1st Edition

Education and Social Change in China: Inequality in a Market Economy Inequality in a Market Economy

By Gerard A. Postiglione Copyright 2006
    224 Pages
    by Routledge

    224 Pages
    by Routledge

    Market reform, financial decentralization, and economic globalization have greatly accentuated China's social and regional inequalities. Education is expected to address these inequalities in a context of rapid social change, including the rise of an urban middle class, changed status of women, resurgence of ethnic identities, growing rural to urban migration, and lingering poverty in remote areas. But some argue that state policies have not sufficiently addressed inequitable practices, and that schools actually perpetuate and reproduce inequities, giving rise to a new system of social stratification driven more by market forces than socialist principles. Featuring all original, previously unpublished material, this volume examines this argument through analysis of selected aspects of educational stratification in China during the reform era. Chapters focus on the new urban middle class, poor rural residents, the migrant population in urban areas, rural girls, and ethnic minorities. The contributors are established scholars in the field, and they build a conceptual framework for assessing the degree to which China's educational reforms are inclusive, equitable, and integrative across social categories and groups.

    Foreword; 1. Schooling and Inequality in China, Gerard A. Postiglione; 2. Challenging the Gendered Dimensions of Schooling: The State, NGOs, and Transnational Alliances, Heidi Ross; Rural Northwest; 3. Poverty, Health, and Schooling in Rural China, Shengchao Yu and Emily Hannum; 4. Tibetan Girls' Education: Challenging Prevailing Theory, Vilma Seeberg; Rural Southwest; 5. Rural Classroom Teaching and Non-farm Jobs in Yunnan, Jin Xiao; 6. Education in Rural Tibet: Development, Problems, and Adaptations, Gerard Postiglione, Ben Jiao, and Sonam Gyatso; Urban Divisions: Migrants and the Middle Class; 7. The Integration of Migrant Children in Beijing Schools, Julia Kwong; 8. Educational Stratification and the New Middle Class, Jing Lin; List of Contributors; Index.

    Biography

    Postiglione, Gerard A.