An analysis of education inequality in China

This article analyzes both the current situation regarding education inequality in China, and its formation mechanisms. Policies promoting education have lead to remarkable progress in educational attainment, and also effectively decreased educational inequality. However, substantial inequalities in educational attainment remain, even though sustainable progress has been realized. Decomposition results using the Gini coefficient and Shapley value approach based on regression analysis indicate that the greatest contributing factors to educational inequality involve the urban–rural and social stratification divisions. Moreover, the household register system which divides city and country, as well as increasing income inequality is deepening institutional barriers and stratum differentiation. Though gender and regional gaps have been reduced significantly, the population residing in economically disadvantaged areas, especially females, still warrants social concern. In addition, age related decomposition results indicate that increasing educational attainment for the young plays a key role in reducing education inequality. At last, we argue that more educational investment should be allocated to disadvantaged groups and lower income groups; especially eliminating some institutional barriers such as the hukou system, unequal distribution of good quality educational resources, and so on.     

论影响我国教育公平的不平等因素

教育公平是社会公平的基础.我国要构建社会主义和谐社会,必须实现教育公平的最大化.政策取向的不平等、教育投入的不平等、学校资源占有的不平等、学生家庭社会地位及经济条件的不平等等诸多因素,均影响我国教育公平的实现.要实现我国教育公平的最大化,必须逐步缩小乃至消除这些不平等因素.     

Education,meritocracy and redistribution

This paper analyses the relationship between education, meritocracy and redistribution. It first questions the meritocratic ideal highlighting how it relates to normative expectations that do not hold fully neither in their logic nor in practice. It then complements the literature on persistent inequalities by focusing on the opportunities for change created by current trends in the economy and in social aspirations. As the meritocratic argument that education is strongly linked to certain rewards in the labour market comes under pressure, increasing social dissatisfaction with education and skills wastage could be expected, as already noted in part of the political economy literature. This literature, however, has tended to conclude from such observations that educational expansion cannot deliver equality. The paper contributes to the debate by focusing on the opportunities created by current trends for the reorganisation of the relationship between education, the economy and society.     

Capital,inequality and education in conflict-affected contexts

Abstract

Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-first Century has brought the issue of inequality to the centre of political debate. This article explores contemporary research on the relationship between education and inequality in conflict-affected contexts with a view to seeing how Piketty’s work speaks to these issues as a field of research and practice. The article provides a critique of Piketty’s approach, arguing for a broader, interdisciplinary and holistic approach to exploring and addressing inequality in education in conflict-affected contexts in their multiple economic, cultural and political dimensions. In doing so the article also lays out an analytical framework inspired by cultural political economy for researching education systems in conflict contexts which seeks to go beyond narrow human capital framings of education and address the multiple potential of education to promote sustainable peace and development in and through education.     

Ethnicity and education in China and Vietnam: discursive formations of inequality

This article aims to understand how ethnicity is discursively framed in national policies in China and Vietnam and argues that policy discourses affect how the ‘problem’ of ethnicity and educational inequalities is framed and how these inequalities can be addressed. The analysis shows how both Marxist and market-economy governing rationalities frame ethnic minority groups as lower status than the majority group and in need of either socially evolving to the communist ideal or assimilating into the global economic market, respectively. Using Fraser’s multi-dimensional approach to analyse discursive formations of inequality, we show how these policy discourses produce a non-ethnic economic citizen with socialist tendencies that negates cultural or social recognition and political representation. We conclude that researchers and policymakers need to consider how ethnicity is discursively framed to understand and address inequalities.     

Testing the spill-over hypothesis: meritocracy in enrolment in postgraduate education

This study contributes to the literature on educational transitions, specifically whether an equalising of opportunities at early educational transitions translates into more equal participation patterns at later stages (Spill-over versus maximally maintained inequality hypotheses). The case study approach used in this paper compares the enrolment profile of postgraduate students at a prestigious, research-led British university with the profile of the postgraduates’ undergraduate degree-awarding institution. The database for this research consists of government statistics and two purposefully administered surveys, one of undergraduate students (n = 709) and one of postgraduate students (n = 502). The study finds that the intake of new postgraduates is largely drawn from the most prestigious universities thus suggesting that graduates from lower tier institutions do not self-select themselves for further study at Oxford. The results lend support to the meritocracy hypothesis regarding the attainment levels of new postgraduate students and their propensity to gain government funding. There are, however, some discrepancies in transition patterns that advantage the already privileged. This lends support to the maximally maintained inequality hypothesis and suggests that there are social justice concerns in postgraduate education.

Higher education and inequality

After climate change, rising economic inequality is the greatest challenge facing the advanced Western societies. Higher education has traditionally been seen as a means to greater equality through its role in promoting social mobility. But with increased marketisation higher education now not only reflects the forces making for greater inequality but even exacerbates them. This could be changed but it would require major shifts in higher education policy and practice of which there is currently little sign.     

Legitimating status: perceptions of meritocracy and inequality among undergraduates at an elite British university

Given the frequent critiques of elite universities for admitting low numbers of state school graduates and, more recently, British Afro‐Caribbean students, how do students attending those universities make meaning of the admissions process? Through an analysis of 46 one‐on‐one in‐depth interviews with undergraduates attending Oxford University, we show that students believe in the fairness of the admissions process, while lamenting the lack of opportunities for educational advancement faced by some disadvantaged youth in British society. Despite their understanding that many British youth do not have access to educational experiences that make Oxbridge an attainable goal, most students do not support changes to make access more equitable across class or racial/ethnic lines. This perspective, which legitimates the status students gain through matriculation at an elite university, supports the maintenance of unequal access to an Oxford education despite the advantages that education is known to confer to graduates. The findings demonstrate elites acknowledging the disadvantages of particular groups in society without acknowledging their own advantages in the same system. They do so by recognizing two elements of merit: (1) intelligence, which most students assumed led to their own admission; and (2) cultivation of that intelligence, which requires elite secondary schools and which most students see as disadvantaging particular groups in society. In the paper we highlight differences in meaning‐making between graduates of grammar, comprehensive and private schools.     

Social exclusion and inequality in higher education in China: A capability perspective

Following calls for further research in education inequality beyond input and output measures, especially with a qualitative approach, and building on the implications of capability deprivation on equality (0375 and 0380), we extend the findings of 0305, 0310, 0315 and 0320 capability approach to higher education (HE). This article employs social exclusion theory as the analytical framework to examine educational inequalities in China posed by the HE admission system in Post-Mao era. This paper is driven by certain key motivations and makes a significant contribution to the extant literature. Firstly, the paper seeks to outline a usable definition of social exclusion in the context of HE enrolment. Following this, 0305, 0310, 0315 and 0320 capability approach is adopted for the first time as a theoretical construct to examine the situation facing HE in China. Sen's approach facilitates an appraisal of the process of exclusion in HE enrolment. The importance of the capability approach is that it allows one to recognize different needs and choices confronting different social groups by distinguishing between different types of social exclusion in this area. Finally, this information is used to evaluate responses which are available to the existing issues within the current Chinese HE enrolment mechanism i.e. that the mechanism is fundamentally flawed and risks reducing, rather than enhancing, capability by excluding certain groups of students from fair competition in terms of access.     

Education rights,education policies and inequality in South Africa

In this article we explore education policy changes in South Africa through a rights-based framework. We situate our analysis in the context of deepening poverty and inequality arguing that progress (or the lack thereof) in schools cannot be divorced from poverty and its consequences. We show that education reform in South Africa has been situated within a policy frame that results in a tension between cost recovery and redressing historical backlogs. We argue that the introduction of user fees and the burden of other costs have rendered abstract the idea of education as a ‘right’. The definition of rights is extended to include the quality of education and educational opportunities. We question the constitutional and legislative romanticism surrounding a rights-based discourse and encourage a re-conceptualisation of human rights in education. Finally, we examine the resurgence of education social movements in relation to democratisation, educational transformation and human rights in South Africa.