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Using CiteSpace to draw a keyword co-occurrence knowledge map for 1,048 research papers on the quality of higher education from 2000 to 2014 in the Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index database, we found that over the past 15 years, research on the quality of Chinese higher education was clearly oriented toward policies, and a good interactive relationship formed between research and policy. Looking at research topics, apart from macrodiscussions of the spirit of several educational reforms, the relevant topics are mainly focused on higher education quality issues in the massification stage, issues of higher education academic management, issues of student cultivation, and issues of ensuring and evaluating higher education quality. Of these, issues of ensuring and evaluating higher education quality have continually been the mainstream of research on Chinese higher education quality, and there has been an increasing trend of emphasizing ensuring internal quality within schools, emphasizing student participation, and evaluating the effectiveness of student learning. Scholars had a renewed focus on the topics of higher education academic management and student cultivation after 2010, and truly improving the quality of higher education will become a future hot topic of study, however there is an urgent need for further study. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We utilized cross tabulation statistics, word frequency counts, and content analysis of research output to conduct a bibliometric study, and used CiteSpace software to depict a knowledge map for research on entrepreneurship education in China from 2004 to 2013. The study shows that, in this duration, the study of Chinese entrepreneurship education experienced a progression through three stages, an “exploratory stage of learning from foreign models,” a “developmental stage geared toward employment problems,” and a “transformative stage promoting cultivation of student abilities,” and featured three primary characteristics, “multidisciplinary fusion,” “imbalanced regional distribution,” and “policy orientation.” In the future, popular fields in the study of entrepreneurship education are to be concentrated in the three areas, namely “entrepreneurship education and talent cultivation,” “entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial environments,” and “entrepreneurship education and innovation education.” [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Investigates the factors behind the inferior position of girls in the study of arithmetic in elementary schools. Gender differences that exist in classroom interaction between teachers and boy and girl students in the course of arithmetic instruction; Analysis of pertinent topics and relevant issues; Implications on studies of Chinese education and society.

Based on data from the "2014 Chinese University Faculty Survey," this article analyzes the distribution characteristics and manifestations of internationalization from returnee faculty to Chinese colleges as well as their impacts on the internationalization of higher education in the three dimensions of scientific research output, teaching content and methods, and international exchanges. Compared to local teachers, returnee faculty members adjust their research output strategies to reach a higher level of internationalization. They favor publishing papers in international journals and publish fewer domestic papers and make fewer domestic patent applications. They focus on international perspectives and content in their course teaching content and methods. In terms of international exchanges, they participate in international academic conferences and travel abroad more often for advanced studies. Their experiences studying overseas accumulate their comparative advantage in the internationalization of the academic profession. Higher education institutions should make them play larger roles in promoting the internationalization of scientific research and teaching as well as international academic exchanges to improve the level of internationalization of Chinese higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of citizenship education witnessed an expanding body of literature looking at the case of China. Yet citizenship with broad conceptual terrain often refers to different things in the literature. This paper foregrounds the common core of the essentially contested concept of citizenship and considers citizenship conception as discourse. By engaging with and drawing evidence from extant literature, this paper critically examines citizenship in the academic and related official and social discourses. It discloses the discursive conformity among the academic, official, and social discourses of citizenship in mainland China and discusses the politics beneath the conformity. It suggests that the fundamental values of liberty and equality constitutive of the common core of citizenship should not be lost but localized to serve as the conceptual and analytical compass in the contestation of citizenship and citizenship education discourses in contemporary China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the challenges and possibilities facing democratic citizenship education in China. It starts by taking on the increasing political repression under Xi's regime and how it is marginalizing or silencing democratic discourses. Then it examines the rising economically-driven populist nationalism in China, and how it complicates the democratic pursuit. Next, the paper looks into the dominant Chinese cultural tradition, Confucianism, its antidemocratic tendencies and alliance with authoritarian forces. The paper concludes with a discussion of potential ways to combat the roadblocks and resistances to democratization. It emphasizes a more nuanced understanding of both China's historical trajectories and present aspirations, seeking possibilities for democratic breakthrough. It also proposes educational and curricular reform, deconstructing official moral education and introducing cultivation in civic virtues, for example, to promote democratic citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a scoping review of research on transnational education in China published from 2016, the last year that a comprehensive literature review on the subject was published in Chinese Education & Society. The authors delimited a corpus of 88 articles focusing on collaborative transnational education in China and published on Scopus-listed international journals. The analysis of this corpus was supplemented by sampling the top cited articles on the same subject published in Chinese language academic journals. The quantitative analysis showed how research production pivoted during the period with an increased focus on teaching and learning and the lived experiences of students, academics and managers, while the same literature was previously dominated by research on wider managerial and institutional matters. A qualitative analysis of the production revealed a number of emerging research trajectories: the experience of academics and managers; the impact on host-country higher education; student motivations; transnational vocational higher education; first year transition; teaching challenges; the lived experiences of the students; Covid impact. Finally, the analysis outlined some trajectories that are only broadly sketched: cultural tensions; students' employability prospects; comparative studies among Sino-foreign cooperative universities; language and power; identity formation of students and academics. The article concludes with remarks on the value of studying transnational education within the context of China to further understand multicultural phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the number of graduates from institutions of higher education has soared year after year, alongside growth in the demand for high-end talent posed by economic development, a growing number of graduates from undergraduate programs are choosing to continue on to receive graduate education, so as to improve their competitive advantage in the labor market. This paper conducted empirical analysis on data from the Beijing College Students Panel Survey. Studies have found that, among undergraduate students who graduated from institutions of higher education in Beijing in 2010 and 2012, approximately one third chose to continue on to receive graduate education, and both the family background and academic performance of those students who pursued graduate education were significantly better than the students who sought employment directly after graduation. Further analysis indicated that, with respect to access to domestic opportunities for graduate education, the variable of family background essentially exercises an effect by influencing the type of institution at which students pursued undergraduate education, as well as their academic performance. In comparing the two options of studying abroad and pursuing in-country graduate education, the type of institution at which students pursued undergraduate education and their academic performance had no significant impact in this respect, and it was chiefly the family's socioeconomic status that had an effect. The findings in this study have important policy implications for graduate student admissions and training in China at present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School governance is a topic of general interest worldwide in educational research, and in recent years, it has also drawn widespread attention in China. In order to examine the problems faced in the process of promoting the modernization of school governance at Chinese primary and secondary schools, we conducted interviews with different stakeholders such as experts, principals, teachers, and parents, and as a result, we found that the problems currently in urgent need of attention are concentratively reflected in the areas of pluralistic co-governance and accountability, specifically including: A low degree of and few channels for teachers' participation in school governance; shallowing and superficializing of parents' participation in school governance; no establishment of checks and balances and accountability mechanisms in the internal operation of power. The causes producing the problems are complex and multifarious, including both causes in the area of social psychology and causes in the area of school leadership styles. Recommendations addressing the problems and their causes are provided at the end of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including entrepreneurship education in universities of China; quality of entrepreneurship education research; and cooperative education in China.

Collective teaching study for teachers in Chinese primary and secondary schools plays an important role in promoting the quality of basic education, and is a major characteristic of Chinese education. This paper looks at the collective study of teaching by Chinese teachers as a product of the historical and cultural traditions particular to China, and also incorporates historical sources to explain the origins, development, and formation of this tradition. The paper further discusses the challenges facing collective teaching study for Chinese teachers by analyzing the changes underlying modern Chinese society and culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the rapid development of Chinese higher vocational education, large gaps have appeared in the scale of development and resource generation among the provinces, among regions in the provinces, and among higher education institutions in the provinces. Balanced regional development and provincial-level coordination have become policy focal points, but a discussion of the relationship between the two has been lacking in the academic world. Based on 2009 data on vocational colleges in China, the quantitative analysis in this paper shows that there is a tension between the governance models of higher vocational education and balanced development of vocational colleges within provinces. Research findings show that school affiliation is related to the ability to attract public funding, appropriations for public schools are significantly higher than for private schools, and tuition for private schools is significantly higher than for public schools; school affiliation is related to output, and the new student registration rate and number of cooperating enterprises is higher for public schools than private schools; and there is a significant positive correlation between the ratio of prefecture-level city schools and the average number of cooperating enterprises for schools in a province, and a significant positive correlation between the ratio of private schools and the average tuition of schools in a province. This paper suggests that to achieve the dual objectives of balance and development, provincial-level governments should adjust their administrations and financing for higher vocational education and decentralize their authority to local governments, in order to build a diverse and flexible new model for higher vocational education governance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Migrant workers in China and their children too frequently are treated as outsiders in the city. This paper explores and compares the opportunities for female Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) students in western rural areas of China. Learning from migrant girls how they perceive and evaluate benefits in and from their schooling provides us insights into how TVET played a role in achievements that rural migrant girls value and enact. The capability approach specified for education is used as a structure to assess TVET as experienced by its participants. This research shows that despite its deficiencies and obscurity within socio-economic structures, for the current generation of young rural migrant girls, TVET education was highly accessible, provided a singular opportunity and space to equip them with some skills and knowledge, and enhanced their capabilities to participate in a rapidly changing urbanizing economy. TVET education created changes on both individual and collective levels. Rural migrant girls' opportunities were constrained by unequal migration patterns and were structured along intersections of gender and ethnic lines. Implications for improving TVET policy include improved information flow, diversification of TVET curriculums, standardization of regulations, and increased opportunities for female and ethnic students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the beliefs and practices of 22 teachers identified as highly effective in Yunnan Province, China, who work with students facing significant academic and social challenges. In many cases, the selected teachers work with students at the extreme end of the at-risk continuum, including students having multiple disadvantaged characteristics such as ethnic minority status and poverty. Specifically, this paper shares findings about how these teachers address their students' needs in three domains—academic, affective, and technical needs. Descriptive data from classroom observations are presented. From the themes regarding teachers' beliefs and practices that emerged from the qualitative data, the findings reveal that these teachers address students' affective, academic and technical needs concurrently through their thoughtful instructional delivery and interactions with students. The teachers not only provide academic support (e.g., using a variety of instructional strategies communicating high expectations) to their students, but also offer socio-emotional support by being caring yet firm toward students and by soliciting technical support to create a safety net for the students' well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzes the changes in research topics in Mainland China's educational sociology. Internationalization and indigenization of educational sociology research; Need for a disciplinary awareness of educational sociology; Democratization of education.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles within the issue on topics including academic profession in China, internationalization of the academics and research productivity in China, and occupational belief of teachers in universities and colleges in China.

This paper uses survey data from educational tracking upon graduation from middle schools in Q County, Gansu Province, and explores the mechanism in which the level of father’s education and economic capital affect academic performance. The study finds that the academic performance of male students is significantly higher than that of female students, and household registration, family capital, and school social capital adhere together to impact academic performance. Low economic income affects academic performance, and high economic income does not necessarily facilitate academic performance. School education that pays attention to academic performance has a direct positive impact, and parent-teacher relations, objectified cultural capital, and economic capital have a direct negative impact on academic performance. The level of the father’s education mainly plays a direct role in impacting academic performance. Economic capital indirectly facilitates academic performance through the mediating effect of parents’ educational expectations, educational support, and attention to school education, and objectified cultural capital has a moderating effect on the impact of economic capital on academic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the guest editors discuss various reports within the issue on topics related to the College Entrance Examination (CEE) in China including its political and social foundations, rural-urban disparity in access to higher education, and a court case involving the Chinese Ministry of Education.

Teacher collaborative learning is currently a trending topic within the international fields of school education reform and teachers' professional development. Schools in China have a long history of teacher collaboration, but have also faced problems such as formalism in their activities, excessive administrative overtones, and so on. Drawing on a questionnaire survey of 972 teachers at 31 schools in Shanghai, this study found that the teachers generally exhibited relatively high levels of collaborative learning, with a certain degree of difference between teachers by gender, subject, and educational attainment, as well as between schools based on their level, geographical location, size, and history. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the relationship between the environmental factors of school organizations and teacher collaborative learning, finding that supportive leadership, collaborative atmosphere, and organizational structure had a significant positive influence on teachers' daily inquiry and collaboration, while cultural barriers had a significant negative influence on teachers' daily inquiry and collaboration; supportive leadership and organizational structure had a significant positive influence on student learning-oriented collaboration, while collaborative atmosphere and cultural barriers did not have a significant influence on student learning-oriented collaboration. This paper further engages in the discussion of the situated nature of teacher collaborative learning, as well as how schools promote teacher collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Training abroad is an important avenue for promoting the specialized development of faculty and improving international accomplishments. On the basis of the data from the 2014 Faculty Survey in China, this paper applies the technique of propensity score matching to control for the self-selection bias in the sample, so as to quantitatively evaluate the economic benefits of training abroad for faculty. The study finds that training abroad presents significant economic returns, while the potential benefits of training abroad for faculty members who have not yet pursued training abroad are higher than the benefits for faculty members who have pursued training abroad; a nonlinear relationship exists between the period of time for which a faculty member pursues training abroad and the economic benefits thereof, with the order of the economic benefits of training abroad from least to most for different time periods being: 1 year, less than one half year, more than one half year to less than 1 year, and more than 1 year. The conclusions of the study provide an empirical basis for the selection of pathways for the professional development of faculty in the future, as well as the design and refinement of training abroad programs, et cetera. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper intends to learn from international experiences in order to facilitating China’s ongoing regional university transformation with an ultimate goal to enhance the role of university in regional economic development and innovation. In so doing, this paper compares major models of universities of applied sciences (UAS) around the world from the perspective of the Triple Helix Model with an emphasis on the nature of university-industry relation implied by each model, and then exploring their relevance for China’s UASs transformation. It is concluded that the Finnish model is the most relevant to China. By comparing the Finnish and Chinese practices, a number of recommendations are solicited to Chinese policy-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various articles within the issue on topics including analysis of quality assurance system in higher education from a theoretical perspective, quality assessment scheme in China, and efficiency of Chinese higher education quality assurance.

The key task in the establishment of a university charter is ensuring that the text of the charter is in conformity with the law, in compliance with regulations, and rational. This paper proposes a system of observed indicators for textual expression in private university charters in China, including 6 dimensions for Level 1 indicators and 20 key elements for charter content. Through textual analysis of the charters of 105 private undergraduate universities in China, the authors found that, in terms of their textual expression, private university charters universally exhibit issues such as incompleteness of the key elements of content, failure to highlight individual characteristics, an imbalanced internal power structure, unstandardized operations, imperfect mechanisms for democracy and oversight, and so on. The state's implementation of categorized management of nonprofit and for-profit private schools should be regarded as a golden opportunity to further strengthen the effective supply of external institutions for private universities, perfect the internal governance structures of private universities, improve the mechanisms by which academic organizations at private universities exercise their roles, and achieve effective linkage between private university charters and concrete internal regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the impact of school factors on student achievement due to differences in family backgrounds. Based on the principle of diminishing effects of school investment in children’s achievement, this study built a model that includes individual characteristics, family characteristics, and school characteristics. Family and school variables were incorporated into the model. The subjective effort in children’s individual study and family investment and effort in education were controlled. Using data on elementary school children from 20 counties in Gansu Province, this study found that parents’ level of education and family income and indices of school quality have a significant positive relationship to children’s achievement. However, an increase in school investment will shrink the score differences caused by differences in children’s family backgrounds. The policy implications are that increased educational investment in impoverished rural areas has an even more significant positive effect on the achievement of children from disadvantaged family backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An interview with Liu Wen, a teacher who allegedly participated in a scam at Haozhou Normal Junior College in China. When asked about the things took place during the thesis-buying, he exposes the involvement of Nie Jihong at the China Mining University to get the papers printed in a publication charging him with the amount of RMB4,500 for the service. Liu Wen further reveals the number of teachers who were involved in the buying of theses that were subsequently granted professional titles.

Effective teaching is an important research topic worldwide. This review aims to analyze effective teaching literature in China with respect to general characteristics and conceptional dimensions. Two types of effective teaching literature, empirical studies written in Chinese and written in English, are selected for this review. Stronge's effective teaching framework is adopted for examining the conceptual dimensions in the selected studies. The results taken from the two types of literature reveal different research orientations regarding effective teaching. The literature written in Chinese demonstrates a number of quantitative research studies that, overall, are ill-written from the standard criteria of empirical study writing, including serious design flaws, missing important information, and weak data interpretations. In contrast, the literature written in English tends to focus more on a qualitative research orientation with sufficient overall quality for methodological design. Regarding the effective teaching dimensions, the dimension of the Teacher as a Person is interpreted differently, while the dimension of Implementing Instruction is most often commonly adopted in the two types of literature. We suggest that more studies are needed to conceptualize effective teaching frameworks from macro, meso, and micro levels in order to enhance the quality of effective teaching research in China. Additionally, effective teaching studies related to minority students are rare and deserve future investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on the case of mathematics, this paper reviews debates on China's new Basic Education Curriculum Reform program, including the status of knowledge within the reformed curriculum, the arrangement of the curriculum system, and the push toward real-life applicability and hands-on participation. It discusses the related challenges that teachers face in the implementation of the new curriculum reform. Lastly, this paper reviews how to promote the further development of this new reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2001, three high school graduates from Shandong province sued the Ministry of Education, claiming that the province-based quota system used in college admission in China violates the constitutional principle of equal protection. This paper traces the emergence, evolution, and termination of the lawsuit as well as its aftermath, giving particular attention to the role of the media in this social movement against regional discrimination. Through an integrated legal and media analysis, the paper suggests that the litigation dramatizes the social problem and helps to levy public support. Yet, the real battlefield for this social movement is indeed in public opinion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue including one by Zhiyong Zhu on the access to higher education for ethnic minorities in the policy context since the 1950s in China, one by Yanbi Hong on the effects of home language usage on minority student educational attainment in western China, and one by Haibo Yu on the historical role of education in integrating the Naxi with the Han in China.

As a strategic focus of talent cultivation in the new period, in recent years China’s vocational education practice has seen “leapfrog” style development. A systematic look at the current state of Chinese vocational education research and exploration of its core research institutions, most frequently cited works, research “hot topics,” and leading research is clearly needed and meaningful, and the method of using knowledge maps based on knowledge metrics provides an effective path to resolving this. Knowledge map software CiteSpace III was used to obtain quantitative statistics on works related to vocational education recorded in the Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index database and to explore the date, distribution by journal, and characteristics of the works; draw institutional cooperation maps; examine the core research institutions and their influence; draw publication citation maps; reveal most frequently cited works and their characteristics; draw key word co-occurrence maps; and explore the distribution of research hot topics and leading research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

University governance is a core issue of higher education, and faculty plays a critical role. In a structured interview, 10 faculty members from a case university in central China elaborate on their university's governance structure and their own leadership in university governance. One distinctive feature revealed is that there are dual authorities: political and administrative. Although the faculty members believe they have some impact on the governance of curriculum, faculty governance, student governance, and organizational governance, the actual practice is different. The faculty members have less of a say in final decisions, and their leadership is often impinged upon by their administrators (including academic leaders with administrative functions). In spite of this, all of the interviewees still feel that they should participate in university governance and seek more involvement in final decisions. This article concludes with suggestions on effective governance practices for universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on national sampling survey data from 2006, 2008, and 2011, the author uses the Mare educational transition model to systematically examine changing trends in inequalities in urban-rural educational opportunities at all educational stages from 1940 to 2010. Through a comparative analysis of five birth year groups, inequalities in urban-rural opportunities for elementary education were found to decrease, there were no changes in urban-rural opportunity inequalities for middle school education, inequalities in urban-rural opportunities in high school and other advanced secondary education continued to increase, and there was a slight increase in urban-rural opportunity inequalities at the college stage. The main conclusion of this paper is that urban-rural inequality in secondary education is the key location of educational stratification. The continued expansion of urban-rural opportunity inequality at the secondary education stage of transitioning from middle school to high school is the cause of decreasing relative opportunities of rural children to attend college. At the same time, the author verifies the industrialization theory hypothesis, reproduction theory hypothesis, and credentialism hypothesis, and the results of the data analysis support the reproduction theory hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses survey data of college graduates throughout China conducted in 2003 by a Peking University research group and investigates the impact of parents’ educational background on the studies and social activities of their children in college. The empirical results show that parents’ educational background are positively associated with their children’s chances of passing standard English exams and serving as student cadres in college. This study suggests that parents with higher level of education are more capable of cultivating of their children with better personalities and psychological qualities. The educational outcomes of college students are a joint products of the families and schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by Shui Bing on the possible returns for private schools in China, one by Yan Fengqiao on the policies of private education, and one by Wu Hua on the outlook of private education in China.

This article examines the impact of rural origin on higher education access among one ethnic group, the Uyghur, a Muslim minority group who reside mostly in China's northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). The article is based on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with Uyghur university students, graduates, and the faculty who teach them. Since the time of the research, changes in China and in XUAR have impacted education policies, many of which had been developed to provide ethnic minorities in China with better access to higher education. This article discusses some of these policy changes to illustrate that the ways in which policy issues are framed also defines what constitutes the "problem" and thus also constrains the debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What characteristics of space predict exclusive policies? Intuitively, socioeconomically exclusive spaces – such as wealthy urban centers in China – would also be exclusive in welfare provision. Drawing from cross-district comparisons within a Chinese metropolis, we identify a counterintuitive pattern where the urban center had easier migrant school access policies than the urban fringe. This pattern has existed in both the 2010s and 2020s, surviving a major school admissions policy reform. We call this pattern the inclusion paradox. The inclusion paradox can be attributed to two causes: a compartmentalization of school access along urban district boundaries, and a tendency of fringe districts to carry more migrant population with less fiscal capacity. As a result of the inclusion paradox, migrant children were more likely excluded from school access precisely where they were more likely to live. The inclusion paradox implies that policy exclusion and spatial exclusion substitute each other, a pattern that brings migrant school access in China in conversation with unequal school access in other contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is constructed of life course profiles of the educational trajectories of a cohort of rural girls from a village in the mountains of western China during critical educational reform years. Observational date were collected annually from 2000-2022. Findings show that even in remote mountainous region of China, village girls attained surprisingly advanced educational levels. Specifically, 76 percent of the participants had attained education beyond the compulsory level; 92 percent progressed to senior secondary school, and their graduation rate was 94 percent. The entrance rates to tertiary institutions rose to 100 percent of graduates. Notably, a substantial proportion of the participants, constituting 29 percent, persisted in tertiary education, with a notable 17 percent gaining admission to academic tertiary institutions. The case study conducted in Sha'anxi, situated in one of the most remote mountainous regions, illustrates a profound transition in schooling dynamics from rural to urban contexts. This comprehensive transformation prompts a reasonable inference that similar patterns of schooling migration are likely observable in less remote rural areas across China. Consequently, there arises a compelling argument for the integration of educational provisions in migrant "urban villages" and "peri-urban rural developments" into the municipal school systems, ensuring equitable allocation of resources to these under-resourced areas. Especially in light of China's significant aging population skewness, the integration of urban migrant educational provisions becomes even more imperative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is an investigation of the English language learning aspirations and deprivations of female rural migrant youth in technical and vocational education and training (TVET) schools in two locales in western China. This study adopted basic interpretive research focused on individual voices and experiences. The capability approach provided the conceptual framework. Participants in this research primarily aspired to learn English for instrumental purposes: to pass exams, earn higher degrees, find better jobs in cities, and support their children in learning English. A lack of English proficiency, economic situation, and living environment greatly limited their aspirations. Participants showed a spectrum of levels of aspirations of English learning. For participants with low levels of English proficiency, their English could neither support their educational and employment goals nor inspire them for greater future plans. Participants from the TVET–university joint program formulated a stronger and wider range of aspirations when compared to those encapsulated in secondary TVET. Recommendations include increasing opportunities for exposure to English, reforming exam-oriented English learning, enriching the prevailing culture of learning and the perceived value and social uses of English, increasing TVET school and university cooperation, and adapting the TVET English curriculum to economic imperatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue examines the educational challenges faced by marginalized groups in China, exploring the interplay between socioeconomic factors, policy environments, and individual agency. The articles address issues related to rural migrancy and education, focusing on understudied regions, ethnicities, and gender dynamics. Between 2010 and 2020, about 74 percent of the rural population migrated for work and schooling. Biases against rural culture as "low-quality" and the significant rural-urban educational gap continue to perpetuate rural disadvantage. Three articles highlight the interplay between individual behaviors, family/community influences, and reinterpretation of educational mandates. Three studies reveal how the proactive efforts of parents and youth maximize educational opportunities despite structural barriers. Two studies provide insights into the education of two ethnic minorities in large territories along China's northern and western borders. The issue contextualizes these studies within China's economic transition, national policies, and population trends. With the declining urban birth rate, urban jobs in middle to high-tech sectors will increasingly rely on rural migrant youth. However, the third generation of migrant youth may still be underprepared for a more demanding labor market, as the rapid shift to a middle-class -consumer economy outpaces educational improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the launch of the new curriculum reforms at the beginning of the new millennia, teachers were expected to transform their conceptions of education by absorbing ideas such as "dual subjectivity," "democratic equality," "scientific inquiry," "collaborative learning," and so on. What sorts of conceptions of teaching are manifested in instructors' teaching practices within the routine school environment? This paper will introduce a case study of a Beijing elementary school. The information was collected through interviews and observation of instructors' classroom teaching practices and conceptions of education. The findings show that teachers' views of knowledge have not substantially changed since the introduction of the reforms: teachers still see themselves as "monopolizing" and "selling" knowledge. This traditional view of knowledge makes interactions between teachers and students in the classroom very one-sided. It is therefore necessary to review and discuss the "practical conceptions of teaching" that teachers manifest in their classroom teaching practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper starts out by describing the research and drafting processes of the National Medium- and Long-Term Educational Reform and Development Guideline (2010-20) (hereafter abbreviated as the Guideline) and analyzes a series of core concepts that ran through the entire process of researching and drafting the Guideline. It expounds on the strategic goals put forward in the Guideline and describes the strategic dispositions the Guideline would implement by carrying out government responsibilities, initiating major projects, and instituting pilot projects; presents an across-the-board exposition of the strategic schemes and forward-looking dispositions that China's government wants to fulfill for educational reform and social development; and analyzes the major impacts the Guideline will produce in terms of defining the country's development strategies, providing development impetus, bringing about development transformations, and forming new development mechanisms for the cause of socialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the main content of the portion on "increasing the openness of China's education" in the National Medium- and Long-Term Educational Reform and Development Guideline (2010-20) (hereafter abbreviated as the Guideline) and the key issues studied and discussed in the formulation process. Issues such as promoting reform and development through openness, assimilating educational concepts and experiences from abroad, raising the level of educational internationalization, bringing in high-quality educational resources, and improving the quality and standard of educational exchanges and cooperation are expounded. Next, the major strategic measures posited in the Guideline and their significance in terms of "increasing the openness of education" are discussed. Finally, understandings, reflection, and implementation proposals with regard to the Guideline are put forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The National Medium- and Long-Term Educational Reform and Development Guideline (2010-20) (hereafter abbreviated as the Guideline) posits that the development of education must be driven by reform and innovation. It devotes six chapters to mapping out the targets, tasks, and major policy measures for reforming the educational system. Focusing on the reform of the talent-fostering institutions, the Guideline is intended to offer a holistic institutional design for developing a modern school system, renewing the school operating system, and upgrading the government's governance system. This paper explores the rationale and theoretical foundation for such a design, revolving around three issues-the construction of a modern school system, reforming the school operating system, and reforming the administrative system. It analyzes the structural issues targeted by such institutional design, as well as the basic assumptions and main discussions [that took place] during the Guideline's drafting process, and offers a brief description of implementation strategies for structural reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The National Medium- and Long-Term Educational Reform and Development Guideline (2010-20) (hereafter abbreviated as the Guideline), formulated by the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee and the State Council, posits the basic completion of the modernization of China's education and other development targets by 2020. As measures to guarantee the fulfillment of education's development targets, the Guideline proposes to increase expenditure in education, improve education funding mechanisms, strengthen management of education funds, and improve the student financial assistance system and other financial policies for education. This paper explains the main content of the financial policies for education in the Guideline and the considerations taken into account when drafting these policies, predicts the results of these policies, and puts forward suggestions for reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1977, the Chinese government reinstated the national unified college entrance exam enrollment system. As a part of this system, the government also implemented preferential policies on the enrollment of minorities that authorized the increase or decrease of exam scores and enrollment cutoff points; the policies were therefore seen as discriminatory. Although these policies were the expression of minorities' right to an education, some questioned their appropriateness. How did these policies affect minorities' educational rights? I address these topics in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education by means of the Tibetan Classes (schools) in neidi, or China's interior regions (or the Tibet Class), was a creative measure in the history of China's ethnic minority education, and the cross-cultural growth and experiences of the Tibetan students as they went to school in China's interior regions was of special significance for the modernization of Tibetans. This paper analyzes the process of anticipatory socialization (yuqi shehui hua) of the students of the Tibet Class in terms of the special nature of the three most important entities of socialization-the family, the peer group, and the school-as they complete their process of socialization in the cross-cultural environment of China's interior regions; the article defines the results of their cross-cultural socialization using the Tibetan students' self-awareness as the main index of evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting in 2000, the state began to set up interior-region Xinjiang senior middle school classes (the Xinjiang Class) in developed cities in China's interior (neidi). Cross-cultural adaptation is a very important issue for students from Xinjiang if they are to study and live in China's interior regions. Based on the perspective of cultural pluralism, this paper offers some educational strategies, against the background of multicultural education, to schools in China's interior that run the Xinjiang Class program, in the hope of providing them with some references for bringing about beneficial acculturation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To accelerate the development of the ethnic minority regions and cultivate ethnic minority talent, the state has successively implemented policies of setting up the Tibet Class and the Xinjiang Class in institutions of higher learning in China's interior regions (neidi), enabling some of the finest young students among the ethnic minorities to enter colleges and universities in China's interior region and obtain an education. Where the institutions of higher education are concerned, comprehensively implementing the Party's policies for ethnic minorities and providing ethnic minority students with a good ideological/political education are matters of important strategic significance, but such work inevitably presents difficulties. This paper begins by describing the importance of the work of providing ethnic minority students with an ideological/political education, then explores the characteristics of today's ethnic minority students, and, finally, proposes ways of conducting quality ideological/political education for ethnic minority students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an introduction to several articles in the issue concerning education for children with learning difficulties in China, including one article concerning inclusive education by Leslie Nai-kwai and another concerning education in Hong Kong by Chris L. Forlin.

Focuses on the environmental education program at Hunan Yueyang Middle School No.1 in Yueyang, China. School achievements in terms of environmental protection; Development of environmental education; Campaign for the establishment of "green schools".