Under the Equity Discourse: Divergent School Practices for Rural Migrant Children in Chinese Urban Schools

This paper examines how Chinese urban schools respond to the unprecedentedly large number of rural migrant children under the emerging discourse of educational equity. Drawing upon longitudinal field research in two Beijing public schools, this study finds two contrasting school practices with regards to the migrant children, one emphasizing tailored education ("differentiation") and the other acting school-wide upon the same curriculum and pedagogy ("mainstreaming"). While the two schools both claim to serve the best interest of their migrant intakes and promote educational equity, they have not been able to meet the migrant students' true educational needs. Student-oriented, inclusive education is advocated as an alternative concept of equity for Chinese schools at the end of the paper.