Open AccessFrom Access to Quality? Examining the Interim Quasi-State Schools for Rural Migrants in Urban China
Author(s) -
Hui Yu,
Wei-Lin Huang
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
education as change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.395
H-Index - 14
eISSN - 1947-9417
pISSN - 1682-3206
DOI - 10.25159/1947-9417/7527
Subject(s) - interim , disadvantaged , china , government (linguistics) , state (computer science) , economic growth , quality (philosophy) , settlement (finance) , sociology , local government , political science , public administration , business , economics , linguistics , philosophy , epistemology , algorithm , finance , computer science , law , payment
This article focuses on the educational quality of the newly emerged quasi-state schools for rural migrant children in urban China. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 government officers, school leaders, teachers and migrant parents in Shanghai. Adopting a theoretical perspective of policy as a temporary settlement of interests, the article deconstructs the power relations that constructed the disadvantaged positionality of these schools in the local school system. What can be identified from the empirical data is the emergence of an “interim quasi-state school system” with three interrelated features: it belongs to the state sector, offers quasi-state education and has an interim nature. Under the local government’s low-cost and inferior schooling approach, the whole system is treated as an emergency mechanism for solving the floating children’s schooling problem, rather than as regular schools offering high quality education. While realising the children’s right to education, this system does not guarantee them a “good” education.