Unequal learning : education and society in contemporary China / Xin Xiang.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Xiang, Xin (Teacher), author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Educational sociology--China--21st century.

Educational sociology.

Educational equalization--China--21st century.

Educational equalization.

Elite (Social sciences)--Education--China--21st century.

Elite (Social sciences).

Social status--China--21st century.

Social status.

Physical Description:

1 online resource : illustrations.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2025]

Summary:

"Unequal Learning takes reader inside four schools and communities across China’s socioeconomic spectrum: a rural school hidden among tall mountains, a public school in an emerging city in an impoverished region, a low-cost private school serving rural migrants, and a prestigious metropolitan public school attracting the children of elite professionals and government officials in a prosperous metropolis. In these diverse communities, the author identifies four distinct paradigms of learning that exist in most modern societies across the globe: Learning in Family and Communal Endeavors, Learning through Formal Instruction, Learning in Organized Activities, and Learning through Play. Weaving global histories into riveting narratives about children’s day-to-day activities, the author elegantly sets forth the economic, political, and social structures that enable and constrain each paradigm of learning. The paradigm of learning framework provides a powerful tool to make sense of educational inequality in modern societies, which is far more complex than a number of intersecting achievement and attainment gaps. The differentiation of Learning through Formal Instruction and the exclusivity of Learning in Organized Activities results from and contributes to the widening gulf between the rising metropolitan elites and the popular classes in China. At the same time, the systematic devaluation of Learning in Family and Communal Endeavors reflects and reinforces the devaluation of human labor in global capitalism. Therefore, if we are at all serious about educational equity and justice, we need to fundamentally rethink whose knowledge and contribution counts as well as what good schools and good education look like"-- Oxford Academic.

Inequality has been soaring across the globe in the past decades. And the reproduction of inequality begins early in the life cycle: in homes and schools. In this book, Xin Xiang analyzes the different kinds of learning that goes on in four drastically different Chinese schools: a rural school in a mountainous area; a public school in an impoverished region of an emerging city; a low-cost private school serving rural migrants; and a prestigious metropolitan public school that attracts the children of elite professionals and government officials. As she shows, the different learning opportunities available in these four communities contribute to the widening gulf between the rising metropolitan middle class and China's working classes. Within classrooms, children in urban elite schools experience pedagogies drastically different from those in less privileged communities.

Contents:

Learning and inequality in the modern world

Four schools in a stratified educational system

Learning in family and communal endeavors

Learning through formal instruction

Learning in organized activities

Learning through play

Transforming learning and transforming society.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource and publisher information; title from PDF title page (viewed on December 11, 2024).

Other Format:

Print version: Xiang, Xin (Teacher) Unequal learning

ISBN:

9780197783832

019778383X

9780197783825

0197783813

9780197783818

0197783821

OCLC:

1478234284

Publisher Number:

CIPO000176423

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license