Title of Project

Investigation of inequality education in China.

Research question

How does the Chinese education system cause unequal education experiences for students?

Student researcher names

Marida Ma, Chelsea Cheng, Tina Gao

Project proposal summary

Education is one of the most critical issues in a country. It is the base of the success of the sustainable state. Although China's education system has progressed significantly since the medieval era, there is still an unavoidable lack of fairness. As experts, Yang and others claim that only 11.2% of respondents believed that educational disparities in China were narrowing (2014). Inequality in education will affect not only students’ willingness to get into school but also the country’s economic development. However, since we discovered that the economy contributes significantly to the formation of education inequality, few studies have analyzed the problem from this perspective. Thus, our knowledge gap is how the economy influences education, and we will propose an interview about participants’ experiences, expectations, and advice about the Chinese education system to fill the gap.

Project Objectives and Contribution to Scholarship

The gap in the literature we have identified is how the economy influences the the education system in China. Our proposed study is important because the equity in education is a matter of sustainability. Ensuring every child and student in China has equal access to education is a goal that should be accomplished. The interviews we propose will fill this knowledge gap. The goals and objectives of Our research proposal and the interview are to make some contribution to the scholarship in this area. We will critically analyze and investigate the relevant literature to come up with reasonable proposals and solutions. For example, we will propose methods to improve and address educational inequality in China. We will also support our research proposal by surveying and analyzing Chinese participants' perceptions and opinions about education in China, as well as filling data gaps in this area.

Connection of Research Proposal to Sustainability

Nowadays, sustainability is a very important topic all over the world, and there are many goals that everyone is trying to achieve. Sustainability development includes the goals of gender equality, water conservation, environmental pollution reduction, and equal education. Our research questions and proposals are focused on the sustainability goal of equality in education. We organized interviews to collect data on educational inequality in China. We also study the main factors that contribute to educational inequality in China by analyzing relevant literature and proposing reasonable solutions to address or improve the issues. Our goal is to identify the causes of inequality in education in China and to provide solutions that probably will successfully lead to the sustainable development of education.

Literature Review

We analyzed three different policies that may result in the inequality experience of Chinese students. First is the examination policy. The college entrance examination in China is serving as a basis for choosing students for colleges and institutions as well as a predictor of basic education's trajectory (Hu et al., 1970). However, it does not achieve the complete fairness that is advertised. The admissions criteria of prestigious universities are not only determined by high school entrance examination results, but they also consider the students' residence. In this case, people who are from Beijing are easier to get in. In other words, politics scholar Yiqin Fu (2013) states that Only roughly three out of every 10,000 Henan residents who take the college admission test will attend Peking or Tsinghua University this autumn, making them 27 times less likely than Beijing students to do so. Second is the government policy about the urban-rural education hierarchy. This causes people who are from rural areas to be treated differently compared with urban areas, including unequal distribution of resources such as Faculty and Teaching Environment (Zhang et al.,2015). According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China (2022), in 2012 there were more than 260 million migrant workers, most of whom had no local household registration, and about 20 million school-age children relocated with their parents (Wong, Chang & He,2009). The third one is the key and ordinary schools. Chinese high schools were divided into these two types based on the academic reputation judged by the government. Generally, the government provides more money and resources to key schools. those students with low test scores are selected to be eliminated and have to receive inferior or substandard education (You, 2006). Key schools also attempt to differentiate between top students and average students based on test results so that those who succeed in competing for admission to top schools at the next level can receive a superior education and join the country’s elite. After a detailed investigation, we argue that many national systems and education policies in China are the main cause of educational inequality in the country.

References

Fu, Y. (2013). China's Unfair College Admissions System. The Atlantic. Retrieved February 14, 2022, from https://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/06/chinas-unfair-college-admissions-s ystem/276995/ Hu, W., Li, F., & Gan, L. (1970). Does China's National College Entrance Exam effectively evaluate applicants? EconBiz. Retrieved February 14, 2022, from https://www.econbiz.de/Record/does-china-s-national-college-entrance-exam-effectivel y-evaluate-applicants-wei/10010429824 Immigration, R. and C. C. (2022). Government of Canada. Canada.ca. Retrieved February 12, 2022, from https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/campaigns/immigration-ma tters/track-record.html#economy

Yang, J., Huang, X., & Liu, X. (2014). An analysis of education inequality in China. International Journal of Educational Development. Retrieved February 14, 2022, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0738059314000273 Sun, Y., & Emran, S. (2016). Is it harder for children from poor families in rural China to attain education? World Bank Blogs. Retrieved April 12, 2022, from https://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/it-harder-children-poor-families-rural-chi na-attain-education

You, Y. (2007). A deep reflection on the "Key School System" in basic education in China - frontiers of education in China. SpringerLink. Retrieved February 14, 2022, from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11516-007-0019-6