Zhou Xincheng |School of Sociology, Wuhan University.
Recently, a school in a county in Zhejiang announced that "people with household registration in other places can donate blood or donate money in exchange for children's school points", which has attracted attention. Some people have commented that the original intention of the points system is to provide an institutionalized path for inclusiveness, but the "complicated" design may undermine fairness and trigger a new round of social differentiation. In recent years, it has become a trend for cities to incorporate the housing, medical care, and social welfare enjoyed by new citizens into the management of the points-based system, and the education of migrant children is a key project. When reflecting on the points policy, it is necessary to ask: whether the smooth enrollment has achieved educational integration?Does it alleviate social division?
Based on field research, the authors point out that there are significant differences in the educational integration of migrant children in the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta. In a primary school in the Pearl River Delta, nearly three-fifths of the migrant students enrolled on a point-based basis were enrolled in mixed classes with local children, and the school treated all students equally. In contrast, a primary school in the Yangtze River Delta has set up a separate class to recruit migrant children, and the teacher divides the students' families into three categories: locals who attach importance to children's education and pay attention to refined training;New citizens who financially support their children's education, but do not have time to accompany and educate their children;and migrant families who are more invested in "reading materials".
This paper points out that the differentiation of educational concepts and behaviors faced by migrant children, and the educational separation between locals and outsiders, are behind the social differentiation and class division. The divisions and inequalities caused by the system can be gradually reduced or eliminated through institutional reform, but the structural divisions are difficult to be shaken through individual initiative and institutional reform. And the latter is the fundamental problem that really needs to be thought about and solved.
This article ** "Industry Xi", originally titled "Integration of education for migrant children, why does the Pearl River Delta do better than the Yangtze River Delta?".represents the author's point of view only and is for readers' reference.
Educational integration of migrant childrenWhy does the Pearl River Delta do better than the Yangtze River Delta?
In November 2022 and July 2023, the author carried out village governance research in Y Street, a suburban street in a sub-provincial city in the Yangtze River Delta, and L Village, a suburban village in L Town, Nansha District, Guangzhou City, Pearl River Delta, respectively. Y Street and L Town have gathered a large number of migrant workers, among them, many of the children of migrant people have moved to study in the two places. The survey found thatIn the suburbs of developed cities in the east, there are very interesting differences in the educational ecology faced by the children of the two placesIn Y Street, migrant workers who have not bought a house locally are concentrated in the Y campus under the Central Primary School of the street - the campus was originally a private school, but in recent years, it has become a campus of the Central Primary School of the street, mainly recruiting the children of immigrants who have no houses and no households in the local area, and is one of the only schools left in the area that includes several nearby streets to recruit the children of migrants. In L Town, the children of the immigrants are enrolled in the nearest points according to the location of the rental house, and they are enrolled in mixed classes with local students. During my research in the two places, I found that there are big differences in the primary school attendance of the children of immigrants in the two places, which led me to think about it furtherWhat is the core of the difference?What kind of core problems do you highlight in the process of rapid urbanization?Based on the comparison between the two places, I tried to analyze it.
Screenshot of the recent incident of "donating blood or donating points for admission", which has attracted attention).
According to the research in L Village, a suburban village in Nansha District, Guangzhou, Pearl River Delta, with the rapid advancement of industrialization and urbanization, a large number of migrant workers have poured into the local area, and the number of migrant children has also increased. In L Village Primary School, there are currently more than 900 students, of which,About three-fifths of foreign students are admitted through the points-based admission policyIn the interviews, both outsiders and locals believe that the school treats all students equally, and there is no difference in mentality and system. Many local respondents pointed out that it is normal for out-of-town children to work harder and achieve better grades in Xi class, and that it is normal for out-of-towners to pay more attention to education and for their children to achieve good grades. Local parents do not feel anxious about educational competition because of this. In the interview, the vice principal of L Primary School also told us:
Last year, the primary school enrolled 130 students with points, most of whom were in local kindergartens, and grew up in the same social environment as local students. Locals and outsiders are mixed classes, and extracurricular activities are also together. There is no cultural distinction between outsiders and locals, who were born here, go to kindergarten, are influenced by the local culture, and are even more unfamiliar with the culture of their hometown. I don't feel that those outsiders are students from other places, and the teachers don't have the awareness and feeling of local and foreign students. On the contrary, parents from other places pay more attention to their children's education, while local families are generally more affluent and sometimes do not pay so much attention to their children's education. Outsiders' economic conditions are relatively tight, and their personal experience in the market system makes them hope to let their children change their fate through reading, and they are more strict with children's management and education, and their children's interests are more cultivated. The educational atmosphere and Xi atmosphere in other provinces are relatively strong, and they pay more attention to the Xi of learning, and it is normal for them to have better grades than local students, and they should work harder.
This is in stark contrast to the author's research in Y Street, a city in the Yangtze River Delta, where in recent years, the city has increased its financial investment in education, and the schools for the children of migrant workers who enroll the children of migrants have been "converted from the people to the public", and the financial department will bear the cost of running the school. In Y Street, after the completion of the new campus of the Central Primary School, the old campus was transferred to the public school for use. The school became a campus of the Central Primary School, which was managed by the principal of the Central Primary School, and mainly recruited the children of migrant workers who had no houses or households in the street. At the beginning of the policy adjustment, the district education bureau and the sub-district also considered placing all students in the new campus, and made corresponding attempts, but set up separate classes, and the teachers called the two classes of the two grades of the experiment Y class to show the difference from the classes in the main campus of the central campus. StillY Street canceled the plan to merge schools after experimenting with two grades. One of the reasons for this isThe introduction of this policy has aroused the dissatisfaction of some people in the new city who have bought houses and settled in the local area, they think that they have paid so much to pay their children to be eligible to study in the central primary school, why should they adjust the policy nowAs a result, some parents complained in ***.
At present, the principal of Y campus, Principal Peng, was formerly a teacher at the street center primary school, and as a local, he has become an upper-middle-class urban student in the process of urbanization in the suburbs. In the interview, Principal Peng divided the students' families into three categories, locals, Xin*shi people, and migrant families, and asked about the differences between local students, Xin*shi people and migrant children, Principal Peng believes that local parents pay more attention to their children's education, and in the process of urbanization, after local families have obtained multiple properties through demolition, many families will go to the main urban area with more educational resources to buy real estate in order for their children to receive a better education. In terms of children's education, more attention is paid to refined training, and more attention is paid to the cooperation between home and school. Most of the "Xin* City people" who can buy houses and settle down in the local area are self-employed, and although they can financially support their children's education, they often lack the companionship and education of their children because they are busy with work. In the opinion of the vice principal, although the people of Xin* City have bought a house locally, they do not have many assets, and their income is relatively not very high, most of them are busy, and many parents have no time to manage their children, and some parents can't control their children. After graduating from primary school, half of the children of local people will go to high-quality schools in urban areas. According to the vice principal, the quality of the students in Y Middle School is getting worse and worse, and the quality of teaching is also getting worse.
In Principal Peng's view, compared with local parents and Xin* people, many migrant workers do not pay attention to their children's education conceptually. On the other hand, it is true that they are unable to balance work and children's education, and their income is difficult to cover their children's extracurricular training and other expenses. Not only that, but many migrant families are multi-child families, with older children returning home after school to take care of younger children, and some children also need to work in household production and household chores. In the eyes of locals like Principal Peng, this is a sign that parents are "irresponsible" and do not pay attention to their children's education. In his view, many migrant families still adhere to the educational ethics of "reading materials", and if their children are "reading materials", these families will make more investment in education, including trying to buy houses and settle down in construction sites. If the child does not have the talent to learn Xi, parents do not pay much attention to the education of their children.
The students in our school are actually not stupid, but they feel like they are in a state of reading like the post-70s generation. Among the students, there are only one or two "Ah Bai", but the others are relatively wild, and they don't care about it at home and don't attend training classes. In our school, teachers don't think about punching in or anything, teachers don't have to be parents, and don't expect parents to sign the report card. Be sure to let them go home after school because the parents of these children rarely come to pick up their children, especially.
In the fifth and sixth grades, there are basically no parents and no one to pick up the children, and they need to go home by themselves, so they must go home on time, otherwise the parents will be worried. These migrant families are still "poor children's children at an early age", and only parents who are really "reading materials" are willing to work hard to provide them with education. Many children return home to help with work and care for their younger siblings. There are also students with good grades, and their foundation is okay when they come, but their family economic conditions can't support it, and there is no way to lose at the starting line.
During the conversation, Principal Peng and other interviewed teachers did not agree with the educational concepts and behaviors of these migrant families. In the teaching process, the university has also lowered the performance requirements for students in the campus, and only requires the average score of students in the campus to maintain a certain gap with the students in the central campus. For example, a teacher reward mechanism stipulates that if the average test score of students in Y campus is within one point compared with the central primary school, the teacher will be rewarded with 800 yuan, if the average score is equal, 1,600 yuan, and if the test is better than them, 2,400 yuan. However, most of the time, the performance of students in Y Campus can only strive to stay within a certain range of the Central Primary School. In the interview, the vice principal of Y Middle School also believes that there is a big difference between the migrant children and the local students, and the class teachers and teachers are very afraid of the migrant children. Many migrant parents don't care about their children, and many migrant families rent houses here, and they don't even have a desk for homework at home. Some students have poor family economic conditions and poor academic Xi environment, so their grades are naturally poor.
Social class differentiation and educational segregation
Why is there such a big difference in the educational ecology faced by migrant children in the two most developed regions on China's eastern coast?Why is there not much difference between locals and outsiders in the suburbs of the Pearl River Delta in terms of children's educational concepts and behaviors?Why can migrant families and their children integrate into the local community?However, in the Yangtze River Delta, there is a reverse education ecologySo-calledThe core behind the differentiation of educational concepts and behaviors and the educational separation between locals and outsiders is the degree of development of social differentiation and class division.
In the process of industrialization in the Pearl River Delta region, the industrialization path, the practice of land system and the village collective society have created collective economic dividends and housing rental income for the local people, which on the one hand has not disintegrated the local villages in the process of rapid development of the market economy, and the social differentiation among the local people is not large. Locally,The income of most local households is divided into three categories: collective economic dividends, housing rental income, and labor income。For the vast majority of families, there is little difference between collective economic dividends and housing rental income, and they account for a certain proportion of total family income, which has become a kind of collective welfare guarantee. The clan cultural structure and collective welfare guarantee make the local people's life more comfortable, and the abundant market employment opportunities make the local people not have to face too fierce market competition, and at the same time, the local people's employment types and incomes are more homogeneous. Therefore, the local family is not socially differentiated, and their expectations for the future are relatively stable, so they do not have particularly strong educational competition anxiety in children's education, and do not invest too much in education。On the other hand, the vast majority of the local collective economic income is not from industrial operation and market investment, but from property rental, that is to say, the collective economic income is contributed by the migrant population, and the income from housing rental is also directly contributed by the foreign populationLocals and outsiders have formed a symbiotic relationship of interests。The income of non-local households is generally higher than that of local workers, and there is little difference between the total income of local households. This makes it possible for locals to be classically and socially separated from outsiders.
The Yangtze River Delta region is very different, in the process of urbanization, local village land is expropriated, and farmers are gradually becoming citizens in terms of residence, identity and concept, becoming the urban middle class and participating in the national labor market competition system. The migrant population gathers in urban villages or old school districts, and most of them are engaged in informal employment, forming a certain social separation from the locals in production and life, and there is also a certain degree of differentiation and separation in economic income and educational behavior. As a result, the educational ecology faced by migrant children in the Yangtze River Delta region is quite different from that in the Pearl River Delta region. However, it should be noted that in the central areas of the Pearl River Delta, which are more fully urbanized, they also show similar educational characteristics to the Yangtze River Delta. This shows,Under the influence of education policies such as the diversion of general jobs and the relative scarcity and unbalanced supply of high-quality educational resources, these middle classes are involved in fierce educational competition and form a new educational ethic, which further aggravates the educational separation between different classes and brings many difficulties to the children of migrants in urban education
The regional differences between the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta show the huge regional differences between different regions in China under the integration of multiple factors in the process of compressive modernization. In the Pearl River Delta, local village collectives and villagers have shared a large amount of economic benefits from land rent in the process of economic development. Especially in the early development zone of the Pearl River Delta, the village group collectively grasped the right to develop and operate the land, so the villagers became land rentiers and obtained guarantees such as land rent economy and collective dividends, which made them not like the Yangtze River Delta villagers in the rapid development of the Yangtze River Delta were quickly pushed into the urbanization process, and completed the transformation of citizens, so they did not have to participate in the fierce labor market competition system. In addition, there is little social differentiation within the village society in the Pearl River Delta, and the stratification between local villagers and immigrants is not as clear as that in the Yangtze River Delta. As a result, many locals live in the village, and their children receive education in the village school, without fierce competition for education. Of course, due to the sharing of a large amount of land rent economic benefits with the villagers in the Pearl River Delta villages, this has led to the relatively poor fiscal revenue and overall planning ability, and has also led to the insufficient investment of public education financial resources in some cities in the Pearl River Delta. However, judging from the social differentiation and educational segregation between locals and outsiders, the results are not so stark and wonderful.
Especially in terms of educational concepts and behaviors, it can be clearly seen from the comparison between Y Street and L Town that the rapid urbanization of the suburbs of the Yangtze River Delta has made the local villagers enter the urban middle class sequence, and the intensification of social class differentiation has brought about the differences in educational behaviors between locals and new * city people and migrant families. Then, comparing the area of Y Street with the area of L Town, we can find that in Y Street,In the process of urbanization, the urban (new) middle class quickly developed a new educational ethic that "cannot be lost at the starting line".Under this new educational ethical viewpoint, the educational behavior and educational concepts of migrant families and even people in Xin* City will naturally be regarded as very "backward". The differentiation of social classes has led to differences in the educational concepts of different classes, and the "segregation" of education has been produced.
The rapid development of China's economy and society has made itUnder the rapid development of urbanization, this group of people has become the first group of urban middle (upper) class since the reform and opening up。This group of urban middle class in China has the following characteristics:First of all, in terms of employment, the two generations and even the next few generations are mainly engaged in formal employment, social security is perfect, and incomes are relatively stable. Secondly, in terms of education, due to the dual household registration system of urban and rural areas and its high degree of linkage with public resources and public services, this group has more convenient access to more and better quality educational resources, more educational opportunities, and more attention to education. Third, in terms of the accumulation of family resources, the accumulation of intergenerational resources of this group is relatively abundant, on the one hand, because the income of the two generations and even the previous generations is relatively stable, and the social security is perfectOn the other hand, the implementation of family planning and other policies has made the trend of low birthrate in urban families develop rapidly, and family resources will not be dispersed due to distribution in the process of intergenerational transmissionIn addition, through the class matching mechanism of marriage, it is also more conducive to the intergenerational agglomeration of resources. In terms of the accumulation of cultural capital and social capital, the capital type and characteristics of urban households are in line with the development of urbanization and social development in China, so they play an important role.
Family accumulation, education, employment and other aspects are interlinked, making this group of urban middle class more advantageous with economic and social development. However, in order to maintain and demonstrate this dominant position and cope with class competition in social mobility, they need to pay more attention to their children's education and realize class reproduction through education. WhyFor them, investment in education is the most important direction, not only because education is one of the most important means of improving human capital. It is also due to the fact that although China's social mobility rate is gradually decreasing, it is still in a high position compared with most countries in the world, and there is no obvious development trend of class solidification and segregationTherefore, the distinction between classes is not reflected in the distinction between "style" and "taste" as Bourdieu and other scholars say. The continuous flow of dignified "new citizens" into the city has brought great competitive pressure to the "vested interests", so maintaining a dominant position still requires this group of people to actively participate in the same track - education competition。From this, we can see that in China, the group that invests the most in children's education and is most anxious is the urban middle-class family.
As Yin Qiuling (2022) said, behind the education model of urban middle-class families is a new set of educational ethics of "not losing at the starting line", under which the urban family education model has the following main characteristics:First, choose a school. In the choice of marriage, home purchase, career, etc., educational resources and school quality have become one of the important considerationsSecond, the burden on schools is reduced, and the pressure on families is increased. The school continues to emphasize quality education and emphasize the need to reduce the burden on students, but the education and training market is rapidly expanding, the family's economic investment in education is greater, and students have more and more extracurricular Xi time, and the pressure on learning Xi is increasing. In the cultivation of comprehensive quality, parents are also investing more and more, trying to let their children develop in an all-round way in terms of comprehensive qualityThird, nanny-style accompaniment, refined training, and parent-child relationship changes. In traditional society, the labor force at home should be engaged in heavy production activities, and minors should also participate in family production and housework activities, but in many modern families, especially urban families, minors do not need to participate in family production and life, and families need to participate in children's life and Xi, and urban middle-class families with stable occupations and incomes have more time and energy to devote to their children's education and companionship during off-duty hoursFourth, the relationship between home and school has become closer. Under the new educational ethics, the responsibility of the family in the education of children is constantly emphasized, therefore, the family should not only be deeply involved in the growth of children's education, but also carry out in-depth home-school cooperation to play a role together.
Class differentiation and the educational dilemma of migrant children
The new educational ethics and refined training model of the urban middle (upper) class not only spread and exert influence among the middle and upper classes, but also diffuse into the whole society, and naturally affect the educational concepts of grassroots educators- After all, teachers are also very typical of the urban middle class. So,In the eyes of educators, the educational concepts and models of these migrant families in urban areas have become "irresponsible" and "delaying their children".。This has brought great psychological pressure to the new generation of parents who have entered the city to workWith the spread of this concept, the educational concepts and modes of middle- and lower-class families, especially those of migrant workers in urban areas, will be gradually affected. This leads us to probably continue to see this for some time to comeParadoxThe more the institutional division is broken and the more "fair" the education policy, the greater the educational dilemma faced by the children of rural families, whether it is the children who have migrated to large cities, or the "left-behind children" who have poured into the county seats, or the children who have been "leftover" in the rural schools, each type of family is faced with an educational dilemma that is difficult to solve, which is caused by class differentiation and the spread of new educational ethics. The educational dilemma faced by the children of migrants who live in the same space as the urban middle class is particularly noteworthy.
At present, the main focus and position of scholars on the education of migrant children is how to break down the institutional division, especially the inequality of civil rights such as the right to education brought about by the dual household registration system between urban and rural areas, and ensure that the children of migrant children enjoy a fair right to education in the place where their parents work. In 2016, the first issued the "Several Opinions on Promoting the Integrated Reform and Development of Urban and Rural Compulsory Education in the County", which clearly proposed to reform the schooling mechanism of migrant children, strengthen the responsibility of the inflow area, and adhere to the "two main, two inclusion" (that is, the management of the inflow area is the mainstay, the public school is the mainstay, and the compulsory education of the migrant children is included in the urban development plan and financial security) Establish a policy on the enrollment of migrant children on the basis of residence permits, and ensure that migrant children receive compulsory education on an equal footing in accordance with the law. In March 2020, the Communist Party of China (CPC) proposed to "establish a mechanism for linking basic public services such as urban education, employment and entrepreneurship, and medical and health care with the permanent population, and promote the allocation of public resources according to the size of the permanent population". In 2021, the Ministry of Education emphasized that all localities should not require parents to provide proof materials such as family planning, over-age enrollment, and unsupervised household registration, streamlining unnecessary certification materials, and encouraging qualified localities to enroll in schools with residence permits only. In 2023, the Ministry of Public Security will take the lead in promoting the complete abolition of the settlement restrictions in cities with a permanent urban population of less than 3 million, comprehensively relax the settlement conditions for large cities with a permanent urban population of 3 million to 5 million, improve the points settlement policy for super megacities with a permanent urban population of more than 5 million, ensure that the number of years of social insurance payment and the score of residence account for the main proportion, and encourage the abolition of the annual settlement quota.
However, the divisions and inequalities caused by the system can be gradually reduced or eliminated through institutional reform, while the structural divisions are difficult to shake through individual initiative and institutional reform. The children of migrants studying in cities, especially in medium-sized and large cities, face two structural divisions: one is the separation caused by class differentiation, and the other is the separation caused by differences in educational ethics. After the institutional barriers are broken, it will only eliminate the institutional costs brought about by the irrational system, but it will not solve the problem of educational segregation caused by social class differentiation. In the process of urbanization, the agglomeration of migrants to cities, especially medium- and large-sized cities, means an increase in work income, and at the same time, it will inevitably lead to an increase in household expenditure. As a relatively disadvantaged class, urban migrant workers often need intergenerational cooperation and high accumulation and low expenditure to achieve decent access to the city. Families move to the city and their children receive education in the cityIt will inevitably change the labor allocation model of migrant families and increase family expenses, which will make these families face huge economic pressure, which will also lead to their inability to invest as intensively in resources and experience as urban middle-class families in children's education, and there is no way to choose schools, raise children, and manage home-school relationships like them.
Therefore, the gradual breaking down of policy barriers and the gradual elimination of unreasonable institutional costs are only relatively simple first steps. What really needs to be pondered is,After the institutional division is broken, how can we face the surging "modern disease" and "urban disease", that is, how to solve the problem of class differentiation and class differentiation caused by class differentiation and class division, as well as the resulting class reproduction and class solidification?
This article ** "Industry Xi", originally titled "Integration of education for migrant children, why does the Pearl River Delta do better than the Yangtze River Delta?".》。The views expressed by the author are only. Welcome to share**, please contact us***