Urban Schooling and Social Integration of Ethnic Migrant Students in China

Abstract

A great migration from rural to urban areas is happening in China and dramatically changing China society. This qualitative study examines the educational experience and social integration of ethnic migrant students in urban China. Contextualized within the huge rural-urban divide, findings indicate challenges in urban schooling and study adaption, including language barriers, achievement gaps, incompatibility of teaching and learning, and high-stakes tests. This study also interprets their negotiation with host and home places and cultures, and cultivation of cultural capital and cross-cultural competence. The unification and competitiveness in urban schooling and the need for culturally responsive teaching are discussed.

Keywords

urban schooling social integration migrants ethnic China

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

All-China Women’s Federation. (2013). Woguo nongcun liushou ertong chengxiang liudong ertong zhuangkuang yanjiu baogao [Report on rural left-behind children and migrant children]. http://acwf.people.com.cn/n/2013/0510/c99013-21437965.html

Cote

J. E.

(1996). Sociological perspectives on identity formation: The culture–identity link and identity capital. Journal of Adolescence, 19(5), 417–428.

Darling-Hammond

(2014). Foreword. In Milner

H. R.

Lomotey

(Ed.), Handbook of urban education (pp. xi–xiii). Routledge Press.

Deng

(2010). Moving for opportunities? Examining the public school attendance and reading achievement of migrant students in Beijing (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Michigan.

Durkheim

(1997). The division of labor in society. ( Coser

, Trans.). Free Press. (Original work published 1893).

Feng

S. -D.

(2012). Shehui zhichi zai liudong ertong de jiating gongneng yu wenti xingwei zhijian de tiaojie zuoyong [Accommodation of social support in migrant children’s family and problem behavior.]. Educational Measurement and Evaluation, 5, 40–43.

Furman

(2012). Social justice leadership as praxis: Developing capacities through preparation programs. Educational Administration Quarterly, 48(2), 191–229.

Foxx

S. P.

Saunders

Lewis

C. W.

(2020). Race, gender, class and achievement: A culturally responsive approach to urban school counseling. Professional School Counseling, 23(1_pt_2), 2156759X19899184.

Gadsden

V. L.

Dixon-Roman

E. J.

(2017). “Urban” schooling and “urban” families: The role of context and place. Urban Education, 52(4), 431–459.

10.

Gay

(2018). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research and practice (3rd ed.). Teachers College Press.

11.

Gee

J. P.

(2011). How to do discourse analysis: A toolkit. Routledge.

12.

Gee

J. P.

(2012). Social linguistics and literacies: Ideology in discourses. Routledge.

13.

Guo

J. -H.

(2008). Mingong zinv ziwo yishi zhuangkuang jiqi jiating jiaoyang fangshi de xiangguan yanjiui [Correlations research on self-awareness and family rearing pattern of peasant workers’ children]. (Unpublished master’s thesis). Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing.

14.

Guo

Y. –H

. (1994). Nongcun xiandaihua guochengzhong de chuantong qinyuan guanxi [Traditional family relationship in the process of rural modernization]. Sociological Research, 6, 49–58.

15.

Koo

(2012). Is there any chance to get ahead? Education aspirations and expectations of migrant families in China. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 33(4), 547–564. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2012.678755

16.

Krippendorf

(2010). Content analysis: An introduction to its methodology. Sage.

17.

Ladson-Billings

(1994). The dreamkeepers. Jossey-Bass.

18.

Ladson-Billings

(2006). From the achievement gap to the education debt: Understanding achievement in U.S. schools. Educational Researcher, 35(7), 3-12.

19.

X. -W.

Zou

Jin

C. -C.

(2008). Liudong ertong de wenti xingwei yu renge jiating gongneng de guanxi [The relations among problem behaviors, personalities and family functioning of migrant children]. Psychological Development and Education, 2, 54–59.

20.

Liang

Chen

Y. -P.

(2007). The educational consequences of migration for children in China. Social Science Research, 36(1), 28–47.

21.

Liang

Z. -L.

Wang

Y. -J.

(2011). Liudong ertong chengshi yinxiang yanjiu: Yi 63 fen fangtan ziliao wei zhuyao canzhao. [A study of migrant children’s city impression: Take 63 interviews for instance.] Journal of Hohai University (Philosophy and Social Sciences), 13(3), 41–47, 90–91.

22.

Lin

Z. -W.

(2006). Woguo chengxiang shouru chaju yu jiaoyu chaju de xianzhengxing fenxi [A cointegrate analysis of income gap and educational disparity in urban and rural areas in China]. Journal of Shanxi University of Finance and Economics (Higher Education Edition), 4, 35–38.

23.

Zhou

(2013). Academic achievement and loneliness of migrant children in China: School segregation and segmented assimilation. Comparative Education Review, 57(1), 85-116.

24.

Milner

H. R.

(2012). But what is urban education? Urban Education, 47(3), 556–561.

25.

Milner

H. R.

Lomotey

(2014). Handbook of urban education. Routledge Press.

26.

National Bureau of Statistics of China. (2013). Zhongguo tongji nianjian: 2013 [China statistical yearbook 2013.]. http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/ndsj/2013/indexch.htm

27.

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. (2007). International migration outlook: Annual report 2007. Paris: OECD.

28.

Paris

(2012). Culturally sustaining pedagogy: A needed change in stance, terminology, and practice. Educational Researcher, 41(3), 93–97.

29.

Patton

M. Q.

(2002). Qualitative research and evaluation methods. Sage.

30.

W. -G.

Zhong

Y. -P.

Yan

L. -S.

Yang

(2008). Chuzhongsheng nongmingong zinv xinli yali ji yingdui fangshi yanjiu [A research on the stress and coping style of the migrant workers’children in city junior middle schools]. Chinese Journal of Clinical Psychology, 16 (6), 588-590.

31.

Shi

B. -N.

(2005). Chengshi bianyuanren: Jincheng nongmingong jiating jiqi zinv wenti yanjiu [ The urban marginalized: Research on migrant family and their children ]. China Social Sciences Press.

32.

Simmel

(1971). On individuality and social forms. (Edited by Levine

D. N.

). University of Chicago Press.

33.

Sun

Y. -L.

(2007). Wailai wugong renyuan zinv rongru chengshi de xinlixue yanjiu [Psychological analysis of the city engagement of exotic employed personnel’s children]. (Unpublished master’s thesis). East Normal University, Shanghai.

34.

Tatum

B. D.

(1997). Why are all the Black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?: And other conversations about race. Basic Books.

35.

Theoharis

(2007). Social justice educational leaders and resistance: Toward a theory of social justice leadership. Educational administration quarterly, 43(2), 221–258.

36.

UNICEF (The United Nations Children’s Fund). (2016). Zhongguo Shaoshu Minzu Ertong Zhuangkuang Xiangguan Shuju [Ethnic Minority Children in China: Factsheet]. http://www.unicef.cn/cn/uploadfile/2016/0705/20160705093644497.pdf

37.

Wang

L. -H.

Holland

(2011). In search of educational equity for the migrant children of Shanghai. Comparative Education, 47(4), 471–487.

38.

Wang

(2015). Marginality of rural migrant students in eleven Chinese high schools. Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Studies, 2(2), 21–32.

39.

Wang

(2018a). Religion-based cultural identity and conflicts of migrant Muslim students in Northwest China. Race, Ethnicity, and Education, 21(6), 858–875. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2017.1395324

40.

Wang

(2018b). Rural–urban divide and identity conflicts of migrant Muslim students in Northwest China. Eurasian Geography and Economics, 59(2), 224–245. https://doi.org/10.1080/15387216.2018.1468792

41.

Wang

(2020). Rural migrants in China: Barriers to education and citizenship. Intercultural Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/14675986.2020.1794121

42.

Wang

Y. -J.

(2010) Liudong ertong yu chengshi shehui ronghe [Social integration of migrant peasant’s children into the city]. China Social Sciences Press.

43.

Wang

Y. -Z.

(2012). Xibei shaoshu minzu liudong renkou chengshi jingji rongru yanjiu: Yi gansusheng lanzhoushi wei shiyu [Economic integration of ethnic migrants in Northwest China: Gansu Lanzhou as an example]. Journal of Qinghai Minzu University (Social Science), 2, 89–93.

44.

Wirth

(1938). Urbanism as a way of life. The American Journal of Sociology, 44(1), 1–24.

45.

Palinkas

L. A.

(2010). An ecological examination of social capital effects on the academic achievement of Chinese migrant children. British Journal of Social Work, 40(8), 2578–2597.

46.

Xiong

Y. -H.

(2009). Chengshihua de haizi: Nongmingong zinv de chengxiang renzhi yu shenfen yishi [The children of urbanization: The rural-urban awareness and self-identity of migrant workers’ children in contemporary China]. China Rural Survey, 2-11, 45, 95.

47.

Xiong

Y. -H.

Yang

X. -G.

(2012). Xuexiao leixing dui nongcun zinv jiazhiguan yu xingwei moshi de yingxiang [Impacts of school types on values and behavior patterns of migrant children: An empirical research in Shanghai]. Youth Studies, 1, 71-82, 96.

48.

Yan

Y. -X.

(2003). Private life under socialism: love, intimacy, and family change in a Chinese village, 1949–1999. Stanford University Press.

49.

Yang

W. -J.

(2010). Hudong, tiaoshi yu chonggou: Xibei chengshi huizu shequ jiqi wenhua bianqian yanjiui [Interaction, adaption, and reconstruction: Hui communities and cultural evolution in Northwest cities]. Minzu Press.

50.

Yiu

(2014). Access and equity for rural migrants in Shanghai. Paper presented at the annual conference of the American Education Research Association, Philadelphia, PA.

51.

X. -L.

(2004). Gaokao zhong de chengshi pianxiang: Shinian gaokao yuwen shijuan fenxi [Urban deflection of national college entrance examination: Analysis of exam papers of Chinese in 10-years’ exams]. Theory and Practice of Education, 24(1), 40–43.