (2007)
reported in his survey that the number of rural students was becoming less in
those most selective universities in two provinces of China: Jiangxi and Tianjin.
These urban and rural gap studies contribute much of the advantages of urban
students in college access to the quality of schooling they are born to have. They
maintain that schools in eastern and urban areas tend to be equipped with better
educational facilities with more qualified teachers, professional counselors and
even post-secondary preparatory courses. Urban students are then more likely to
have access to these resources and gain privileges in attending colleges and
universities (Yuan, 1999).
Researchers claim that college enrolment rates also remain low for most ethnic
minority groups in China except for Korea, Manchuria, and Mongolia (Gao, 2008,
p. 43). In most cases, success or failures of minority students are attributed to the
cultural and historical traits of their communities and relevant state policies (Gao,
2008; Yi, 2008; Z. Zhao, 2007). For example, the over-representation of some
ethnic groups in HEIs is claimed to be from their shared senses of cultural
superiority and educational expectation (Gao, 2008). Meanwhile, the low
academic achievement of other ethnic groups is credited to a backward cultural
legacy or the cultural exclusion from the Han-dominated school system that
downplays the cultural legacy of ethnic minority groups and excludes ethnic
minorities from equal access to different schools (Yi, 2008).
While the discourse of urban-rural gap and community forces raises researchers‟
interests in group-level explanations for school success and failures, the market
reforms and emerging types of social stratification of Chinese society draw much
attention of researchers to the individual-level analysis. Researchers report that
individual-level variables such as social economic status and gender are important
predictors of the unequal access to HEIs (W. Li, 2003; X. Zhou, 2004).
Zhou (2004), for example, found that students from cadre families (Ganbu jiating
干部家庭)were privileged in college access. His findings are proved in other
similar studies. Li, in his research into social backgrounds of new entrants in
Peking Universities, found that the number of students from cadre families
increased substantially, accompanied by a slight expansion of student population
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from professional backgrounds ( Zhuanye jishu renyuan 专业技术人员) and a
noticeable decrease in the percentage of students from worker and peasant
families ( Putong gongren yu nongmin普通工人与农民)(W. Li,2003). Children
from worker and peasant families are not only under-represented in such prestigious HEIs as Peking University, but are also reported to be disadvantaged
in accessing ordinary HEIs (Yang, 2006b). Their counterparts from those families
of emerging economic elites [including household business owner and individual
industrialist and commercialist (Geti gongshang hu 个体工商户 , private
entrepreneurs (Siying qiyezhu 私营企业主 )]who achieved great success in
accumulating wealth in the market transition, however, gain substantial
advantages in attending all types of colleges and universities. Similar surveys
were conducted by other researchers, which yielded similar findings (W. Wang &
Xie, 2006; Yao, Huang, & Lu, 2006).
Sound chances of students from advantaged social groups (cadres, professionals,
managers, household business owners and individual industrialists and
commercialists, entrepreneurs) in going to HEIs are claimed to be partly the result
of higher family incomes and more investments in education since which may
increase parents‟ privileged position to buy their children comfortable housing,
good nutrition and access to intellectual stimuli; even purchasing high quality
education, private counselor services and extra-curricular training (Yao, et al.,
2006). Yet, their counterparts from disadvantaged social groups were more easily
daunted by high tuition fees for higher education and more likely to choose to
drop out of schools since the perceived cost surpassed potential benefits of an
unpromising higher education diploma (Y. Liu & Zhang, 2007).
Researchers also contributed the advantages that students from those privileged
social groups have in college access to their parents‟ education. Zhao (2000) and
Wang (2005a), for example, found in their research that parents' education level
well predicts their children‟s opportunities in going to colleges and universities.
Other researchers (W. Wang & Xie, 2006; Yao, et al., 2006) also maintain that
students whose fathers are secondary school or college graduates enjoy substantial
advantages in college access, in going to selective colleges and universities in
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particular. Wang and his colleague (2006) claim a similar influence from their
mothers‟ education on students‟ chances of college access.
Figure 1.3: the ratio of beichulv from different social backgrounds in different types
of HEIs
Note: beichulv (辈出率) refers to the ratio of enrolled college students from certainsocial strata to the population of the strata.
Source : Wang, W., &Xie, Z. (2006). Research into The Higher Education Opportunitiesof Different Social Classes in China(Zhongguobutongshehuijiecengzinvgaodengjiaoyuruxuejihuichayiyanjiu). Higher Education Research (GaodengJiaoyuyanjiu, 27 (10), 35.
Gender is also an important factor in differentiating higher education
opportunities. Researchers consistently point out that the number of female
students in undergraduate study and postgraduate study is less than males (C. Li,
2010; X. Wang, 1999). Female students are also found to be more likely to go to
less selective colleges and universities (Z. Xie, Wang, & Chen, 2008). They are
also reported to be more likely than their male counterparts to enroll in programs
in humanity and social sciences. For female students from rural areas, the
situation is more desperate. Yang (2006c) reported that the chances of female
students from rural areas in going to HEIs are even lower than that of their
disadvantaged counterparts from urban areas.
national keyHEIs
ordinaryHEIs
publichHTVHE
PrivateHTVHE
IndependentHEIs
umemployed people in cities andvilages
peasants
workers
staff in business
household business owners andindividual industrialists and
commercialists
clerk
professionals
Enterpreneurs
Managers
Cadres
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1.3 Rationale of this study
The rapid expansion of Chinese higher education since the 1990s and the
introduction of market forces are having a pronounced effect on the social and
cultural composition of the college and university population. Studies mentioned
above tell us there are gaps in college access between residents from the urban
and rural areas, male and female students, Han and ethnic minority groups and
among social groups from different SES backgrounds. The group-level variables
such as quality of schooling, cultural legacy and individual-level variables such as
family incomes, educational investment and parents‟ education level are often the
explanations for these gaps.
While contributing much to understanding the emerging higher education
opportunity structure in China‟ transition from a planed to the market system, the
literature talks less about the process of how this structure came into being and the
influence of market reform over this process. Still less is known about how the
group differences in college access are formed despite the impressive and
abundant discussions over the college access gap between urban and rural
residents in recent literature and the inequality and equity in success at school.
Although researchers indicate the market reinforced advantaged positions of
cadres, professionals and those new arising economic elites (including private
entrepreneurs, household business owners and individual industrialists and
commercialists) in college access, there is still a lack of research of how market
forces contribute to this process and especially how children from these social
groups gain advantages over their counterparts from peasant families despite
being only a small proportion of the rural population (X. Lu, 2002).
Most current discourses in disadvantages of students from rural families in college
access research are limited to urban and rural comparisons where the quality of
schooling is seen as the main determinant for rural students‟ higher education
opportunities. While the quality of schooling may be a good explanation for the
college access gap between rural students from east and west areas, it contributes
little in understanding inequality in higher education opportunities among those
rural residents from different social backgrounds who live in similar regions and
the same rural school systems. Strategies of how families from different social
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backgrounds compete for the privileges of college access for their children are
still in a black box.
Studies referred above also raise the issue of status competition and suggest that
economic and cultural resources are important predictors of rural students‟ college
access. While acknowledging families‟ positions in the stratified rural social
systems and its possible influences over rural student college access, this
explanation considers less about the process of how different families pass their
advantages on to their children and help them to achieve success at school.
Parental involvement has long been seen as the process dimension of families‟
influences over children‟s school success (Y. Jiang, 2003). It refers to activities of
parents linked to children‟s learning which could be home, school or
community-based (C Desforges & A Abouchaar, 2003; Epstein, 2001; Schneider
& Coleman, 1993). Lareau (1987)claims parental involvement as a crucial
moment of educational inclusion and exclusion and argues that the interaction
between students, parents and teachers provide important occasions where
students may gain privileges such as information, supervising and encouragement
that are conducive to school success. Despite the overall importance of parental
involvement in schooling and its possible significance in explaining school
success of children from different social groups, there are few studies that focus
on how different parents within China‟s rural society get involved in schooling,
how social backgrounds influences the process of parental involvement, and how
this contributes to or become a barrier to their children‟s college access.
1.4 Research problem
China‟s transition to a market system saw the growing importance of human
capital in status achievement and the increasing returns for investment in
education (Debrauw& Rozelle, 2007; W. Zhao & Zhou, 2007). Yet, schooling
does not pay off at the same rate for parents and students from different social
backgrounds (Yang, 2006b). It is notable that rural students from families of the
cadre, professional and new arising economic elite are gaining an advantage over
their counterparts from peasant families in college access. This study aims at
understanding this advantage. Specifically:
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How do rural parents from different social categories involve
themselves in their children‟s learning process and how this
contributes to their children‟s success or failure in college access?
To be more specific:
1.
How do rural parents from different social backgrounds perceive
their roles in their children‟s learning process?
2. What are those strategies that rural parents from different social
backgrounds use to fulfill their perceived roles?
3.
What are the advantages and disadvantages in college access
produced by these different strategies?
1.5 The definition of terms
In the context of this study, key concepts are defined as follows:
Urban and Rural population
According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, urban and rural
population could be differentiated according to the administrative system,
permanent residence or statistical classification. In this study, these two groups of
people will be defined according to their permanent residence.
Urban Population refers to total population of districts under the
jurisdiction of a city with district establishment, the population
of street committees under the jurisdiction of a city without
district establishment, population of resident-committees of
towns under the jurisdiction of a city without district
establishment, and the of resident-committees of towns under
the jurisdiction of a county (National Bureau of Statistics of
China, 2002).
Rural Population refers to total population except urban
population (National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2002).
In the county where this study was carried out, there are mainly three kinds ofresidence: county township (chengguanzhen城关镇), townships ( xiang 乡) and
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villages (cun村). The rural population in this study mainly concerns those who
live in townships and villages.
The pri vileged fami li es
The privileged families in this study refer to those of the cadres, professionals and
the new economic elites‟ backgrounds. The economic elites mainly refer to those
private entrepreneurs, household business owners and individual industrialists and
commercialists who gained economic success in the China‟s transition to the
market system.
1.6 The significance of this study
China‟s market reform and its influences over rural residents‟ higher education
opportunities have drawn much attention from researchers in the educational and
sociological research field (C. Li, 2006; J. Liu, 2004; Z. Xie & Luo, 2004; 2006c;
X. Zhou, 2004). This research for the first time reveals there is a need to
understand group differences in college access within rural society and argues that
understanding the process of how cadres, professionals and those economic elites
gain advantages for their children in college access helps to re-evaluate the
influence of market reforms over education systems.
This study also contributes to literature on parental involvement and social class.
While traditionally the definition of parental involvement was seen as
non-negotiable concept, this study proposes that there is a need to understand the
parental concept of what is involvement in school such as the role they should
take in their children‟s learning process and what constitutes effective strategies in
involvement. The in-depth description of these helps in understanding thosecultural and contextual factors shaping parental involvement in schooling.
Furthermore, the portrait of those strategies used by parents from different
backgrounds can provide important insights of how social actions of individuals
can help reproduce their class disadvantages and advantages in a special social
and cultural context.
One key policy implication of this study is that once advantages and
disadvantages of parents from different social backgrounds in involving their
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children's learning process are known, more specific policies can be produced to
encourage them to involve in schooling, equally, actively and effectively. Actions
could also be taken to assist different parents to participate in schooling and help
their children to achieve success in school.
1.7 Structure of the dissertation
This dissertation has eight chapters. Chapter one briefly introduces the
backgrounds, rationales, research problem, terms and significance of this study.
Chapter two focuses on the emerging types of social stratification and changing
landscape of education system in rural China in this market transition era with the
aim of providing a context to understand this research.
Chapter three reviews the literature. It necessitates those key concepts in
understanding college access for rural students and inequality, provides a
theoretical framework for understanding the social class, its influence over rural
parents‟ involvement in schooling and their implications over inequality in
college access.
Chapter four describes the methodology of this study. Beginning with adiscussion of the rationale of why ethnographic approach is used in this study, it
then briefly justifies the selection of the field. Access and methods in data
collection and analysis is then introduced.
Chapter five, six and seven present the main findings of this study. Chapter five
examines parent perceptions of their role in schooling, teacher attitudes to
parents‟ participation in schools and schools‟ arrangements in getting parents
involved in schools. Chapter six examines the strategies of parents from different
social backgrounds in school involvement. Chapter seven reports the intended and
unintended consequence of parental involvement in schooling.
Chapter eight summarizes and discusses the research findings. It returns to the
theoretical framework of this study and discusses the theoretical and practical
implication of this study.
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CHAPTER TWO
Market, Rural Society and Education in Transition
2.1 Introduction
Chinese rural society has experienced two extraordinary transformations since the
end of 1940s, which were initiated by Mao and Deng respectively. While the first
transformation featured the rapid overturns of political institutions and the land
tenure system, the second one saw the reverse of most of the policies under the
radical era (Unger, 2002). This chapter is primarily concerned with the most
important transition process at the latter period in rural society: privatization and
marketization; both of which have provided important references for
understanding the increasing inequality and emerging social stratification in rural
China. It then briefly introduces some important changes in rural education
system since 1970s. Finally, some challenges facing rural schools are also
discussed. All of these attempts contextualize the research problem into the socialand historical backgrounds of China‟s market transitional era.
2.2 Market transition, Rural Society and Its Transformation
2.2.1 Market reforms and rural economy
Chinese incremental transition from a planned to market system, has left a large
imprint in its history and in rural society (Waldron, Brown, & Longworth, 2003,
p. 21). During the socialist era, China‟s countryside was highly collective with
agricultural production within each village held in the hands of production teams
(Shengchandui生产队). What peasants produced had to be sold to the government
procurement stations at fixed prices (Y. Lin, 1992). Furthermore, peasants were
constrained from being involved in private trade or producing handicraft. They
were also deprived of the right to leave farming and immigrating to cities to gain
industrial work (Davis & Wang, 2009). The market reforms in post-socialist
China, however, saw changes in most of these policies and the reorganization of
the peasants‟ lives and livelihoods (Unger, 2002, p. 95).
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The rural transition began with the introduction of the Household Responsibility
System (HRS, Jiatinglianchanchengbaozerenzhi家庭联产承包责任制). The HRS
system was first an experiment and launched at the end of 1970s in both
impoverished inland provinces and regions specializing in cash crops such as
cotton (Cai, Wang, & Du, 2008; Y. Lin, 1992). With success in linking the returns
with production and the incentives with output, the Chinese Communist Party
(CCP) tried to extend the reform to more areas and popularize the system in the
whole agricultural sector (Du, 2010). At the end of 1984, after CCP legitimized
the HRS as a new form of basic unit of production, distribution, and consumption
in rural areas by endorsing it in the CCP‟ Central Committee‟s No. 1 Document
for 1982 (namely the conference summary (Quanguonongcungongzuohuiyijiyao
1982年全国农村工作会议纪要), more than 98 percent of rural households were
involved in the new system (L. Wei, 2009). Through HRS, collective agriculture
was eventually abandoned and the land divided into family plots (Nee, 1996).
Although farm households had not actually possessed the full ownership of their
allocated land whose title was still in the name of the village. They were, for the
first time since the establishment of collectivist agriculture in China, allowed to
lease collective-owned land on family base and sell their product (Nee, 1996;
Unger, 2002). This shift from a collective system to a system where households
had decision-making powers and control over the land and other resources, they
used finally witnessed the once deprived property rights being returned to
individual families again (Nee, 1991; Oi, 1989).
Beyond HRS, additional steps were also taken to reform the mandatory quota
procurement system. The market system was gradually introduced into the
process of selling and buying grains (Jeffries, 2006). Through a series of distinct
but closely related phases, the government gradually discarded the substantial
subsidy on urban grain supply and most of the control of grain marketing
(Garnaut & Guonan, 1996). The gradual removal of the control over demand and
supply of grains granted peasants the right to decide what to produce and how to
market their product (Tang, 1996). Re-establishing market mechanisms in trading
rural products urged peasants to improve the efficiency in the using of family‟s
labor power since the proper use of this labor power was again directly linked
with the beneficiaries of their families (Unger, 2002).
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Families with spare labor began to use more land for planting labor-intensive,
high-priced commercial crops (Du, 2010; Unger, 2002; Y. Zhou, 2009). They also
used more time to grow animals with the aim of diversifying and increasing their
incomes. Moreover, peasants began to earn a sound part of their livings outside of
agriculture. With the reduction of demand for farm labor brought by technological
innovation and increased inputs of capital, families with a surplus labor force, for
example, became highly involved in non-agricultural sectors. Some of these
families even left villages for long periods to work at the richer locations of rural
areas, urban factories in the east coastal areas, urban construction sites or for other
pursuits (Nyberg & Rozelle, 1999). The number of rural residents who were
directly involved in the agricultural sector has been decreasing steadily since
1978. For example, in 1978, more than 90 percent of rural laborers were still in
the agricultural sectors of its economy, while in 2009, the number declined to
around 60 percent (see figure 2.1).
Figure 2.1: Rural labor involved in the agricultural sector
Sources: National Bureau of Statistics of China. (2009). China statistical yearbooks,2009 Beijing: China Statistics Press.
With the impact of market reforms becoming more and more profound in rural
villages, the free circulation of labor, commodities and funds has led to a dramatic
increase of township and village enterprises (TVEs) and the rise of private
enterprises. Most TVEs were established during the 1980s, collectively owned in
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
197819801985199019952000200520062009
"rural labor involved in
agricultural sector"
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the sense that they were sponsored by township and village governments, and
soon became one of the most booming segments of the Chinese economy (Cai, et
al., 2008). At its height, TVEs contributed more than 40 percent of the national
gross industrial output and employed around 130 million workers (Y. Zhou,
2009). Even though soon left-behind by the restructured state-owned enterprise
and emerging private enterprises after 1990s, they were still important entities that
provided large number of off-farm employment to rural labor. For example, in
2009, TVEs employed over 155 million rural labors, equivalent to one quarter of
the rural labor population (National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2009). The
1990s also saw the blooming of private enterprises in rural areas with the
encouragement from the central and local governments, the process of which was
accelerated when many TVEs were finally sold to private owners (Nyberg
&Rozelle, 1999; Unger, 2002).
2.2.2 Wealth, poverty and inequality
The market transition saw two decades of economic growth in China with its real
per capita GDP increasing by 9 percent per year for over 30 years. The continuous
economic growth created chances to accumulate wealth for the first time since
the1950s. Meanwhile, the government also began to launch favorable policies insupport of the rural population and all these policies contributed to the increase of
rural incomes. For example, it began to exempt peasants from agricultural tax
since 2007(RDICASS, 2007). Substantial subsidies were also provided to
peasants for their agricultural production and the increased agricultural
procurement prices. A new Rural Cooperative Medical System focusing on
inpatient-care was also established to reduce the costs peasants have when they go
to hospital and to improve the quality of the medical service they receive
(RDICASS, 2007).
In the socialist era, rural households had few chances to generate income and
accumulate wealth. Most were confined to villages and the major part of their
income was earned from farming. For example, in 1978 when market reforms
began, rural residents earned over 85 percent of their incomes from the
agricultural sector. The majority could accumulate little wealth from this since
most of their products had to be sold at a low price to the state to provide urban
dwellers with sufficient food (Y. Lin, 1992).
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Now after decades of reforms, families in rural areas have begun to substantially
profit by selling what they have produced. What peasants earned from farming
has increased rapidly with improvements in both agricultural productivity and
agricultural prices. From 1990 to 2009, for example, per capita net income earned
from the agricultural sector by peasants increased from less than 500 RMB to
around 2,000 RMB (see figure 2.2). Moreover, peasants began to earn a
substantial part of their income outside the agricultural sector. In 1990, for
example, over half of peasants‟ incomes were from farming. When it came to
2010, however, more than 60 percent of peasants‟ incomes were from off -farm
endeavors and other sources.
Figure 2.2: Rural families’ net income
Sources: National Bureau of Statistics of China. (2009). China rural statistical
yearbooks, 2009. Beijing: China Statistics Press.
The increased portion of these off-farm incomes came from employment in local
TVEs and various private enterprises. Another substantial part was from labor
markets in cities. According to the annual report from the Rural Development
Institute at Chinese Social Science Academy (RDICSSA), the incomes of rural
households from immigrant work grew steadily over the past 30 years. With the
shortage of immigrant workers in many eastern and coastal areas in recent years,
rural households earned even more from their immigrant employment. For
example, the monthly salary for a migrant worker was 781 RMB in 2003, which
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
1978 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2009
"net income from
agricultural sector"
total net income
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increased to 953 RMB in 2006 with a yearly increase at a rate of 22 percent (Ru,
Lu, & Li, 2006). Generally speaking, for all who went to work in cities, over 60
percent could earn more than 600 RMB per month. More than a quarter could
earn over 1,000 RMB a month (see table 2.1).
Table 2.1: Rural families’ net income
Monthly
wages RMB 2003 2004 2005 2006
Below 200 6.4 5.2 3.7 2.7
200-400 21.6 19.3 1.5 11
400-600 28.9 28.7 27.2 22.8
600-800 16.4 17.4 19.3 20.4
800-1000 11.2 12.4 15.1 17.2
1000-1200 5.4 6 7 9.1
1200-1400 2.3 2.5 3 4.2
1400-1600 2 2.5 3.1 3.9
Above 1600 5.9 6.1 6.6 8.7
Source: Ru, X., Lu, X., & Li, P. (2006). The China society yearbook: analysis and forecast of China's social development, 2006 . Leiden: Brill.
In spite of rapid economic growth and continual accumulation of wealth, poverty
persists in rural areas, especially in remote rural areas. The ratio of the rural
population living in extreme destitution decreased substantially during the reform
era; dropping from over 14 percent in 1987 to less than 2 percent in 2007.
Nevertheless the absolute number of rural residents in poverty is still large (Y.
Zhou, 2009). In 2004, for example, there were still more than 2,500 million ruralresidents earning less than 700 RMB per year. In 2007, the number of rural
residents with a per capital income below 800 RMB per year was still around
1,500 million RMB (Zhang, 2008). Considering the number of those near-poor
whose per capita income is above the poverty threshold ( 944 RMB per year), the
number of rural people who still live in critical situations trebled to more than
6,400 million (Zhang, 2008). Rural residents in poverty are concentrated in the
middle and west part of China. For example, using a government definition of
poverty as a per capita income of less than 785 RMB per year in 2007, the number
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of rural residents in poverty was 1.41 million in the east, 4.61 million in the
middle and 8.78 million in the west (Zhang, 2008). This indicates that over 90
percent rural population in poverty occupies the middle and western parts of the
country. Most of these people and their children live in impoverished mountain
areas and cannot get access to high quality education and health care. Many went
into poverty because of the high cost of sending their children to schools and
paying the high medical charges in the fee-for service health care system (Davis
& Wang, 2009).
The above story about wealth and poverty reveals a simple fact about the market
reform: some are taking the lead, while others are left-behind. Prior to market
reforms, the inequality in rural society was relatively inconspicuous as most of the
rural sector earning the same as each other. However, with significant changes in
household income structure and the rapid development of ex-farm opportunities,
the overall income inequality increased steadily during the post-socialist era.
Using the Gini coefficient as a measure of income distribution, the inequality
within rural areas increased significantly with a value around 0.2 to nearly 0.4
from 1978 to 2006 (see figure 2.3). As the market reform continues, the aggregate
income distribution becomes highly concentrated towards the top quintiles of the
rural population. In 2007, for example, households in the top quintile had a per
capital income exceeding 9,791 RMB. Households in the middle and fourth
quintiles had per capita incomes between 3,659 RMB and 5,130 RMB. Their
counterparts from the lowest quintile had per capita incomes, however, less than
1,347 RMB (RDICASS, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010). Although the rapid economic
growth has created and continues to create chances for the rural to earn more with
an annual average increase of income at more than 10 percent, the absoluteincrease of income for the lowest and the second quintiles is still slow (Zhang,
2008) (see figure 2.4). Income inequality also exists at the regional level. The
China Yearbook of Rural Household Survey (1992, 2000, 2005, 2007, 2010)
shows the east coastal areas continue to run ahead of the central and western
regions and regional inequality in terms of per capita income for the rural among
these regions has become more and more evident since the 1980s (see figure 2.5).
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Figure 2.3: Gini coefficient in rural China
Source: Zhang, D. (2008). " Zhongguojumingshourufenpeiniandubaogao, 2008" (Annualreport of Chinese's residents' distribution of incomes, 2008). Beijing: Economic SciencePress.
The changed path to economic prosperity and the enlarging income gap recall the
issue of class formation (Davis & Wang, 2009). In the socialist era,
bureaucratically assigned class labels heavily determined the social and political
statuses of individuals and created a social structure stratified by differences not
in wealth but in political loyalty (Davis & Wang, 2009). With the market reforms,
however, these class labels and commissural social stratification that lasted more
than twenty years vanished away (Davis & Wang, 2009; Unger, 2002).
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
0.3
0.35
0.4
0.45
Gini Coefficient
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in post socialist era. Research indicates that rural cadres gain control and income
rights over collective industry, exerted their influence over salaried positions for
family members in TVEs, capitalized on influence networks and information with
private entrepreneurs, and even started “insider privatization” to plunder
collective assets (Bian & Logan, 1996; N. Lin, 1995; X. Liu, 2009). Therefore,
they have achieved substantial advantages in accumulating wealth in post socialist
era.
The second element standing out refers to the phenomenon that the market reform
resulting in new opportunity structures centering on the marketplace has given
rise to entrepreneurship. Increasing returns to capital saw the emergence of new
economic elites in rural society: the household business owners and private
entrepreneurs. Some are cadres, or relatives and friends of cadres, who
transformed their political power into sources of private incomes. Some gain their
advantages through their own skills and resources (Unger, 2002). The third
element is the return to education increased and the professionals gained also
advantages because of the knowledge and skills they have acquired (Bian, 2002a;
X. Lu, 2002, 2004).
2.3 Rural Schooling and children in the Transitional Era
2.3.1 The changing landscape of rural education
Most rural schools are primary and secondary, although the school system in rural
areas are diversified and there are also increasing numbers of preschool
institutions, technical and vocational schools, as well as HEIs in these areas. For
most of the time after 1978, rural schools have taken up a large proportion of the
Chinese education system. For example, in most of the cases since 1978, morethan 80 percent of primary schools and over 50 percent of junior secondary
schools are rural ones (see figure 2.6, 2.7 and 2.8). Rural schools also provide
education for the majority of students in China‟s school system. For as long as
nearly 20 years after 1978, over 50 percent of Chinese students have received
their primary education in rural schools and this number decreased only recently
with the decreasing of the rural student population and consolidation of rural
schools (see figure 2.9)(Yang, 2010). The student population in rural schoolsserved were over 120 million since 1978 which decreased recently because of the
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large-scale immigration of rural residents to urban areas and the a substantial
decrease in the number of school-aged children with the implementation of the
county‟s one child policy.
Market reform also saw great changes within this huge school system. During the
socialist era, many radical educational policies were implemented and great
efforts were made, especially in the Cultural Revolution era, to eliminate social
differences in school systems both in terms of class origins and urban-rural
locations (Hannum, 1999; X. Zhou, 2004). For example, the merit-based criteria
in selecting students were abolished and political recommendations and class
labels became the primary means of determining progress in schooling (Unger,
1982). Tracking systems were also abolished, as well as key schools, vocational
education system (Rosen 1984). The link between education and occupational
achievement was also removed (Unger, 1982).
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Figure 2.8: The number of rural primary, junior secondary and senior
secondary schools
Sources: National Bureau of Statistics of China. (2009). China rural statistical yearbooks, 2009. Beijing: China Statistics Press.
Figure 2.9: The number of students enrolled in rural primary, junior
secondary and senior secondary schools
Sources: National Bureau of Statistics of China. (2009). China rural statistical
yearbooks, 2009.Beijing: China Statistics Press.
The post-socialist era witnessed the overturn of most of these policies and schools
were reconstructed to satisfy the needs of economic reconstruction (Pepper, 1990;
Thøgersen, 1990). Education was thought to be the key to science and technology,
and the means for sustainable economic growth (Pepper, 1990). Many efforts,
0
200000
400000
600000
800000
1000000
1200000
1978 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2006 2009
the number of rural senior
secondary schools
the number of rural junior
secondary schools
the number of rural primary
schools
0
20000
40000
60000
80000
100000
120000
140000
160000
180000
200000
1978 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2006 2009
number of students enrolled
in rural senior secondary
schools
number of students enrolled
in rural junior secondary
schools
number of students enrolled
in rural primary schools
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provincial governments in funding compulsory education. As a result, the central
government compulsory education budgets increased rapidly (Yang, 2010). In
2008, for example, Chinese central governments had a budget of 66.6 billion
RMB for rural compulsory education (Yang, 2009). Expenditures for rural
compulsory education were also fully merged into the central and local
government budgets. A mechanism was also established to guarantee funding for
rural compulsory education through combining the allocations from the central
and local governments (Lou & Ross, 2008; Yang, 2010).
Efforts have also been made to improve the quality of rural education to a
standard comparable to schools in cities through investing more and better
resources in rural schooling. In suggestions on Further Promoting the Balanced
Development of Compulsory Education issued in May 2005, the MOE, for
example, suggested that special policies would be further initiated to reduce
disparities between rural and urban schools in funding and quality of teachers and
facilities. They required governments at different levels to balance resource
allocations between rural and urban areas and give village and small township
schools and those far less developed than cities, priorities in recruiting new
teachers.
Since 2001, the Chinese government has also initiated The Project for the
Reconstruction of Dilapidated School Buildings in Rural Primary and Secondary
Schools ( Nongcun zhongxiaoxue weifang gaizao gongcheng 农村中小学危房改造
工程) with the aim of improving learning conditions for rural students and
ensuring all rural school buildings are safe in central and western China. Between
the year of 2001 and 2005, over 9 billion RMB have been invested in this project,
where 60,833 ramshackle school buildings were rebuilt (Caing Net, June, 11th,
2011). Chinese government also launched a “special- post” teachers program in
2006 with the aim of providing rural schools, in central and western parts of
China in particular, with more quality teachers with college degrees. Between
2006 and 2009, over 59.2 thousand of college graduates were recruited to this
program and introduced to rural schools. (China News Net, March 18th, 2009).
Government at provincial level was also required to financially guarantee teachers
in rural primary and junior secondary school could get their salary in reasonable
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time and quantity.
Market reform also saw more links between rural schooling and the labor market.
A competitive entrance examination was introduced again into the education
system so that the most intelligent students could be selected (Hannum, Park, &
Cheng, 2007; Unger, 1982). More rural vocational and technical school were
established or transformed from regular schools. Vocational education centers
were also created in many counties. All of these efforts were made to improve the
alignment between schools and the labor market. Research proved that the
economic returns to education in rural China increase with the market reform
(Debrauw & Rozelle, 2007; Parish, Zhe, & Li, 1995). Education is, for example,
becoming a crucial factor that decides whether rural laborers are able to find a
profitable off-farm work successfully (Y. Zhou, 2009).
2.3.2 Challenges to Rural Schooling and Beyond
Rural schools are still facing great challenges today. Most are still weak, get less
investment and are left-behind by urban schools. Although great efforts have been
made to eliminate these financial gaps, the overall inequality in school spending
between urban and rural schools still exists (Yang, 2010). In terms of per capita
spending on teaching facilities for example, urban primary schools nearly have as
many three times the budget as rural ones. Rural schools are still handicapped
with many teachers of dubious quality. The number of teachers with college
degrees in rural schools is far less than in urban ones. Compared with their
counterparts in urban schools, the number of teachers in rural schools with a
senior professional title is also far fewer than that in urban schools (Yang, 2006a).
Moreover, rural schools are now serving a more diversified student population.
With the booming of China‟s economy, for example, more than 200 million
farmers are moving to cities in search of work (Chan, 2009). Although many
migrant workers take their children to the cities where they work, their children‟s
situation demands further consideration since many will return to rural school
after being away from hometowns for a period. Research estimates 18.34 million
migrant children in cities. Nearly half of the migrant children were from
Guangdong, Anhui, Henan, Sichuan, Hunan, Hubei, Shandong and Jiangsu(Yang, 2008). Over 29.9 percent of these children were born in cities where their
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parents worked. More than 30 percent of these children have been in cities for
more than five years (Yang, 2008). However, most were denied the full access to
the social welfare system in those cities where their parents worked. For example,
a survey in Dongguan, an industry city in Guangdong, shown that nearly half the
migrant children were not involved in the public medical care system(S. Lu,
2005).
Over 61.3 percent of these migrant children are of school age and most are still
discriminated against by urban schooling (Yang, 2008). Although the central
government claims “host cities are responsible for enrolling the migrant youth in
their public education systems”(Yi liuru di weizhu, yi gongba nxuexiao weizhu 以流入
地为主,以公办学校为主), there is still a substantial body of migrant children
being denied access to public schools in the cities where their parents work
(Yang, 2008). For example, in 2005,of the 500 thousand migrant children in
Beijing, 38 percent could not attend public schools. In Shanghai, only 50.7
percent of its migrant children could get access to public schooling in 2006
(Yang, 2008). The situation has significantly improved after a number of cities
such as Shanghai and Dongguan, upon the request of Ministry of Education, tried
to reform its public education system and enroll more migrant children into their
public education system. Shanghai has promised to send all school-aged migrant
children whose parents working in Shanghai to its public schools in the near
future.
For those migrant children who successfully enrolled in public schools in cities
where their parents work, they still experience the difficulties in identifying
themselves as true members of these schools. Most have a strong sense of
alienation from the urban schools (Chan, 2009; Yang, 2009). A survey shows that
they are still outsiders in some social activities in schools. More than 37 percent
perceived that the local students did not accept them and nearly 40 percent
claimed that they were to some extent, discriminated against in public schools
(Lei, 2004). The study also found that migrant children performed worse than
their native counterparts in academic performance (Wu, 2009).
For those excluded from quality public schooling and enrolled in Migrants'
Children Schools ( Nongmin gong zidixuexiao 农民工子弟学校), the situation was
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even worse. They usually could not get access to quality schooling. In most cases,
migrant schools run privately and cannot get funds from the government. They
cannot purchase enough quality teaching facilities that are comparable to public
schools (Fan, 2006; Y. Zhu, 2004). The salaries they are able to offer to teachers
are also still low. A recent survey in Beijing showed that most of the teachers in
this type of schools earned less than RMB 1,000 per month. Moreover, 54.1
percent were paid RMB 600-799 per month and only 8.3 percent were paid above
1,000 RMB per month (S. Zhao, 2000). Low salaries and a lack of a guarantee of
access to social welfare discouraged young college graduates from seeking
employment in these schools. The Beijing survey mentioned above shows that
only 40 percent of teachers in these institutions have a college degree. Nearly half
have only a secondary school or vocational school education (S. Zhao, 2000).
Migrant children enrolled in public schools are sometimes segregated from native
students (Chan, 2009; Zeng & Li, 2007). A recent study in Beijing reported that
40 percent of migrant children did not have native children friends and 33.7
percent mentioned they did not want to have native students as their friends since
they felt that they were looked down upon by these local students (Lei, 2004).
They could seldom foster a feeling of belonging to the cities where their parents
worked.
Students in these schools were also found to be disadvantaged in achieving
academic success. They were less likely to be supervised by their working parents
and performed worse than their counterparts in public schools (Feng, 2008).
Furthermore, most were denied access to senior secondary schools in cities after
finishing their compulsory education and had to return to their hometowns if they
wanted to take the Senior Secondary School Admission Examination and receive
a senior secondary education (Yang, 2008). Many experienced difficulties in
re-adapting into rural society without the care of their parents (Yang, 2008).
Many migrant workers left their children at home to be taken care of by a single
parent, grandparents or other relatives because of perceived difficulties in getting
full access to public schools in those cities where they worked. Researchers from
the All-China Women‟s Federation (ACWF) ( Zhonghua quanguo funv lianhe hui
中华全国妇女联合会) estimated that the number of children left-behind has
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reached 58 million, which equals to around 28.3 percent of the rural children‟s
population. According to research by ACWF, nearly half (47 percent) of these
children were left-behind at home under the care of one parent (usually their
mother). 26 percent were living with their grandparents. About 27 percent were
cared by their relatives or friends of their parents, or without any kind of custody
from adults (ACWF, 2008). In most families, the husband would work in the city
for a few years before his wife joined him. Most of these left-behind children live
in central and west China in such provinces as Sichuan(四川),Anhui(安徽),
Henan(河南), Hunan(湖南),and Jiangxi(江西)(China Youth Daily, May, 29th
2006). In some rural counties in west and central China, the number of left-behind
children accounts for as much as 80 percent of the child population (ACWF,
2008).
Most of these left-behind children have very limited contact with their parents
who migrate to cities in search of jobs. Research in Changsha of Hunan, shows
that more than 88 percent of left-behind children in Changsha met their migrant
parents one or two times a year since their parents seldom returned home. 45
percent have no idea where their parents worked and 75 percent never visited the
cities where their migrant parents worked in (CYLHN, 2006; Lv, 2005). Phone
calls are the main way to maintain the contact between these children and their
migrant parents. A survey in Beijing found that about 80 percent of left-behind
children talked with their parents on the phone once every two weeks (Lv, 2005).
Most of these left-behind children are in great need for emotional support from
their parents and most have experienced psychological distress and get little
psycho-therapy support (Z. Zhou, Sun, Liu, & Zhou, 2005). Research shows that
left-behind children are more likely than their counterparts in rural areas to suffer
from such psychological diseases as depression and barriers to communicate with
others. For example, a two-year longitudinal research shows 37 percent of the
child left-behind under survey said that they did not want to talk to anyone, 30
percent said that they always felt lonely (Chan, 2009).
These left-behind children were also more vulnerable than their urban
counterparts to natural disasters, accidents, and crimes (Chan, 2009). Above all,
many left-behind children experienced learning difficulties in schools. They are
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more likely than their city counterparts to drop out of school. They also perform
worse than their counterparts from other backgrounds in rural areas. A recent
survey in a county of Sichuan showed that 48 percent of left-behind children
achieved a very low academic rank in their classes (China Rural Study Net,
November, 17 th 2004). Most perceived less motivation than their counterparts in
learning. They were also less likely to finish their homework on time (Tan &
Wang, 2004). Their parents and grandparents at home are usually without
education and could not provide them with any help in learning (X. Li, 2004; W.
Liang, 2010).
2.4 Chapter summary
As the economic and social institutions of China continue to evolve, the social
and educational landscapes both within and outside rural society are changing
rapidly. This chapter provides a brief introduction to the market reform in China
and how it changed its path to poverty, wealth and inequality within rural society.
It also generally describes the changing landscape of rural schooling and the most
important challenges it faces. Grasping these continuities and changes within rural
society and its school system presents not only a context for understanding the
research questions under inquiry in this study but a necessary step in seeing the
social space where rural parents act.
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CHAPTER THREE
Literature Review and Theoretical Framework
3.1 Introduction
This chapter will develop a theoretical framework to study parental involvement
in rural schooling and its implication for the inequality in college access for
students from different social backgrounds. It first examines two bodies of
literature, namely, the state and market explanations to the advantages and
disadvantages in college access in China. It highlights the importance of strategies
of how rural parents navigate the rapid changes in rural schooling and help their
children achieve success in school. By focusing on the concept of “parental
involvement”, it then analyzes what specific strategies rural parents can use to
influence their children‟s chances in school and how it is linked to social class.
In what follows, I try to unpack rural parents‟ strategies by invoking Bourdieu‟s
idea of capital conversion. I understand parental involvement in schooling as a
capital process where rural parents transform their advantages in economic and
cultural resources into