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This paper seeks to question what impact education vouchers have on the process of school choice. The context examined in the paper is the Pre-primary Education Voucher Scheme (‘Voucher Scheme’) introduced in 2007 in Hong Kong. Using a Straussian grounded theory method, data collected from 40 parent interviews are coded, analysed and developed into categories. The paper analytically situates the findings within a model, derived from the data, which is based on two properties:orientation and time.Orientation differentiates and emphasises the significance of choice factors in relation to the school versus the family, andtimeis related to focus on the present versus the future. The paper subsequently presents the data related to these properties and reflects on the intricate dynamic of parents’ school choice decisions under the Voucher Scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to question what impact education vouchers have on the process of school choice. The context examined in the paper is the Pre-primary Education Voucher Scheme (‘Voucher Scheme’) introduced in 2007 in Hong Kong. Using a Straussian grounded theory method, data collected from 40 parent interviews are coded, analysed and developed into categories. The paper analytically situates the findings within a model, derived from the data, which is based on two properties:orientationandtime.Orientationdifferentiates and emphasises the significance of choice factors in relation to the school versus the family, andtimeis related to focus on the present versus the future. The paper subsequently presents the data related to these properties and reflects on the intricate dynamic of parents’ school choice decisions under the Voucher Scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reports the findings of an eight-month ethnographic study of a small group of at-risk youths in a school of a southern coastal city in China. The process leading to the young students being marginalised by the school system and how they developed a ‘muddling through’ subculture to counteract this marginalisation is revealed. It is argued that this small group of at-risk youths has capitalised on their subculture and used it to resist authorities, to acquire social skills and to safeguard their psychological well-being. The present study contributes to the literature in several ways. First, the in-depth description of the subculture of a group of at-risk youths in a Chinese school provides a Chinese angle for youth (post-) subculture studies. Second, the critical discussion about the ‘empowerment’ role that the ‘deviant’ subculture plays enriches the literature about the functions of youth culture. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

China has become a main host country for international students, but its international programmes for higher education still need improvement. This study aimed to examine the academic challenges that international postgraduates in China face based on Luc Boltanski's idea of ordinary critique. A qualitative research approach was adopted, and data were collected from 18 international students in two universities in China through semi structured interviews. The ordinary critique of academic difficulties by international postgraduates suggests that Westernized learning content is not sufficiently present in curricula, teachers do not have strong academic recognition from Western journals, the value of diplomas is questioned, and English is not regarded in local institutions as a mark of internationalization.Thus, they equate higher education internationalization with Westernization. These findings are analysed in light of common standards for the internationalization of higher education and offer possible implications for higher education internationalization in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LGBT students continue to be vastly invisible in the international higher education literature and often face hostile learning environments, both in the classroom and in the larger university environment. This study follows a narrative inquiry approach to explore and document the experiences of tongzhi–the most widely embraced identity label among individuals romantically and sexually attracted to people of their same gender in contemporary Chinese societies–students in Mainland China. We interviewed six male university students who identify as tongzhi in order to understand their educational experience, the learning environments they experience in the classroom, and their interactions with the academic staff. Despite very different individual narratives, the findings reveal a resilient student population and a strategic approach to managing complex relationships and navigating self-disclosure. We offer recommendations for future research and for practitioners invested in promoting inclusive learning environments for all students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following Bourdieu's classic work on habitus and field, scholars use habitus fit/misfit to distinguish students' college experience but how students' experiences habitus misfit and transformation in relation to their career preparation process remains understudied. This study conducted longitudinal in-depth interviews with 32 students at an elite university in China from 2014 to 2018. We highlight that how students think about the future and design plans to achieve it is an important part of reflexivity in shaping habitus transformation. A reconciliation between students' reflexive deliberation about future and the blueprint of career preparation path promoted on campus led to a range of creative and multi-faceted career preparation trajectories––habitus fits can be fluid. These trajectories present ideal or rational views of future careers pertaining to students' family backgrounds. This study sheds light on the mechanism that shapes inequality in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the resumption of Chinese sovereignty in 1997, the Hong Kong Government has introduced a new national education project which aims at building nationalism and patriotism. With an active involvement of the state and civil society in promoting national education in recent years, there have been certain drastic changes in the school system - reforms in the curriculum with more weight to national identity and China's topics, more nationalistic or patriotic extra-curricular activities and rituals, and more training for teachers to conduct national education. Informed by a Gramscian notion of hegemony, this paper analyses the advent of and struggles over the national education policy and illustrates the collaboration and contests among various groups in the nation-building project - with the controversies over display of the national flag and liberal studies curriculum as examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the expansion of higher education, many rural students in China managed to enter urban universities. However, migrating across layers of structural constraints, those rural students faced dramatic transitions and challenges in the urban university. Drawing upon 50 rural students' narratives about their educational trajectories, I find that participants in this research moved from the rural context, which almost exclusively emphasized academic performance, to a versatile and complex university culture, featuring implicit and ambiguous expectations of students. The rural students' perceived desirable traits, together with the suzhi discourse, reinforced the existing symbolic inequality of the social structure and justified the legitimacy of the dominant group's culture. Moreover, participants generally lacked an accurate grasp of the expectations of students in university, which resulted in a lasting sense of ambivalence and uneasiness. Therefore, exploring the connotation of ideal student is a crucial approach to enable the disadvantaged group to better grasp the hidden mechanisms of urban universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an argument for re-reading Jean Baudrillard’s ideas considering their potential contribution to the sociology of higher education, particularly in relation to contemporary debates about ‘world-class’ universities. In order to apply Baudrillard’s ideas, China’s commitment to the development of ‘world-class’ universities is presented as a case study. Radical thinking, as understood by Baudrillard, relies on ambivalence and fascination – instead of critique – and seeks to push a logic to its limits rather than opposing it. Critiques of world-class universities have not stopped the totalizing effects of rankings and world-class status seeking; on the contrary, these phenomena and their effects continue to accelerate. A non-deterministic approach to thinking is set into motion around the paroxystic state that prevails in the pursuit of ‘world-class’ status among contemporary higher education systems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

With the relaxation of the system of command in China’s public schooling sector and the decline of ideological coercion in the post-Mao era, the Chinese state has reshaped its control over individual teachers. Much effort has been made to analyse the state’s influence on teachers’ academic activities at school, but little attention has been paid to the teacher–state relationship in another facet of teachers’ work, namely the socialisation of students. This article examines Chinese teachers’ perceptions of their relationship with the state through an analysis of homeroom teachers’ perspectives. Using a multi-method approach, this study reveals the teacher–state relationship through three key themes: teacher-profession–state, teacher–school–state, and teacher–market–state. The findings indicate that the post-Mao regime seeks to monitor and control homeroom teachers using indirect, subtle methods, and that teachers have a complicated understanding of the state’s articulation of their role and status. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Security is an integral component of the relationships that shape the lives of students hosted by foreign countries. International student security became a source of contention between nations in 2008 when China's Government charged that Australia was failing to adequately provide for the safety of Chinese students. We discuss Beck's theorisation of the 'risk society' and Clements' notion of balancing risk with opportunity. We draw on interviews undertaken in Beijing to highlight the importance of student security and the need for hosts to accord attention to the views of parents as well as students. Our findings reveal that parents play a major role in the study-location decision, tend to accord security greater weight than do students when location is being debated within the family, utilise a range of strategies to keep students secure and believe host governments and institutions have primary responsibility for student well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers a look at the recent education reforms in Hong Kong, China. The reforms are a part and parcel of the process of globalization. As part of the reforms that started after the sovereignty transfer in 1997, a new leadership to the Education Commission was appointed by the administration. The leadership involved itself into condemnation of existing education structure and practice and resorting to high-sounding slogans in support of the new measures in education. In this context the article looks at the discursive practice of educational reforms in terms of a process where power is procured through manipulation of ideas. It is worth mentioning here that actual reforms that were intended to change the educational society of Hong Kong took place without substantive public discussions. Then there is a significant role played by the privatization of education in the region as with privatization the pressure of innovation implementation reduces on the government of any country.