Full Text

Title
Guanxi exclusion in rural China: parental involvement and

students' college access
Advisor(s)
Postiglione, GA
Author(s)
Xie, Ailei.; .
Citation
Issued Date
URL
Rights
2012
http://hdl.handle.net/10722/173833
The author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights)

and the right to use in future works.
GUANXI EXCLUSION IN RURAL CHINA:

Parental Involvement and Students College Access
By
XIE Ailei
A thesis submitted for the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Education
at The University of Hong Kong
March 2012
ABSTRACT OF THESIS ENTITLED

Guanxi Exclusion in Rural China: Parental Involvement
and Students College Access
Submitted by
XIE Ailei
For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
at The University of Hong Kong
in March2012
This study examines the differential patterns of access to higher education of

students from rural areas in transition from a planned to a market economy. In
respect to college access, the research argues that market reforms have reproduced
the advantages for students from the cadres and the professionals families while
simultaneously creating new opportunities for the children of the new arising
economic elite. Yet, it has performed less for traditional peasant families whose
children still fail to gain access to college in proportions higher than the size of
the population.
Based on the literature, this research places a special emphasis on how economic
and cultural resources become the main influence on rural students college access.
The process dimension -- how families from different social backgrounds within
rural society involve themselves in the schooling of their children and how this
contributes to inequality of college access within rural society, are investigated.
This research unpacks this process by examining the school involvement
experiences of parents in Zong, a county located in the province of Anhui.
Parental involvement is conceptualized in terms of how economic and cultural
ii
resources are converted to social capital as part of family strategies within the
increasingly stratified social context of rural China. The research identifies the
consequences of activating different types of social networks within family and
community, and also between family and school to facilitate this process by
gaining advantages in access to college. Household interviews and field notes
were used as the main methods of data collection with a range of parents and
teachers involved in this ethnographic study.
The data analysis suggests that state, schools and teachers provide few formal and
routine channels for rural parents to become involved in schooling. This raises the
importance of family strategic initiatives to employ interpersonal social networks
(guanxi) within family, community and between school and family. Parents from
cadres and professional backgrounds are capable of maintaining these social
networks that are useful for their childrens chances of entering higher education.
Their counterparts from the new economic elites backgrounds have developed
the means to capitalize upon their families economic and cultural resources by
converting them into social capital that creates advantages in college access for
their children. Peasants, however, rely heavily on teachers and relatives in
education and are substantially marginalized from those important interpersonal
social networks of capital conversion.
Although this research found the structure constrains interpersonal social network
of peasant families, it also highlights the agency of parents from different families.
For example, in some cases it found, that peasants actively use their kinships to
create chances for school involvement to potentially improve the chances of their
childrens college access.
This research is one of the first empirical studies to inquire about the mechanism
of capital conversion in affecting higher education opportunities in the
post-socialist era, which will help to re-evaluate the influence of market reforms
over rural education system in China.
iii
GUANXI EXCLUSION IN RURAL CHINA:

Parental Involvement and Students College Access
By
XIE Ailei
B.A. East China Normal University
M.Phil. East China Normal University
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
at the University of Hong Kong
March 2012
iv
DECLARATION
I declare that this thesis represents my own work, except where due
acknowledgement is made, and that it has not been previously included in a thesis,
dissertation or report submitted to this University or to any other institution for a
degree, diploma or other qualifications.
Signed ...............................................................................
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT OF THESIS ................................................................................................................ II
DECLARATION ............................................................................................................................ V
TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................................. VI
LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................................ IX
LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................... X
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................................ XI
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................. XII
CHAPTER ONE ............................................................................................................................. 1
INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1
1.1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 1
1.2 BACKGROUND......................................................................................................................... 1
1.2.1
Higher education in China: expansion, marketization and equality ....................... 1
1.2.2
Who goes to colleges and universities and why? .................................................... 4
1.3 RATIONALE OF THIS STUDY......................................................................................................... 9
1.4 RESEARCH PROBLEM .............................................................................................................. 10
1.5 THE DEFINITION OF TERMS....................................................................................................... 11
1.6 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS STUDY ............................................................................................. 12
1.7 STRUCTURE OF THE DISSERTATION............................................................................................. 13
CHAPTER TWO .......................................................................................................................... 14
MARKET, RURAL SOCIETY AND EDUCATION IN TRANSITION .................................................... 14
2.1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 14
2.2 MARKET TRANSITION, RURAL SOCIETY AND ITS TRANSFORMATION.................................................. 14
2.2.1
Market reforms and rural economy....................................................................... 14
2.2.2
Wealth, poverty and inequality ............................................................................. 17
2.3 RURAL SCHOOLING AND CHILDREN IN THE TRANSITIONAL ERA ........................................................ 23
2.3.1
The changing landscape of rural education .......................................................... 23
2.3.2
Challenges to Rural Schooling and Beyond ........................................................... 29
2.4 CHAPTER SUMMARY ............................................................................................................... 33
CHAPTER THREE ....................................................................................................................... 34
LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ............................................................ 34
3.1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 34
3.2 STATE, MARKET AND FAMILY .................................................................................................... 34
3.2.1
The redistributive system and its influence on educational attainment .............. 35
3.2.2
Market economy and educational attainment ..................................................... 37
3.3 PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT AND SOCIAL CLASS .............................................................................. 38
3.4 FORMS OF CAPITAL AND THEIR CONVERSION ............................................................................... 41
3.5 SOCIAL CAPITAL, INEQUALITY AND EDUCATION............................................................................ 47
3.5.1
Social capital: origins and definitions .................................................................... 48
3.5.2
Social capital as a process ...................................................................................... 53
3.5.3
Social capital in creating advantages for school success ...................................... 56
3.6 CHINAS SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION, CULTURE AND GUANXI ............................................................ 61
3.7 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ..................................................................................................... 65
CHAPTER FOUR ......................................................................................................................... 71
METHODOLOGY ....................................................................................................................... 71
vi
4.1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 71

4.2 WHY ETHNOGRAPHIC APPROACH .............................................................................................. 71
4.3 ACCESS ................................................................................................................................ 73
4.3.1
The selection of filed site and entry ....................................................................... 74
4.3.2
Sampling and access to informants ....................................................................... 77
4.4 DATA COLLECTION ................................................................................................................. 81
4.4.1
Interview ................................................................................................................. 82
4.4.2
Documents .............................................................................................................. 86
4.4.3
Field notes............................................................................................................... 87
4.5 DATA ANALYSIS ..................................................................................................................... 88
4.6 REFLECTION.......................................................................................................................... 91
CHAPTER FIVE ........................................................................................................................... 94
INSTITUTIONAL SOCIAL CONNECTIONS BETWEEN SCHOOL AND HOME: THE MISSING LINKAGE
................................................................................................................................................. 94
5.1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 94
5.2 STATE SCHOOLING AND THE PATHWAY TO COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES ............................................ 95
5.2.1
School system and enrollment ............................................................................... 95
5.2.2
Selection and competition...................................................................................... 97
5.3 TOWARD-SOCIAL-CAPITAL CONVERSION: PARENTS VOICES ABOUT SCHOOL INVOLVEMENT ................. 100
5.3.1
Material and emotional support...................................... 100
5.3.2
Managing () ...................................................................................................... 102
5.3.3
Tutoring () ......................................................................................................... 104
5.3.4
Knowing the academic scores ()........................................................... 105
5.3.5
School Choice ()............................................................................................. 107
5.4 VAGUE SANJIEHE () : MISSING THE LINKAGE BETWEEN FAMILY AND SCHOOL ........................ 108
5.5.1
Trinity become one force: the interdependence of family, school and community
109
5.5.2
Vague way of Sanjiehe: the separation of family and school ............................. 111
5.5 RESTRICTED ACCESS TO SCHOOLING: TEACHERS VOICES ABOUT PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT .................. 113
5.5.1
Marginalized roles: the perceived importance of parent by teachers in schooling
113
Providing information ........................................................................................................ 113
Supervising after-class activities ........................................................................................ 114
Managing the exceptional case ......................................................................................... 115
5.5.2
Limited inter-connectedness: formal channels for parents to involve................ 117
5.5.3 .................................................................................................................................... 117
Home visits .......................................................................................................................... 117
Parents meeting.................................................................................................................. 119
Academic Performance Notice (APN)................................................................................. 121
5.6 CHAPTER SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION...................................................................................... 122
CHAPTER SIX ........................................................................................................................... 125
PARENTS STRATEGIES: GUANXI AS A RESPONSE .................................................................... 125
6.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 125
6.2 PEASANT: RELYING ON TEACHERS AND THE STRONG TIES WITHIN FAMILIES ...................................... 125
6.2.1
Relying on teachers .............................................................................................. 125
6.2.2
Skipped generational raising () ............................................................ 127
6.2.3
Kinships and relatives ........................................................................................... 131
6.3 CADRE AND PROFESSIONALS: REPRODUCING STRONG TIES WITH COLLEAGUES .................................. 134
6.3.1
Family and community ......................................................................................... 134
6.3.2
Colleagues and friends ......................................................................................... 138
6.4 THE NEW ECONOMIC ELITES: PRODUCING INTERPERSONAL TIES WITH TEACHERS ............................... 142
6.4.1
Peidu (accompany studying) () ................................................................... 142
6.4.2
Giving gifts and hosting banquets for teachers .................................................. 145
vii
6.5
CHAPTER SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION...................................................................................... 147
CHAPTER SEVEN ..................................................................................................................... 151

CONSEQUENCES: INTENDED AND UNINTENDED ..................................................................... 151
7.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 151
7.2 INTENDED CONSEQUENCES .................................................................................................... 151
7.2.1
School engagement and promotion .................................................................... 151
7.2.2
Access to model schools and key classes ............................................................. 154
7.2.3
Teachers care () .......................................................................................... 156
7.3 UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES ................................................................................................ 157
7.3.1
Complains and distrust ......................................................................................... 157
7.3.2
Social relations reproduced .................................................................................. 159
7.4 CHAPTER SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION...................................................................................... 160
CHAPTER EIGHT ...................................................................................................................... 162
CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSIONS .......................................................................................... 162
8.1
8.2
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 162

MARKET, GROWING NEEDS IN SCHOOL INVOLVEMENT AND THE WEAK FORMAL LINKAGE BETWEEN FAMILY
AND SCHOOL ................................................................................................................................ 162
8.3 SOCIAL STRATIFICATION, GUANXI EXCLUSION AND CAPITAL CONVERSION ......................................... 166
8.4 INEQUALITY IN SOCIAL CAPITAL AND ITS CONSEQUENCE ............................................................... 169
BIBLIOGGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................... 172
viii
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1.1: Expansion of the Chinese higher education system 2
Figure 1.2: Ratio (%) of rural Students in the top two universities 5
Figure 1.3: Ratio of beichulv from different social backgrounds in different types of HEIs
8
Figure 2.1: Rural labor involved in agricultural sector 16
Figure 2.2: Rural families net income 18
Figure 2.3: Gini coefficient in rural China 21
Figure 2.4: Inequality of incomes in rural China 22
Figure 2.5: Per capita income for the rural in the east, central and west 22
Figure 2.6: Ration of rural primary schools to those in cities and townships 25
Figure 2.7: Ration of rural junior secondary schools to those in cities and townships 25
Figure 2.8: Number of rural primary, junior secondary and senior secondary schools 26
Figure 2.9: Number of students enrolled in rural primary, junior secondary and senior
secondary schools 26
Figure 2.10: Number of students transitional rate at national level 27
Figure 3.1: theoretical framework 70
Figure 4.1: General Economy of Zong County 75
ix
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1.1: A typology of researching into college access 4
Table 2.1: Rural families net income 19
Table 3.1: Parental involvement with definition 39
Table 3.2: Social capital and its uses by different authors 52
Table 4.1: Employment and income gap in Zong County 76
Table 4.2: School profiles 81
Table 4.3: Interviewees in the field 82
Table 4.4: Family profiles 84
Table 4.5: Households and their children 85
Table 4.6: Teachers and principals 86
Table 4.7: Documents at different Level with examples 87
Table 5.1: Student enrollment in primary and secondary schools of Zong 96
Table 5.2: School transition rates in Zong and a comparison with the national level (2007)
96
Table 5.3: Central school and ordinary rural school, with reference to the statistics at
national level 98
Table 5.4: The transitional rate for three types of senior secondary school 99
Table 5.5: Plan Enrolled Students and Out of Plan Enrolled Students in Zong 99
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
APN
Academic Performance Notice
CCP
Chinese Communist Party
IPES
Plan Enrolled Students
MOE
Ministry Of Education
OPES
Out of Plan Enrolled Students
SCS
School Chosen Students
SHSAE
Senior
Secondary
School
Admission
Examination
RDICASS
Rural Development Institute of Chinese

Academy of Social Science
TVEs
Township and Village Enterprises
xi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
As the writing reaches a new stage, I find many debts have accumulated during
different stages of this research and want to express my thanks to those who
helped me in the past few years. First of all, I would like to express my gratitude
to my supervisor Professor Gerard A. Postiglione. His always positive outlook
and confidence in my research inspired me and gave me encouragement. He
taught me a lot about growing up and navigating in the academic world.
Many people helped me with my research in Anhui. They introduced me to their
colleagues and discussed their school system patiently with me, which enriched
my understanding of the school system in the field. I thank those principals,
teachers, parents, and students interviewed and cannot be named for ethical
reasons. They shared their experiences, insights, hopes and hopelessness with me.
Many scholars in and outside of the University of Hong Kong have shared their
insights over this research and friendship with me over time. I thank Prof. Cao
Changde, Prof. Cheng Kaiming, Dr. Cheung Kwok Wah, Mr. Deng Linfeng, Dr.
Gao Fang, Dr. Gao Manman, Mr. Hayes Tang, Ms. He Peichang, Dr. Ki Wing
Wah, Ms. Jin Jun, Dr. Law WingWah. Ms. Liu Dian, Ms. Liu Lin, Mr. Liu
Liquan, Prof. Mark Bray, Ms. Shao Yanju, Mr. Wang Ge, Mr. Wang Hualin, Ms.
Wang Hong, Prof. Wu Zhihui, Ms.Xu Wen, Ms. Yang Dongsheng, Dr. Yang Rui,
Dr. Yang Xingrong, Mr. Zhang Jun, Dr. Zhang Lifang, Dr. Zhang Yong, Prof.
Zhang Yuping.
In particular, I wish to acknowledge the ideal academic journey that has been
created for me by the academic and non-academic staff in the University of Hong
Kong, Faculty of Education in HKU in particular. This project would not have
been possible without their professional support.
Audiences at presentations made at various conferences and institutions, including
XIV World Congress of World Council of Comparative Education Societies,
Seventh Annual Graduate Seminar on China, The University of Hong Kong,
North East China Normal University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, provided
valuable feedback and helped me to develop my ideas.
xii
I want to thank my parents, Xie Linfeng and Zhang Shou feng for their support
over the years. I am especially grateful for those helps provided by my
parents-in-law, Guang Shanlin and Ruan Jianping. They took care of my daughter
when I was in the field and preoccupied by the academic writings. Lastly, I wish
to thank my wife, Guang Tingting, and daughter, Xie Xiangyi. They put up with
my frequent absences required to complete the fieldwork and write the thesis.
xiii
CHAPTER ONE
Introduction
1.1 Introduction
The rapid expansion of Chinas higher education is believed to broaden
opportunities for rural youth. The breakneck-paced expansion of Chinese higher
education that began around the turn of this century is historically unprecedented.
While only about 4 percent of the 1822 age group was involved in higher
education in 1995, the 2010 figure had surpassed 26 percent (Dong & Xiao,
2011). The gradual increase of higher education opportunities has benefitted rural
children. However, the proportion of rural students in higher education did not
keep pace with the proportion of higher education places available (Yang, 2006c,
p. 206). Moreover, there have been increasing gaps among rural students from
different social backgrounds in accessing colleges and universities (Yang, 2006c,
p. 221). Why does market-driven access to colleges and universities advantage
rural students from some families while at the same time disadvantage students
from other social groups? Specifically, why does schooling favor the sons or
daughters of cadres, professionals and those newly arising economic elites, but
fails those of peasants?
This introduction begins with this studys background. It then locates the above
questions within the literature on college access in China and then indicates the
need for understanding these questions through parental involvement in
schooling. This is followed by the research problem, the definitions of key
concepts and the significance of the research. Finally, the outline of this thesis is
provided.
1.2 Background
1.2.1 Higher education in China: expansion, marketization and equality
The past 10 years have seen a rapid expansion of higher education worldwide
driven by an inevitable and irresistible need from the emerging middle class and
1
ambitious policy makers (Altbach & Umakoshi, 2004, p. 20). In similar impetus,
Chinese higher education also experienced a historically unprecedented growth.
The number of students it served also increased from less than 5 million in 1999
to more than 20 million in 2009 (China Statistics Yearbooks, 2009). Moreover,
the student population has also become more diversified in term of
socio-economic status, ethnicity and gender (see figure 1.1).
25.0
20.0
Number of undergraduates in
regular HEIs
15.0
Number of undergraduate
minority students in regular
HEIS
Number of undergraduate
female students in regular HEIS
10.0
5.0
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
0.0
1999
Number of students in million
Figure 1.1: The expansion of Chinese higher education system
Sources: National Bureau of Statistics of China. (2009). China statistical yearbooks,

2009 Beijing: China Statistics Press.
The substantial expansion of the Chinese higher education system was to a large
extent, achieved through increasing the number of higher education institutions
(HEIs) from around 1,000 at the end of 1990 to more than 2,300 at the year of
2010 (China Statistics Yearbooks, 2006; 2007; 2008; 2009). This process was also
boomed by the introduction of market forces in the provision of higher education
by Chinese government. In the discourse of the user-pays market, higher
education costs are assumed to be the shared responsibility of government,
communities and families. Through continuously reducing educational subsidy
and provision, the Chinese government successfully minimized its role in
providing higher education and adopted a fee-charging policy in order to recover
a large proportion of costs through tuition fees (Mok, 1999). This satisfied higher
education demand without aggravating the financial burden of the Central
Government (W. Li, 2004). User-pay also means higher education can be seen
partly as private goods and profited investments which can be sold by private
2
providers. Minbangaoxiao () also gained momentous development in

recent years and provided more places for secondary school graduates (Tao &
Wang, 2010).
Introducing the user-charge principle and encouraging private institutions in the
Chinese higher educational sector, told but only part of the story brought by the
market reforms. Postiglione (2006) has indicated that the momentous change from
a planned to market economy brought significant reforms to Chinas higher
education system. Market, instead of plan, is reconsidered the key mechanism to
allocate resources and revive and promote competitions among different HEIs
(Yan & White, 1994). Decentralization is supposed to be a strategic way of
enforcing marketizing and adjusting institutional governance (Mok, 1999).
Canceling guaranteed job placement for graduates and introduction of labor
markets are a significant step in rebuilding the producer and customer relationship
between institutions and students (Duan, 2003; Huang, 2005; Postiglione & Xie,
2009).
The current system has been characterized this way:
Education becomes a commodity provided by competitive
suppliers; educational services are priced and access to them
depends on consumer calculation and ability to pay (Yan &
White, 1994).
Therefore, there is a need to consider the impact of market forces on equality of in

access to colleges and universities. As the way of how higher education is funded
has changed, the financial burden has shifted from the state to the individual
student and their family, which may frustrate the educational expectation of those
who cannot afford the cost of college. The withdrawal of the universal student
maintenance grant, replaced by loans (and tuition fees), may also place a number
of new financial burdens on both current and potential students. Canceling
guaranteed job placement for graduates and introduction of a competitive labor
market may even lower the benefits of higher education for poor families and
hamper the willingness of poor parents to invest in higher learning(Y. Liu &
Zhang, 2007).
3
An alternative way to ask this is: who suffers and who is advantaged by the
market driven access to college and university, and why?
1.2.2 Who goes to colleges and universities and why?
As college education becomes an important credential with which individuals can
compete for better jobs in the labor market and higher social status in society, the
body of literature researching college access also rapidly grew. The majority of
newly enrolled college and university (Putonggaoxiao ) students are
recent secondary school graduates. Numerous studies have been done to examine
who among these graduates are advantaged in college access and why.
According to the units of analysis, this literature can be categorized into two
types. Babbie (2007) claims that the unit of analysis is the major entity being
analyzed in a study and posits that it could be individuals, groups, organizations
and social artifacts. Riordan (1997, p. 64) suggests two units of analysis for
analyzing studies in the sociology of education: individual, and groups or
organization, with the former being the characteristics of individuals such as
socio-economic status and gender, and the latter being characteristics of groups or
organizations such as the contextual environment of communities. The studies of
college access, according to the unit of analysis, can be categorized as follows
(see table 1.1).
Table 1.1: A typology of researching into college access
Units of analysis
Variable used
Individuals
SES, gender,
Groups or
organizations
Urban and rural, east and west, ethnicity community,
The first type of research looks at those characteristics of groups and

organizations and claims that such group-level variables such as geographic
locations and ethnicity are important predictors of who can gain access to colleges
and universities and why.
From studying the urban and rural gap in college access, researchers found
children whose parents are residents of east and urban areas are more likely to
4
enroll in colleges and universities (X. Y. Chen & Min, 1999; W. Wang & Xie,
2006; Zhong & Lu, 2003). Through comparing matriculating rates of urban and
rural residents, Wei and his colleague reported that urban students matriculating
rates of going to HEIs were three times that of rural students (H. Wei & Yang,
2004). Urban students were not only more likely to enroll in ordinary HEIs, but
also showed more interest in attending selective universities located in eastern and
urban regions. On the contrary, their counterparts from western and rural areas
were meaningfully disadvantaged in going to any type of college and university
(Zhong & Lu, 2003). Moreover, they also tended to choose HEIs located in the
western and middle parts of China and enrolled in disciplines like education and
agricultural studies. Yang (2006b) claimed that a possible explanation for the
choice might be that the living costs in West and Central China are much lower.
Some students could even be exempt from tuition fees and receive subsidies from
the government if they enrolled in programs in teacher education and agricultural
studies (Yang, 2006b).
Figure 1.2: Ratio (%) of Rural Students in Top Two Universities
25
20
15
Tsinghua University
10
Peking University
5
0
1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
Source: Wei, H. (2004). Woguo chengxiang gaodengjiaoyu jihui jundeng de shizheng

yanjiu(A empirical study on the college access gap between urban and rural China).
Unpublished MPhil thesis, Beijing Normal University, Beijing.
The privileges of urban residents in gaining access to college were evident even
before the market reforms. It increased despite the overall expansion of the higher
education system. According to Wei (2004), the percentage of rural college
students in top HEIs substantially decreased from 1994 to 1997 (see figure 1.2).
5
His research is supported by several later studies. For example, Jiang (2007)
reported in his survey that the number of rural students was becoming less in
those most selective universities in two provinces of China: Jiangxi and Tianjin.
These urban and rural gap studies contribute much of the advantages of urban
students in college access to the quality of schooling they are born to have. They
maintain that schools in eastern and urban areas tend to be equipped with better
educational facilities with more qualified teachers, professional counselors and
even post-secondary preparatory courses. Urban students are then more likely to
have access to these resources and gain privileges in attending colleges and
universities (Yuan, 1999).
Researchers claim that college enrolment rates also remain low for most ethnic
minority groups in China except for Korea, Manchuria, and Mongolia (Gao, 2008,
p. 43). In most cases, success or failures of minority students are attributed to the
cultural and historical traits of their communities and relevant state policies (Gao,
2008; Yi, 2008; Z. Zhao, 2007). For example, the over-representation of some
ethnic groups in HEIs is claimed to be from their shared senses of cultural
superiority and educational expectation (Gao, 2008). Meanwhile, the low
academic achievement of other ethnic groups is credited to a backward cultural
legacy or the cultural exclusion from the Han-dominated school system that
downplays the cultural legacy of ethnic minority groups and excludes ethnic
minorities from equal access to different schools (Yi, 2008).
While the discourse of urban-rural gap and community forces raises researchers
interests in group-level explanations for school success and failures, the market
reforms and emerging types of social stratification of Chinese society draw much
attention of researchers to the individual-level analysis. Researchers report that
individual-level variables such as social economic status and gender are important
predictors of the unequal access to HEIs (W. Li, 2003; X. Zhou, 2004).
Zhou (2004), for example, found that students from cadre families (Ganbu jiating
)were privileged in college access. His findings are proved in other
similar studies. Li, in his research into social backgrounds of new entrants in
Peking Universities, found that the number of students from cadre families
increased substantially, accompanied by a slight expansion of student population
6
from professional backgrounds (Zhuanye jishu renyuan ) and a

noticeable decrease in the percentage of students from worker and peasant
families (Putong gongren yu nongmin )(W. Li,2003). Children
from worker and peasant families are not only under-represented in such
prestigious HEIs as Peking University, but are also reported to be disadvantaged
in accessing ordinary HEIs (Yang, 2006b). Their counterparts from those families
of emerging economic elites [including household business owner and individual
industrialist and commercialist (Geti gongshang hu , private
entrepreneurs (Siying qiyezhu )]who achieved great success in
accumulating wealth in the market transition, however, gain substantial
advantages in attending all types of colleges and universities. Similar surveys
were conducted by other researchers, which yielded similar findings (W. Wang &
Xie, 2006; Yao, Huang, & Lu, 2006).
Sound chances of students from advantaged social groups (cadres, professionals,
managers, household business owners and individual industrialists and
commercialists, entrepreneurs) in going to HEIs are claimed to be partly the result
of higher family incomes and more investments in education since which may
increase parents privileged position to buy their children comfortable housing,
good nutrition and access to intellectual stimuli; even purchasing high quality
education, private counselor services and extra-curricular training (Yao, et al.,
2006). Yet, their counterparts from disadvantaged social groups were more easily
daunted by high tuition fees for higher education and more likely to choose to
drop out of schools since the perceived cost surpassed potential benefits of an
unpromising higher education diploma (Y. Liu & Zhang, 2007).
Researchers also contributed the advantages that students from those privileged
social groups have in college access to their parents education. Zhao (2000) and
Wang (2005a), for example, found in their research that parents' education level
well predicts their childrens opportunities in going to colleges and universities.
Other researchers (W. Wang & Xie, 2006; Yao, et al., 2006) also maintain that
students whose fathers are secondary school or college graduates enjoy substantial
advantages in college access, in going to selective colleges and universities in
particular. Wang and his colleague (2006) claim a similar influence from their
mothers education on students chances of college access.
Figure 1.3: the ratio of beichulv from different social backgrounds in different types
of HEIs
umemployed people in cities and
vilages
peasants
workers
staff in business
household business owners and
individual industrialists and
commercialists
clerk
professionals
Enterpreneurs
Managers
national key ordinary
HEIs
HEIs
publich
HTVHE
Private Independent
HTVHE
HEIs
Cadres
Note: beichulv () refers to the ratio of enrolled college students from certain
social strata to the population of the strata.
Source: Wang, W., &Xie, Z. (2006). Research into The Higher Education Opportunities
of Different Social Classes in China
(Zhongguobutongshehuijiecengzinvgaodengjiaoyuruxuejihuichayiyanjiu). Higher
Education Research (GaodengJiaoyuyanjiu, 27(10), 35.
Gender is also an important factor in differentiating higher education

opportunities. Researchers consistently point out that the number of female
students in undergraduate study and postgraduate study is less than males (C. Li,
2010; X. Wang, 1999). Female students are also found to be more likely to go to
less selective colleges and universities (Z. Xie, Wang, & Chen, 2008). They are
also reported to be more likely than their male counterparts to enroll in programs
in humanity and social sciences. For female students from rural areas, the
situation is more desperate. Yang (2006c) reported that the chances of female
students from rural areas in going to HEIs are even lower than that of their
disadvantaged counterparts from urban areas.
1.3 Rationale of this study

The rapid expansion of Chinese higher education since the 1990s and the
introduction of market forces are having a pronounced effect on the social and
cultural composition of the college and university population. Studies mentioned
above tell us there are gaps in college access between residents from the urban
and rural areas, male and female students, Han and ethnic minority groups and
among social groups from different SES backgrounds. The group-level variables
such as quality of schooling, cultural legacy and individual-level variables such as
family incomes, educational investment and parents education level are often the
explanations for these gaps.
While contributing much to understanding the emerging higher education
opportunity structure in China transition from a planed to the market system, the
literature talks less about the process of how this structure came into being and the
influence of market reform over this process. Still less is known about how the
group differences in college access are formed despite the impressive and
abundant discussions over the college access gap between urban and rural
residents in recent literature and the inequality and equity in success at school.
Although researchers indicate the market reinforced advantaged positions of
cadres, professionals and those new arising economic elites (including private
entrepreneurs, household business owners and individual industrialists and
commercialists) in college access, there is still a lack of research of how market
forces contribute to this process and especially how children from these social
groups gain advantages over their counterparts from peasant families despite
being only a small proportion of the rural population (X. Lu, 2002).
Most current discourses in disadvantages of students from rural families in college
access research are limited to urban and rural comparisons where the quality of
schooling is seen as the main determinant for rural students higher education
opportunities. While the quality of schooling may be a good explanation for the
college access gap between rural students from east and west areas, it contributes
little in understanding inequality in higher education opportunities among those
rural residents from different social backgrounds who live in similar regions and
the same rural school systems. Strategies of how families from different social
9
backgrounds compete for the privileges of college access for their children are
still in a black box.
Studies referred above also raise the issue of status competition and suggest that
economic and cultural resources are important predictors of rural students college
access. While acknowledging families positions in the stratified rural social
systems and its possible influences over rural student college access, this
explanation considers less about the process of how different families pass their
advantages on to their children and help them to achieve success at school.
Parental involvement has long been seen as the process dimension of families
influences over childrens school success (Y. Jiang, 2003). It refers to activities of
parents linked to childrens learning which could be home, school or
community-based (C Desforges & A Abouchaar, 2003; Epstein, 2001; Schneider
& Coleman, 1993). Lareau (1987)claims parental involvement as a crucial
moment of educational inclusion and exclusion and argues that the interaction
between students, parents and teachers provide important occasions where
students may gain privileges such as information, supervising and encouragement
that are conducive to school success. Despite the overall importance of parental
involvement in schooling and its possible significance in explaining school
success of children from different social groups, there are few studies that focus
on how different parents within Chinas rural society get involved in schooling,
how social backgrounds influences the process of parental involvement, and how
this contributes to or become a barrier to their childrens college access.
1.4 Research problem

Chinas transition to a market system saw the growing importance of human
capital in status achievement and the increasing returns for investment in
education (Debrauw& Rozelle, 2007; W. Zhao & Zhou, 2007). Yet, schooling
does not pay off at the same rate for parents and students from different social
backgrounds (Yang, 2006b). It is notable that rural students from families of the
cadre, professional and new arising economic elite are gaining an advantage over
their counterparts from peasant families in college access. This study aims at
understanding this advantage. Specifically:
10
How do rural parents from different social categories involve

themselves in their childrens learning process and how this
contributes to their childrens success or failure in college access?
To be more specific:
1. How do rural parents from different social backgrounds perceive
their roles in their childrens learning process?
2. What are those strategies that rural parents from different social
backgrounds use to fulfill their perceived roles?
3. What are the advantages and disadvantages in college access
produced by these different strategies?
1.5 The definition of terms

In the context of this study, key concepts are defined as follows:
Urban and Rural population
According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, urban and rural
population could be differentiated according to the administrative system,
permanent residence or statistical classification. In this study, these two groups of
people will be defined according to their permanent residence.
Urban Population refers to total population of districts under the
jurisdiction of a city with district establishment, the population
of street committees under the jurisdiction of a city without
district establishment, population of resident-committees of
towns under the jurisdiction of a city without district
establishment, and the of resident-committees of towns under
the jurisdiction of a county (National Bureau of Statistics of
China, 2002).
Rural Population refers to total population except urban
population (National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2002).
In the county where this study was carried out, there are mainly three kinds of
residence: county township (chengguanzhen ), townships (xiang ) and
11
villages (cun ). The rural population in this study mainly concerns those who
live in townships and villages.
The privileged families
The privileged families in this study refer to those of the cadres, professionals and
the new economic elites backgrounds. The economic elites mainly refer to those
private entrepreneurs, household business owners and individual industrialists and
commercialists who gained economic success in the Chinas transition to the
market system.
1.6 The significance of this study

Chinas market reform and its influences over rural residents higher education
opportunities have drawn much attention from researchers in the educational and
sociological research field (C. Li, 2006; J. Liu, 2004; Z. Xie & Luo, 2004; 2006c;
X. Zhou, 2004). This research for the first time reveals there is a need to
understand group differences in college access within rural society and argues that
understanding the process of how cadres, professionals and those economic elites
gain advantages for their children in college access helps to re-evaluate the
influence of market reforms over education systems.
This study also contributes to literature on parental involvement and social class.
While traditionally the definition of parental involvement was seen as
non-negotiable concept, this study proposes that there is a need to understand the
parental concept of what is involvement in school such as the role they should
take in their childrens learning process and what constitutes effective strategies in
involvement. The in-depth description of these helps in understanding those
cultural and contextual factors shaping parental involvement in schooling.
Furthermore, the portrait of those strategies used by parents from different
backgrounds can provide important insights of how social actions of individuals
can help reproduce their class disadvantages and advantages in a special social
and cultural context.
One key policy implication of this study is that once advantages and
disadvantages of parents from different social backgrounds in involving their
12
children's learning process are known, more specific policies can be produced to
encourage them to involve in schooling, equally, actively and effectively. Actions
could also be taken to assist different parents to participate in schooling and help
their children to achieve success in school.
1.7 Structure of the dissertation

This dissertation has eight chapters. Chapter one briefly introduces the
backgrounds, rationales, research problem, terms and significance of this study.
Chapter two focuses on the emerging types of social stratification and changing
landscape of education system in rural China in this market transition era with the
aim of providing a context to understand this research.
Chapter three reviews the literature. It necessitates those key concepts in
understanding college access for rural students and inequality, provides a
theoretical framework for understanding the social class, its influence over rural
parents involvement in schooling and their implications over inequality in
college access.
Chapter four describes the methodology of this study. Beginning with a
discussion of the rationale of why ethnographic approach is used in this study, it
then briefly justifies the selection of the field. Access and methods in data
collection and analysis is then introduced.
Chapter five, six and seven present the main findings of this study. Chapter five
examines parent perceptions of their role in schooling, teacher attitudes to
parents participation in schools and schools arrangements in getting parents
involved in schools. Chapter six examines the strategies of parents from different
social backgrounds in school involvement. Chapter seven reports the intended and
unintended consequence of parental involvement in schooling.
Chapter eight summarizes and discusses the research findings. It returns to the
theoretical framework of this study and discusses the theoretical and practical
implication of this study.
13
CHAPTER TWO
Market, Rural Society and Education in Transition
2.1 Introduction
Chinese rural society has experienced two extraordinary transformations since the
end of 1940s, which were initiated by Mao and Deng respectively. While the first
transformation featured the rapid overturns of political institutions and the land
tenure system, the second one saw the reverse of most of the policies under the
radical era (Unger, 2002). This chapter is primarily concerned with the most
important transition process at the latter period in rural society: privatization and
marketization; both of which have provided important references for
understanding the increasing inequality and emerging social stratification in rural
China. It then briefly introduces some important changes in rural education
system since 1970s. Finally, some challenges facing rural schools are also
discussed. All of these attempts contextualize the research problem into the social
and historical backgrounds of Chinas market transitional era.
2.2 Market transition, Rural Society and Its Transformation

2.2.1 Market reforms and rural economy
Chinese incremental transition from a planned to market system, has left a large
imprint in its history and in rural society (Waldron, Brown, & Longworth, 2003,
p. 21). During the socialist era, Chinas countryside was highly collective with
agricultural production within each village held in the hands of production teams
(Shengchandui ). What peasants produced had to be sold to the government
procurement stations at fixed prices (Y. Lin, 1992). Furthermore, peasants were
constrained from being involved in private trade or producing handicraft. They
were also deprived of the right to leave farming and immigrating to cities to gain
industrial work (Davis & Wang, 2009). The market reforms in post-socialist
China, however, saw changes in most of these policies and the reorganization of
the peasants lives and livelihoods (Unger, 2002, p. 95).
14
The rural transition began with the introduction of the Household Responsibility
System (HRS,Jiatinglianchanchengbaozerenzhi ). The HRS
system was first an experiment and launched at the end of 1970s in both
impoverished inland provinces and regions specializing in cash crops such as
cotton (Cai, Wang, & Du, 2008; Y. Lin, 1992). With success in linking the returns
with production and the incentives with output, the Chinese Communist Party
(CCP) tried to extend the reform to more areas and popularize the system in the
whole agricultural sector (Du, 2010). At the end of 1984, after CCP legitimized
the HRS as a new form of basic unit of production, distribution, and consumption
in rural areas by endorsing it in the CCP Central Committees No. 1 Document
for 1982 (namely the conference summary (Quanguonongcungongzuohuiyijiyao
1982 ), more than 98 percent of rural households were
involved in the new system (L. Wei, 2009). Through HRS, collective agriculture
was eventually abandoned and the land divided into family plots (Nee, 1996).
Although farm households had not actually possessed the full ownership of their
allocated land whose title was still in the name of the village. They were, for the
first time since the establishment of collectivist agriculture in China, allowed to
lease collective-owned land on family base and sell their product (Nee, 1996;
Unger, 2002). This shift from a collective system to a system where households
had decision-making powers and control over the land and other resources, they
used finally witnessed the once deprived property rights being returned to
individual families again (Nee, 1991; Oi, 1989).
Beyond HRS, additional steps were also taken to reform the mandatory quota
procurement system. The market system was gradually introduced into the
process of selling and buying grains (Jeffries, 2006). Through a series of distinct
but closely related phases, the government gradually discarded the substantial
subsidy on urban grain supply and most of the control of grain marketing
(Garnaut & Guonan, 1996). The gradual removal of the control over demand and
supply of grains granted peasants the right to decide what to produce and how to
market their product (Tang, 1996). Re-establishing market mechanisms in trading
rural products urged peasants to improve the efficiency in the using of familys
labor power since the proper use of this labor power was again directly linked
with the beneficiaries of their families (Unger, 2002).
15
Families with spare labor began to use more land for planting labor-intensive,
high-priced commercial crops (Du, 2010; Unger, 2002; Y. Zhou, 2009). They also
used more time to grow animals with the aim of diversifying and increasing their
incomes. Moreover, peasants began to earn a sound part of their livings outside of
agriculture. With the reduction of demand for farm labor brought by technological
innovation and increased inputs of capital, families with a surplus labor force, for
example, became highly involved in non-agricultural sectors. Some of these
families even left villages for long periods to work at the richer locations of rural
areas, urban factories in the east coastal areas, urban construction sites or for other
pursuits (Nyberg & Rozelle, 1999). The number of rural residents who were
directly involved in the agricultural sector has been decreasing steadily since
1978. For example, in 1978, more than 90 percent of rural laborers were still in
the agricultural sectors of its economy, while in 2009, the number declined to
around 60 percent (see figure 2.1).
Figure 2.1: Rural labor involved in the agricultural sector
100
90
80
70
60
50
"rural labor involved in

agricultural sector"
40
30
20
10
0
197819801985199019952000200520062009

With the impact of market reforms becoming more and more profound in rural
villages, the free circulation of labor, commodities and funds has led to a dramatic
increase of township and village enterprises (TVEs) and the rise of private
enterprises. Most TVEs were established during the 1980s, collectively owned in
16
the sense that they were sponsored by township and village governments, and
soon became one of the most booming segments of the Chinese economy (Cai, et
al., 2008). At its height, TVEs contributed more than 40 percent of the national
gross industrial output and employed around 130 million workers (Y. Zhou,
2009). Even though soon left-behind by the restructured state-owned enterprise
and emerging private enterprises after 1990s, they were still important entities that
provided large number of off-farm employment to rural labor. For example, in
2009, TVEs employed over 155 million rural labors, equivalent to one quarter of
the rural labor population (National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2009). The
1990s also saw the blooming of private enterprises in rural areas with the
encouragement from the central and local governments, the process of which was
accelerated when many TVEs were finally sold to private owners (Nyberg
&Rozelle, 1999; Unger, 2002).
2.2.2 Wealth, poverty and inequality
The market transition saw two decades of economic growth in China with its real
per capita GDP increasing by 9 percent per year for over 30 years. The continuous
economic growth created chances to accumulate wealth for the first time since
the1950s. Meanwhile, the government also began to launch favorable policies in
support of the rural population and all these policies contributed to the increase of
rural incomes. For example, it began to exempt peasants from agricultural tax
since 2007(RDICASS, 2007). Substantial subsidies were also provided to
peasants for their agricultural production and the increased agricultural
procurement prices. A new Rural Cooperative Medical System focusing on
inpatient-care was also established to reduce the costs peasants have when they go
to hospital and to improve the quality of the medical service they receive
(RDICASS, 2007).
In the socialist era, rural households had few chances to generate income and
accumulate wealth. Most were confined to villages and the major part of their
income was earned from farming. For example, in 1978 when market reforms
began, rural residents earned over 85 percent of their incomes from the
agricultural sector. The majority could accumulate little wealth from this since
most of their products had to be sold at a low price to the state to provide urban
dwellers with sufficient food (Y. Lin, 1992).
17
Now after decades of reforms, families in rural areas have begun to substantially
profit by selling what they have produced. What peasants earned from farming
has increased rapidly with improvements in both agricultural productivity and
agricultural prices. From 1990 to 2009, for example, per capita net income earned
from the agricultural sector by peasants increased from less than 500 RMB to
around 2000 RMB (see figure 2.2). Moreover, peasants began to earn a
substantial part of their income outside the agricultural sector. In 1990, for
example, over half of peasants incomes were from farming. When it came to
2010, however, more than 60 percent of peasants incomes were from off-farm
endeavors and other sources.
Figure 2.2: Rural families net income
6000
5000
4000
"net income from
agricultural sector"
3000
total net income

2000
1000
0
1978
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
2005
2009
Sources: National Bureau of Statistics of China. (2009). China rural statistical

yearbooks, 2009. Beijing: China Statistics Press.
The increased portion of these off-farm incomes came from employment in local
TVEs and various private enterprises. Another substantial part was from labor
markets in cities. According to the annual report from the Rural Development
Institute at Chinese Social Science Academy (RDICSSA), the incomes of rural
households from immigrant work grew steadily over the past 30 years. With the
shortage of immigrant workers in many eastern and coastal areas in recent years,
rural households earned even more from their immigrant employment. For
example, the monthly salary for a migrant worker was 781 RMB in 2003, which
18
increased to 953 RMB in 2006 with a yearly increase at a rate of 22 percent (Ru,
Lu, & Li, 2006). Generally speaking, for all who went to work in cities, over 60
percent could earn more than 600 RMB per month. More than a quarter could
earn over 1,000 RMB a month (see table 2.1).
Table 2.1: Rural families net income
Monthly
2003
wages RMB
2004
2005
2006
6.4
5.2
3.7
2.7
200-400
21.6
19.3
1.5
11
400-600
28.9
28.7
27.2
22.8
600-800
16.4
17.4
19.3
20.4
800-1000
11.2
12.4
15.1
17.2
10001200
5.4
9.1
1200-1400
2.3
2.5
4.2
1400-1600
2.5
3.1
3.9
5.9
6.1
6.6
8.7
Below 200
Above 1600
Source: Ru, X., Lu, X., & Li, P. (2006). The China society yearbook: analysis and
forecast of China's social development, 2006. Leiden: Brill.
In spite of rapid economic growth and continual accumulation of wealth, poverty

persists in rural areas, especially in remote rural areas. The ratio of the rural
population living in extreme destitution decreased substantially during the reform
era; dropping from over 14 percent in 1987 to less than 2 percent in 2007.
Nevertheless the absolute number of rural residents in poverty is still large (Y.
Zhou, 2009). In 2004, for example, there were still more than 2,500 million rural
residents earning less than 700 RMB per year. In 2007, the number of rural
residents with a per capital income below 800 RMB per year was still around
1,500 million RMB (Zhang, 2008). Considering the number of those near-poor
whose per capita income is above the poverty threshold ( 944 RMB per year), the
number of rural people who still live in critical situations trebled to more than
6,400 million (Zhang, 2008). Rural residents in poverty are concentrated in the
middle and west part of China. For example, using a government definition of
poverty as a per capita income of less than 785 RMB per year in 2007, the number
19
of rural residents in poverty was 1.41 million in the east, 4.61 million in the
middle and 8.78 million in the west (Zhang, 2008). This indicates that over 90
percent rural population in poverty occupies the middle and western parts of the
country. Most of these people and their children live in impoverished mountain
areas and cannot get access to high quality education and health care. Many went
into poverty because of the high cost of sending their children to schools and
paying the high medical charges in the fee-for service health care system (Davis
& Wang, 2009).
The above story about wealth and poverty reveals a simple fact about the market
reform: some are taking the lead, while others are left-behind. Prior to market
reforms, the inequality in rural society was relatively inconspicuous as most of the
rural sector earning the same as each other. However, with significant changes in
household income structure and the rapid development of ex-farm opportunities,
the overall income inequality increased steadily during the post-socialist era.
Using the Gini coefficient as a measure of income distribution, the inequality
within rural areas increased significantly with a value around 0.2 to nearly 0.4
from 1978 to 2006 (see figure 2.3). As the market reform continues, the aggregate
income distribution becomes highly concentrated towards the top quintiles of the
rural population. In 2007, for example, households in the top quintile had a per
capital income exceeding 9,791 RMB. Households in the middle and fourth
quintiles had per capita incomes between 3,659 RMB and 5,130 RMB. Their
counterparts from the lowest quintile had per capita incomes, however, less than
1,347 RMB (RDICASS, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010). Although the rapid economic
growth has created and continues to create chances for the rural to earn more with
an annual average increase of income at more than 10 percent, the absolute
increase of income for the lowest and the second quintiles is still slow (Zhang,
2008) (see figure 2.4). Income inequality also exists at the regional level. The
China Yearbook of Rural Household Survey (1992, 2000, 2005, 2007, 2010)
shows the east coastal areas continue to run ahead of the central and western
regions and regional inequality in terms of per capita income for the rural among
these regions has become more and more evident since the 1980s (see figure 2.5).
20
Figure 2.3: Gini coefficient in rural China

0.45
0.4
0.35
0.3
0.25
0.2
Gini Coefficient
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
Source: Zhang, D. (2008). "Zhongguojumingshourufenpeiniandubaogao, 2008" (Annual

report of Chinese's residents' distribution of incomes, 2008). Beijing: Economic Science
Press.
The changed path to economic prosperity and the enlarging income gap recall the
issue of class formation (Davis & Wang, 2009). In the socialist era,
bureaucratically assigned class labels heavily determined the social and political
statuses of individuals and created a social structure stratified by differences not
in wealth but in political loyalty (Davis & Wang, 2009). With the market reforms,
however, these class labels and commissural social stratification that lasted more
than twenty years vanished away (Davis & Wang, 2009; Unger, 2002).
21
Figure 2.4: Inequality of incomes in rural China

10000
9000
8000
7000
lowest quintile
6000
second quintile
5000
third quintile
4000
forth quintile
3000
fifth quintile
2000
1000
0
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
Source: Zhang, D. (2008). "Zhongguojumingshourufenpeiniandubaogao, 2008" (Annual

report of Chinese's residents' distribution of incomes, 2008). Beijing: Economic Science
Press.
Figure 2.5: Per capita income for the rural in the east, central and west
10000
9000
8000
7000
6000
The east
5000
The central
4000
The west
3000
2000
1000
0
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
2005
2009
Sources: National Bureau of Statistics of China. (2010). China yearbook of rural

household survey, 2010. Beijing: China Statistics Press.
The core elements of a new social order are rising (Davis & Wang, 2009). The
first element of this emerging new social order is that the economic returns to
individual-level political capital continue and the advantages of the cadres persist
22
in post socialist era. Research indicates that rural cadres gain control and income
rights over collective industry, exerted their influence over salaried positions for
family members in TVEs, capitalized on influence networks and information with
private entrepreneurs, and even started insider privatization to plunder
collective assets (Bian & Logan, 1996; N. Lin, 1995; X. Liu, 2009). Therefore,
they have achieved substantial advantages in accumulating wealth in post socialist
era.
The second element standing out refers to the phenomenon that the market reform
resulting in new opportunity structures centering on the marketplace has given
rise to entrepreneurship. Increasing returns to capital saw the emergence of new
economic elites in rural society: the household business owners and private
entrepreneurs. Some are cadres, or relatives and friends of cadres, who
transformed their political power into sources of private incomes. Some gain their
advantages through their own skills and resources (Unger, 2002). The third
element is the return to education increased and the professionals gained also
advantages because of the knowledge and skills they have acquired (Bian, 2002a;
X. Lu, 2002, 2004).
2.3 Rural Schooling and children in the Transitional Era

2.3.1 The changing landscape of rural education
Most rural schools are primary and secondary, although the school system in rural
areas are diversified and there are also increasing numbers of preschool
institutions, technical and vocational schools, as well as HEIs in these areas. For
most of the time after 1978, rural schools have taken up a large proportion of the
Chinese education system. For example, in most of the cases since 1978, more
than 80 percent of primary schools and over 50 percent of junior secondary
schools are rural ones (see figure 2.6, 2.7 and 2.8). Rural schools also provide
education for the majority of students in Chinas school system. For as long as
nearly 20 years after 1978, over 50 percent of Chinese students have received
their primary education in rural schools and this number decreased only recently
with the decreasing of the rural student population and consolidation of rural
schools (see figure 2.9)(Yang, 2010). The student population in rural schools
served were over 120 million since 1978 which decreased recently because of the
23
large-scale immigration of rural residents to urban areas and the a substantial

decrease in the number of school-aged children with the implementation of the
countys one child policy.
Market reform also saw great changes within this huge school system. During the
socialist era, many radical educational policies were implemented and great
efforts were made, especially in the Cultural Revolution era, to eliminate social
differences in school systems both in terms of class origins and urban-rural
locations (Hannum, 1999; X. Zhou, 2004). For example, the merit-based criteria
in selecting students were abolished and political recommendations and class
labels became the primary means of determining progress in schooling (Unger,
1982). Tracking systems were also abolished, as well as key schools, vocational
education system (Rosen 1984). The link between education and occupational
achievement was also removed (Unger, 1982).
24
Figure 2.6: The ratio of rural primary schools to those in cities and townships
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
primary schools in cities and

townships
40%
rural primary schools
30%
20%
10%
0%
1978 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2006 2009

Figure 2.7: The ratio of rural junior secondary schools to those in cities and
townships
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
junior secondary schools in

cities and townships
50%
rural junior secondary

schools
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
1978 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2006 2009

25
Figure 2.8: The number of rural primary, junior secondary and senior
secondary schools
1200000
1000000
800000
the number of rural senior

secondary schools
600000
the number of rural junior

secondary schools
400000
the number of rural primary

schools
200000
0
1978 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2006 2009

Figure 2.9: The number of students enrolled in rural primary, junior

secondary and senior secondary schools
200000
180000
160000
number of students enrolled

in rural senior secondary
schools
140000
120000

in rural junior secondary
schools
100000
80000
60000

in rural primary schools
40000
20000
0
1978 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2006 2009

yearbooks, 2009.Beijing: China Statistics Press.
The post-socialist era witnessed the overturn of most of these policies and schools
were reconstructed to satisfy the needs of economic reconstruction (Pepper, 1990;
Thgersen, 1990). Education was thought to be the key to science and technology,
and the means for sustainable economic growth (Pepper, 1990). Many efforts,
26
therefore, have been devoted to provide quality and quantity education to rural
children in order to select the most promising ones for the future labor market.
The access to primary and secondary schools, for example, were expended with
the push for economic growth. The transition rate for both from primary schools
to junior secondary schools and from junior secondary schools to senior
secondary schools have substantially increased with the steady increase of the
overall transition rates at the national level (see figure 2.10).
Figure 2.10: The number of students transitional rate at national level
100.00%
90.00%
80.00%
transtion rate from
primary school to junior
secondary school
70.00%
60.00%
50.00%
transition rate from

junior secondary school
to senior secondary
school
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2007
Sources: Department of Development & Planning, Ministry of Education. (2009).

Educational statistics yearbook of China, 2008 Beijing: Peoples Education Press.
With the aim of helping more rural students to complete in their first nine-year
education, a new system in funding rural compulsory education was established at
the end of 2005(Yang, 2006a, 2010). In this system, students in compulsory
education were exempt from textbook and miscellaneous school fees and
provided with subsidies in the case of attending boarding schools (Lou & Ross,
2008). According to statistics, 37.4 million students were exempt from textbook
fees in the year of 2007. At the same time, about 32 percent of students attending
boarding schools in compulsory education received subsidies from the
government (Yang, 2008).
Further steps were taken to improve public expenditures in rural primary and
junior secondary schools. New mechanisms assume the shared roles of central and
27
provincial governments in funding compulsory education. As a result, the central

government compulsory education budgets increased rapidly (Yang, 2010). In
2008, for example, Chinese central governments had a budget of 66.6 billion
RMB for rural compulsory education (Yang, 2009). Expenditures for rural
compulsory education were also fully merged into the central and local
government budgets. A mechanism was also established to guarantee funding for
rural compulsory education through combining the allocations from the central
and local governments (Lou & Ross, 2008; Yang, 2010).
Efforts have also been made to improve the quality of rural education to a
standard comparable to schools in cities through investing more and better
resources in rural schooling. In suggestions on Further Promoting the Balanced
Development of Compulsory Education issued in May 2005, the MOE, for
example, suggested that special policies would be further initiated to reduce
disparities between rural and urban schools in funding and quality of teachers and
facilities. They required governments at different levels to balance resource
allocations between rural and urban areas and give village and small township
schools and those far less developed than cities, priorities in recruiting new
teachers.
Since 2001, the Chinese government has also initiated The Project for the
Reconstruction of Dilapidated School Buildings in Rural Primary and Secondary
Schools (Nongcun zhongxiaoxue weifang gaizao gongcheng
) with the aim of improving learning conditions for rural students and
ensuring all rural school buildings are safe in central and western China. Between
the year of 2001 and 2005, over 9 billion RMB have been invested in this project,
where 60,833 ramshackle school buildings were rebuilt (Caing Net, June, 11th,
2011). Chinese government also launched a special-post teachers program in
2006 with the aim of providing rural schools, in central and western parts of
China in particular, with more quality teachers with college degrees. Between
2006 and 2009, over 59.2 thousand of college graduates were recruited to this
program and introduced to rural schools. (China News Net, March 18th, 2009).
Government at provincial level was also required to financially guarantee teachers
in rural primary and junior secondary school could get their salary in reasonable
28
time and quantity.

Market reform also saw more links between rural schooling and the labor market.
A competitive entrance examination was introduced again into the education
system so that the most intelligent students could be selected (Hannum, Park, &
Cheng, 2007; Unger, 1982). More rural vocational and technical school were
established or transformed from regular schools. Vocational education centers
were also created in many counties. All of these efforts were made to improve the
alignment between schools and the labor market. Research proved that the
economic returns to education in rural China increase with the market reform
(Debrauw & Rozelle, 2007; Parish, Zhe, & Li, 1995). Education is, for example,
becoming a crucial factor that decides whether rural laborers are able to find a
profitable off-farm work successfully (Y. Zhou, 2009).
2.3.2 Challenges to Rural Schooling and Beyond
Rural schools are still facing great challenges today. Most are still weak, get less
investment and are left-behind by urban schools. Although great efforts have been
made to eliminate these financial gaps, the overall inequality in school spending
between urban and rural schools still exists (Yang, 2010). In terms of per capita
spending on teaching facilities for example, urban primary schools nearly have as
many three times the budget as rural ones. Rural schools are still handicapped
with many teachers of dubious quality. The number of teachers with college
degrees in rural schools is far less than in urban ones. Compared with their
counterparts in urban schools, the number of teachers in rural schools with a
senior professional title is also far fewer than that in urban schools (Yang, 2006a).
Moreover, rural schools are now serving a more diversified student population.
With the booming of Chinas economy, for example, more than 200 million
farmers are moving to cities in search of work (Chan, 2009). Although many
migrant workers take their children to the cities where they work, their childrens
situation demands further consideration since many will return to rural school
after being away from hometowns for a period. Research estimates 18.34 million
migrant children in cities. Nearly half of the migrant children were from
Guangdong, Anhui, Henan, Sichuan, Hunan, Hubei, Shandong and Jiangsu
(Yang, 2008). Over 29.9 percent of these children were born in cities where their
29
parents worked. More than 30 percent of these children have been in cities for
more than five years (Yang, 2008). However, most were denied the full access to
the social welfare system in those cities where their parents worked. For example,
a survey in Dongguan, an industry city in Guangdong, shown that nearly half the
migrant children were not involved in the public medical care system(S. Lu,
2005).
Over 61.3 percent of these migrant children are of school age and most are still
discriminated against by urban schooling (Yang, 2008). Although the central
government claims host cities are responsible for enrolling the migrant youth in
their public education systemsYi liuru di weizhu, yi gongba nxuexiao weizhu
), there is still a substantial body of migrant children
being denied access to public schools in the cities where their parents work
(Yang, 2008). For example, in 2005,of the 500 thousand migrant children in
Beijing, 38 percent could not attend public schools. In Shanghai, only 50.7
percent of its migrant children could get access to public schooling in 2006
(Yang, 2008). The situation has significantly improved after a number of cities
such as Shanghai and Dongguan, upon the request of Ministry of Education, tried
to reform its public education system and enroll more migrant children into their
public education system. Shanghai has promised to send all school-aged migrant
children whose parents working in Shanghai to its public schools in the near
future.
For those migrant children who successfully enrolled in public schools in cities
where their parents work, they still experience the difficulties in identifying
themselves as true members of these schools. Most have a strong sense of
alienation from the urban schools (Chan, 2009; Yang, 2009). A survey shows that
they are still outsiders in some social activities in schools. More than 37 percent
perceived that the local students did not accept them and nearly 40 percent
claimed that they were to some extent, discriminated against in public schools
(Lei, 2004). The study also found that migrant children performed worse than
their native counterparts in academic performance (Wu, 2009).
For those excluded from quality public schooling and enrolled in Migrants'
Children Schools (Nongmin gong zidixuexiao ), the situation was
30
even worse. They usually could not get access to quality schooling. In most cases,
migrant schools run privately and cannot get funds from the government. They
cannot purchase enough quality teaching facilities that are comparable to public
schools (Fan, 2006; Y. Zhu, 2004). The salaries they are able to offer to teachers
are also still low. A recent survey in Beijing showed that most of the teachers in
this type of schools earned less than RMB 1,000 per month. Moreover, 54.1
percent were paid RMB 600-799 per month and only 8.3 percent were paid above
1,000 RMB per month (S. Zhao, 2000). Low salaries and a lack of a guarantee of
access to social welfare discouraged young college graduates from seeking
employment in these schools. The Beijing survey mentioned above shows that
only 40 percent of teachers in these institutions have a college degree. Nearly half
have only a secondary school or vocational school education (S. Zhao, 2000).
Migrant children enrolled in public schools are sometimes segregated from native
students (Chan, 2009; Zeng & Li, 2007). A recent study in Beijing reported that
40 percent of migrant children did not have native children friends and 33.7
percent mentioned they did not want to have native students as their friends since
they felt that they were looked down upon by these local students (Lei, 2004).
They could seldom foster a feeling of belonging to the cities where their parents
worked.
Students in these schools were also found to be disadvantaged in achieving
academic success. They were less likely to be supervised by their working parents
and performed worse than their counterparts in public schools (Feng, 2008).
Furthermore, most were denied access to senior secondary schools in cities after
finishing their compulsory education and had to return to their hometowns if they
wanted to take the Senior Secondary School Admission Examination and receive
a senior secondary education (Yang, 2008). Many experienced difficulties in
re-adapting into rural society without the care of their parents (Yang, 2008).
Many migrant workers left their children at home to be taken care of by a single
parent, grandparents or other relatives because of perceived difficulties in getting
full access to public schools in those cities where they worked. Researchers from
the All-China Womens Federation (ACWF) (Zhonghua quanguo funv lianhe hui
) estimated that the number of children left-behind has
31
reached 58 million, which equals to around 28.3 percent of the rural childrens
population. According to research by ACWF, nearly half (47 percent) of these
children were left-behind at home under the care of one parent (usually their
mother). 26 percent were living with their grandparents. About 27 percent were
cared by their relatives or friends of their parents, or without any kind of custody
from adults (ACWF, 2008). In most families, the husband would work in the city
for a few years before his wife joined him. Most of these left-behind children live
in central and west China in such provinces as Sichuan(),Anhui,
Henan, Hunan,and Jiangxi(China Youth Daily, May, 29th
2006). In some rural counties in west and central China, the number of left-behind
children accounts for as much as 80 percent of the child population (ACWF,
2008).
Most of these left-behind children have very limited contact with their parents
who migrate to cities in search of jobs. Research in Changsha of Hunan, shows
that more than 88 percent of left-behind children in Changsha met their migrant
parents one or two times a year since their parents seldom returned home. 45
percent have no idea where their parents worked and 75 percent never visited the
cities where their migrant parents worked in (CYLHN, 2006; Lv, 2005). Phone
calls are the main way to maintain the contact between these children and their
migrant parents. A survey in Beijing found that about 80 percent of left-behind
children talked with their parents on the phone once every two weeks (Lv, 2005).
Most of these left-behind children are in great need for emotional support from
their parents and most have experienced psychological distress and get little
psycho-therapy support (Z. Zhou, Sun, Liu, & Zhou, 2005). Research shows that
left-behind children are more likely than their counterparts in rural areas to suffer
from such psychological diseases as depression and barriers to communicate with
others. For example, a two-year longitudinal research shows 37 percent of the
child left-behind under survey said that they did not want to talk to anyone, 30
percent said that they always felt lonely (Chan, 2009).
These left-behind children were also more vulnerable than their urban
counterparts to natural disasters, accidents, and crimes (Chan, 2009). Above all,
many left-behind children experienced learning difficulties in schools. They are
32
more likely than their city counterparts to drop out of school. They also perform
worse than their counterparts from other backgrounds in rural areas. A recent
survey in a county of Sichuan showed that 48 percent of left-behind children
achieved a very low academic rank in their classes (China Rural Study Net,
November, 17th 2004). Most perceived less motivation than their counterparts in
learning. They were also less likely to finish their homework on time (Tan &
Wang, 2004). Their parents and grandparents at home are usually without
education and could not provide them with any help in learning (X. Li, 2004; W.
Liang, 2010).
2.4 Chapter summary

As the economic and social institutions of China continue to evolve, the social
and educational landscapes both within and outside rural society are changing
rapidly. This chapter provides a brief introduction to the market reform in China
and how it changed its path to poverty, wealth and inequality within rural society.
It also generally describes the changing landscape of rural schooling and the most
important challenges it faces. Grasping these continuities and changes within rural
society and its school system presents not only a context for understanding the
research questions under inquiry in this study but a necessary step in seeing the
social space where rural parents act.
33
CHAPTER THREE
Literature Review and Theoretical Framework
3.1 Introduction
This chapter will develop a theoretical framework to study parental involvement
in rural schooling and its implication for the inequality in college access for
students from different social backgrounds. It first examines two bodies of
literature, namely, the state and market explanations to the advantages and
disadvantages in college access in China. It highlights the importance of strategies
of how rural parents navigate the rapid changes in rural schooling and help their
children achieve success in school. By focusing on the concept of parental
involvement, it then analyzes what specific strategies rural parents can use to
influence their childrens chances in school and how it is linked to social class.
In what follows, I try to unpack rural parents strategies by invoking Bourdieus
idea of capital conversion. I understand parental involvement in schooling as a
capital process where rural parents transform their advantages in economic and
cultural resources into social capital for their children. The next section turns to
literature of social capital and education. It highlights the importance of different
social networks in parental involvement as a capital conversion process and
argues that the differences in network structure, linked to the character of social
class, shape the types and amount of social capital parents can provide to their
children. It also reviews literature over guanxi and its strategic usage in the
transitional era. Finally, the literature will be summarized into a theoretical
framework.
3.2 State, market and family

Research on the influence of market reforms on rural residents higher education
opportunities has questioned the extent of equal opportunity in China. Rather than
fostering more equality, rural schooling strongly favors children of cadres and
professionals. Surveys show that children of the newly arising economic elites
34
enjoy substantial advantages in college access (C. Li, 2006; J. Liu, 2004; Z. Xie &
Luo, 2004; 2006; X. G. Zhou, 2004). For them, rural education increases the odds
of gaining access to prestigious colleges and universities (X. Wang, 1999; H. Wei
& Yang, 2004; W. Xie, 2000; Y. Zhao, 2000). Meanwhile, children from ordinary
peasant families remain disadvantaged for access to all types of colleges and
universities. Why are children from peasant families disadvantaged in the
market-driven access to colleges and universities and how do their counterparts
from families of cadres, professionals and those newly arising economic elites
gain advantages in college access?
3.2.1 The redistributive system and its influence on educational attainment
The redistributive state argument emphasizes the role that the socialist state plays
in the schooling and maintains that relevant institutional arrangements and
political process have direct influence over the school success of rural students (C.
Li, 2006; X. G. Zhou, 2004).
The institutional arrangements in education systems refer to the system of
educational resources allocation established by the socialist state. Szelenyi (1978)
and Zhou (2004) argue that the resources allocation in socialist society generally
follows a political logic that expresses political considerations and structures the
political goals of the state. Under this political logic, industrial cities and working
organizations with higher authority are preferred in their political agenda.
Therefore, they are usually favored in resources allocation process. Education has
long been considered as a kind of resource conducive to economic and social
development in China and its allocation has been heavily structured by political
considerations (Yang, 2006a). Industrial cities are usually preferred in the
education resources allocation process and more likely than rural areas to gain
investment from the central and local governments in education (W. Li, Park,
Wang, & Jin, 2007). Key schools, located in cities and county townships, with
higher positions in the national hierarchical system of schools are also more likely
than others to get inputs, including high quality teachers and sustainable finance
support (Yuan, 1999).
Rural students are, therefore, naturally disadvantaged in this system since rural
schools are less likely to get enough inputs. Of course, they will usually be
35
under-served in colleges and universities (Yao, et al., 2006; Y. Zhao, 2000). Many
studies tested this argument and yielded supportive findings (X. Y. Chen & Min,
1999; J. Liu, 2006; Y. Liu & Zhang, 2007; Qiao, 2007). For example, Yang
(2006b) finds that residents in the east and urban cities which were traditionally
preferred in the redistributive system before the market reform, are more likely
than those in the western regions and rural areas to have the chance of going to
higher education institutions, especially prestigious ones. One of his colleagues
also found that students in key schools are more likely than their counterparts in
others to be accepted by colleges and universities (W. Li, et al., 2007).
The macro process such as those state-initiated political campaigns (the cultural
revolution, for example) usually bring sudden changes in social and educational
policies, especially school selection criteria (Hannum, 1999; C. Li, 2006; Y. Li,
2006). These changes also claim to have great influence over the success in
school of individuals. Zhou (2004), for example, in the process of analyzing
relationship between social backgrounds and educational achievement in urban
China, found that it varies across different historical periods with the frequent
switches of educational selection criteria between merit and political loyalty. He
reported that when a merit-based criterion was used in the educational system
after the introduction of market system, children from worker backgrounds
became more disadvantaged. His finding was confirmed by Lis research (C. Li,
2006).
The redistributive explanation emphasizes the role that state plays in the process
of the individuals pursuit of higher education opportunities. Although having the
potential to explain the college access gap between rural residents from the
eastern and western part of China, it was still flawed for one important reason. It
is not able to explain why there are still gaps among different social groups in
accessing HEIs within one region, province or county. One reason for this
inability is that this explanation considers less about the emerging type of social
stratification within rural society.
In fact, the new market forces operating on rural households have shaped a more
stratified society in rural China and the decentralization of Chinas education
system, leaving families with more space to become involved in the schooling of
36
their children, thus exerting more influence on the educational consequences of

rural schools. The second reason for the weakness of redistributive argument in
explaining social group differences within rural society is that it overlooks the
agency of families in negotiating the control of schools of the socialist state and
the influences over chances of school success for their children. The institution of
the family and its influences over individuals educational attainment has the
structural potential in a reformed economy to be a decisive factor in educational
attainment rates.
3.2.2 Market economy and educational attainment
The market economy provides individuals with a context where competition for
education opportunities depend more on the situation of individuals and their
families (Max, 1991). In post-socialist China, education has become an important
credential for future success. Families, as a result, began to engage more in
schooling in order to help their children to achieve this success. The market and
status transmission argument notices this and claims that the chances of school
success for children are largely determined by the quality and quantity of
individual-based family resources.
Families with better financial resources, as theorists claim, can increase their
childrens odds of school success through buying comfortable housing, good
nutrition and purchasing high quality school education, private counselor services,
and even extra-curricular training (Massey et al., 2003). Empirical data suggest
that family-based economic resources are important predictors of students
college access in the post-socialist era. Students from cadres, professionals and
the new arising economic elites families with high level of incomes are found to
have the substantial advantage in getting access to colleges and universities (X. Y.
Chen & Min, 1999; He & Dong, 2007; Zhong & Lu, 2003).
Their counterparts from low-income families were found to be under serving in
all types of HEIs. Chen and Min (1999), for example, reported that the number of
students from low-income families has been in substantial decreasing in 14
universities surveyed. Students from low-income families were also found to be
more likely to choose academic programs in teachers and agricultural colleges,
which usually have low prestige and cannot promise a prosperous future. Their
37
counterparts from high-income families, however, are more likely to enroll in

comprehensive universities usually located in more developed regions and can
guarantee a better career (He & Dong, 2007).
Parents, with more education, may also have advantages in passing on their
privileges to their children and help them to achieve success in school since they
may have more knowledge in tutoring their children and passing on their cultural
tastes than can be converted into educational credentials (Bourdieu, 1990b; N. D.
D. Graaf, Graaf, & Kraaykamp, 2000; P. M. D. Graaf, 1986). Researchers Zhao
(Wang, 2005b; Zhao, 2000), for example, reported that students opportunities
accepted by colleges and universities increase in proportion to their parents level
of education. Students whose parents are college graduates are most likely to have
advantages in going to selective colleges and universities. Their counterparts
whose fathers are secondary school graduates are also found to be advantaged in
accessing to selective colleges and universities (W. Xie, 2000; Z. Xie & Luo,
2004).
The market and status transmission argument claims individual-based family
resources as the key determinant of a childs school success. While
acknowledging family positions in the class stratification systems and its possible
influences over students college access, this explanation considers less about the
process of how different families pass their advantages to their children and help
their children to achieve success in school. This issue, however, is quite important
since families strategies in this process could possibly be a response to the
market reform and thus related to social changes at the macro level (X. G. Zhou,
2004). The understanding of the process of how different families pass their
advantages on to their children, therefore, may have the potential to help us
understand the dialectal interactions among families, schools and market.
3.3 Parental Involvement and Social Class

Overall, family strategies in navigating influences exercised by the state and
market and in helping their children to achieve school success were important in
understanding the inequalities in college access within rural society. Yet, what
constitutes effective strategies and how are these strategies linked to social class?
38
The concept of parental involvement is helpful in thinking about the specific ways
rural parents use to gain advantages for their children in college access.
Parental involvement refers to parental investment and the use of resources in
their childrens learning process with the aim of improving their chance of school
success (Bouffard & Weiss, 2008; Charles Desforges & Alberto Abouchaar, 2003;
Epstein, 2001; Sui-Chu & Willms, 1996). Epstein categorizes these activities into
six types with a clear description of what these activities refer to (see table 2.1).
According to Paulson (1994), these activities could be home, school and
community-based.
Most research in the West proves that parental involvement is positively linked to
success in school and students show better academic scores, higher graduation
rates, lower rates of dropping out when their parents are involved in their learning
process (Schoon & Parsons, 2002; Sheldon & Epstein, 2002, 2005; Singh, Bickley,
Trivette, & Keith, 1995; Sui-Chu & Willms, 1996). Researchers in China claim
parental involvement as the process dimension of family and argue that childrens
advantages in school success can be achieved when family-based resources such
as economic and cultural resources are actively invested and used (Y. Jiang,
2003).
Table 3.1: Parental involvement with definition
Types of involvement
Definition
Parenting Providing housing, health, nutrition, safety, parenting

skills in parent-children interactions, home conditions
to help schools, know child
Communicating School-home/home-school communication
Volunteering In school help in classroom/events
Teaching at home Help with homework, help with educational
choices/options
Decision making Membership of PTA/governors
Collaborating with the
Contributions to school
community
Source: adapted from Kreider, H. (2000). The national network of partnerships schools:
a model for family-school-community partnerships. Cambridge: Harvard Family
Research Project.
39
Social class has a powerful influence over the pattern of how parents from
different social backgrounds become involved in schooling. Researchers (Crozier,
1999; Dornbusch & Glasgow, 1996; Lareau, 1987) argue that parents made
choices about the types of activities they were willing to engage in at home, in
school and community to help their children to achieve success. Several
conceptual efforts have been done to explain parental choice and the different
levels of involvement of parents from different social groups. The first effort
attributes parents actions in school involvement to their attitude about education.
They suggest that parents from high and middle social class tend to take a more
active role in involvement since they recognize the value of education and have
confidence in their participation rights.
However, their counterparts from the lower social class place less value on
education and are less motivated to participate in schooling (Nechyba, McEwan,
& Older-Aguilar, 1999). This culture of poverty model echoes with one of the
argument made clear by Wisconsin Model (Sewell & Shah, 1967, 1968a, 1968b).
Parents from the low social class are more likely to downplay the value of
education. Therefore, they are less likely to expect their child to achieve in school,
which in turn, shapes the childs expectation of their education.
Another body of scholarship takes the position that the different levels of parental
involvement can be traced back to the attitude of the school as an institution to
parents from different social backgrounds (Connell, Ashenden, Kessler, &
Dowsett, 1982; Lightfoot, 1978; Ogbu, 1974). They argue that parents from
privileged backgrounds feel more welcome than their counterpart from
disadvantaged social groups in schooling. Schools, which are considered as
middle class institutions with their own values, accept involvement only on their
own terms, which are non-negotiable. Only those middle class parents who agree
with these values are able to know how to get involved in schooling.
Lareau (1987, 2001) asserts a cultural capital explanation to different patterns of
school involvement of parents from different social backgrounds. She argues that
parents from the middle class are involved more in schooling because their class
cultures give them a pool of resources they can use in interaction with teachers.
For example, their high level of education helps them know how to comply with
40
the teachers requirement at school. Their social status is comparable to that of

teachers, which makes them encounter fewer barriers in communicating with
teachers. The cultural capital associated with social class, therefore, fosters the
link between families and schools of parents from middle class and yield
advantages for their children in school success.
Despite the possible significance of parental involvement in explaining the
process of how the advantages and disadvantages in success in school are
produced for students from different social backgrounds, there is still a lack of
research on how Chinas rural parents are involved in their children schooling
and the influences over the inequality in college access. Moreover, the concept
and pattern of involvement itself can vary with the change of social and cultural
contexts. For example, Kong (2008) found that rural parents in Gansu, China, are
more likely to be invisibly involved in their childrens learning process such as
provision of a constructive home learning environment for the child. Therefore, an
examination of the parents construction of the roles they should play and those
activities they allow in their children's education to help them to achieve school
success will not only be helpful in understanding the social and cultural traits of
parental involvement in Chinas rural schooling but also how parental
involvement is related to social class in the Chinese context.
3.4 Forms of capital and their conversion

Bourdieus conceptualization of the forms of capital and their conversion are
helpful in thinking of how advantages and disadvantages in college access were
produced in Chinas rural schooling through parental involvement.
Our analysis of this begins with Bourdieus understanding of different forms of
capital and their conversion. Bourdieu (1986) considers the history of the social
world as in a continuous process of capital accumulation. He defines capital as
accumulated labor that can be used by actors to gain further profits in the forms of
reified or living labor. He argues that capital should not only be considered as the
energy or profits that the actors strive for, but also the rules or regularities which
govern how they compete. He contends that the structure of the distribution of
the different types and subtypes of capital at a given moments in time represents
41
the immanent structure of the social world which determines the chances of
success for practices of the actors (Bourdieu, 1986). This fact can only be
understood through introducing of capital in its various forms beside the one in
economic form. He contends that there are also two other forms of capital in the
social world: the cultural capital and social capital.
Cultural capital in its embodied form; the state of which can be called culture,
cultivation, needs a process of embodiment or incorporation which is costly in
time and energy and could be invested personally. Bourdieu (1986, 1990b) thinks
that this process of acquisition usually goes on in an unconscious way and is
deeply influenced by the earliest conditions of acquisition. This process is also
often invisible, unrecognized and more disguised than those of economic capital
transmission. Although, the process of acquisition is difficult and unrecognizable,
it will actually bring symbolic profits of distinction for its owner. Bourdieu argues
that the efficacy of cultural capital (Bourdieu considers that the efficacy of capital
depends on the form of distribution of the means in sustaining resources) lies in
its logic of transmission. He believes that the transmission of cultural capital is
hidden and the best means for transmission of capital and strategy of reproduction
as the other forms of transmission are likely to be more strongly controlled and
censored. Bourdieu also sees the link between economic and cultural capital in the
mediation of time is needed for acquisition. He argues that free time and freedom
from economic necessity in wealthy families is a key precondition for the initial
accumulation.
Bourdieu argues that cultural capital in its objective state should be defined in
relation to cultural capital in its embodied state. He argues that the cultural capital
in its objectified form such as objects and media can be transmitted. In this sense,
Bourdieu contends that cultural capital can be sustained both materially and
symbolically. But, he also points out what has been transmitted in this process is
not the possession of the ways of consuming a painting or employing a machine
(the embodied form of cultural capital) (Bourdieu, 1986) but in legal ownership. It
is the possession of the means of production (which means the embodied state of
cultural capital) that determines the nature of possession. Only those who profit
from using various capitals rather than selling them can be classified as a
42
dominant group.
The institutionalized cultural capital, in the state of academic qualifications, to
some extent neutralizes the fact that cultural capital in the embodied form is
limited to its bearer and will decline with the death of the bearer. Cultural capital
in its institutionalized forms is supposed to be formally independent of the person
of their bearer and institutionalized by collective magic, the power to show forth
and secure belief, or in a word, to impose recognition (Bourdieu, 1986). The
independent nature of academic qualification also makes a comparison between
certain academic qualification holders possible. Its property in conferring
institutional recognition of cultural capital also makes the establishment of
conversion rates between cultural capital and economic capital possible since it
guarantees the monetary value of a given academic capital. Different academic
qualification holders may benefit differently from their academic capital in labor
market. Therefore, the investment on academic qualification may depend on the
return rates of the institutionalized cultural capital.
Bourdieu admits that the notion of cultural capital presents itself to him in the
process of researching the unequal achievement of children from different social
classes. He claims in that process that academic success or failure cannot be seen
as a direct result of natural aptitudes or human capital investment. Investment in
education should not only take account of those monetary investments or those
directly changeable to money such as the years of schooling and the hidden lost
brought by the schooling but also the cultural capital. In this schema, the domestic
transmission of cultural capital is the education investment of most determinant
significance in schooling. Bourdieu argues that cultural capital should be seen as a
strategy of social reproduction and contends that functionalists interpretation of
education ignores this point and is unaware of the fact that academic ability or
talent is itself the product of an investment of time and cultural capital (Bourdieu,
1986, 1990b). He argues that educational outcomes from educational action
depend on the cultural capital previously invested by the family.
Considering social capital, Bourdieu argues that it is the aggregate of the actual
or potential resources linked to possession of a durable network of more or less
institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition--or in other
43
words, to membership in a group--which provides each of its members with

backing of the collectivity-owned capital (Bankston & Zhou, 2002a; Bourdieu,
1986; N. Lin, 2002). Bourdieu (1986) contends that these relationships may exist
only in the practical state that can be established and maintained through material
and/or symbolic exchanges. He also mentioned that these relationships may also
be institutionalized and assured by the using of a common name (the name of a
family, a class, or a tribe or of a school, a party, etc.) and by a whole set of
instituting acts designed to form and inform those who undergo them (Bourdieu,
1986). These relationships should be established and maintained through
exchanges with acknowledgment of the proximity. The proximity cannot be
partially reduced to the proximity in physical space or even in economic and
social space.
Bourdieu (1986) argues that the volume of the social capital owned by an agent
lies in the size of the network that an agent can activate and the volume of the
capital (economic, cultural or symbolic) owned by each of those agents connected.
However, he also notes that social capital cannot be reduced to the economic,
cultural or symbolic capital possessed by those within the network. He argues that
the profits from membership are the basis of group solidarity that makes the
profits possible; however, the profits may not be consciously pursued even in
deliberately organized groups.
Bourdieu (1986) claims that social connections cannot be established once and for
all by an initial act of institution. It should be established and maintained through
endless efforts at institution. In Bourdieus words, the network of relations is the
product of investment strategies, individual or collective, consciously or
unconsciously aimed at establishing or reproducing social relationships that are
directly usable in the short or long term (Bourdieu, 1986). For example, agent
may endeavor to transform those contingent relations, such as those of
neighborhood, the workplace, or even kinship, into relationships that are at once
necessary and elective, implying durable obligations subjectively felt or
institutionally guaranteed (rights)(Bourdieu, 1986). Bourdieu calls this process
the alchemy of consecration, the symbolic constitution produced by social
institution (institutions as a relative-brother, sister, cousin, etc. or as a knight, an
44
heir, and elders, etc.) and endless reproduced in and through the exchange (of
gifts, words, women, etc.) which it encourages and which presupposes and
produces mutual knowledge and recognition (Bourdieu, 1986). It is through this
exchange that the boundary and limits of a group are established and guarded by
every member of the group. The possible exchange with those outside the group
will of course bring threat to the identity of the groups, which therefore, is under
strict control. The entry of new members and the possible exchange with the
outside should be permitted by the whole group. Even having lost the possibility
of monopoly of the establishment of exchange that leads to long-standing
relationships, Bourdieu argues, the family tries to control the exchange. All the
institutions can be employed to favor legitimate exchanges and exclude
illegitimate ones through producing occasions, places or practices to bring
together individuals into a homogeneous group.
To Bourdieu, the reproduction of social capital represents a constant effort of
sociability, a continuous process of exchanges where recognition is ceaselessly
affirmed and reaffirmed (Bourdieu, 1986). He argues that this process needs time,
energy and economic capital. People should invest in improving their competence
(knowledge of family relationships and of real connections and skills at
employing them, etc.) and acquiring disposition to achieve and maintain this
competence, which will be an integral part of social capital.
Bourdieu also argues that every group has a certain kind of delegation to execute
the totality of the social capital that is the basis of the survival of the group. The
institutionalized agents of delegated groups have to shield the group as a whole
and protect those weakest within the groups. Although there are still possibilities
that the spokesman of the group may embezzle the capital they assemble, they are
still the signifier of the group. Only through their presence is it possible for the
whole group that they represented to exist.
To Bourdieu, economic capital is the source of other forms of capital and can be
transformed into other types of capital at the cost of efforts. He indicates that
conservation of any types of capital needs time and energy that can be measured
in the form of labor-time since economic capital is the source of other kinds of
capital. The transformation of economic capital into other types of capital is the
45
basis of producing the power and also needs labor time. For example, the
transformation of economic capital into social capital may need a large amount of
time, attention, care, concern and so on.
Bourdieu (1986) argues that the convertibility of different forms of capital is the
basis of the strategies that aim at the reproduction of capital in the least costly way.
Different types of capital may vary in the easiness in reproduction and some may
have relatively higher rate of loss in the process of reproducing. Some may have
relatively higher ability in concealing themselves in the process of reproducing.
He argues that the more likely we disguise the economic aspects of reproducing,
the more risk it will have in the process.
Although economic capital is thought to be the basis of other types of capital, they
are considered to be incommensurable which may expose the transformation of
one kind into another to uncertainty and risks. For example, social capital, which
can be in the form of obligations that are employable in the more or less long term,
entails the risk of refusing the fulfillment of obligations. The transmission of
cultural capital from one generation to the other, which is highly concealed, may
be at great disadvantage and out of control, especially when it is needed to convert
into a capital of qualifications needing validation by educational systems.
With the development of the society, people may prevent those dominant groups
from directly transmitting their privileges that may increase the difficulty of those
dominant groups in reproducing their capital. As a result, they may choose to
reproduce it in a better-disguised but costlier way. Cultural capital is considered
by Bourdieu to play a determinant role in the reproduction of the social structure
with the trend. As a mean of reproduction capable of disguising its own function,
the scope of the educational system tends to increase, and together with this
increase is the unification of the market in social qualifications, which gives rights
to occupy rare positions(Bourdieu, 1986).
The notion of types of capital and its conversion provides important ideas in
understanding parental involvement in Chinas rural schooling. Parental
involvement in schooling provides children with many advantages in social
capital for school success (Coleman, 1988; Lopez, 2002; Teachman, Paasch, &
46
Carver, 1996; M. Zhou & Bankston, 1994; M Zhou & Kim, 2006). In this sense,
the process that parents invest in and use family-based resources in order to
produce privileges in college access for their children can be understood as a
capital conversion process. Through this process, parents invest and convert their
economic and cultural resources into social capital conducive for school success.
The metaphor of investment implies that this process needs endless efforts from
parents in capital inputs (Bourdieu, 1986). However, conversion also means that
the social structure as the accumulated structure of capital and its subtypes shape
the chance of success for different parents in social capital transmission. It implies
that parents with different combinations of capitals (in forms of economic and
cultural ones) have different abilities and may commit different strategies in
converting their privileges into social capital. Those parents in the social group of
professionals, for example, with more cultural than economic capital, may have
more opportunities to convert their cultural capital into social capital for their
children. The new economic elites, with more economic than cultural capital, may
be more motivated to make use of their privileges in economic resources and
convert them into social capital for their children.
In the discussion over cultural capital and its reproduction, Bourdieu mentions
some key concepts such as the rate of return and easiness of conversion,
field and the logic of the field and implies implicitly that the logic of a field
determines the rate of return and ease of capital conversion. However, the
problem is he extends less about what constitute the rules for capital conversion in
different social and cultural contexts. More relevant here, he discusses little about
rules of the game and the process that how economic and cultural capital can be
converted into social capital despite his overall discussion of social capital as an
important concept in status transmission and social exclusion. However, this
constitutes one of the most important aspects in understanding parental
involvement in rural schooling since the logic and rules in toward-social-capital
conversion structure the possible returns of capital conversion.
3.5 Social Capital, Inequality and Education

Parental
involvement
in
schooling
can
be
conceptualized
as
toward-social-capital conversion process through which parents could transmit

47
their privileges in economic and cultural forms into social capital for their
children. A discussion of this conversion process and its implication for parental
involvement in rural schooling should be linked with more understanding of the
literature on social capital and education. Numerous studies have been done to
examine the relationships between social capital and education, in particular how
social capital is linked to school success. In what follows, I will briefly describe
the concept of social capital, how it can be connected to education and their
implications for understanding parental involvement in rural schooling.
3.5.1 Social capital: origins and definitions
The origins of social capital are as diverse as its definitions. Some researchers
trace the roots of social capital to the early works of those founding fathers of
sociology and economics such as Emile Durkheim and Adam Smith, while the
others goes to Alexis de Tocqueville, Glen Loury and Pierre Bourdieu (Y. Chen,
2006; Dika & Singh, 2002; Farr, 2004; Field, 2003; Halpern, 2005; A Portes,
1998). Although there are still debates on where social capital comes from and
where it goes, three sources of intellectual works are considered to be the main
sites for the production of social capital--the work of Bourdieu, Coleman and
Putnam.
Bourdieu (1986) sees capital, which could be economic, cultural and social ones,
as accumulated labor and the conversion of which was an important strategy for
social reproduction. He defines social capital as aggregate of the actual or
potential resources, which is linked to possession of a durable network of more or
less, institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition. To
Bourdieu, the volume of social capital depends on the size of the network of
relationship and the resources it maintains. He (Bourdieu, 1986) contends that the
network of connections is the product of endless, latent and costly investment
strategies, individuals or collective, consciously or unconsciously aiming at
establishing or reproducing social relationships. Bourdieu implies that through
membership of certain groups actors can gain both material and symbolic profits.
For example, actors can increase their cultural capital through links with experts;
or, alternatively, they can become one member of those institutions that confer
valued credentials (Bourdieu, 1984, 1988, 1990b). He sees social capital as a
48
strategy of investment used by dominant groups to reproduce group solidarity and

preserve the groups dominant position (N Lin, 2002).
Through construction and reproduction of membership, dominant groups define
and redefine their boundary, exclude illegitimate introduction of new members
while at the same time defend the profits of the groups (Bourdieu, 1986). He
(Bourdieu, 1986) also analyses the conversion between social capital and other
forms of capital in the reproduction of social structure and indicates that the
conversion itself is constrained by existent accumulation of capital.
Coleman (1988) introduces social capital into his rational action paradigm as a
tool to overcome both under-socialized concept of man in economic stream and
over-socialized concept of man in sociological stream. He argues that individuals
action can neither be described as wholly self-interested and independent nor be
explained only through the social context they are in. Coleman (1990) tries to
define social capital through its function and points out that:
It is not a single entity but a variety of different entities, with
two elements in common: they all consist of some aspect of
social structures, and they facilitate certain actions of actors whether personal or corporate actors - within the structure.
Coleman (1988) points out that social capital can be in different forms.
Obligations and expectations, which depend on trustworthiness of the social
environment and the actual extension of obligations held, can be counted as one
among those forms. Coleman also refers to information channels inherent in
social relations as an important form of social capital and argues that the
acquisition of information is costly and requires attention at a minimum. He also
points out that norms and effective sanctions can be taken as a form of social
capital. He indicates that such form of social capital works does not only through
aiding certain actions but also constraining others. He argues that closure of
networks and stability of organization is especially important in facilitating some
forms of social capital.
Coleman also mentions social capital as a public good and argues that it not only
facilitates the action of investors but also the others in the same social structure.
49
He indicates that the investors of social capital may capture a small part of its
benefit, which may lead to the under-investment of it.
Like Bourdieu, Coleman emphasizes the importance of social networks in the
creation of social capital. However, two elements distinguish him from Bourdieu
in defining social capital. Firstly, Bourdieu highlights the importance of social
capital in the reproduction of existent social structure; while Coleman the role it
plays in facilitating action and social control. Secondly, Bourdieu sees both
unseen networks and various capitals (economic, cultural or symbolic capital)
maintained in networks as the components of social capital, while Coleman the
productive features of social structure. Therefore, Bourdieu emphasizes structural
constrains and unequal access to institutional resources based on class, gender and
race, while Coleman notes the importance of norms, effective sanctions that
maintained in family, community that helps to improve the life chances of actors
(Lareau, 2001).
Putnams definition of social capital is widely cited and well known by the public.
His definition of social capital suggests similarities with Colemans. Putnam
(1993) considers social capital as features of social organization such as trust,
norms, and networks and indicates that these features can improve the efficiency
of society by facilitating coordinated actions. He states:
By social capital I mean features of social life-networks,
norms and trust-that enable participants to act together more
effectively to pursue shared objectives.
Unlike Coleman, Putnam defines social capital at a general level within

communities and regions. He also pays more attention to those resources
maintained in loose ties rather than bonding ties such as church and family. He
maintains that societies with more aggregate social capital that demonstrate higher
levels of civic engagement and more intermediate, human-scale organizations can
generate broader identities and reciprocity that produce and sustain productive
social resources (Putnam, 1995, 2000).
Although criticized by Field for developing an undifferentiated concept of social
capital, the three foundational authors have shaped the tradition and practices
50
across the social sciences in researching social capital (Field, 2003). One of the
central argument lies in this tradition is that social network (whether between two
or more people) constitutes one basic component of social capital. It is through
social network that social capital is produced or delivered. Another central
argument is that social capital as a process needs endless efforts of actors with
special purpose. The last one is that the active use of social networks could bring
resources. Later efforts in refining the concept of social capital were basically
centered on elaboration and development of these three components of social
capital. For example, Chen briefly reviews those different uses of social capital
and found those differences in using social capital by different authors mainly can
be found in four key aspects (see table 3.2). The first two aspects are concerned
with the first two basic components of social capital.
Latter discussions over social network as a basic component of social capital
concern the characteristic of social networks, especially the strength of ties and
the particular types of social capital that different ties could produce and deliver.
Strong ties, which indicate more frequent and long-lasting interactions between
people such as neighbors, friends and business partners, are more likely to
produce obligations and trusts. Weak ties, especially, the ones bridging two
different social groups, are claimed to be more privileged in delivering
information (Burt, 1992; Granovetter, 1973). These findings, however, are not
always constant in different social and cultural contexts. For example, in
researching the job attaining process in urban China, Bian (1997) questions the
strength of weak ties and claims that it is through strong ties rather than weak
ones valuable information about job is delivered in Chinas labor market in
transition.
Researchers also show their concerns over actors developing the concept of social
capital. In an elaborate effort, Lin (2002) differentiates actors in social networks
according to their social positions and argues that different positions mean
different chances in access and using social resources through social networks.
This effort can also be found in the work of Woolcock (2001).Woolcock achieves
his understanding of social capital through incorporating the components of ties
and actors:
51
Bonding social capital, which denotes ties between like people

in similar situations, such as immediate family, close friends
and neighbors;
Bridging social capital, which encompasses more distant ties of
like persons, such as loose friendships and workmates; and
Linking social capital, which reaches out to unlike people in
dissimilar situations, such as those who are entirely outside the
community, thus enabling members to leverage a far wide range
of resources than are available within the community.
Table 3.2: Social capital and its uses by different authors
Structure
Actors
Function
Bourdieu
1986
A durable
network
Members in a
group
Backing of the
The aggregate
collective-owned of the actual
capital
or potential
resources
Coleman
1988
Social
structures
Persons or
corporate
actors
Facilitate actions
A variety of
entities
Portes 1989
Social
networks or
structures
Actors
To secure
benefits
Ability
Foley &
Edwards
1999
Particular
Individual or
social-historical collective
contexts
actors
Available for use Resources

accessible
Bankston&
Zhou 2002
Stages of social
relations
Lead to
constructive
Individuals or
groups
Nature
Process of
social
interactions
Resource: Chen, Y. (2006). Uyghur students in a Chinese boarding school: social

recapitalization as a response to ethnic integration. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, The
University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
He implicitly claims that actors linked together by social networks can differ in
their situations.
The active use of social networks is for actors, which implies that the mobilizing
of social networks must yield and deliver resources. What could be norms, trust,
information and other tangible resources (Coleman, 1988, 1990; N Lin, 2002; A.
Portes, 1998).
52
3.5.2 Social capital as a process

The considerations over the social networks, actors and resources yield as the
basic components enrich the understanding of the concept of social capital.
However, one problem with this component analysis is social capital and in this
sense can easily to be understood as a static and quantifiable entity which can be
finally reduced to such essentials as networks and norms, values, trust produced in
the networks. If social capital can be reducible, it would imply that social capital
is nothing but a newly replaced term for these concepts. Furthermore, it would
also create skeptics on the issue whether such things as norms and values are
forms of social capital or consequences of using social capital.
Social capital has to be understood as a process where actors strategically use
networks for the purpose of obtaining certain goals (Bankston & Zhou, 2002b; N
Lin, 2002). This analysis echoes the understanding of Marx on capital. When
talking about capital, Marx argues
All new capital, to commence with, comes on the stage, that is,
on the market, whether of commodities, labor, or money, even
in our days, in the shape of money that by a definite process has
to be transformed into capital. K. Marx, 1967
He claims that capital is resources in investment and mobilizing. He claims that

capital can only be understood when put into the marketplace to earn profits
(Marx & Engels, 1967). Marxs understanding of capital as a process shows much
in the analysis of economic practice. Bourdieu, however, extends this notion to
the understanding of other aspects of social world. He places the term capital
after cultural and social and wants to deliver the notion that the economic side
of practices and the other aspects of practices should not be separated from each
other (Bourdieu, 1986, 1990a). He argues that a separation of economic side of
practices which is believed to be dominated by the discourse of maximization of
profit from other social aspects of practices, which is considered as disinterested
is nothing other than the denial of the economy. It will only result in the inability
to capture the totality of the practices. Bourdieu argues that a general science of
the economy of practices should try to grasp capital and its profit in various
forms and to establish the laws whereby the different types of capital change into
53
one another (Bourdieu, 1988). Furthermore, he argues:

Capital, which, in its objectified or embodied forms, takes time
to accumulate and which, as a potential capacity to produce
profits and to reproduce itself in identical or expanded form
(Bourdieu, 1986)
Therefore, social capital can only be understood in the process that actors
strategically use their social network for certain goals. The understanding of
social capital as a process more accurately grasps the nature of the term capital
which can only be named when relevant resources are placed in marketplace
and actively invested and used.
In this process schema, the first component of social capital, the social network,
can be understood as the first stage of social capital. The formation of social
networks constitutes the basic opportunity structure for investment, which is
according to those arguments on the strength of ties. Social networks can be the
formal or informal connections that exist between people or groups. They may
vary from inborn kinships involving daily exchanging of emotional and material
support to nodding acquaintances recognized through occasional greetings
(Halpern, 2005). It may be membership of a nation or a race at the macro-level, or
membership of a family at the micro-level (Coleman, 1988; Fukuyama, 1995;
Putnam, 1993; M. Zhou & Bankston, 1994; M. Zhou & Kim, 2006). They
represent the opportunity structure that shapes the returns of investment. Strong
ties and weak ties are claimed to have their respective advantages in transforming
norms, obligations, trusts and information in different social and cultural context
(Bian, 1994, 1997; Burt, 1992; Granovetter, 1973). Therefore, strong and weak
social networks may predict different returns in relevant goal-oriented actions.
The predictability depends on the specific social and cultural context and the
particular goals of actors.
The responses and actions of actors constitute the second stage of social capital.
They exercise goal-oriented actions by mobilizing social networks. Actors can
vary across gender, social positions and levels (Halpern, 2005; N Lin, 2002;
Woolcock, 2001).
54
The final stage of social capital is the resources (Portes, 1998; Woolcook, 1998).
This conceptualization of social capital as a process is important in considering
the process of conversion from economic and cultural capital to social one and
how this process is connected to social class and inequality. First, the
toward-social-capital conversion process can only be achieved when social
networks are strategically used. Therefore, it can be claimed that social networks
constitute the basic opportunity structure for toward-social-capital conversion.
The term opportunity structure has both qualitative and quantitative
connotations. It implies that social networks with different characteristics may be
suitable for toward-social-capital conversion for different purposes in different
social and cultural contexts. In a quantitative sense, it also implies that the output
for conversion would be impossible or relatively low when economic capital and
cultural capital are transformed through wrong types of social networks.
Social class has significant influence over the formation of social networks and
thus the opportunity structure for toward-social-capital conversion. Lin (2000)
argues that members of a social group are more likely to be linked with those
from the same social group or similar social positions. Members of high social
positions are more likely to have extensive social connections to members of
different social groups (N. Lin, 2000, 2002). Furthermore, it should be noted that
there is a cost for maintaining and producing social connections. The cost in
producing and reproducing cross-class connections are more likely to surpass
those of within-class connections. Both of these imply that some actors from low
social class may possible be excluded from some social networks that are
strategically important for toward-social-capital conversion.
Understanding social capital as a process also places actors and their strategies in
capital conversion at the center of analysis. Actors could try different ways to
maintain or produce social connections in order to ensure that the
toward-social-capital conversion will be successful. The specific strategies that
actors used in maintaining or producing social connections depends on their goals,
constructions of what the social networks can produce and deliver to them as well
as the rules of practices they internalized in creating and recreating social
connections within a certain culture.
55
With
considerable
simple
deduction
based
on
the
understanding
of
toward-social-capital conversion process, we shall return to the issue of parental

involvement in rural schooling. The goal of rural parents in rural schooling is to
provide their children with social capital transformed from economic capital and
cultural ones and create their advantages in school success. Therefore, questions
more relevant here are: what kinds of social networks are connected to the
advantages in school success and suitable for the transmission of class privileges?
Then, how are they associated with better educational outcomes? These two
questions concern the opportunity structure provided by different social networks
and how the structure advantages some social groups while disadvantaging others.
Another two questions considered here are concerned with parents strategies in
mobilizing social networks: first, how do rural parents in China construct their
understanding of social networks? Second, what are their internalized rules in
mobilizing different social networks?
Following these questions, we will go to the literature on relations between social
capital and education.
3.5.3 Social capital in creating advantages for school success
The body of literature on social capital and its relationship with education has
increased substantially since it was introduced to educational research in 1980s
(Dika & Singh, 2002). On one hand, education is considered to have a particularly
important role in the process of creating, sustaining and destroying social capital
(Putnam, 2000). On the other hand, social capital is usually found to be an
important predictor of educational outcomes. Social networks within a family,
between a family and a school and within a community are the three places where
social capital may be achieved for the creation of advantages in school success
(Bankston, 2004; Bankston & Zhou, 1996; Coleman, 1988; Schneider &
Coleman, 1993; Sun, 1999; Teachman, Paasch, & Carver, 1997; M. Zhou &
Bankston, 1994; M Zhou & Kim, 2006).
Social networks within families can be strategic for creating advantages in school
success for children. Coleman (1988), in his classic paper, agues social network
and its mobilization might help children to get access to the human capital of their
parents. According to him, childrens human capital is influenced not only by the
56
human capital possessed by their parents but also by the social relations between
children and their parents within the family. He describes physical absence of
adults and less attention given by adults to children as a structural deficiency in
social capital and indicates that this deficiency could influence childrens
educational outcomes. He (1988) proves, through quantitative analysis, that the
physical presentation of adults in households, their formal relationship and the
number of siblings are associated with childrens educational outcomes. He also
indicates that children living in traditional structured families are more likely to
achieve better educational outcomes than those from non-traditional families since
maternal employment in modern families reduces the stock of social capital in
family, thus has a negative effect on childrens educational outcomes. His
description and arguments to a large extent shapes the tradition and agenda in
researching effects of social capital maintained in the family on educational
outcomes. Halpern (2005) and Israel et al (Israel, Beaulieu, & Hartless, 2001) for
example, develops similar argument in their research. They claim that there are
two traditions in researching the family-based resources effects in terms of social
capital on educational outcomes. One tries to find those structural factors that can
explain educational outcomes, while the other seeks to examine process factors.
They indicate that structural factors refer to the number of adults in the household,
their formal relationship, and the numbers of sibling which determine the
opportunity for interpersonal interactions, as well as their frequency and duration,
while process factors refer to the level and quality of interactions inside the
network, relating to more social norms and informal sanctions. They found that
both structure and process of family social capital are important predictors of
educational outcomes.
Numerous research yield similar findings. They claim that children whose parents
are both physically present and attentive are more likely to achieve better
academic performance (Furstenberg & Hughes, 1995; Sun, 1999; Valenzuela &
Dornbusch, 1994). Lee (1993) found that students in traditionally American
family outperformed those students in any non-traditional family on standardized
test scores, grades and behavior. Some researchers (Teachman, et al., 1996)
reported that parents divorcing diminishes their hopes of well-being and lowers
their educational outcomes. Similar findings are also claimed by other researchers
57
(Downey, 1995; Gomes, 1984; Israel, et al., 2001; Pong, 1998; Smith, 1992).
They discovered that the traditional family structure is positively associated with
secondary school graduation and college enrolment, while the non-traditional
family structure and number of siblings are positively related to dropout rates in
middle schools.
Taking account into the cultural differences of parenting, the relationship between
social networks within families and educational outcomes can still be found in
such places as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Israel et al (Hermalin, Seltzer, &
Lin, 1982; Majoribanks, 1991; Marjoribanks, 1989; Patrinos & Psacharopoulos,
1997; Shavit & Pierce, 1991). Although some researchers claim different
relationships in researching social capital and educational outcomes, they still
admit that the inconsistency could be accredited to the different mechanisms of
how familyas a institution works for their children. For example, Fuller and Liang
(1999) reported, in their study, in some African society that girls risk of leaving
school is lowered by fathers absence. Lloy and Blanc (1996) also reported
likewise that children in female-headed households are more likely to be enrolled
in school and to have completed grade four than those in men-headed households
in seven African countries. However, as Buchmann (2002) has argued, these
findings are possibly associated with the fact that stronger extended kinship
structures in Africa mediate the effects of single parenthood on children.
The seeming inconsistency in findings highlights the importance of the process in
how parents interact with their children and what the consequences of this process
are. The presence of parents at home does not ensure better parents-children
interactions and advantages in school success. Social networks within families can
only work for their children under the condition that it is accessed and mobilized
by parents.
Parents can mobilize social networks within families to deliver their educational
expectations to children, thus creating advantages for their children in school
success. Researchers believe that high level of parents-children interactions
usually produce high level of educational expectations for both parents and
children, which will in turn encourage better academic performance for children.
Goyette and his colleague (Goyette & Conchas, 2002) find that minority parents
58
have extremely high educational aspirations for their children and these
aspirations exert considerable influence over youth aspirations and the
maintenance of these aspirations over time.
Parents-children interactions can also provide parents with chances to supervise
their childrens after school activities. They can encourage their children to do
more homework and control their time in watching TV. The availability of
adequate after school supervision are claimed to be positively associated with
school success. For example, Muller and Kerbow (1993) found that children
performed worse with the increase of unsupervised after school time.
Parents can also deliver relevant information about schooling to their children
through the social networks within families. They can discuss their school
experience with their children, talk with them about school plans, both of which
claimed to be good predictors of students academic performance. Parents can
also send their children to extra classes outside schools or hire private tutors for
their children, which may also improve their childrens chance of school success
(Muller & Kerbow, 1993; Zhou & Kim, 2006).
Social networks within schools can also be used to create advantages for school
success. For example, Coleman finds that the dropout rate in Catholic secondary
schools is three times less than in public secondary schools. He and his colleagues
(Coleman, 1988; Coleman, Hoffer, & Kilgore, 1981) argue that teachers and
students in Catholic secondary schools are more likely to be bound together
through shared values. Norms and sanctions transformed through the high level of
closed networks are helpful in realizing social control to children. Colemans
findings are supported by many latter studies (Teachman, et al., 1996, 1997).
Researchers (Evans & Schwab, 1995; Sander, 1997; W. Xie, 2000) confirms that
students in Catholic schools with more social capital are more likely to have
higher level of mathematics and reading scores, secondary school and college
graduation rates and more opportunities to enter colleges.
Other researchers claim that social networks between parents and those key
institutional agents in schools such as teachers and counselors can also transmit
valuable institutional resources and opportunities for students. They can deliver
59
important information about schooling when students are making college plans.
Social networks among students can also bring positive outcomes. For example,
Stanton-Salazar and his McDonough (1995) find that students social networks
also play a very important role in transiting post-secondary education aspiration
and college information.
Interactions between teachers and parents can also provide children with a
competitive edge in schools. For example, parent contacts with schools may
provide them with chance to know their childs subject content in schools and
exercise intervention when needed (Muller & Kerbow, 1993). They can also
improve the chances of school success for their children through actively
participating in activities organized by schools since which provides them a
chance to better understand the running of schools. Their participations in such
organizations as Parent-Teacher Organization (Ryan, Adams, Gullotta, Weissberg,
& Hampton, 1995), attendance in PTO meetings, and taking part in PTO activities
can also serve as important means of communication and information flow.
Social networks within communities can also be mobilized to improve the
advantages of school success for children (Adams, 2006; Kim, 2007; Ross & Lin,
2006; M Zhou & Kim, 2006). Coleman (1988) claims that when the
inter-generational closure is achieved in communities as parents of different
children interact with each other, their childrens chances of school success
increased. He claims that the inter-generational closures provide chances for
parents to understand and enforce social norms conducive for school success. This
kind of networks also facilitates the exchanges of information among parents and
makes them be able to supervise one anothers children.
Many studies researching the achievement of ethnic minority groups yield similar
findings (Bankston, 2004; Bankston & Zhou, 1996, 2000, 2002b; Kim, 2007; M.
Zhou & Bankston, 1994; M Zhou & Kim, 2006). They claim that such ethnic
communities as Chinese and Koreas deliver positive attitudes to mainstream
culture and school success, which helps their children to assimilate to the
mainstream cultures and achieve school success. In her study in American
Chinatown, Zhou (1995) for example, claimed that Chinese culture as well as
community-based support systems successfully helped those children in
60
Chinatown overcome intense adjustment difficulties and unfavorable conditions.

Many research (Bankston, 2004; Bankston & Zhou, 1996, 2000, 2002a, 2002b; M.
Zhou & Bankston, 1994) reported similar findings when they examine the
influence of religious participation, minority language literacy and supplementary
education institutions on immigrants adaptation and school performance.
Within this literature it becomes clear that when social networks within family
and community are strong, implying the closure of networks and efforts in
mobilizing them, parents can transform their economic and cultural capital into
social capital as bringing expectations, supervising, norms, tutoring and so on to
their children, thus create advantages in school success for them. When there are
extensive ties between a family and a school, parents have the chances to
transform their economic and cultural capital into social capital as it provides
more information about schooling to their children. In a schema such like this,
disadvantages in social capital would be created when social networks within or
between these places are broken and under-invested (not mobilized). The
investment in wrong types of social networks would also lead to disadvantages in
social capital. For example, when parents from the lower class try to mobilize the
social networks within community to obtain information about schooling, the
chance for them to get access to information of quality could possibly be low
since the members of their community are less likely to have links with teachers,
who usually belong to the middle class.
3.6 Chinas social transformation, culture and guanxi

Loosely translated as connections or social relations, guanxi refers to the
basic dynamic in personalized networks of influence and is considered to lie at the
heart of Chinas social order, its economic structure, and its changing institutional
landscape (Bian, 2009). Although agreement has been reached in that guanxi is a
special Chinese idiom of social network that entangles inevitably the other
component of Chinese sociality such as sentiment (Ganqing ), human feeling
(Renqing ), face (Mianzi ) and reciprocity (Bao ), much debate is still
open on whether guanxi is an integral element of Chinese culture or an coping
strategy for the institutional and historical conditions in the China transition to a
market era (Gold, Guthrie, &Wank, 2002).
61
Scholars viewing guanxi as fundamentally Chinese phenomenon trace the term to

the work of Liang Shuming and FeiXiaotong. Liang (2005) considers Chinese
society as a relation-based society (Guanxibenwei ) and guanxi as the
extended familial ties being characterized by a set of ethnic codes. These ethnic
codes, including sentiment (Qing ) and obligations (Yi ), emphasize the
norms in social interaction and corresponding social ties involved. Every member
is considered linked together by five types of dyadic ties between the ruler and the
ministers (Jun chen ), the father and the sons (Fu zi ), the husband and
the wife (Fufu ), the older brother and younger brothers (Zhang you ),
and friend and friends (Pengyou ). Every type of tie has a set of
corresponding set of sentimental and obligation codes. It is through these ties that
individuals find his/her coordinate point in society and develop his/her identity
(Gold, et al., 2002). Fei (1992) has a set of more elaborated descriptions and
arguments about guanxi and its nature, which has a wider and more lasting
influence over scholarship on guanxi. He gains inspiration and insights about
guanxi from comparing the fundamental distinction in social structure between
China and West and argues that there are clearly different approaches to social
relations between these two societies. While Western social structure is an
organizational mode of association in which individuals are connected with the
whole society by the groups and organizations, Chinese social structure is a
differential mode of association in which individuals are connected with the
whole society by the overlapping personalized guanxi. Under the organizational
mode of association, individuals form groups or organizations. They are defined
by their membership of groups or organizations and their relationships are
characterized by agreed rules that have been established before the formation of
the groups or organizations.
The constitutional nature of these kind of social relations produces the balance
between the part and the whole; thus the concept of equality among individuals.
Under the differential mode of association however, individuals are defined by
their positions in the interrelated and overlapped circles of personalized guanxi
and bound together by the lun () which characterizes their relationships with
others. Fei (1992) compares the pattern of social relations to the ripples that
appear on the surface of water when a stone is thrown into a lake. He argues that
62
lun represents the order in the circles of networks and stresses differentiation
among individuals. Differentiation means not only the substantial distinction
between the two parties connected but also different sentiment and obligations
that the two parties should have for each other. For example, that fathers are
differentiated from sons means they are not only distinct from each other in status
within a family but also have different obligation to each other. Fathers should
show their love and kindness to son and sons show their filial obedience to their
fathers.
There are also researchers who claimed that guanxi is produced by the particular
set of social institutions in current China and there is nothing fundamentally
Chinese in this phenomenon (Guthrie, 1998; Oi, 1989; Walder, 1988). They
believe it is Chinese shortage economies with weak legal infrastructures at the
beginning of reform era that raise the importance of social networks in economic
transactions.
The reliance on social network will be diminished with the developing of social
institutions in China. Thus, the use of guanxi in China has nothing to do with
Chinese culture or Chinese society but a makeshift to the institutionally uncertain
environments. For example, Walder (1988), in researching patron-client relations
in the work unit, found that the control of access to shortage necessities such as
housing, non-wage benefits by authoritative officials created the need and
opportunities for the use of guanxi. In the study of foreigners attempts in
investing in or trade with China, researchers also raise the issue of absence of a
rational and legal system in the economy and argue the needs for trust
foregrounds the role of guanxi as a defense against unpredictable mainland
Chinese(Hsing, 1996; Smart & Smart, 1998). Wank (1995) examines the
symbiotic clientelism between private businessmen and officials and argues that
the unstable social and legal positions of businessmen pushes them to use guanxi
to compete for the access to license, resources, venues, protection and other
favors from officials.
My observation on the ongoing debate about whether guanxi is uniquely Chinese
phenomena or strategy being used to navigate institutionally uncertain
environment proceeds from Bians observation that guanxi networks of
63
interpersonal relationships are an informal mechanism as a response to the fast

removal of hierarchical institutions and the slow growth of market institutions.
Bian, in his study in the labor market of Tianjin, claims that guanxi pervades
every stage of the job assignment process and can be used to collect internally
circulated information on jobs, to obtain influence from powerful cadres to initiate
an assignment or grant a labor quota, to lobby for favorable decisions from
leaders of hiring organization on jobs, to locate a work unit to which wanted to be
transferred, and to influence the current employer to allow one to leave the work
unit or job (Bian, 1994, 1997, 2009). He (Bian, 2002b) contributes the capital
potentials of guanxi to the fast removal of hierarchical institutions and slow
growth of market institution in Chinese emergent labor market and argues that
this kind of institutional holes makes interpersonal relationships an alternative
mechanism for transmitting information, building trust and binding obligations
between prospective job seekers and employers. Meanwhile, Bian also showed his
cultural orientation towards guanxi and claims that reliance on social relations is
fundamentally Chinese.
Both culture and institution matter for the work of guanxi in China and this has
important implications for this research. First, state and schools may set up rules
regulating what are the roles of parents in childrens education and how they can
get involve in schooling. However, parents who could be considered actors who
might have their own understanding of what their roles are and how they could be
involved in their childrens learning process. Put another way, social networks
within family, between family and school and within community that constitute
the basic opportunity structure for parents efforts in toward-social-capital
conversion and the ways of activating and using them, could be institutionalized
by the rules, regulations and policies of the state and the requirements of teachers.
However, parents from different families may have their own understanding of
the nature and opportunity structure of different social networks and even the way
of using them for capital conversion.
Therefore, in analyzing parental schooling involvement, there is a need to
distinguish the institutional form of social networks that established through laws,
rules, regulations and relevant policy from those informal types of social networks
64
of a more interpersonal nature. These two different kinds of social networks may
create different chances for parents to produce social capital for their children.
Furthermore, the rules of games in activating them may also mean different
strategies.
3.7 Theoretical Framework

This research is about how rural parents from different social backgrounds get
involved in schooling and gain advantages for their children in school success and
how this contributes to or becomes a barrier to their childrens college access. It
also examines the fundamental changes in class structure and unprecedented
inequality in transitional China. The theorizing of the study, therefore, responds to
some questions of sociological tradition in researching social class and education.
As those ancestors, I am asking: how are class patterns of school success
produced and reproduced? what are those strategies that parents using in
transmitting their class privileges into advantages for their childs school success?
Different from those precedents, I approach these questions in a very different
social and cultural context, and with different analytical tools.
Existing theories of school success in China achieved few insights from the
literature over parental involvement and how this process is associated with the
producing and reproducing of class advantages in school success. I argue that
involvement in schooling is an important strategy for social exclusion and a
crucial process for understanding how the inequality in college access is produced
in Chinas transition to a market system.
I conceptualize the process of parental involvement in schooling as a
toward-social-capital conversion process where parents create advantages for their
children in college access. It is through this process that families privileges in
cultural and economic resources are transformed into social capital conducive for
school success. This notion is heir to those ideas that parents can gain privileges
for their children only when they actively invest and use those resources in the
family (Coleman, 1988; Halpern, 2005; Y. Jiang, 2003; Schneider & Coleman,
1993). They develop strategies through school involvement to create advantages
for their children in college access and their chances of success are partly
65
structured by the volume of the economic and cultural resources that could be
converted.
Conversion of economic and cultural resources into social capital, of course,
needs a process. The critical analysis of the concept of social capital and its
relations with education suggests the toward-social-capital conversion premise the
formation the social networks as the first stage. Social networks within family,
between family and school and within community provide a basic opportunity
structure through which parents as actors can transform their advantages in
economic and cultural resources into school success for their children.
The literature over guanxi in transformative China, however, suggests that there is
a need to distinguish institutionalized social connections created by the
hierarchical organizations from informal social networks of personal nature
existing among people. State and schools may regulate what the role parents
should play in education and how parents can involve in schooling, which means
that there are rules for parents to follow in activating institutional forms of social
connections towards-social-capital conversion from economic and cultural ones.
These regulations and rules shape the opportunity structure for the creation of
social capital. Parents, however, are also actors with their own agency and may
have their own understanding of the role they should play in education and
strategies in exercising these roles. Put in another way, parents may construct
their own understanding of the social capital potentials of the social networks
within family, between family and school and within community in education.
When there is a lack of social connections within or between these institutions,
they may try to produce some with the aim of creating advantages for their
children in school success. Even when there are already social connections within
or between these institutions, parents may still reconstruct these social
connections according to their own understanding and needs. Even schools may
have rules regulating the establishment of formal social connections between
teachers and parents. Parents could still choose to personalize these social
connections if they felt this could bring advantages for their children. Through
reconstructing the meanings and reworking the structure of those formal social
networks, which highlight the importance of parents as active actors. Parents
66
provide themselves with important opportunity structures through which they

could transform their privileges in economic and cultural resources into social
capital for their children.
Reworking the formal social connections into interpersonal ones, strategically
important for capital conversion, is an important moment for social inclusion and
exclusion. Parents interpersonal social networks for creating advantages in
school success are still a part of the large web of their social connections, whose
characteristics are directly influenced by their social positions.
Literature reviewed shows that actors are more likely to interact with members of
the same or similar social status and cross-class social connections are more
difficult to produce and reproduce than that of within-class social connections.
This implies that the existing interpersonal social networks parents have could
structure their strategies and success in reworking the structures of the social
networks for toward-social-capital conversion. Parents from the low social class
could possibly be outsiders in some interpersonal social networks that are
important for the process of toward-social-capital conversion. These therefore
maybe substantially disadvantaged in transforming their cultural and economic
capital into social capital for their children. For example, parents from a low
social class may have fewer chances to interact with teachers, who are usually
considered to be middle class, thus suffer a lack of social connection for
toward-social-capital conversion.
Social capital as a process also highlights the importance of the agency of actors
in producing social networks. Parents from a low social class could also be
disadvantaged if they could not create interpersonal social networks that are
important for the toward-social-capital conversion process. For them, establishing
cross-class interpersonal social networks may mean a burden that is economically
unaffordable and culturally unrealistic. For example, the literature over guanxi
maintains that producing and reproducing it need endless investment, which may
generate extra financial cost (Bourdieu, 1986; N Lin, 2000). For parents from the
middle and upper social class, producing and reproducing of interpersonal social
networks may mean a less difficult task, thus providing advantages in capital
conversion.
67
Differentiated access to and ability in producing and reproducing social networks

being strategically important in capital conversion process may yield different
consequences for students from families of diverse social backgrounds. Literature
reviewed suggests that network closures within families are usually associated
with higher expectations, better supervision and quality tutoring (Coleman, 1988;
Muller and Kerbow, 1993). Intergenerational closures within communities are
often good predictors of powerful supervisions and valuable information flow
(Zhou & Kim, 2006). The link between families and schools usually means better
information flow, the control of students behavior and advantages in school
choice (Lareau, 2000; Muller and Kerbow, 1993).
With this understanding, it becomes clear that interpersonal social networks and
its production and reproduction could be an important mechanism for social
inclusion and exclusion and strategy for creating advantages in college access.
Using this understanding and those concepts reviewed, I propose a framework for
this study, emphasizing the dialectical interaction between actors (their
biographies, dispositions) and their social positions (in institutions and networks).
This framework has three basic elements: the social system and its changes (the
changing pattern of social stratification within rural society, the reform of its
school systems), the rural parents as actors and toward-social-capital conversion
process. Given by these three basic elements, the proposed framework contains
three main sub-structures: 1. the introduction of market system and the
capitalization of different families. 2. The toward-social-capital conversion
process (formation of formal social networks for parents to involve in schooling
and its guanxilisation). 3. the different access to social capital of different forms
as the result of guanxilisation and its consequences for college access.
Figure 3.1 illustrates the proposed theoretical framework for this study.
The first sub-structure is the changing social stratification in rural society and the
school system, which is the context where rural parents act. This system also
includes the rural social stratification and the context of education in the field site
in particular.
At the center of this proposed framework is the toward-social-capital analysis. It
68
assumes that formal social networks (within families, between families and
schools and within communities for educational use) established by state
schooling (rules, policies, regulations and schools practice) maybe guaxilised
(reconstructed through mobilizing strong and interpersonal social networks) by
parents from different social backgrounds, which could become an important
strategy for social exclusion since parents from peasant families could be
excluded from those social networks that are strategically important for creating
social capital.
The last sub-structure of this proposed framework is the consequences of capital
conversion. These consequences could be both intended (the advantage created
for childrens school success) and unintended.
69
Figure 3.1: theoretical framework
Market, rural society and education in transition
Families based
Economic and
cultural resources
Introduction
of market
forces
Family Incomes
Parents education
et al.
Market reform and the capitalization of different families
Formation of formal
linkage between
family and school
Guanxi as a
response
Strategies in
reconstructing the
linkage between
school and family
The required (by state

schooling) roles of
parents in schooling
and required ways of
fulfilling the roles
The toward-social-capital conversion
70
Access to
resources in
different forms
Accommodation,
tutoring,
supervision,
information et.al
Consequences:
Intended:
advantages and
disadvantages in
college access
Unintended
consequences:
distrust, complaint
et. al
The consequences of capital conversion
CHAPTER FOUR
Methodology
4.1 Introduction
Methodology refers to a description of process, or may be expanded to include a
philosophically coherent collection of theories, concepts or ideas as they relate to
a particular discipline or field of inquiry (Clough & Nutbrown, 2007). It also
includes methods that refer to technical rules defining proper procedures that fit
the broad theoretical and philosophical framework (Auerbach, 2003). This study
uses the theory of capital conversion to understand parental involvement in rural
schooling and its significance in explaining the emerging stratified pattern of
college access in rural society. It emphasizes interaction between actors and their
social positions and places parents as actors and their strategies in producing and
reproducing social networks at the center of analysis. The examination of
inequality and processes of networking highlights the importance of an
ethnographic approach for this study.
In what follows, I will explain the link between ethnographical characteristics of
method and methodology and the theoretical framework for this study. The
process of gaining access to field sites, documents and individuals will also be
introduced along with methods in data collection and analysis. This chapter ends
with a reflection of my role as a researcher.
4.2 Why ethnographic approach

Methodology is structured by the theoretical framework which includes a
philosophically coherent collection of concepts or ideas and forms the base for
constructing the research design. Nearly all aspects of the research process,
including the types of data collected and the types of analysis are linked together
by the theoretical framework (Babbie, 2007).
This study conceptualizes the process of rural parents involvement in schooling
as a capital conversion process where family-based economic and cultural
71
resources could be converted into different forms of social capital conducive for
school success. I focus on how rural parents from different social backgrounds
tried to reconstruct the formal social networks established for parents to involve in
schooling with their interpersonal social networks and how this reconstruction led
to unequal access to different types of social capital. This approach highlights the
understanding from a native perspective of how Chinas rural parents from
different social backgrounds perceive the roles they should play in their children
schooling and the strategies that they make use of to fulfill these perceived roles.
It assumes the dialectical interactions between parents as actors and their social
positions and recognizes that parents strategies in toward-social-capital
conversion are socially constructed. This ontological assumption over the
understanding of the nature of the reality under researching embraces the idea of
multiple realities. It admits that a portrayal of parents perspectives as insiders
where the meaning of the social actions for them is paramount and takes
precedence without ignoring that of the researcher may help to understand why
they choose to be involved in their childrens learning process or not and the
strategies that they used in involvement.
Ethnography allows close observation, recording, and engagement in the daily
lives of those participants, therefore a partly insider perspective could be
achieved (Ball, 2003; Emerson, Fretz, & Shaw, 1995). The ethnographic
approach, therefore, is an advantage in helping me learn the meaning that rural
parents hold about and their interpretations of their experience in involvement in
schooling. Native perceptions of these will help me to understand why rural
parents from different social groups are involved in schooling in their own ways.
The theoretical framework of this study also assumes that parents strategies in
transforming their privileges are culturally and socially bounded. Therefore, they
should be understood in natural settings for discovering the possible nature and
significance of socio-cultural variation (Hammersley, 2004). Ethnographers are
noted for their open-mindness in the process of studying a group or culture
(Emerson, et al., 1995; Fetterman, 2000). Although there are still debates on
whether research can be done in natural settings which is independent of the
research process, or not set up in particular for research purpose. The effects on
the behavior of the people being studied can be minimized, ethnographers notion
72
that social events and process must be explained in terms of their relationship to
the social context where they occur. This is especially relevant to this study
(Cheng, 2007). An open mind allowed by ethnographic study permits me to
explore a rich and contextual way of school involvement unreported in previous
research (Gao, 2008). This study argues that rural parents perceptions in school
involvement and their strategies in creating advantages for their children could
only be understood in terms of their relationships to the social and cultural context
where they occur. This is especially true considering parents strategies in
guanxilising those formal social connections with the aim of facilitating the
toward-social-capital conversion. I argue that their strategies are influenced both
by the structure of their interpersonal social networks and the ways of producing
and reproducing these networks that were defined by the culture. This
examination of how different interpersonal social networks shape different
families strategies in involving in schools inquires the relationship between the
social structure and individual lives within the Chinese social and cultural context.
It could only be achieved with a holistic and thorough description argued by
ethnographers (Bankston, 2004; Bankston & Zhou, 1996; Cheng, 2000; 2007;
Wolcott, 2007).
4.3 Access
As maintained by Emerson and his colleagues, ethnographic field research
involves two distinct activities. First, the researcher obtains access to a social
setting, participates in the daily routines of the social setting and develops social
relations with the people involved in it. Second, the researcher observes and
learns all of what is going on (Emerson, Fretz, & Shaw, 1995). This study
included both of these activities.
Fieldwork is the mark of research for ethnographers. It involves substantial
contacts between researchers and participants for long periods of time in natural
settings (Wolcott, 2007). This approach allows researchers to witness people in
their natural settings and hear interpretation of their behaviors under the
real-world incentives and constraints (Creswell, 2007; Fetterman, 2000). All of
these require meaningful access to field site, informants and relevant documents.
73
4.3.1 The selection of filed site and entry

The region of the study was Zong County, which sits on a piedmont to the north
of the Yangtze River, in the southern part of Anhui Province, south of capital city
Hefei. It has many mountains and lakes, which are covered by fertilized farmland.
It has a warm-temperate, sub-tropical and humid monsoonal climate. The mean
annual temperature is 18.6and the mean annual precipitation is 1,000-1,600
millimeters. The mild temperature, with abundant light and water supply make it
is suitable for the growth of rice, cotton and wheat, in the fertile middle part of
this county. Forest products and fruit are produced in the more elevated parts of
Zong. It encompasses about 1,801 square kilometers with a population of more
than 960 thousand. Rural residents account for more than 88 percent of its
population and spreads over 22 townships (xiang ) and more than 256 villages.
The demographic feature of this county provides me with many chances to have
access to rural participants of this study.
Zong was selected also because it is a typical county in transitional economy and
social transformation, meeting my substantive research requirements in finding
rural parents from different social backgrounds. The economic changes and
emerging pattern of social stratification in Zong County have basic similarities to
the overall situations in China. Government-initiated economic reforms began in
1978 in two steps. The first step which occurred in the late 1970s and early 1980s
saw the de-collectivization of agriculture and the opening up of the county to
foreign investment, and permission for entrepreneurs to run their own businesses
(Gazetteers of Zong County, 2007). The second step, launched in the late 1980s
and 1990s, involved the privatization and contracting out of much state-owned
industry in the county (Gazetteers of Zong County, 2007).
With the market reforms, its economy scale and industrial sector grew rapidly (see
figure 4. 1). The private sector also developed significantly with the number of
private businesses researched up to 4,565, which accounted for as much as 81.8
percent of the countys enterprise by 2002. The economic reforms also resulted in
increasing inequality in incomes and wealth (see table 4.1). Up to the year of
2007, over 70 percent of its labor force was in the agricultural sector and 30
percent was in governments at different levels, schools and industrial portions.
74
Traditional advantaged social groups in governments, state-owned companies and

government-sponsored institutions still out-perform their counterparts from
peasant families in income, prestige and so on. Managers of township enterprises,
private entrepreneurs and household business owners also gain advantages in
income with the growth of second and third industries.
Figure 4.1: The General Economy of Zong County
70
60
50
Value-added of secondary
industry (100 million
RMB)
40
30
value-added of primary
industry (100 million
RMB)
20
10
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
Sources: National Bureau of Statistics of China (2009). China statistical yearbooks, 2009
Beijing: China Statistics Press.
Field visits began in January 2009 and ended in December 2009. Although I was
born there and lived in one village of that county for more than 15 years, the study
began with the search of relevant literature about this county and its history rather
than direct contacts with rural parents. I thought that membership in a part of the
research site might hinder me from gaining an overall understanding of it and
those people with whom I wanted to gain access. Access to relevant literature
about the county and its people may be helpful in overcoming this. The
membership meanwhile provided me with the best ticket into different villages
and townships in the county.
When doing the fieldwork, I lived with my parents who still live in the village.
This guaranteed I could find a balance between (a) available funds, (b) data
actually needed and (c) time on the field. The membership and living in the
research site, are of great importance, not just for the convenience, but because
they helped me become an active participant in the field site. People accepted me
75
as a member again since I showed willingness to live among them for long time,
breaking down barriers and establish rapport.
Table 4.1: Employment and income gap in Zong County
Sector
Number
employee
Agriculture, forestry, animal

husbandry and fishery
of
% of the labor force
Average income
per year*
303,672
74.760%
4,495
Mining and Quarrying
513
0.130%
4,310
Manufacturing
24,487
6.000%
5,883
Production and supply of

electricity gas and water
1,187
0.290%
11,640
Construction
26,871
6.590%
3,983
Geological prospecting and

water conservancy
302
0.070%
9,490
Transport storage postal and

telecommunication services
8,732
2.140%
6,652
Wholesale and retail trades

and catering services
18,159
4.450%
3,637
Finance and insurance
865
0.210%
9,899
Real estate
231
0.060%
9,340
Social services
3,642
0.890%
7,594
Health care, sports and social

welfare
3,330
0.820%
10,893
Education culture and arts,

radio film and television
9,678
2.370%
9,793
Science research and

polytechnic services
10
0.002%
10,724
Government agencies, party

agencies and social
organizations
6,016
1.480%
10,772
Others
142
0.030%
5,939
Note: *The numbers represents the average income per year for employees in all sectors all over
Anqing, where the county situated. These numbers were used because of the restricted access to
the data at the county level.
Sources:Hu, Z. (2007). Gazetteers of Zong County (Zongxianzhi) (1978-2002).Huangshan:
Huangshan Press (huangshanshushe).Han, X. (2002). Anqing Economic statistical yearbook
(Anqingjingjitongjinianjian). Beijing: Chinese Bureau of Statistics (Zhongguo tongji ju).
76
4.3.2 Sampling and access to informants

Ethnography involves gaining access and gathering information from different
people, which can be seen as a process of producing and reproducing relationships
(Feldman, Bell, & Berger, 2003). It requires researchers to find someone who can
help get in so as to gain information, to learn how to present themselves in the
field and get their relationships with informants nurtured once which have been
established (Cassell, 2001; Everhart, 2001; Miller, 2001). In the process of access
to different participants including teachers and parents, different strategies were
used to find informants, make initial contact and develop a rapport.
For gaining access to rural parents, especially for those working as migrant
workers, visits to families were mainly arranged during the spring festival and
harvest seasons at two townships and three villages. I was born and my parents
still live in one village of the county. I chose the village as a start for interview
since the identity as a son of local couples and one member legitimated me an
insider and allowed me to show myself as a reliable and trustworthy peer.
Whenever I introduced myself to new informant, I always started with I am the
son of one of your neighbors. This worked well most of the time when I wanted
to talk to someone in the village. I also had my parents or other informants
introduce me to those people that I was unfamiliar with, which helped me to build
larger webs of relationships.
These snowball sampling strategies worked especially well when I tried to talk to
those informants in another village. My informants often introduced their friends
or relatives to me. In the process of finding informants, I consciously established
relations with those from different backgrounds in order to access more diverse
social backgrounds. This big-net approach (mixing and mingling with all I could
reach) proved to be helpful in setting up an informants-pool for study. As study
progressed, my focus narrowed to specific portions of informants from this pool.
Villagers felt more comfortable with my identity as one member rather than as a
postgraduate student from a university far away in Hong Kong, although later had
the potential of establishing myself as a credible and professional researcher who
meant them no harm. Considering this, I often introduced myself as a
77
postgraduate student at the University of Hong Kong after the contact has been
initiated and identity as a member was shown.
Access was a continuous and dynamic process, in gaining what could only be
understood as the first step. Maintaining social relationships and developing
rapport has the same importance in access since individuals often hold the keys to
the required information and interviews in ethnographic study often were
informally conducted needing more time. Trust is an essential part of developing
rapport and guarantees a free flow of information (Feldman, et al., 2003;
Magolda, 2000). Relationship is not totally controlled either in the hands of the
researchers or the researched (Feldman, et al., 2003). Although my identity as an
insider helped to develop trust with those rural parents, it did not guarantee trust.
I still remember one accident when I was trying to interview a peasant in the
second village where I conducted my fieldwork. One of my informants introduced
me at noon on 17th, June 2009 to a villager who had a daughter studying in a
senior secondary school. I rushed so fast to ask the villager about her families
information and daughters schooling, making her suspect me to be an agent who
wanted to persuade her to send her daughter to a private college. She refused to
answer any questions that I asked and asked her husband not to provide me with
any information which might hurt her daughter.
Later on, I slowed down every informal talk to other parents and spent more times
sharing with my experience in different cities such as Shanghai and Hong Kong. I
invited them to play poker and mahjong sometimes which were the most popular
games there and also the easiest accessed occasions where people can share
feelings with each other. Furthermore, I also tried to find activities that could
facilitate rapport when I talked to those rural parents at their homes. I would help
pick cotton if they were involved in that during the interview. Sometimes, they
enquired about their children difficulties in learning and hoped that I could help
them. On this occasion, I usually spent some time with their children and
discussed their homework or other issues. One of the most frequent questions my
informants asked was how to choose a college or university if one of their
children or their relatives happened to be the newly senior secondary school
graduates. That motivated me to collect information about colleges and
78
universities and prepared for this kind of questions every time when the informant
had the need. I found all this kind of commitment fostered strong rapport. Some
informants even came to my home to visit me and shared their stories with me.
Institutions may mediate access in various ways (Bian, Li, & Cai, 2004; Feldman,
et al., 2003). The process of gaining and maintaining access to officers in the
county bureau of education and teachers from schools was quite different from
that of rural parents. The county bureau of education served as gatekeeper to the
county school system and had the right to grant access to teachers and relevant
documents. This made me try to create good relations with them. I initiated the
contact with the head of the bureau of education at the very beginning with an
introduction from my brother, an employee in the local institution of the county.
The initiation however did not work well since the head seemed not to take my
brother as an insider. He refused to do me any favors and asked me to obtain
formal introduction letters from my university. Later on, when the letters arrived
with the help of my supervisor, he still insisted that he had to consider my case
seriously since my university was an institution abroad.
Finally, I tried two strategies to gain access. One was to ask for the help of the
father-in-law of my brother who was the former head of one bureau of that
county. He introduced me to one of the former heads of the county bureau of
education, who helped me make a call to the current head of the education bureau.
The head of the education bureau finally said that he could help me with access to
schools and teachers, but access to relevant statistics and documents about its
school system were denied. They referred me to two senior secondary schools as I
required and vouched my legitimacy to the principals and teachers in these two
schools, making access to teachers easier. For example, the principal of the first
school I visited arranged all the dates, sites and teachers interviewees for me
according to my requirements.
Support from the authorities, however, could have diverse effects. They
encouraged people to participate, but sometimes discouraged participants to tell
the truth (Bian, et al., 2004; Bian, Tu, & Shu, 2001). This was especially true
when I tried to interview the principal in the first school I visited. When I asked
relevant questions about the school-choosing fee, he said that he was not a good
79
informant and had no specific information on that issue. Later, another principal
in the second schools I visited told me that he could only tell me part of the truth
since he had to accept advice from the county bureau of education and had to be
care about what he told me. Efforts had to be made to initiate contact with
teachers through my friends rather than bureaucrats.
I asked my brother to introduce his former classmate who worked in one senior
secondary school. He kindly introduced me to some teachers in his schools. My
personal social relations with some of my teachers who still worked in one village
primary school, one village junior secondary school and one township junior
secondary school were also used in order to gain access. In most of the cases, I
introduced myself as both a PhD student in the University of Hong Kong and one
member in their social networks since I thought that the institutional affiliations
and my status as a researcher might assure them of my scholarly intent.
Meanwhile, the membership of their social circles might permit access to some
information they only share with insiders.
Strategies were also used to maintain social relationships and develop rapport
with these schools participants. In order to reproduce different social relations
with them, some of my friends kindly helped me invite some interviewees to have
lunch or dinner at a restaurant. They said the exchange of personal experiences
with each other in these occasions provided good chances of developing trust and
rapport with them. Interviewees usually became talkative after these events. Some
even invited me to have dinner with them as a respond to our kindness and
commitment. These usually enhanced my interviews with these teachers. It should
be noted that the selection of schools and teachers was not totally based on
availability. Some schools were chosen based on analysis of the interviewing data
and relevant documents achieved through searching the library and website of the
county government. Six schools were visited because they typically represent two
types of schools parents might interact with (model schools with quality teachers
and facilities, ordinary schools with relative poor conditions) and were
cornerstones on the pathway rural students have to take before entering any
colleges or universities (primary school, secondary school) (see table 4.2 ).
80
Table 4.2: School Profiles

Name of schools
School type
Location
Peak Senior Secondary School
Model school
County town
Port Senior Secondary School
Ordinary school
Town
Garden Junior Secondary School
Central school
Town
Riverside Junior Secondary School
Ordinary school
Village
Garden Primary School
Central school
Town
Everywhere Primary School
Ordinary school
Village
Sources: compiled from the data
4.4 Data Collection

Household interviews, rather than participatory observation, were used as the
main method of data collection in this research. It was chosen for the following
reasons. Firstly, the social backgrounds of students in most schools in Zong are
diverse with no clear and cut pattern of parental involvement in any one of those
schools in Zong. This made it is impossible, as those researchers did in a western
context, to select schools from different communities of a working-class
community and middle-class backgrounds, and use them as the basic unit of
comparison to analyze the class differences in school involvement, possible
explanations and consequences. Secondly, as many researchers have argued,
parents from different cultures may be involved in schools in different ways.
Some of these ways may be hidden and cannot be observed in schools (Kong,
2008). There is a need to ask parents directly about what they have done for their
children in order to help them achieve school success. Thirdly, household
interviews allow parents from different social backgrounds to report their
experiences in school involvement at different levels and this acknowledges the
fact that parental actions in school involvement are partially a result of the
constant interactions between them and schools (Lareau, 2000).
Earlier experiences and interactions with schools at the primary level, for example,
may influence parents latter efforts in school involvement. Finally, childrens
advantages in school success are accumulated throughout their learning careers
rather than at one stage in a specific school. Household interviews could help me
81
understand this as a process where parents are involved in schools at different

levels and make constant efforts to create advantages step by step for their
children (Hong & Qian, 2008).
Interviews were also conducted with head teachers and relevant staff in schools
(see table 4.3). Teachers, especially head teachers1 were the main informants
since they are legally recognized as the bridge between schools and parents.
In
what follows, I will unpack the use and application of these methods.
Table 4.3: Interviewees in the Field
Interviewee
Number
Topic
Households
22
Parents understanding and

ways of involving in Children
learning process.
Teachers
12
Teachers attitudes to and ways

of
initiating
parents
involvement.
Principals
Schools policies in parental

involvement.
Sources: compiled from the data
4.4.1 Interview
At the very beginning, interviews with different parents were conducted in a
rather informal way. They mainly took the form of daily talks and conversations
with parents about their childrens education and their perceptions about their
roles in schooling. Although the pre-existing networks provided me with many
degrees of assistance in the access process, I decided to carefully begin my study
with these informal talks and conversations since access influenced the sources of
information and determined the types of questions that research can answer
(Feldman, et al., 2003). I introduced my study to different parents who could be
potential informants or gatekeepers of informants in these conversations so as to
inform them of my study and prevent possible concern and fears. Besides getting
attention and summarizing my project to them, I also explained possible benefits
of my study to them and the whole community.
A head teacher in a Chinese school is the head of a class whose role is a combination of teaching,
managing and leading. Among the twelve teachers interviewees, eight are head teachers.
1
82
Once I established myself as a competent researcher and reliable insider, the

semi-structure interview was employed to collect such information as family
profiles, their childrens schooling and so on from those villagers I talked to
everyday. With knowing more about the field site, its people and their children,
the research problem became more focused. I began to intentionally select
households according to their social backgrounds (see table 4.4) and formally
interviewed them. Each interview session was conducted on a one-to-one base.
Most took place in informants homes, lasted half to one hour on each occasion
and was recorded with permission. Open-ended questions generated from the
theoretical framework were asked about:
1. How do rural parents from different social backgrounds perceive their roles in
their childrens learning process?
2. What are the strategies that rural parents from different social backgrounds
use in activating different social networks in order to fulfill their perceived roles?
These two interview questions varied according to the context when they were
asked in front of the informants.
Some of the interviews were conducted at my home on the condition that some
parents came to visit me and wanted to talk more with me about their children and
their involvement in schools.
All parents interviewed had their children educated in one or two of the selected
schools at each level mentioned above. Although most interview sessions last less
than one hour and were easily interrupted by unexpected visitors of households,
the quality and quantity of the information provided by different parents could
still be guaranteed since trusts have been established and rapports developed with
those parents and me. Most could be interviewed several times easily and were
willing to share their views and experiences with me. Finally, twenty two parents
were formally interviewed to gain an understanding of their perspectives in being
involved in their childrens learning process and factors that support or block
school involvement (see table 4.5). They were also asked to clarify and expand on
their views and comments when the second or third interviews were conducted.
83
Table 4.4: Family Profiles

Background
Number
Family year income (RMB)
Cadre
30,000~40,000
Professional
20,000~30,000
Household business owner and private

4
entrepreneur
60,000~70,000
Peasant
7,000~15,000
11
Source: Compiled from data
The interviews with teachers and principals from different schools were quite
different from the rural parents (see table 4.6). Teachers and principals were more
likely to be occupied by their work and schools. Therefore, most of interviews
with teachers were conducted in schools when teachers were available. For those
teachers who were accessed through the county bureau of education, interviews
were mainly conducted in offices prearranged by their principals and one off. For
those teachers accessed through personal social networks, the interviews were
more flexible with over half of the interviews done in the teachers own office
with the other at their homes. Most of those teachers accessed through personal
social networks could be interviewed two or three times. Interviews with teachers
and principals were used to gather information on:
1 School policies on parental involvement;
2 Teachers perceptions of parental involvement and their ways of getting
parents involved in schools;
3 Teachers perceptions of and response to school involvement initiated by
parents.
Interviews were also used to triangulate what parents said about their involvement
in schools.
84
Table 4.5: Household heads and Their Children
Code
Backgrounds
Education
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
Cadre
Cadre
Cadre
Professional(teacher)
Household business owner()
Household business owner
Private entrepreneur()
Private entrepreneur
Peasant(immigrant worker)
Peasant
Peasant
Peasant (immigrant worker)
Peasant (immigrant worker)
3 years college
3 years college
4 years college
4 years college
4 years college
3 years college
3 years college
Junior secondary school
Senior secondary school
No education
No education
Primary school
Primary school
Primary school
No education
Primary school
No education
No education
Children's education
1*. First-tier university () (FtU)
2**. Second-tier University () (StU)
StU
1.FtU;2.FtU
1. FtU
1.FtU);2.StU
1.FtU);2.StU
1.FtU
1.StU;2.StU
1.FtU; 2.Senior Secondary school (Sss) student***
1.StU;2.FtU
1. Third-tier University () (TtU); 2.Vocational secondary school (Vss)
1.Junior secondary school (Jss); 2.TtU
1.Jss; 2. Sssstudent; 3.StU
1.FtU;2. Sss student
1.Jss; 2. Jss; 3. Jss
1.Jss; 2. Sss student
Vss
1.Primary school; 2.Jss; 3. Sss
1.TtU; 2. Jss; 3. Jss
1.Jss; 2Jss; 3.Sss
1.Jss; 2. Sss student; 3. Jssstudent
Note: *1 means the first child; **2 means the second child; ***student means children still enrolled in schools
85
4.4.2 Documents
Writings, including words, texts, document and records are valued elements of the
social worlds, through which we can trace some aspects of those social worlds
(Goodson & Sikes, 2001). To obtain basic information about the county, its
education and changes, documents were also used for gaining an understanding
of:
1 The social transformation with the market reform in the county;
2 The pattern of social stratification within the county;
3 The education system and relevant educational policies in the county;
4 State and school policies on parental involvement in schooling.
Table 4.6: Teachers and Principals
Code
Informants
School
Gender
Principal
County Senior Secondary School
Male
Principal
Male
Principal
Male
Principal
Male
Head teacher
Garden Junior Secondary School
Male
Head teacher
Male
Head teacher
Female
Head teacher
Male
Head teacher
Peak Senior Secondary School
Male
10
Head teacher
Male
11
Head teacher
Male
12
Head teacher
Male
13
Teacher
Male
14
Teacher
Male
15
Teacher
Male
16
Teacher
Male

86
Three types of documents were collected and analyzed (see table 4.7). The first
two types of documents are governmental documents such as regulations,
yearbooks, statistics, policy and census of governments at the national and county
level. The third type of document includes those rules and policies initiated by
schools in regulating parental involvement in schools. In addition, relevant
documents such as local newspapers and government websites were also used to
get a better understanding of the history, society and educational system in the
county.
Table 4.7:
Documents at Different Level with Examples
Level
Examples
Nation, Province
China statistical yearbook, China yearbook rural household

survey, China education yearbook, relevant governmental
reports and educational policy, Census
County
Yearbooks, governmental reports and educational policy,

Journals, Census, local annuals
School
School policies on parental involvement, school reports, school

newspapers,
4.4.3 Field notes

Extensive field notes were also written throughout the whole research process.
These were of crucial importance at the very beginning stage of my fieldwork
when most household interviews were conducted through informal ways.
Four types of field notes were written. Jottings were used to document the profiles
of each family that I interviewed (including the parents career, family incomes,
the number of children and their schooling and the house conditions) in those
initial informal talks with parents in each family. They were also written to
document those important details parents mentioned about their perceptions and
experiences in school participation. To avoid the possible violation of trust,
possible tense encounters, participants discomfort or fear of harm because of
revealing real attitudes, most jotting were written down at the end of each talk and
without the presence of interviewees (Bian, et al., 2001; Bian, et al., 2004;
Emerson, et al., 1995).
87
Diaries were also written to record my feelings in the field and my perceptions of
relations with those around me. I wrote down those emotional highs and lows, and
even anger, for example at those bureaucrats who denied me access to the
information that should have been open to all. These writing were rather useful
and served as important clues in the data analysis process. It helped me interpret
those notes I have written and made me constantly aware of the personal biases
that I have in this research.
Logs were also used to record my plan on how to spend my time and how actually
I spent my time. At the very beginning of each week, I usually wrote down the
plan for where I should go, who I should visit and what I would do. At the end of
each day, I usually had a record of where I went, who I visited and what I did in
that day. These records helped me in data collection to reflect what I had achieved
and how I could improve and follow up. They also served as important clues for
me to retrieve the data in the data analysis process.
Complete notes were written down usually at noon and night when I returned
home after ending each interview. They were written to document:
1 Parents actions in school involvement and their interpretation of their
experience in involvement in schooling;
2 Those key patterns, themes and insights that emerged from daily talks with
those parents.
Since most of the interviews were conducted more than one time, information
written down was also crosschecked over time when follow-up interviews with
same participants were done.
4.5 Data analysis

Analysis is about making meaning of, or interpreting the information that
researchers collect and use as data (Goodson & Sikes, 2001). According to Miles
(1984), the analysis of qualitative data is an ongoing rather than linear process
follows the collection of data. The data analysis of this study also follows a
circulatory and gradually evolutionary model where constant movements between
data and theory were made.
88
When initial contact was made in the field site and with its people, I was informed
by the toward-social-capital
conversion theory that proposed
possible
explanations to the advantages and disadvantages that rural parents could create
for their children in college access. This simple framework informed me of the
nature and types of data that should be collected and analyzed. Of equal
importance, it also provided some basic theory constructs in terms of concepts and
assumptions about their relations that could be used to make meaning of and
interpret the data.
To understand the information at different levels, there is a need to develop a
detailed strategy to analyze this data. I build a coding system based on these
theory constructs which includes three themes
1 The introduction of market system and the capitalization of different families;
2 The toward-social-capital conversion process;
3 The consequences of capital conversion.
Then I read all texts that have been transformed and organized from interviews,
documents and field notes and selected from them those texts that were relevant to
my research concerns and theoretical constructs. These relevant texts were
highlighted and categorized by using the coding scheme. Within this process,
constant comparisons were made between the theory constructs and the data and
questions were asked whether those relevant texts fit with the proposed theory
construct and why.
If those selected texts did not fit with the proposed theoretical constructs and
suggested new ones, steps would usually be taken to revise the existing coding
schemes and develop the old theory constructs. For example, in the process of
selecting relevant texts about parental strategies in involvement at schools, it was
found that parents from privileged backgrounds usually tried to produce and
reproduce interpersonal social connections with teachers and other staffs in
schools in order to produce advantages for their children in college access. Formal
social connections between schools and families were quite rare. In latter process
of data analysis, new code about interpersonal social networks for
89
toward-social-capital conversion and relevant strategies were, therefore,

introduced.
With the aim of examining the different patterns of school involvement of parents
from different social grounds, its possible explanations and significance in
explaining the emerging patterns in college access, constant comparisons were
made in analyzing those selected texts grouped together with the reference to the
themes created by using the coding schema:
1 A comparison of the perceptions of parents from different social backgrounds
on their roles in childrens schooling;
2 A comparison of those strategies that parents used with the aim of involving in
schooling;
3 A comparison of parents perceptions and strategies in school involvement
with those that defined by the state and schools;
4 A comparison of different accesses to the possible advantages and
disadvantages that parents could create for their children in college access.
It was through these constant comparisons, some important themes were
developed. For example, considering school involvement, had only the
perceptions of teachers been studied, the definitions of involvement may have
been limited to those formal activities exercised by parents at schools. Had only
parents perception of it been the only concern, I might not have be able to study
the contrast between formal social connections and interpersonal ones, thus miss
the chance to know the significance of interpersonal social networks in the
process of converting capital and reproducing social privileges.
When those themes emerged, they were categorized into more generalized
categories with reference to existing theory constructs. Further comparisons were
made to check whether patterns and relationships showed in these generalized
categories were constant with those claimed by the old theory constructs.
Elaborations were made wherever the emerging patterns and relationships were
constant or not with old theory constructs.
90
4.6 Reflection
Concerning the evaluation of qualitative research findings, some criteria have
been developed. The early writers of qualitative researches (Lincoln & Guba,
1985) try to develop criteria comparable to those positivists claimed (objectivity,
reliability, internal validity). Other researchers (Trochim, 2001) develop these
ideas and claim that internal validity can be replaced by credibility, external
validity by transferability, reliability by dependability, and objectivity by
conformability. However, Marilyn (2006) argues these criteria are nothing more
than those generated by the researcher working in the field. He suggests that it
was quite important for researchers to understand their personal criteria.
I argue that any question of the criteria in terms of which ethnographic studies
would be assessed should, as claimed by those earlier writers of ethnographic
studies, be about whether the study grasps the natives point of views and their
vision of their world since it is ethnographers central task to convey how things
appear to those insiders (Wolcott, 2007). Ethnographers should ask questions of
importance in the local sense and answer these questions within the context of the
field experience (Kipnis, 1997). Therefore, in order to achieve these emic
perspective and get to the heart of the matter, constant questions should be
asked about the way in which researchers establish themselves and their projects
since myself is the only instrument in these studies and any stories told by
ethnographers will inevitably be their personal version (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000;
Freilich, 1977; Wolcott, 2007).
The first thing that I ask about myself and the project is how I get here and
make problematic my research matters. I came from a rural family and
successfully passed the National College Entrance Examination with a relevant
high academic score after the end of secondary education. Meanwhile, I saw
many peers failing in gaining access to colleges and universities. The question of
why I became successful while many others failed in college access constantly
captured my interest after I became a college student. I did not believe that the life
chances for rural students such as me were simply a result of intelligence and hard
work, as argued by those meritocracy theorists (Herrnstein & Murray, 1996).
There must be instead, some invisible hands behind me and my peers. I also
91
believed that if we get to know these hands, there must be some ways to change if
the system is unequal. As mentioned in a piece of diary written in the field on 9th,
February, 2009:
Is college access all about money? If their [students from peasants
families] parents have more money, will the situation be different? Or it
is all about intelligences or their parents strategies in investing in
education? What if I found that the school system works as the only
force? What can I do to change this after this research?
Those efforts in conceptualization and research design of this study were all
situated in these inquiries. My personal biography, assumptions and personal
values towards the unequal chance of college access also provides a context in
which my analysis and interpretation of the data can be understood (Primeau,
2003).
The second thing constantly asked is about my special identity as an insider in
the field (Wolcott, 2007). As mentioned before, I am from the county where I do
my field work. The identity of insider, of course, provides me with many
advantages in getting access to participants of this study. Most parents in the field
saw me as a local and were willing to talk with me about their experience. The
membership, especially, provided me with an emic view of understanding the data
that I have collected. The first problem with this insider identity, however, was
those participants often skipped over some important points of view in daily talks
with me and formal interviewing. They took for granted I was a member and there
was no need for them to explain to me every point of view in detail. They often
felt surprised when I tried to ask them to explain the views that I wanted to know
more and in depth. The second problem with this insider identity was it also
brought the risk of making me go native and fail to perceive the differences
of those participants that could have been perceived easily by outsiders.
For example, I took for granted those informal links between parents and teachers
and felt that these were nothing special in the process of parental involvement in
schooling at the very early stage of my research. Therefore, I seldom posed any
question about these informal links until I read more literature and tried to
compare what was discovered about parental involvement in other social and
92
cultural contexts. The third problem with this insider identity was that the clear
line between insider and outsider and the over-emphasis of this line
sometimes made me easily neglect the fact that there were multiple insider views
as well as multiple outsider views (Wolcott, 2007). I always felt in the field that I
was a member of those villagers in the county and should help these villagers tell
their story. But my research findings constantly remind me that I am just a
member of a certain group in these county and the emic views were multiple
rather than single.
The third thing that I often ask myself was about my identity as a researcher with
power and unequal relationships with participants. Even where researcher and
researched are social equals, power is still involved because it is the researchers
who makes decisions about what is to be studied; how, for what purpose, etc.
(Hammersley, 2004). I sensed this strongly in the process of data collection, at the
very early stage of research in particular. The research questions were selected
by me rather than those participants. Even I felt that these questions were of great
importance in the local sense. Those topics in each interview were also controlled
by me even when I tried to build up a few opportunities for participants to talk. I
think this nature of knowledge production will inevitably run the risk of making
my study irrelevant to the people being studied.
93
CHAPTER FIVE
Institutional Social Connections between School and
Home: the Missing Linkage
5.1 Introduction
Chinas market reform saw the increasing importance of human capital in status
achievement and the booming of parents willingness in investing in childrens
education (Debrauw & Rozelle, 2007; W. Zhao & Zhou, 2007). The increasing
value of human capital and the rising importance of schooling, paralleled with
social transformation, signified the importance of parental involvement in
childrens learning process. This chapter begins with a brief description of the
school system in Zong at a time of social transition and the learning path that
students should take if they want to be accepted by colleges or universities. It then
turns to focus on what are the roles that parents in this system perceived they
should play in their childrens learning process. This is with the aim of evaluating
their motivations in transforming their cultural and economic capital into the odds
of social capital with the aim of creating advantages in college access for their
children. Parents motivations, strategies and successes in involvement in their
childrens learning process, however, are partly structured by the chances offered
by the school system they are in or plan to participate in.
That is why this chapter examines the opportunities that the state schooling
provides for parents and describes the formation of social networks as the first
stage for process of toward-social-capital conversion. It describes how the state
defines the inter-connectedness of family and school for education (in terms of
their respective roles in schooling) and ways to create and maintain this
interconnectedness through analyzing relevant state laws, rules and regulations.
What follows moves down to the school level and examines how teachers as the
agents of schools construct the meanings of parental involvement in schools and
the roles that parents could play in education. The formal channels that the school
94
as institution could provide for parents to be involved in schooling were also

described. I conclude the chapter by arguing that state schooling provides few
chances for parents to be involved in schooling formally and thus scarce
opportunity for them to create social capital for their children.
5.2 State Schooling and the pathway to colleges and universities

5.2.1 School system and enrollment
The structure of the school system in Zong is relatively complete and resembles
other counties in parts of China as a result of the states efforts in nation building
and modernizing its education system (Thgersen, 2002). In current structure,
students attend six years of primary school, three years of junior secondary and
three years of senior secondary school. The 256 primary schools, 42 junior
secondary schools and 15 senior secondary schools in the county serve more than
16 percent of its population with a number of students that is over 150 thousand
(see table 5.1).
According to the Bureau of Education, all children of school age in Zong had a
primary school education and the enrollment rate for primary school reached over
99.7 percent in 2007 with the push from the provincial government to meet state
standards for achieving universal nine-year compulsory education. Entering senior
secondary school is relatively competitive and less than 47 percent of junior
secondary school graduates could gain access to senior secondary schools (see
table 5.2). There is no any type of formal higher education institutions in this
county. Secondary school graduates who successfully gain access to colleges and
universities have to leave the county and go to cities for the pursuit of higher
education study.
All fifteen senior secondary schools in the county are boarding schools with
eleven out of these senior secondary schools located in big townships and two in
the county township. Each township in the county has a central junior secondary
school and a central primary school which are also the terminals of bureaucratic
system of education and responsible for the governance of other primary and
junior secondary schools located in villages around the townships where the
central schools are.
95
Table 5.1: Student enrollment in primary and secondary schools of Zong

Time
Student Enrollment in Regular

Student Enrollment in Primary
Secondary Schools (10000 persons) Schools(10000 persons)
2000
6.19
9.46
2001
6.52
9.64
2002
6.52
9.69
2003
7.10
10.89
2004
6.66
10.19
2005
6.81
9.15
2006
7.26
8.47
2007
7.57
8.32
2008
7.51
8.04
2009
7.39
7.81

Table 5.2: School transition rates in Zong with a comparison to that at national level
(2007)
levels
Transition rate in the

county
Average transition rate at

the national level
Transition from primary

schools to junior secondary
schools
99.7%
99.9%
Transition from junior

secondary schools to senior
secondary schools
46.2%
80.5%
Transition from senior

secondary schools to higher
education institutions
30.7%
70.3%
Sources: Compiled from data collected from Anqing Bureau of Education; National
Bureau of Statistics of China. (2009). China statistical yearbooks, 2009 Beijing: China
Statistics Press.
96
5.2.2 Selection and competition

Schools in Zong are highly stratified with model senior secondary and central
schools usually having better teachers, facilities and higher transitional rates. As a
result, this intensified competition for being accepted by these schools (see table
5.3). Enrollments of primary and junior secondary schools are based on the
principle of proximity (Jiujin ruxue ). That is to say, all families are
required to send their children to schools nearest their homes. Students in
townships who live around central schools, therefore, are advantaged by this
enrollment system. However, with the decrease in student population in rural
schools as a result of the one-child policy and movement of children from migrant
workers background, the education bureau began to consolidate primary and
junior secondary schools, upgrade the central schools in townships to boarding
ones and encourage more parents from villages to send their children to these
central schools. Although having to pay extra fees for transportation, more and
more parents from villages did send their children to these central schools since
these schools are equipped with better teachers and facilities. One parent
interviewed said she had to pay around 800RMB per year for her childrens
transportations. But she thought that the cost was worth the money.
Junior secondary school graduates must pass the Senior Secondary School
Admission Examination (SHSAE) in order to be accepted by senior secondary
schools. Less than half could gain access to senior secondary schools and students
from central schools usually enjoy a competitive edge. Every senior secondary
school has a cutoff score as the lowest standard for accepting applicants. However,
some applicants could still be accepted with lower examination scores if their
parents were willing to pay an extra school-choosing fee (Zexiao fei ). The
cutoff scores model senior secondary schools set were usually higher and parents
have to pay more if they want to purchase places for their children in these
schools. Students who successfully pass the SHSAE and gain access to senior
secondary schools are called In Plan Enrolled Students (IPES) (Tongzhao sheng
) and those accepted through paying school choosing fees Out of Plan
Enrolled Students (OPES) (Kuozhao sheng ) or School Chosen Students

(SCS) (Zexiao sheng ).
97
Although the statistics provided by the Bureau of Education in Zong shows that
the number of OPES/SCS were decreasing substantially in the past few years, it
still took account of a large proportion of newly accepted senior secondary school
students in 2010 (see table 5.5).
Table 5.3: Central school and ordinary rural school, with reference to the statistics
at national level
Schools
Percentage of teachers with

bachelor degree()
Percentage of teachers
with associate bachelor
degree
Garden Junior Secondary

School (central school)
41.2%
52.9%
Riverside Junior
Secondary School
(ordinary rural school)
4.0%
81.8%

(central school)
28.1%
56.2%
Village Primary School

(ordinary rural school)
33.3%
Nation average for Junior

Secondary schools
52.8%
44.6%
National Average for

Primary schools
15.6%
55.2%
Sources: Compiled from data collected from different schools in the field; National
Bureau of Statistics of China. (2009). China statistical yearbooks, 2009 Beijing: China
Statistics Press.
The portrait of the school system in Zong, the increasing importance of selective
functions of this system and the methods for selecting students within this system
is a start for discussions over the roles that parents can play and those strategies
they may employ in creating advantages for their children. Since 1978, a number
of policies aiming at rewarding individuals skills, intelligence and diligence have
been introduced to Chinas labor market (Pepper, 1990). The school system has
also been reformed to adapt to the changes in the labor market and need for
economic construction (Pepper, 1990; Thgersen, 2002). Schooling in Zong is no
98
exception to this. Although a nine-year universal education was promised to all

children from different social backgrounds, selection of those most promising
students and training them to serve the manpower needs of the various
industries has resumed its legitimacy in this system (Pepper, 1990). Schools were
reformed to be highly stratified with the best resources directed toward those
students presumed to be most gifted, who were expected to achieve school
success in gaining access to higher-level schools through competitive exams
(Pepper, 1990).
Table 5.4: The transitional rate for three types of senior secondary school (2008)
Schools
Transition Rate (in college

access)
Peak Senior Secondary school (model school at

provincial level)
67.10%
County Senior Secondary school (model school at city

level)
55.70%
Town Senior Secondary school (non-model school)
23.10%
Source: Compiled from data collected at Zong Bureau of Education and educational
statistics yearbook of China, 2008.
Table 5.5: Plan Enrolled Students and Out of Plan Enrolled Students in Zong
OPES/SCS
IPES
2007
50%
50%
2008
50%
50%
2009
30%
70%
2010
30%
70%
Source: Compiled from Zong Bureau of Education.
In this context, one of the questions of great significance is how parents from
different social backgrounds in Zong perceive their roles in their childrens
learning process and to what extent they think they can negotiate their influences
over state schooling and help their children achieve school success.
99
5.3 Toward-social-capital conversion: parents voices about

school involvement
Parents decisions in school involvement and exerting influences over their
childrens learning process depends on not only the perceived differences they
think they can make for their children but also the chances they are allowed by the
school to make it(Schneider & Coleman, 1993). In what follows, this chapter
proceeds to evaluate this dialectical relationship between family and school. It
starts with scrutinizing the roles that rural parents in Zong perceive they could
play in schooling. After that, it evaluates the chances provided by state and
schools for parents from different social backgrounds to get involved in schools
and project their influences over schooling. The findings comprise the first part of
my
theory
construct:
the
formation
of
formal
social
networks
for
toward-social-capital conversion.
5.3.1 Material and emotional support
All parent informants in Zong highlighted the importance of providing enough
support (including finance, nutrition, and adequate accommodation) for their
children. When asked what he saw as the roles of parents in education, a peasant
from family 15 responded:
We [parents] should give some external support to children. [By external
support,] I mean enough money. We parents have to guarantee that our
children can complete their schooling and do not drop out of schools
because of the shortage of money and nutrition. Otherwise [if our
children drop out of schools because of these reasons], we parents should
be blamed.
Although parents backgrounds varied, they uniformly emphasized this as one

important aspect of their involvement in schooling. For example, one parent from
an individual business owners family (coding number 9) reported that he only
received junior secondary school education and wanted his son and daughter to go
to college. He prioritized the financing of schooling as what he should do for his
children. Although not being wealthy, a peasant household (coding number 17)
also agreed with this and said he repeatedly told his children never mind their
100
finance in schooling and he could support them whenever they need in schools.
He said:
I wanted my children to leave rural villages. I told them to fly as far as
possible. I said that money was not a problem and I could support them if
they were accepted by the best middle schools, and even the best
colleges.
All parents also agreed they should provide better nutrition, comfortable housing
and accommodation for their children. They believed that these items could
provide their children with better intellectual stimuli and thus competitive edges
in schooling. In a talk with me, a peasant household head showed me his
two-story red-blocked house and said (coding number: 12):
When my elder child was in primary school, my house was very old.
When rainy day came, the roof leaked. Furthermore, I even could not
provide her with a single study room. I thought that this was one of the
reasons why my daughter could not performance as well as she could.
So her mother and I decided that we should have a new house for our
children, especially for the son. I did not want him to have the same
experience.
He maintained that he was happy that his son could have his own room now and
thus could have a quieter and comfortable place for learning, despite the fact that
he had to borrow money from his relatives to build the house and was still in debt.
His counterparts from other families also agreed on the importance of supplies in
nutrition and housing. For example, one parent from a cadres family (coding
number: 1) said that he usually rode a motorbike for several miles to send his
daughter meat and fish when she was studying in one senior secondary school:
When she was in Palace School [a boarding school in Zong] then, I went
to her school usually, sometime by myself and sometimes with her
mother. That was because we found that the food in school was bad and
non-nutritive. Her mother burst into tears when she saw what her
daughter ate in school for the first time. We decided then to send our
daughter some good food every week. I found it worked well. She came
back home once per month and we cooked good food for her too.
101
Furthermore, we send her meat, fish and other food four times a month. I
thought she got some kind of better nutrition, although it was still not
enough.
In addition to this material supports, parents from different families also

highlighted the importance of providing emotional support to their children. They
all maintained that to deliver expectations and encouragement was an important
aspect of school involvement. For example, the female household head from a
peasant family (coding number: 14) said that she and her husband were in cities
for jobs when her son was in a senior secondary school. She felt that the easiest
and most important thing that she could do was to call her son and give him
encouragements as many times as she could. Her counterpart from a teachers
family (coding number: 4)agreed with this and said that he used specific way of
communicating with his son and encouraging him when he was in senior
secondary schools.
He remembered:
There was once a time, [when I called him], he told me that he felt very
tired and hurt because he tried his best but still was not [best in his class].
So I told him to write down everything and send it to me. I read his
letters and he told me he felt that he was like a single powerless boat in
the ocean and had the risk of being overwhelmed by the nameless fear
and worries brought by the sea. I was very upset then and wrote a letter
[to respond him]. I told him that the aim of the life was not achieving
something but enjoying the process of achieving. I encouraged him to try
his best and learn how to relax.
All parents from peasant families also reported they understood the importance of
showing their educational expectations to their children and said that they would
take every chance to say something to their children about their expectations.
Singularly, every parent said that they wanted their children to go to college and
university and their children knew this.
5.3.2 Managing ()
Parents from different families also highlighted the importance of managing their
children. They agreed that after-school activities and childrens time should be
102
managed. They tried to different degrees to control the time of their children in
watching TV, playing games and learning.
Whether in peasant families or families of other affluent backgrounds, parents
agreed that they had to directly manage childrens behaviors after class and their
times in watching TV and playing with peers. They encouraged their children to
spend more time in learning after school and to do more homework. All parents
believed this could help them to achieve higher academic scores in school. One
peasant, from family 17, reported during a conversation with me that he
disconnected the TV set every time when he left hometown to cities for jobs. He
thought that this would prevent his daughter from watching too much TV and
made her focus more on her learning when she and her brother were left home
without supervision. He agreed that his children needed to be entertained by
watching TV after finishing their homework but he said that he had no way to
draw a line between entertainment and indulgence.
Further, he had to work outside and his children apparently could not control their
time by themselves. His counterparts from the privileged backgrounds agreed that
there was a need to control their childrens TV, but their theory in achieving this
seemed more elaborate. They believed that some TV programs delivered useful
information to their children and their children could benefit if they could choose
these programs to watch. Furthermore, they also agreed that their children needed
to be entertained through watching TV. Yet they tried to control the process and
were willing to supervise their children watching TV so that the programs and
times could be supervised.
Two parents from peasant families also suggested they ask their children to help
with chores when there was a need, but they agreed that they usually did that only
when their children finished their homework. Although varied in backgrounds,
other parents said they seldom let their children help with chores so as to
consolidate their time in learning.
Although highlighting the importance of supervising after school activities of
their children, parents from different families also agreed they did not want to
control their children too tightly. Every time in an interview about their views on
supervising after-school activities, different parents uniformly responded to me
103
with an old saying: if you become a successful man because of the strict control of
parents, you are a big failure, if you become successful because you are
self-disciplined, you are really a success (Guangcheng long, yidinong, zichenglong,
yitiaolong ).
They said that they hoped their children
could learn to manage their behavior by themselves and become self-motivated in

studying.
5.3.3 Tutoring ()
All parents saw tutoring as one important aspect of what they could do for their
children despite the fact that they had differing capacities to teach their children.
A female parent from a peasant family (coding number: 20) said she insisted
teaching her son when he was in primary school. She said that she had a primary
school education and could teach her son basic mathematics when he was in grade
one and two in primary school. Latter, when her son went into junior secondary
school and she had no way to teach her son any longer in mathematics, she tried
to teach him how to write essays. She said that she could always trigger her sons
inspirations in writing since she experienced more and could gave him some hints
in writing real rural lives:
There was once a time, when it came to the end of Lunar New Year, my
son cried. [He was in a junior secondary school then.] I asked why and he
told me he had a writing task and did not know how to begin. The title of
the writing should be the night of the spring festival. I asked whether he
could remember what we did that night and that helped.
However, she admitted that what she could do for her son became less and less
with her son entered schools of higher levels and the subjects he learned became
more and more difficult and finally out of her realm. All parents from peasants
families agreed with this and said that their roles in childrens education were
limited. They perceived their low level of educational attainments as a crucial
defect of family resources and they could not provide enough quality tutoring to
their children. A peasant from family 13 said, for example:
When she [my daughter] went to secondary schools, she felt that she
knew more than me then and began to distrust what I had said about her
104
learning. I thought then it was the time for me to retreat and pass it to her
teachers.
Their counterparts from privileged backgrounds were more confident and said
they usually taught their children how to learn at home. This was especially true
for those parents from teachers families. When talking about his childrens
learning experience, one teacher from family 6, for example, showed how he
transmitted his expertise to his childrens school success, cultivated them with
good learning habits and taught them with essential learning skills.
I have two children. We both [My wife and I] are junior secondary
school teachers and know how to handle childrens learning. In fact, we
did not spend too much time in supervising them and teaching them. We
knew that the most important thing was to cultivate their learning habits
and make them self-disciplined. We made them work together every
night and discuss questions they came cross. Sometimes, we also took
part in their discussion and gave them necessary help.
Parents from these families also said that it was their responsibility to tell their
children how to get used to the environments of schools and how to interact with
teachers and classmates properly. One cadre from family 3 said that:
After entering secondary schools, she [my daughter] came back home
every weekend, I asked her how things were in school and how she get
with other her classmates and teachers. I told her that she could not
choose and determine the school environment but she could have ways to
get used toit. I told her some ways to do this and to deal with campus
lives.
5.3.4 Knowing the academic scores ()

In addition to managing their childrens after class-time activities, parents from
Zong also saw knowing how their children perform in school as an important
consideration. As the peasant from family 17 put it:
As parents, basically, we should know the academic performance of our
children.
Parents from all backgrounds agreed with this. They said they were concerned
with every academic score their children achieved in each test, the final test at the
105
end of each semester in particular. An entrepreneur from family 10 said that he

tried to phone the head teacher of his children every time there was any test. He
said that they could also know this from his children. But he preferred to ask
teachers since they could let him know whether his children ranked high or low in
their classes and the weakness and strength of their children in different subjects.
He said that he could provide his children with suggestions on how to improve
their performance based on the information obtained from teachers. This
information also helped him make decisions on whether he should hire a tutor for
his children and in what subjects. It also helped him decide whether he needed to
make further contact with teachers and discuss how to help their children to
improve.
His counterparts from peasant families also agreed that the information obtained
about their childrens academic scores were helpful. As a peasant household head
from family 20, said:
I knew his scores well since I read his academic performance notice and
called his teachers sometimes. His mathematics and physics were rather
bad when he was in senior secondary schools. I told him he should note
this and work more [on these two subjects].
He understood that his suggestions did not work well since he had no the
expertise to help his son. But he still believed that the information obtained at
least made him and his son aware of the fact and think about further steps. He said
that he even once tried to get contacts with the head teacher of his son and asked
for suggestions when he learned about the fact that his son achieved a very low
score in a mathematics test:
So I went to his teachers office and asked what I could do. His head
teacher was very nice and asked me to hire a tutor for him.
He said that he could not afford the private tutoring so that she gave up that
suggestion. He also maintained that he did not hire a tutor for his son because, as
far as he knew then, the possibility for his son to achieve school success was very
low. He thought that hed better balance the extra investment and its possible
outputs according to those information provided by his head teacher. His views
were agreed on by the other peasants.
106
They also agreed that one important reason for them to collect information about
their childrens academic performance was they wanted to help their children to
make decisions about whether they should stay in schools or terminate schooling
for jobs. For example, the household head from family 17:
I knew then there would be no hope [for her to achieve success in
schooling and go to colleges]. She did very badly then. So I told her that
she might consider going to Shanghai for jobs. I called her aunt, who has
been working in a factory in Shanghai for several years and asked her to
take my daughter to Shanghai once she finished his junior secondary
school education.
Parents from those privileged backgrounds agreed that they made decisions in the
same way, despite the fact that the destinations they planned for their children
were different.
5.3.5 School Choice ()
All parents informants in Zong sensed the increasing pressures of competitions for
the positions in model senior secondary schools for their children as these schools
usually means better chances in going to colleges and universities. As a household
business owner (coding number: 9) said:
As parents, we have to create as many chances as possible for our
children. If the Peak Senior Secondary School [the best senior secondary
school in Zong] could accept him, it would be easier for him to go to a
dream university. Everybody wanted to send their children to this school
or school of the same quality, for example, the county middle school
located in the county township.
He said that he paid extra fees to the Peak Senior Secondary School in order that
his children could be accepted at a required cutoff score. The extra fee paid by
him was nearly 10,000 RMB, one fourth of her annual income. But he said that it
was worthwhile since he felt he created more chances for his children.
He was good enough then but only 10 marks away from the required
score. I thought he had the potential to me good enough to be accepted
by a first-tier university. Therefore, I decided to send him to the key
school at any cost.
107
Parents from peasant families felt more economic pressures in exercising school
choice. As a parent from a peasant family (coding number: 14), said:
We earned only 20 thousand RMB a year. If we paid more than 5
thousand RMB for school choice, what can we live for?
She said that the daily allowance for her family for a whole year were over ten
thousand and she also had to invest over one thousand RMB in buying farm
chemicals and other similar staff. Furthermore, she had to spend over one
thousand RMB per year for maintaining guanxi with her relatives or neighbors
through sending gifts in such occasions as the birth of a new baby, a funeral,
marriage and spring festival. She maintained she would have no money to pay her
childrens school tuition fees if she sent her children to model schools.
5.4 Vague Sanjiehe () : missing the linkage between family

and school
One of the stereotypes about Chinese parents was that they had a long tradition of
respecting education and were willing to invest a great deal of time and money in
childrens schooling even at the expense of selling their houses and going into
massive debt. Recent reports also suggest that Chinese parents show more and
more interest in school involvement (L. Li, 2004). Studies maintained that
Chinese parents desired school success for their children (Kipnis, 2011).They
engaged in their childrens learning process both visibly and invisibly in order to
support their children's education even which means they should make sacrifices
such as working at additional jobs or taking on additional household work (Kong,
2008).
Yet, we really know little about the fact that how schools perceive the role of
parents in education and what are those ways that teachers using in getting parents
involved in schooling. However, this fact is of great significance since parents
chances in transforming their economic and cultural capital into their childrens
advantages in school success affected by the opportunities made available by
school as an institution (Muller & Kerbow, 1993). For example, if schools
encourage parents to get involved in schooling, they may have more chances to
contact teachers about their childrens academic performance and intervene in
108
their childrens learning process when there is a need. Furthermore, school

policies or characteristic may encourage some parents from certain backgrounds
in participating in schools while at the same time discouraging others from doing
so(Schneider & Coleman, 1993). That may be an important explanation to the
social class differences in school involvement. In what follow, this chapter
proceeds to evaluate the chances that provided by state and schools for parents
from different social backgrounds to be involved in schools and project their
influence over schooling.
5.5.1 Trinity become one force: the interdependence of family, school and
community
Rural schools represent an important type of state institution and its expansion in
rural areas was considered as the inevitable penetration of state into rural society
(Thgersen, 1990). It runs according to rules, laws and regulations issued by the
governments (Z. Zhu, 2007). The rules, laws and regulations relevant to family
and community education, therefore, set up the formal game of rules for parents
to get involved in schooling.
Families, schools and communities have long been seen by the state as three
indispensable parts of the big picture of education (Da jiaoyu ). In
Regulations regarding primary school management, for example, it is stated that:
The advantages of schools, families, and societies in education should be
united, therefore the resources of the society can be fully made use of and
integration of school education, family education and community
education thus can be achieved.
It means that parents, as well as schools, are responsible for their childrens
education. However, this does not imply that parents can claim the control over
schooling. Although a discourse of trinity and become one force (San jiehe
) is argued in these documents, the divisions among and the different roles that
family, school and community play are quite clear and cut.
State schooling is presumed to play the most important role in childrens
education. It, as the item 4 in article 33 of Regulations regarding primary school
management states:
109
should plan the dominant role in education.
Domination means that the state is given legitimacy and its outreach, the school,
is the only legitimate and most professional institution in education. Families and
communities are considered to be supplements to schools. In the Framework for
Chinese Education reform and development (1994), for example, it was stated in
item 12, section two:
More social forces can be encouraged and participate in school
education. More ways of caring and educating youth can, thus, be
achieved.
By the term participation, it implies that there is interdependence between

families, schools and communities in education. However, this kind of
interdependence is less like a partnership between equals where power and control
is evenly distributed. The state wants a relationship that is of both
professional-client and governor and being governed nature where schools
have its expertise in education and parents should know this and are expected to
support teachers (Lareau, 1987). Therefore, there is a need to, as stated in item 17,
article 3 of Framework for Chinese Education reform and development (1994):
encourage and mobilize all people to support the work of schools and
improve the educational environment for schools.
Parents are required to work as supplements to school education and expected to

perform their role properly. They are claimed to be responsible for preparing
children for schooling, in equipping them with good moral fabrics such as hard
work and obedience to authority.
Compared to parents, schools are assumed to be responsible for all aspects of a
childs education and their roles can have a focus on the intellectual development
of children. Parents are also required to support teachers when their children
break the rules, laws or regulations of schools.
In order to help parents to accomplish their role properly, schools are even
required to take initiatives in setting up social connections between families and
110
schools. It is stated, for example, in item 12, article 3of Regulations regarding the
management of head teachers in primary and secondary schools:
Teachers should actively contact with parents.
Families are even stereotyped as the potential troublemakers in education and

school are encouraged to teach parents with the right knowledge of school
involvement. For example, in Article 49 of Compulsory law of education in China, it
is stated:
Family education should be emphasized and improved. Much more
knowledge on family education should be produced through research.
There is also a need to open parents schools and let parents know the
scientific knowledge of caring children, the right idea of education and
the scientific knowledge and methods of education.
Parents and guardians of Indolence (Wei chengnianren ) should
cooperate with schools and other educational institutions in order to
educate their children. Schools and teachers can provide guidance in
family education to parents.
In item 12, article 2, of Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of
Minors, It is also stated that:
Parents and guardians should learn knowledge in education, perform
their guardian correctly and shoulder responsibilities in caring and
educating minors. Relevant state bureaus and social organizations should
provide parents and guardians with guidance in family education.
5.5.2 Vague way of Sanjiehe: the separation of family and school

Despite the articulated inter-connectedness of home, school and community, these
rules, laws and regulations state less about the ways in which schools can interact
with parents. In Regulations regarding primary school management, it is weakly
argued that:
In primary school, parents boards can be established. Parents could be
allowed to know work in schools. They can help teachers to solve their
problems in running schools. It can also serve as a platform to collect
suggestions and ideas from parents.
111
According to this rule, parents boards can be established in schools to serve as

platforms for parents and teachers to exchange information. However, it is also
stated that the aim of information exchange are improving the running efficacy of
schools. Therefore, teachers are more responsible in collecting information from
parents as expert in education and parents are expected to provide information to
teachers as a respond to their requests.
In most cases, rules, regulations and other relevant documents are subtler in the
strategies that schools could use to initiate the connections between homes and
schools. For example, concerning the exchanging of information between parents
and teachers, Teachers are only supposed to:
provide convenient conditions to their guardian know the academic
performance and other relevant information of their children in proper
way.(Issue 4, in article 29 in Compulsory law of education in China,
1995.)
With words convenient conditions, it implies nothing about the ways the
information exchange between home and school can be achieved. This kind of
ambivalence can also be found in the Law on prevention of juvenile delinquency
Parents and other guardians of juveniles shall take direct responsibility
for giving legal education to juveniles. Schools that conduct education
among students in prevention of crimes shall make their plans for such
education known to the parents and other guardians of the juveniles, who
shall carry out the education in combination with the school plans and
according to specific conditions.
where middle or primary school students play truant, the school shall
contact their parents or guardians without delay.
Where juveniles stay out at night without permission, their parents or
other guardians, or the boarding school concerned shall look for them
without delay, or approach a public security organization for help.
Whoever allows a juvenile to stay at his or her place at night shall obtain
permission of the juvenile's parents or other guardians in advance, or
112
inform them or the school concerned of the matter within 24 hours, or

report to a public security organ without delay.
5.5 Restricted access to schooling: teachers voices about parental

involvement
Although the state regulates how schools run, it does not detail their daily
working. Teachers are practitioners of school policies and meanwhile the agents
of schools are institutionally linked with parents. Their perceptions about parents
roles in education and strategies they used in getting parents involved in schooling
are important forces to shape to what extent rural parents from different social
background could successfully transmit their advantages to their children.
5.5.1 Marginalized roles: the perceived importance of parent by teachers in
schooling
Providing information
When asked what they wanted from parents, teachers often mentioned they
wanted parents to provide information about their children at home. They
established themselves as the experts in education and agreed they wanted
information especially when one or more children in their class experienced
decreasing in academic performance within certain periods in a given semester.
They believed that, in this case, parents could provide them information about
their children and their families, which could be used by teachers to explain why
their children perform worse, thus following steps could be taken to help the
students.
Although the school teachers were serving and teachers working experience
varied, they uniformly emphasized the importance of information provided by
parents. One teacher from Peak Senior Secondary school (coding number: 9),
said:
The main thing that pushed me to ask parents to be involved was the
changes in academic performance. That is the biggest thing I think
parents should care. Usually after the mid-term or final semester test, I
would get in touch with some [parents] to ask what happened to their
113
children and their families if their childrens scores achieved in the test
became lower [than expected].
Teachers from other schools also agreed with this. When asked what the role he
thought parents should play in childrens learning process, one teacher from
Garden Junior Secondary School (coding number 5), a central junior secondary
school located in a township, said:
Once I found that the academic performance of a student decreased
rapidly in tests, I would ask their parents to notice these and wanted them
to work with me to find the reasons. I usually asked parents questions
about whether their children did not have enough rest at home or watch
too many TV programs. Sometime, I even asked whether there were
something wrong with their marriage, [which could distract children
from their learning].
The teachers also suggested parents how to manage the academic performance
decreasing issue. In an interview, a teacher from Port Senior Secondary
School(coding number: 10) said that he usually recommended parents keep in
touch with them and become informed about their childrens performance in
schools. Similarly, another teacher, from the County Senior Secondary School
(coding number 7), said that she encouraged parents to talk with their children
about their learning and experience in schools if they found that their children did
not do as well as usual. A teacher from Garden Junior Secondary School (coding
number 5) even said that he gave very professional advice to parents on this issue.
He said that he told parents about their childrens weakness in learning different
subjects and suggested they hire private tutors to help their children according to
their needs. He said:
One of my students performed badly in the latest test and I found that she
was rather weak in mathematics. I told her parents about that and
suggested them to find a tutor for her.
Supervising after-class activities

In various schools in Zong County, teachers particularly are concerned with the
importance of supervising childrens behaviors and putting everything under
control. Teachers often complained that many parents went to cities to find jobs
114
and their children were left home and unsupervised. These children were
considered to be more venerable than their counterparts from other families. One
teacher from Riverside Junior Secondary School (coding number: 14), a rural
village school, said:
These children are more likely to be involved in gangs and conduct
deviant behaviors. They need to be taken care of.
Even for those children whose parents are at home, one teacher from a senior
secondary school said (coding number: 15):
There are still risks since most of the schools except primary ones are far
away from homes. Students are exposed to gangs, internet and game bars
on their way home. They should be protected from all of these.
Therefore, they called for parents to actively control their childrens after-class
time. One teacher from a village primary school argued that there should be at
least one parent in each household to be present at home and supervise their
childs after class activities. He said that he encouraged parents to care more
about their childrens after-class time since teachers could not do everything for
parents. As with those students living in boarding schools, teachers also believed
that parents were responsible for the control of after-class activities. One teacher
from Everywhere Primary School, a village primary school, said that the leaving
of homes and substantial out of custody of parents increased childrens risk of
getting indulgent in internet surfing, joining gangs and conducting violence since
the after class time was, even totally controlled by students themselves rather than
either by parents or by schools. He maintained that parents should serve as
important supplementary forces in school education and helped teachers to protect
their children from all of these.
Managing the exceptional case
In addition to emphasizing the importance of information exchange between
parents and teachers and supervising childrens after-class activities, there were
other issues that teachers wanted parents to become involved. When asked when
he encouraged and required parents to get involved, a teacher from Port Senior
Secondary School responded (coding number: 13):
115
If children broke rules and regulation in schools, or they are were at risk
of dropping out of school because of such problems as indulgencing in
the internet, experiencing premature romance and conducting mob
fighting and gang involvement, we would usually want their parents to
get involved.
All schools issued rules and regulations where students were required not to go to
internet bars, join gangs and conduct mob fighting. The teachers would ask
parents to come to school if their children broken any of these rules and
regulations. They agreed that the structural deficiency of families, which are
caused by the large-scale immigrations in villages, boost the deviant behaviors of
rural students, especially among left-behind children. One teacher from Port
Senior Secondary School (coding number: 10) said:
Their parents are not at home. Children usually feel alone and have few
chances in communicating with others. When they came across
something hard for them to understand or difficulties, especially those
difficulties not in terms of money but feelings, they usually turn to their
peers or those brothers of sisters in gangs. They think that they can find
emotional support and help from them. They join and lose themselves.
The increasing numbers of events caused by mob fighting and gang involvement
also made teachers feel helpless in protecting students from those evils outside
schools. They perceived the over-commercialized community as destructive and
harmful force for the overall running of the schools, which might have a negative
effect on the average academic performance of the class or the school as a whole.
They believed that business peoples around schools were unwilling to invest the
social capital in the community since their children were under their custody and
less likely to be influenced by their own business. A teacher from Port Senior
Secondary School (coding number: 11) maintained:
You can see the (great) number of internet bars around schools. Students
are easily attracted. We are also annoyed and bothered by them. The
owners of these bars only consider their business. Sometime, we went to
the bars and let children out of the bars. The owners even intimidate us.
116
Teachers said that they usually called parents if children failed to attend classes
regularly. They also asked parents to come to schools when they found that their
children joined gangs or fought with other students. In most of these cases,
parents were usually taken as the stakeholders of the relative bureaucrats
decisions concerning their childrens punishment. For example, students may be
asked to terminate their schooling and leave school. Parents were required to
present at schools and listen to the explanation of teachers or other administrators
of this decision. In most cases, these decisions were made informally and there
were still spaces for parents to intervene.
5.5.2 Limited inter-connectedness: formal channels for parents to involve
5.5.3
Most teachers interviewed were head teachers. They agreed that they were usually
the only staff in schools who were institutionally responsible for interacting with
parents. They said that schools had few policies to encourage parents to get
involved in schooling. They maintained that home visits (Jiangfang ) and
parents meetings (Jiazhang hui ) were the only two occasions where they
could engage a small number of parents in schooling. Furthermore, academic
performance notice (Chengjidan ) also provided few chances for them to be
linked with parents.
Home visits
Teachers often highlighted the importance of home visits in their interactions with
parents. They believed that home visits were an important way of communicating
with parents, which could help to know more about students and their family
backgrounds. Head teachers were often the organizers of home visits. They made
decisions about whose families they would like to visit and what they wanted to
achieve through visiting students homes.
Only a small number of student families could be visited. Teachers agreed that
they had special concerns in visiting student families and two types of families
would usually be prioritized in visiting schedules. The first type of families were
those with children who achieved the best academic scores in their classes.
Teachers agreed that home visits transmit honors and encouragements to these
families and their children. They also wanted, through such activities, to collect
117
more information about these students and know more about their family
backgrounds in order to help them achieve a better academic performance. One
teacher in the Peak Senior Secondary School(coding number: 9) mentioned one of
his visits to a family:
I did not know that he [my student] lost his father when he was only two
or three years old. He was a very hard working and excellent student. I
visited his family because he could achieve high academic scores every
time. I visited his family at one Saturday and was shocked when I knew
from his mother that she was the only parent at home and without much
education. I talked to his mother and discovered more stories about him.
For example, he lacked accommodation fees but did not tell us about that
since, according his mother, he had high self-esteem. In order to help him
overcome this problem and protect him from distractions from his study,
I told this to the principal of our schools and asked our school to exempt
him from tuition fees.
The second types of families that head teachers usually choose to visit were those
with children whose academic performance decreased dramatically within certain
periods. Teachers believed that the home visits to this kind of family usually
served as problem-solving strategies for them. Usually during the visit, discussed
with parents their childrens academic performance in schools and asked parents
to tell their childrens behavior at home. Teachers hoped that this kinds of
information exchange could help them to find explanations for students problems
with learning and their poor performance in schools.
The frequency of home visits varied with the types of schools, distance between
the schools and students families. Teachers from township schools and senior
secondary schools usually said they were less likely to visit students homes since
most of their students homes were far away from schools and they agreed that
they had not enough time and budget in doing this. In talking about the visits to
some families, I asked teachers consideration in choosing families to visit:
HMN2: We were more likely to visit those students living in townships
and whose homes were not far away from school.
ME: Why not the others?
118
HMN2: The distance. Most (students) lived far away and it was hard for
me to visit every student.
Compared to their counterparts in secondary schools, primary school teachers,

especially those in schools located in rural villages, reported more experiences in
visiting students homes. They agreed that the short distances between schools
and their families provided them with advantages in doing this. One teacher from
Everywhere Primary School said that (coding number: 16):
I have a motorbike and most of their [students] homes are quite near. I
drove to their homes and asked for their grandparents about their latest
situation at homes.
However, he also admitted that this kind of chance was quite rare and agreed that
there was a substantial decrease in the number of home visits they conducted.
This is especially true and fresh for those teachers in senior secondary schools.
They maintained that the expansion of secondary schools system and the
enlargement of class size dramatically increased their workloads, depriving them
of more time in scheduling and conducting home visits.
Parents meeting
In addition to home visits, the teachers considered parent meeting as another
important occasion where parents could participate in schooling. Parents Meetings
were usually held at schools at the beginning or end of each semester or after tests
and the organization which has both ritual and practical implications.
Teachers usually thought that parent meetings provided important occasions for
them to interact with parents and let parents know about their childrens
performance in schools. One head teacher mentioned (coding number: 8) that:
It is through the meeting I get to know some of my students parents and
their backgrounds. Some of the parents attending the meeting were very
active and try to talk to me about their children.
However, the teachers also complained that the chances obtained through these
events were still not enough since not all parents could participate in these events
with the same opportunities. They agreed that the primary aim in organizing
parent meetings was to improve the overall academic performance of the classes
119
or schools. School leaders and teachers said that they usually only invited two
types of parents to attend the meetings. Parents whose children perform the best
were usually welcomed at these events. Teachers maintained that these events,
serving as encouragements to these parents and their children since invitation
itself were seen as honor and pride. They also agreed that these events and the
invitation stood as a ritual to show to the others that these best students and their
parents could serve as examples and their experiences could be learned by the
others. The other type of parents invited to the occasion was those whose children
experienced dramatic decreases in academic performance. Teachers agreed that
through the meeting, were given professional analysis and explanation to the
nature of students learning difficulties. One teacher in the County Senior
Secondary School (coding number: 7) maintained that:
Last year, we organized two parent meetings for parents whose children
were in grade one. We invite forty parents to our schools to attend the
meetings. One head teacher was asked to analyze to all parents why some
of those students achieved high academic performance while the others
were left-behind and done even worse in schools. Two students achieved
tremendous progress in the semester. We invited them and their parents
to attend the meetings and asked these two students make speeches to
other parents. They felt quite honored and were very talkative at the
meeting. We thought that this would encourage other parents to push
their children to work harder and at the same time, knew why their
children did not do as better as usual.
To the teacher, the symbolic meaning of these meetings was overwhelming:

All were about honor and less about the effects. Only small number of
parents could be involved. For example, in grade one of our school, there
were actually twelve classes with a student population of over seven
hundred, but only forty parents were invited.
Parent meetings were sometimes organized as a response to the requirements of

the bureau of education. For example, when asked why and why not hold parent
meetings, principals in the two secondary schools agreed that they were more
likely than schools in villages, which were far away from the bureaucracy and its
custody, to subject to the pressures to hold parents meetings since they were
120
usually seen as examples for other schools and loyal executants of policies of
bureau of education. This could be proved in interviewing with teachers from
different schools. For example, only teachers in two secondary schools (one
located in the county township, while the other one of the biggest township)
reported that their schools had held parent meeting one or two times in recent
years, while teachers in other two village schools report no parent meeting at all.
Academic Performance Notice (APN)
The chances for information flow between teachers and parents created through
such kinds of activities as home visits and parents meetings were usually rare.
Only a small number of parents could be involved in such kind of activities and
thus have the opportunities to communicate with teachers and know the details of
their children lives and performance in school. The Academic Performance
Notice, however, provided another important media for the communication
between teachers and parents. All teachers agreed that the APN was the most
widely accepted and easiest channel for information flow between families and
schools.
APN was usually a piece of paper or a pamphlet that indicated scores students
achieved in the final examination at the end of each semester. It also included a
few sentences that were written by the head teachers. These sentences were
usually evaluations of the overall performance of students in schools. It usually
covered head teacher comments on the progress the students made in the
semester.
Teachers often reported that APN was the only media they could use to let parents
know how their children performed in schools. They agreed that each family
could get an APN at the end of the semester which was the only institutional form
of activity that could involve all parents. In order to guarantee that all parents
could read their childrens APN, teachers also said that they required every parent
to sign the APN.
However, teachers also reported that the flow of information achieved through
APN was rather single-handed. Teachers send APN to parents to let them know
their children. But few teachers knew how exactly parents would respond to this
121
evaluation of their children. As one teacher in Everywhere Primary Schools

(coding number: 15) said:
It sounds like a real notice. I mean that it a top-down process and parents
usually have to listen what teachers said in the APN.
However, teachers also agree that parents are not usually the loyal listeners of
these evaluations over their children. One teacher in Port Senior Secondary
School (coding number: 10), for example, said:
They complained that the APN covers were too optimistic to be trusted.
Teachers usually gave good comments to students. To some, the APN
was too simple to be able let parent know the details of their childs
learning in school.
5.6 Chapter summary and discussion

Both family and school are important institutions in a childs learning process
(Durkheim, 2007). They both provide important contexts within which children
grow up and these contexts become linked with each other as children enter the
formal education system (Ryan, et al., 1995). The connections between these two
institutions, as those most great works in sociology of education accounts, could
provide important chances for parents to pass their class advantages to their
children (Kong, 2008; Lareau, 1987, 2001; Schneider & Coleman, 1993).
However, past studies suggested that parents from different social backgrounds
might hold different values about education. Parents from low social classes
might downplay the value of education and thus chose to involve less in schooling
(Connell, et al., 1982; Lightfoot, 1978; Ogbu, 1974). The social capital potentials
of their involvement in schooling could be ignored and their disadvantages in
school success were also reproduced.
However, my findings suggest that rural parents uniformly value higher education
and school success. Meanwhile, they also understood the possible significance of
their involvement in schooling despite the fact that they might have different
competences in engaging their childrens learning process. Rural parents in Zong
saw the social connections within the home as important channels for capital
conversion where they could transform their family-based economic and cultural
122
resources into social capital that is of great importance for school success. For
example, parents saw their interactions with children as important way of
providing their children with necessary material and emotional supports for
education. They also highlighted the importance of transmitting their school
experiences into learning skills and relevant information about schooling for their
children through their interactions with children.
Even though, this does not suggest that all parents had the same opportunities to
keep these connections and had the same chances to influence the school success
of their children. One of the most important arguments made about the unequal
chances in keeping these connections is the school as institution discriminated
parents from lower social class and discouraged them from involving in schooling
at home, school and community (Connell, et al., 1982; Epstein, 2001;
Hoover-Dempsey & Sander, 1995).
Constant efforts have been made in this study to examine the possible institutional
discrimination to parents from different social backgrounds, those from peasant
families in particular, since this address has one important aspect of this study:
what the opportunity structure that state schooling provides for rural parents from
different social groups in creating advantages in college access for their children
is, what kind of social networks schools can offer them to transform their
economic and cultural resources into social capital, and whether the opportunity
structures in terms of social networks provided for toward-social-capital
conversion are different for parents from different social backgrounds.
The findings suggest that state schooling created few linkages between the
institutions of family and school despite the articulated inter-connectedness
between them by state rules, laws and regulations. This is true for parents from
both privileged and underprivileged backgrounds. The state recognized the
influences of parents over schooling and the interdependence between family,
school and community in education. However, it legitimized school as the most
important and professional institution in education and claimed the relationships
between parents and teachers less as a partnership but both a professional-client
and governor and being governed nature. Parents were assumed to be only
responsible for preparing children for schooling with good moral fabrics such as
123
hard working and obedience to authority. Few strategies were suggested to

schools on how they could encourage parents to engage parents in childrens
learning process.
The portrait of teachers perceptions of parents roles in schooling and the ways
they engage rural parents in education also suggest that few occasions had been
provided by schools for fostering social connections between families and
schools. Parents were assumed to be teachers followers rather than partners who
could see education as a shared enterprise. Teachers wanted them to provide
information about their children at home when there is a need. They also agreed
that they expected parents to control their childrens after-class time and engage
in schooling when their children broke rules, laws and regulations of schools.
They only wanted parents to work as effective supplements to schools. Still,
schools created few channels for parents to be connected with schools. While
having the potentials of becoming important bridges between schools and
families, such activities as Parents Meetings and Homes Visits currently engaged
only a small number of parents. Schools set specific agendas for these activities,
the chances provided for parents to attend these events were usually
non-negotiable.
124
CHAPTER SIX
Parents Strategies: Guanxi as a Response
6.1 Introduction
Schools in Zong initiate few activities to engage parents in schooling. Formally,
they allow only restricted access of parents to participate in schools despite
parents willingness to get involved in schools and transforming their economic
and cultural resources into social capital that is conducive for school success for
their children. However, it would be wrong to assume that schools are
independent of families and the seemingly weak link between families and
schools refrained parents from exercising their influences over state schooling.
Parents are actors with agency who may develop their own strategies in achieving
their influences over their childrens school success. Arguably, their strategies are
not only a response to school policies concerning parental involvement but also as
a result of their class situations. It is through these strategies the forces of the
social structure could be known and understood.
With these notions in mind, the chapter examines those strategies that parents
from different social backgrounds use in engaging themselves in the learning
process of their children within home, school and community. It concerns the
class differences of different strategies that parents from different social
backgrounds used. The explanations to these differences were also inquired.
6.2 Peasant: relying on teachers and the strong ties within

families
6.2.1 Relying on teachers
All peasants said that they depended heavily on teachers in education. They often
referred to the expertise of teachers in talking about their involvement in
childrens learning process. They saw teachers as experts in education and
recognized them as the people most capable of helping their children achieve
125
school success. They said that teachers had special knowledge in their teaching
subjects and knew how to teach children. As a parent from family 12 said:
They are teachers. They have received formal training and know how to
use their knowledge to teach.
This relies on schools and teachers were intensified by the fact that all parents
from peasant families perceived that they had a relatively low level of education
and have no knowledge in schooling. For example, a peasant parent from family
17 told me he only received a junior secondary school education and had no
enough knowledge in teaching his children. He said that he turned over all
responsibilities for education to teachers.
Peasants also believed more that their childrens academic success or failure was
a result of their childrens intelligence, endeavor and teacher expertise. They
agreed that the most important thing they should do was to provide their children
with enough school fees and good nutrition, even at self-work and sacrifice. Just
as the parent from family 13 put it:
If she wants to go to colleges, she has to do it by herselfas parents,
what we should do is to earn enough money and to secure that she can
stay at schools without too much pressures.
This view was also enforced by the fact that children have to live on campus once
they were accepted by senior secondary schools. In this case, they usually lived
far away from home and their parents. A peasant from family 19, who with his
wife has been working in cities for more than ten years, told me:
He [my son] was in senior secondary school then and only came back to
home once every week. So we decided to go to Nantong [a city in
Jiangsu province] to find a factory and worked there. That would be no
use for us to stay at home since we could not provide him with anything
more. Everything depended on teachers since then.
He said that he even relied on teachers to control the budget of living expenses for
his son when he was in senior secondary school.
126
I gave one thousand RMB to his teacher and told him to give it to my son
month by month so that my son would have no chance to waste money.
6.2.2 Skipped generational raising ()

All parents highlighted the importance of providing enough nutrition, comfortable
housing and accommodations for their children and saw this as an important
aspect of school involvement. They believed that their presence at home could
provide their children with chances to get access to these. They also believed that
their interactions with children at home could help them to deliver expectations,
emotional supports and supervision for their children, thus creating a good
environment conducive to school success. However, parents from peasant families
agreed that they were less likely to present at home and interact with children in
families. Among the interviewees from eleven peasant families, for example, only
two reported that they and their spouses were at home and maintained strong
social connections with their children most of the time when they were in school
age. Household heads from the other seven families reported that they migrated to
cities for jobs and their children were left at home and under the supervision of
their mothers, grandparents or relatives.
Compared to their counterparts from privileged backgrounds, peasants talked
more about the financial pressures in presenting at home and taking care of their
children by themselves. A parent from family 14, for example, told me that:
I have to work outside for better incomes since my children may need
more money if they go to senior secondary schools, especially if I have to
pay the school choosing fees.
Peasants usually left the mother at home to take care of and supervise their
children when children were still young and in primary and junior secondary
schools. Some also left their children to be looked after by their grandparents. The
male household head from family 12 maintained that he worked as a newspaper
sender in an east city and came home only one or two times a year. He said that he
missed his children all the time but he had to work outside in cities since he
needed to raise his family. He maintained that he wanted to give more supports to
his children but could not.
127
I received a primary school education and could have done something for
her. But I could not. I have two children and they need money for
schooling.
He said his father had passed away and he had his mother to take care of his
daughter and son at home. He thought his mother was a careful woman who could
provide his children with nutrition, comfortable accommodations and certain kind
of supervision.
Peasants decisions to leave their children to be tended by their grandparents was
also encouraged by the fact that once children were accepted by senior secondary
schools, they usually had to live on campus and seemed substantially out of the
control of the family. Peasants maintained that children spent only one or two
days at homes per week or month once they were accepted at senior secondary
schools. They agreed that less attention should be paid to their children then and
turned over all responsibility in education to schools. Many parents chose to leave
hometowns and go to cities for jobs when their children went to senior secondary
schools. A peasant from family 19, for example, said that he decided to leave his
wife at home and take care of his son when he was in primary and junior
secondary schools. However, when his son was accepted by a senior secondary
school, he brought his wife to the city where he worked. He said that the line
between the works of theirs and teachers became quite clear then and it was the
time for him to focus on earning money and supporting his children with their
schooling:
I send my children to schools. That is all what I have to do [then]. I think
my responsibility is to earn money and work harder to make sure that my
children can go on with their learning.
He also maintained the work for parenting became simply enough then and their
grandparents could be well in place. As he said:
She came back home every weekend and had rests. Her grandmother
provided her with delicious food as compensation to the suffering of the
poor and uneatable food [in schools]. I usually asked her grandmother to
buy and cook meat and fish for her. Furthermore, her grandmother also
did the laundry [for her].
128
Peasants also saw leaving their children at home as a way to protect them from the
discrimination from children in public schooling in cities. In talking to a parent
(peasant, family coding number: 21), I was told a story when he took his son to
the city where he worked in a factory for several years. Mr. Wan said that his son
was not allowed to attend public school when he was primary school age. His son
entered a migrant workers children school (Nongmin gong zidixuexiao
)
instead and studied there for three years. The quality of that school was
unsatisfactory. Worse, his son was not allowed to attend the Senior Secondary
School Admission Examination there and thus had no chance to continue his
learning path. He decided to send his son back to their hometown when he was in
grade three, junior secondary school, and asked his grandparents to take care of
him at home. He said that it was fortunate for him to send his son back since the
quality of the teaching in migrant workers children school was too low:
It took him [my son] a whole year to catch up with other students in his
class when he came back [to hometown]. If he continued his study there
[in Jiangsu province], I think he would fail in the Senior Secondary
School Admission Examination and had no chance to attend the senior
secondary school.
Peasants had their parents take care of their children and saw this as a coping
strategy to the structural constraints they were suffering and hoped the social
connections between grandparents and children could help them to convert their
financial resources into their childrens social capital. However, they also
admitted there were disadvantages in relying on parents. They said that
grandparents could not provid supervision comparable to what they could have
provided if they stayed at home. As a peasant (family coding number 17)
maintained:
Children were less likely to accept all the controls by her [grandmother].
You know that, grandparents were more likely to spoil children. For
example, she let them watch TV and did not try to control them.
Peasants also agreed that grandparents could not deliver enough emotional
supports and expectations. As a peasant (family coding number: 13) put it:
129
My grandmother was over 60 [years old] without any education. She was
very feudal and backward and had a very low level of expectation of my
daughter. She was very old and sometime did not have any idea about
what my daughter was thinking. My daughter told me [on the phone] that
she was often down in spirits and felt alone at home. She said
grandmother did not understand her.
All peasants who let their children be taken care by grandparents agreed with this.
They said that they have a clear understanding of this and tried their best to
overcome these disadvantages. For example, they tried to phone their children as
often as possible and maintained necessary connections with their children. One
peasant household head (family coding number: 17) said that he left his daughter
at home to be taken care of by her grandparents when she was in primary school.
He tried to telephone her as many times as possible to deliver his expectations:
I told her [my daughter] that I lost myself and wandered on the streets for
a whole day when I went to Shanghai for the first time. [I went to
Shanghai because] Her uncle gave me a call and promised that I could
find a job there and be well paid. So I left home then and took a train to
Shanghai. After arriving in and got off the train, I found things were
more complicated than I could imagine. The city was too big and I could
not tell one road from the other since I was illiterate and could not
recognize the name of the road. I often called her [when I was in
Shanghai and work there] and told them about this and hoped they can
learn from my experience. I hoped they could go to college and have
better lives.
He also maintained that he usually used their difficult situations and personal
experiences in cities to educate their children and encourage them to work hard
and have better lives through college access. He maintained:
I told my son how hard life was when I worked on construction sites. I
told him that there were also some people could avoid these hard lives.
They worked in offices and giant buildings equipped with good facilities
such as air conditioners. They worked less, but had higher wages. I told
my son if he gained access to a very good university, he could become
one of them.
130
6.2.3 Kinships and relatives

Peasants also went to their relatives for help if there was nobody available in the
family to take care of their children. When asked who took care of the children
when she and her husband were in another province and worked there, the female
household head from a peasant family (family coding number: 22), for example,
said she let her married brother take care of his children. She said:
My second daughter spent nearly all her childhood with his uncle. She
was in her uncles home for over four years and studied in a school near
his uncles home.
She said that she sent his daughter to her brothers home because he was close
enough and could be trusted.
He is my brother and I felt that he could treat my daughter as his own and
take care of her well.
Another peasant who sent his son to the home of the elder sister of his wife and
asked her to take care of him also agreed with her views.
She was at home and taking care of her grandparents then. Therefore, she
could not go to the city to find a job. I asked my wife to send my
daughter to her family. She was nice. My daughter loved her very much
since she gave her much love and care.
He said that he trusted the elder sister of his wife and she created important
chances for him and his wife to migrate to cities for financial opportunities.
However, not all peasants were lucky enough to have such a nice at-home relative.
Peasants said that the willingness of their relatives to take care of their children
also depended on whether they had plans for immigration and the politics within
their families. As he said:
To let your children to be taken care by brothers is ok. But they also have
their families. If their wives do not want to do so, there will be no
chance.
In addition to letting relatives take care of their children if they left home, parents
from peasants families also said that they saw kinships as important channels for
information flow and usually exchanged information with their relatives about
131
their childrens schooling. They agreed that they could exchange information with
their neighbors when their children were in primary school. However, the
information exchange decreased when their children entered secondary school
since these schools were usually far away from home. Parents of students within
these schools were also usually from different villages and townships. They lived
far away from each other, and had less chance to know each other well and
maintain social connections. Peasants said they usually exchanged information
with their relatives about their childrens academic scores and discussed with
them their childrens possibilities of going to colleges and universities if they had
children of similar ages. They also discussed ways of improving childrens
academic performance. The peasant from family 17, for example, usually
mentioned the name of one son of his brother-in-law and said that this boy was
one year older than his own son:
He performed better in school, whether when he was in primary school
or secondary schools. I usually called my brother-in-law to discuss with
him ways to help my son.
In addition to exchanging information and discussing childrens schooling,

parents from these families also agreed they should usually seek direct help from
their relatives in their childrens schooling. If the relatives or children of their
relatives received a higher level of education, they said that they would usually
ask for direct help. For example, they might ask about their childrens academic
plans and how to improve their childrens academic performances. The female
household head from family 14 reported that she had a sister-in-law in the capital
city of Anhui who received a college education and had much knowledge in
education. She said that she usually called her sister-in-law for help if there were
problems with her daughters learning:
I was in Jiangsu [province] with his father [and working there] when she
[my daughter] was in senior secondary schools. She was totally
independent of us then. When she was in grade three, I began to pay
attention to her academic performance in school and found that she really
did poorly. I called her aunt and asked what I could do. She suggested
first of all, him to go to her school and determine the reason
132
She said that she went to her sister-in-law for suggestions since she also believed
that her sister-in-law was a close relative and trustable. She believed that the
obligations in kinships would surely make her sister-in-law be willing to help her
and gave her credible answers. She said that she called her sister-in-law several
times for asking suggestions on what universities her daughter should choose after
taking the National College Entrance Examination and was happy that she gave
some valuable advice.
Peasants also asked relatives to tutor their children if they thought that the
relatives were qualified. A household business owner (family coding number: 9),
for example, said that the son of his uncle was a college student when he was in
primary school. He said he asked the son of his uncle to tutor him every summer
holiday and help his son with mathematics and physics.
It really helped and my son improved a lot in mathematics. I expressed
my thanks to my uncle every time we talked about this.
He reported that he was strongly motivated to seek this kind of help since they
were easy to get access to and did not have additional cost. All peasants agreed
with this and four of the eleven peasants reported they had tried to ask relatives or
children of their relatives who might have a college education to tutor their own
children despite of the fact that the quality and quantity of tutoring could not be
always guaranteed.
Parents from peasant families also highlighted the importance of kinships and
relatives in creating social connections with the teachers of their children. They
usually said that they did not have extensive ties to teachers or other staffs in
schools. Only one peasant reported that he maintained social connections with a
teacher because the teacher was his brother-in-law. When talking about social
connections with teachers, peasants usually agreed that they shared an inferiority
status with teachers:
I feel that I am just a peasant without knowledge (Gongnong dalao cu
).But teachers are cultivated (Wenhua ren ).
However, parents agreed that they would strategically make use of kinships when
there was a need for them to create and maintain social relations with teachers.
133
They said that if their children broken regulations or rules of schools, they would
ask for the help of relatives. A parent from family 19, for example, told me a story
when his little son conducted a mob fighting in school:
His [my son] head teacher called me and told me that I should take him
home. He meant that my son should leave school and never be back to
school anymore. I was very worried then. So I went to the former village
Party-Branch Secretary, a relative of mine, and asked for help. He called
a teacher in the school and said that he had a relative asked for his help.
He described my situation to the teacher and the teacher promised that he
would help with me. My son finally was allowed to stay at school.
He said that the social distances between them and the teachers were too far to
achieve this by themselves. His relative was a well-known man and in the same
social circle with teachers. It was thus easily for his relative to get access to the
key decision makers in this event and introduce him to them. Furthermore, his
status also guaranteed that he could do a favor in the future for the teacher as
reciprocity.
6.3 Cadre and professionals: reproducing strong ties with

colleagues
6.3.1 Family and community
Cadres and professionals consciously compared the situations of peasants with
their own, intentionally presented at home and agreed that their interactions with
children did provide them with chances to convert their advantages in finance and
culture to their childrens privileges in college access in terms of better nutrition,
housing, supervising and tutoring.
Cadres and professionals maintained that unlike peasants they had stable careers
and incomes, and sensed less need in migrating to cities for financial opportunities.
They agreed that they supervised their childrens after school activities and check
their childrens homework regularly. As a cadre (family coding number 2)
mentioned:
I found that many of my neighbors went outside as workers. Their
children were left home unsupervised. Sometimes, I found that these kids
134
played poker till midnight. Many failed in college access since they
played with other children every day. I thought then I should stay at
home, pay more attention to my childs learning, supervise him and make
sure that he could finish all his homework every day.
In addition to supervising children, parents from cadre and professionals families

also said that their interactions with children at home also helped them to pass
their learning skills to their children at home. This was especially true for parents
from professional families.
Parents from cadres and professional backgrounds also said that they taught their
children how to get used to the environments in schools and how to interact with
teachers and classmates properly. A cadre interviewed (family coding number: 1)
said:
After entering secondary schools, she [my daughter] came back home
every weekend, I asked her how things went on in schools and how she
got with her classmates and teachers. I told her that she could not choose
and decide the school environment but she could have ways to get used
of it. I told her some ways to do this and to deal with school life.
He mentioned that he also provided his daughter with enough emotional support
when there was a need. For example, he said that his daughter was once a class
monitor in primary school. One day she came home, burst into tears and said she
had been removed from her post and did not know the reason. He said that he
comforted her and said that teachers must be wrong since she was such a qualified
monitor. However, he also said that he did not care about whether she was the
monitor of her class or not. He wanted her to pay more attention to her academic
performance. His daughter was convinced finally and said that she would fulfill
his expectation to focus on her academic performance..
Cadres and professionals also talked about inter-generational closures. Peasants,
cadres and professionals usually lived in townships, inhabited special regions and
lived close together. The relative independence of their communities made them
less influenced by peasant immigration to cities. They agreed that their
communities maintained the forces to supervise their children. Just as one teacher
(family coding number: 4) put it:
135
We live in the same courtyard and know each others children. Sometime
I would stop others children from playing wild and asked them to go
back home and study if occasionally I found them wandering on the
street.
He said that he was familiar with the parents of these children and had the
obligation to do so. He also agreed that his actions would pay off in the future and
his children would be under the eyes of their neighbors too.
Cadres and professional also used success of their neighbors to encourage their
children. They tried to compare their children with peers who performed well in
schools and told their children to learn from them. As a cadre (family coding
number: 3) said:
We have widely circulated stories that usually tell how the children of
our neighbors achieved great success in college access. We use them to
encourage our children to work hardwe live in the same street and
know each others children. I said look at Yang, she is so excellent.
You have to learn from her
Parents from cadre and professional families also said they often exchanged
information with each other about their children. They agreed their children
usually went to the same primary and secondary schools and usually came across
the same problems, which created chances for them to exchange information and
ideas. They said that they usually discussed childrens academic performances
with each other to get the up-to-date information about their schooling and know
the weakness and strength of their children.
They also agreed that the primary and junior secondary teachers usually lived
nearby and were friends of theirs. Therefore, they could know their childrens
performance in schools through daily talks. As a cadre (family coding number: 1)
said:
Considering the information about my daughter in school, I got it through
talk. For example, sometimes, I walked across the courtyard and found
her teachers standing there. I went to him, talked and then left. That is
enough for knowing about my daughter in school.
136
The relative homogeneity and the social closure of the community also nurtured
the exchange of information and discussions over teachers and schools. For
example, A cadre (family coding number: 2) told me that once a time his son
complained to him that his English teacher spoke too low to be heard in the class
when he was in junior secondary school. He wanted to know more about this and
discussed it with one of his neighbors. The complaint was finally heard by the
teacher of his son since he also lived near and was one member of their social
circles. He improved his teaching in the end.
A household business owner (family coding number: 9) mentioned the experience
of exercising school choices and how he used the information obtained in the
community.
When it came to the end of my daughters junior secondary school, I had
to decide which school [I had to send my daughter to]. She was good and
her academic scores could guarantee that she would be accepted by an
ordinary senior secondary school. But I wanted to send her to a better
one. There were two choices for us: to send her to a better public school
but pay the school choosing fee or send her to a private boarding school
in the nearest city. I did not know how to decide and discussed this with
my neighbors. Some also had the same problem. We heard that one of
our friends, a famous middle school principal, decided to send his son to
the private school. I asked one of his colleagues and knew that the quality
of the school was good. Furthermore, I heard that there were also
preferential policies for students like my daughter. She was qualified to
be accepted by public schools and thus could be exempt from tuition fees
if she decided to choose the private one. Furthermore, the school
promised that students of her quality would be arranged into a special
class with better and high quality teachers. So, finally, I, with some
friends, decided to send our children to this school.
Parents from these families believed that the common cultural heritage that covers
values of education and the legend of success through schooling also inspired
their children to work hard. Parents often talked about the folk story of lazy and
indolent children of the rich (Wuku zidi ) who were
137
easily corrupted by their good housing and accommodations and good

lives make them not want to work hard. Even worse, they may think that
their parents can find jobs for them after graduation and handle
everything for them. Therefore, they usually did not work hard and
performed rather badly in school.
Cadres and professionals used this to warn their children. They also used other
widely circulated stories where the children of their neighbors achieved great
success in college access, to encourage their own children to work hard and
withstand difficulty they may come across in study.
Peasants sometimes talked about these but they admitted that the great
immigration evacuated villages and reduced the power of inter-generational
closures and the community forces. They maintained that the interpersonal
networks among different parents became weak and less information exchange
about and supervision over children could be achieved. Their counterparts from
cadres, professionals and new economic elite backgrounds who were more likely
to resident in townships, however, agreed that their social networks were less
likely to be ruined by immigration and thus maintained the forces.
6.3.2 Colleagues and friends
Teachers could provide parents with important information about their children
through daily talks when they lived close together such as in the same courtyards,
villages or townships. However, schools usually became far away from homes
and teachers became less familiar when children were accepted by senior
secondary schools. Peasants usually went to their relatives for help and asked for
information on their children in schools, which depended much on the lucky draw
provided by the unpredictable kinships. Cadres and professionals, however,
highlighted the importance of colleagues and friends in the process of obtaining
information about their children in schools.
They agreed that colleagues and friends could bridge this to teachers of their
children. As a junior secondary school teacher (family coding number: 4)
maintained:
138
When my son went to senior secondary school, things became a little bit
different. When he was in primary and junior secondary schools, his
teachers were quite familiar with me. We lived in the same courtyard and
could talk to each other every day. We felt an obligation to do something
for each other since our children were under each others eye. Now, the
situation was different. I did not know any of his teachers. I, therefore,
went to Mr. Liu, who was a friend of me for help. He has a friend
working in that senior secondary school.
Wu considered himself and teachers in the same social circle and felt that it was
easy for him to find someone that could bridge him with teachers in other schools.
I am a teacher. And many of my colleagues and friends are also teachers.
We are linked together both directly and indirectly.
Those parents from cadres families also agreed with this. They said that they all
worked in the state-owned sector, therefore were of the same social group. They
maintained that the relatively small number of people working in this system
guaranteed that they could easily be linked together through various ties. As a
cadre (family coding number: 3) said:
We have the same identity. All of us worked for the government and eat
public rice (Chi gongjia fan ). Only a small number of people
belonged to our system. Therefore, it would be very easy for us to find
common friends and be linked together.
Cadres and professionals maintained that the social connections that linked their
colleagues and friends together helped them exchange information with teachers.
Through these links they tried to tell teachers the characteristics of their children,
their strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, they often told teachers their
expectations of their children and hoped teachers would expect the same. As a
teacher (family coding number: 4) said:
I went to Mr. Liu to ask him to call the head teacher of my children. Then
I went to the teacher home and said Mr. Liu had given him a call. We
became familiar with each other and I began to tell him relevant
information about my son. I told him that he was a little bit stubborn. He
139
was good at mathematics and loved to use his head when he was still
young. But he was weak in English and needed special care.
They also tried to learn through these social connections how their children
performed in schools. They said that the strengthened social relations bridged by
colleagues and friends could make teachers feel obligated to report to them their
childrens information in schools when there was a need. A teacher (family
coding number: 5) told his story to me in an interview. Through his colleague, he
established social connections with the head teachers of his son when he was in
senior secondary school. The social connections were so strong that the head
teacher would give him a call after any test and told him any progress or
regression that had taken place.
Cadres and professionals also claimed that maintaining relationships with teachers
bridged by colleagues and friends was easy. They were confident they could
reciprocate their friends and teachers with other help in the future and talked less
about the needs of sending gifts to or hosting banquets for teachers. As a cadre
(family coding number: 1) maintained:
It was easy for me to get information about my children. I never
considered sending the teacher gifts. I thought they would need me one
day. I could pay them off.
In some cases, cadres and professionals did report the experiences of sending gifts
and hosting banquets for teachers. However, they also mentioned more than once
their differences from peasants and said that they could afford the necessary cost
of maintaining social relations with teachers. As a cadre (family coding number: 2)
said:
We are not like peasants. They might not be able to do so. For example,
we did invite each other for dinner sometimes. It was through these
chances I talked to the teacher of my son and asked them how my son
performed in schools.
Cadres and professionals also claimed advantages in finding qualified private

tutoring service for their children. They said that social relations with colleagues
and friends helped them a lot in the process. Teachers were the main providers of
private tutoring service in Zong. Every time, parents went to head teachers for
140
suggestions if they were making decisions on hiring private tutors for their
children. As a cadre (family coding number: 3) said:
We not only asked whether we needed a tutor, but also what kind of
tutors we needed, for example, a tutor in what subjects. Sometimes, I
asked the head teacher directly to give me a name of possible teachers
who could provide private tutoring services.
Close social relations with head teacher could guarantee that the information
provided was reliable. At least, information within this social group of cadres and
professional could be used to triangulate what head teachers said.
Furthermore, cadres and professional also maintained that close social relations
with head teachers could guarantee they could hire the teacher they wanted also as
their childrens tutor. They maintained that teachers in senior secondary schools
have a better salary and much greater workload than those in primary and junior
secondary schools, thus have less motivation in providing private tutoring to
students. Cadres and professionals usually went to teachers they were familiar
with and ask them to recommended tutors for their children. The one
recommended usually had close relations with the referees too. Parents felt that
this improved the possibilities that referred teacher would accept the proposal for
a private tutoring service since the close social relations might make them hard to
refuse. The quality of the tutoring then could also be assured since the one hired
might feel more obligations to do so if they were close enough to those who hired
them. In interviewing a teacher in the Port Senior Secondary School, I came
across two parents who happened to visit the teacher interviewed. They told the
teacher they wanted to find a tutor and asked whether he could help. The teachers
said yes and gave them a name and then called the teacher. He then planned to
take them to the teachers home and asked me to wait for a moment since the
teachers home were near to his. Before leaving my interviewees home, they
were asked:
ME: Why do you ask him [my interviewee] to find a tutor for you? Can
you find the one by yourself?
CM: I could find one [by myself], but this [to find one through him]
means better quality since I have a good relations with Mr. So.
141
ME: What do you mean by saying that?

CM: Trust. This could also make it [referred] hard for the teacher to
refuse my invitation.
6.4 The new economic elites: producing interpersonal ties with

teachers
6.4.1 Peidu (accompany studying) ()
Like their counterparts from cadres and professional backgrounds, parents from
household business owners and private entrepreneurs' families also agreed that
their present at home provided them with significant chances to supply their
children with better nutrition, housing, supervision and basic tutoring. They talked
less about learning skills but more about emotional support for their children.
They also talked about inter-generational closures and community forces.
However, they also agreed that once their children were accepted by senior
secondary schools, the social connections between them and their children would
become weak. In order to compensate for the structural deficiencies of the family,
they often chose to rent a dormitory/apartment near to the school and made one of
the parents, usually the mother, accompany their children.
Parents said that their children could be provided with better nutrition and
accommodation if they accompanied their children. One household business
owner (family coding number: 8) said:
He [my son] left home for the first time and had to do all those things by
himself since he went into senior secondary school. I thought it would be
too hard for him. Furthermore, if he did all of these things, how much
time would be left for him to study? Therefore, we decided that his
mother should rent a room and accompany him. His mother could cook
for him every day so he could get enough nutrition. His mother also did
laundry for him so that more time was saved and he could have more
time to study.
They also maintained that they could better supervise their children when they
lived with their children. A female parent from a household business owners
family (family coding number: 8) said:
142
He [my son] failed when he took the National College Entrance

Examination after graduating from secondary school. I knew one of the
reasons was that he was indulgent in reading novels and did not manage
his time in study. This was because one time when I went to his
dormitory, I found that there were many novels under his pillow. I told
him to stop reading these books but that did not work. Otherwise, he
would not fail in the National College Entrance Examination. His father
discussed that with me and we finally made a decision that I should
accompany him near the school. Therefore, we rented a room under the
teachers dormitory in Peak Senior Secondary School where he prepared
for the NCEE. I lived there with my son for a whole year. One of the
most important tasks for me was to control his after-school activities,
especially the time for reading novels. It was proved to be useful since he
got rid of this bad habit and performed better in school.
Parents from household business owners and private entrepreneurs' families

maintained that their accompaniment also brought some unexpected benefits. The
room they rented was usually near to those of teachers. Therefore, they had many
more chances to talk to the teachers of their children. As a result, they got more
opportunities to exchange information. Just as a Peidu mother (Peidu mama
) I came across in visiting Port Senior Secondary school said:
I walked on their campus every day after dinner since my room was near
the school. I came across his teacher nearly every day. I asked him about
my children and he was very nice and became very familiar with me
then. We then have much more chance to talk about my son.
Parents admit that their advantages in finance provided them with many chances
to do this. Just as a parent (family coding number: 8) said:
We own a store. His father could run the business. So it was ok for me to
accompany my son. At least, we were better than those peasants.
Just as she indicated, parents from peasant families did report that they could not
afford to do so. A peasant (family coding number: 21), for example, told me a
story about his son. He said that he wanted to rent a room nearby his sons school
so that he could accompany him and provide him with more support. But his son
told him that he knew the situation and the hardships of his parents. He told his
143
father that he could manage all of those things in school by himself and there was
no need for him to accompany him. But Mr. Wang constantly remembered this in
heart and blamed himself for the incompetence to Peidu. He said that the failure
of his son in schooling was his fault.
He [my] son is clever. I thought he was just lack of nutrition then. He
told me that he was sleepy every day. I felt guilty.
But he also argued that if he accompanied his son, the cost would be very high:
His mother and I earned only around ten thousand RMB that year. If one
of us [his mum and I] accompanied him, the income would become less,
for example, the land we could farm would be less. I estimated that I
could only earn a few thousand if his mother was not at home with me.
But the living expense for the whole family was as high as a few
thousand, which meant we might not be able to save any money and pay
for his tuition anymore.
The increasing numbers of parents accompanying their children to nearby schools

also led to competition in renting dormitories/apartments and the improvement of
rent. Parents maintained that the rent has been increased from eight hundred per
year to three thousand per years, which really tested their ability to earn enough
money.
The chance of their childrens college access was also an important predictor of
parental willingness in Peidu. When asked what factors influenced their decisions
on whether they would choose Peidu, a parent visiting Port Senior Secondary
said:
I consider his performance too. If he performs badly and the chance for
him to be accepted by colleges would very low, I thought I would choose
not to do so since Peidu could not change anything.
That is possibly the reason why there were more parents around model schools
who accompanied their children than those in ordinary schools. In interviews, for
example, two head teachers from Peak Senior Secondary and Port Senior
Secondary Schools were required respectively to estimate how many students
were accompanied by their parents:
144
Teacher from Port: there were around five in our class and there
would be more next semester, I guess, since it will be their final year
Teacher from Peak: over ten parents in our class now
Some parents were also pressured to accompany their children with teachers since
their children were found to have violated schools rules and regulations. Teachers
hoped their parents could control their childrens after-class activities.
6.4.2 Giving gifts and hosting banquets for teachers
Different from their counterparts from cadres and professional families who
usually thought that teachers were in the same social circles, parents from
household business owners and private entrepreneur families talked more about
the process of producing interpersonal social connections with teachers. They
sensed differences between themselves and teachers, and argued there was a need
for them to produce social connections with teachers if they wanted to create
advantages for their children in school success. One parent from a household
business owners family (family coding number: 9), for example, said:
They [teachers] are of a social group with cadres. If cadres want to
teachers to help them, they just need to call them. I have one friend who
works as the head of department in the xiang government. He told me
that he just called the head of the principal of the target school and said
that he wanted to send his daughter to the school when exercising school
choice for his daughter. He, of course, successful sent his daughter to that
school. But this seems quite impossible for us. We are different from
teachers. They work for the state and earn the salary from government
(Chi huangliang ).
The other parents from household business owners and private entrepreneur
families also agreed with this and maintained that they sometimes did not have
strong pre-existing interpersonal links with teachers. They said that they tried
different ways to establish these kinds of links with teachers since strong types of
social relationship usually means more possibilities to get access to important
information concerning their children in schools, quality private tutoring and the
chance of purchasing school positions.
145
The establishment of interpersonal social connections with teachers, as these

parents argued, usually began with finding someone with close social relations
with both sides as a bridge. One entrepreneur (family coding number: 10) said:
At the very beginning, I did not know the head teacher [of my daughter].
But I knew the principal of the school where my daughter was. He was
once my classmate in senior secondary schools. So I found him and
asked him to introduce me to my daughters head teacher. I then knew all
of those teachers of my daughter through the head teacher.
Giving gifts to and hosting banquets for teachers were usually thought as the
second stage in producing interpersonal social connections with teachers. Times
for sending gifts, gifts chosen and procedures in giving gifts were important
rituals for understanding the nature of the social connections produced between
teachers and parents. Parents from household business owners and private
entrepreneurs families said that they usually gave gifts to teachers during spring
festivals. In one or two cases, they also did this in other occasions such as the
beginning or the end of a semester. Cigarettes and wines were common gifts.
Each package of gifts was 300-500 RMB. Gifts were often given at the home of
teachers and wrapped in red plastic bags. All of these indicated that parents really
thought they were creating and recreating interpersonal social relations with
teachers since all what they did resembles their practices in producing and
reproducing social relationships with their relatives.
Their counterparts from peasants families, however, sensed much pressure in
giving gifts to teachers and said that they could not afford it. Just asa peasant
(family coding number: 13) said:
At least you have to bring something to teachers when you went to
teachers and ask for information. I thought cigarettes were necessary. I
only smoke Shengtang [a brand of low class cigarettes in Zong]. If I
wanted to visit teachers, I had to buy better ones, which takes money. If
you wanted to keep social connections with teachers, you had to do that.
Therefore, they seldom tried to actively establish interpersonal social relations

with teachers. In one case, a peasant (family coding number: 21) did report that he
tried to create social connections with teachers but ultimately failed in
146
maintaining this social connection. He said that he sensed too much economic
pressure:
I brought two packages of cigarettes every time when I visited the head
teachers of my daughter when she was in senior secondary school. But I
failed in doing that since I came across some financial difficulties. Two
packages of cigarettes cost over 500 hundred RMB, which really means
something that time.
Hosting banquets was another important way for parents to create and recreate
social relations with teachers. Parents from the emerging economic elite families
usually saw hosting banquets as an essential step in establishing interpersonal
social relations with teachers and said that they usually held banquets and invited
teachers of their children to attend in order to initiate social relations with them.
The banquets were usually held in hotels nearby schools. Every banquet cost
around 500-1,000 RMB. Teachers were not the only representatives of these
events. In matching teachers, parents from these families also invited some other
guests they thought were relevant to these events. The people who first introduced
them to teachers would usually be invited. Beside these people, parents said they
usually invited some people they thought were of the same social rank with
teachers in order to make teachers feel that they were given enough mianzi ()
in these events. An entrepreneur (family coding number: 11) said, for example:
I would usually invite the Party Secretary of our village to attend the
banquets held for teachers. I wanted teachers to know that I respected
them.
The cost in hosting banquets, of course, was too high for peasants. Peasants
usually reported that they could not afford the cost. The chance for them to create
interpersonal social relations with teachers was rare. They also maintained it was
difficult for them find someone who could introduce them to teachers since most
of their neighbors and relatives were outside the social circles of teachers.

If we tried to construct a picture of how rural parents in Zong get involved in
schooling according to those templates provide by schools, we encounter great
147
problems. What schools in Zong primarily revealed was how parents could
prepare their children for schooling. However, parents from different social
backgrounds in Zong were concerned more with how they could pass their
advantages on to their children by accessing social capital for their childrens
school success.
The conversion of economic and cultural resources into social capital requires
endless efforts from parents. Apparently, the formal linkages between schools and
homes provided parents in Zong with few chances to convert their economic and
cultural capital into social capital. Parents in Zong, however, were not passive
when confronting this system. They had a clear understanding of their potential
roles in schooling. They wanted more influence over their childrens school
success and developed relevant strategies. This chapter highlights those strategies
parents used in passing their economic and cultural capital to their children and
the effects of parents social positions over these strategies.
My findings suggest that parents from different social backgrounds used two
strategies to negotiate their influences over their childrens school success. First,
they reclaimed their influence over schooling by actively engaging in their
childrens learning process at homes and in their communities. They did not
passively accept those roles that state schooling assigned to them in learning
process but constructed their own understanding of their roles in their childrens
education and the ways they could help them
fulfill these roles. Although the
state wanted to establish school as the only legitimate institution in education and
required parents to be involved in schooling only when their children broke
schools rules or were experiencing difficulties in learning, parents sought to
provide additional help to their children. They saw social networks within home
as an important structure where they could transform their economic and cultural
resource into social capital in terms of better nutrition, information about school
etc. and actively used these social networks. They activated the social networks
within their community to help them to get access to important information about
their children in schooling and sought their peers help in supervising their
children in community in order to create advantages for their children in college
access. All of these activities changed the nature of the link between family and
148
school that was claimed by state schooling. The professional roles of teachers
over schooling were thus negotiated.
The second strategy that parents used in negotiating their influences over their
childrens schooling was to replace the pre-existing formal and weak social
connections between them and teachers with interpersonal and strong ones and
used them to get access to such important information as their childrens
performance in schools, the potential teachers who could provide quality private
tutoring and the chance of purchasing school positions.
Parents chances and success in negotiating their influences over schooling
through these two strategies, however, are shaped by how they capitalized in the
market transitional era. This is because the capital (in economic and cultural
forms) they have serves as the base for capital conversion. My findings suggest
that parents from peasant families perceived them as uneducated and sensed more
needs in relying on the expertise of teachers on education. They also perceived
more financial pressures and motivations in moving out of their communities for
jobs in cities. The social networks within their families and communities were
thus altered and their potential in converting their cultural and economic capital
was minimized. Their counterparts from cadres, professionals and those new
economic elite families, however, perceived less economic pressures and more
motivations to present at home and in communities. They also had more
knowledge of how and how much they could help their children, therefore, they
were more confident and saw education as a shared enterprise between them and
teachers.
Producing and reproducing interpersonal social connections with teachers also
required extra cost, which also foreshadowed the importance of the volume of
capital that parents had accumulated. My findings suggest that peasants usually
did not have extensive ties with teachers of their children and sensed more
financial pressures in producing social ties with teachers since these need endless
investments in such ways as sending gifts and hosting banquets. Their
counterparts from the privileged families, however, perceived less difficulty in
producing and reproducing the interpersonal social connections with teachers. For
example, cadres and professionals perceived themselves as in the social circle
149
with teachers. The cost in reaffirming their social connections with teachers was
thus very low.
Although this research claims that peasants are substantially excluded from those
important interpersonal social networks of capital conversion potentials, it also
highlights the agency of parents from these families. For example, it found, in
some cases, peasants actively use their kinships, successful created chances for
school involvement and helped their children achieve college success.
150
CHAPTER SEVEN
Consequences: Intended and Unintended
7.1 Introduction
Rural parents in Zong were engaged in their childrens schooling in quite different
ways. Parents from peasant families were substantially disadvantaged in
establishing useful linkages between homes and schools. Their counterparts from
cadres, professional, and new economic elite backgrounds were more strategically
advantaged in doing so. Parents from these privileged backgrounds, therefore, had
more advantages in converting their economic and cultural capital into different
forms of social capital as claimed in the previous chapter. Pursuing our story
further, we should ask: how is access to social capital linked to college access? The
answers to this question are of great significance since it concerns whether the
goal-oriented actions of parents from different social backgrounds finally succeed
or not.
7.2 Intended consequences

7.2.1 School engagement and promotion
Parental involvement in Zong influenced student engagement in schooling and
their promotion. This could be seen clearly from the decisions of those children
from a peasant background made in dropping out of school or leaving the education
system. In interviewing one rural household head (family coding number: 16)
around the spring festival, I came across his three children. All were girls and
worked for a sewing company in a coast city when I interviewed them. The eldest
told me she dropped out of school before the last semester ended in her junior
secondary school. Two of her younger sisters left school on graduation from junior
secondary school. When asked why they chose to end their learning paths, the
oldest girl told me:
151
My parents left home then and I did not get any supervision and support
from them anymore. I was a child then and did not know how to
control myself. I loved watching TV programs. Sometime, I did not go to
school and played at home. I was also bothered by all of those chores
since I was the eldest and should take care of my younger sisters.
Her two younger sisters agreed with this. They said that their disengagement in
schooling was further worsened by the learning difficulties experienced. They
said that they could not get any help from their parents in those days since they
had left home and supervised by their grandmother, who was illiterate. They
maintained that they could not understand those new subjects taught in each class
and did not know how they could handle with by themselves. The youngest girl
said:
I lost any interests in learning. I could not understand what teachers said
there [in the class]. I just waited for the end of class and then fled. I could
not ask my elder sisters. They did worse than me.
Her elder sisters left school one-by-one and her father felt sorry about the
situation. He said he hoped the youngest daughter could achieve school success:
I was in a coast city and did well as a worker there. I earned enough
money and thought I was able to pay for her education. Her elder sisters
both failed and I hope that at least she could go to college.
But his youngest daughter decided to terminate her schooling after graduating
from junior secondary school even though she promised she would like to
exercise school choice and purchase a position in the senior secondary school for
her. She said that she could not see any hope in going to college and decided to
leave school as soon as possible since she felt helpless.
Teachers interviewed reported many similar cases. They maintained that while
children from peasant families, especially for those left-behind children, often
dropped out of schools, their counterparts from privileged backgrounds were less
likely to do so. One cadre, for example, told me about his son and his efforts in
keeping him at school and promoting his school success.
152
He was not a good student. I mean he performed poorly every time in

any test. I have thought many ways to deal with this. For example, I tried
to hire tutors and asked teachers to take care of him. But that still did not
work. He achieved a very low mark in the Senior Secondary School
Admission Examination. I thought I had to do something then. I believed
he had some other abilities and he needed to continue his schooling,
which could bring him a better life. You know what I mean, you were an
example [you will be a doctor and get a high salary]. I decided to send
him to a five year vocational school, which could lead to an associate
bachelor degree. I called a friend there and asked him to do me a favor.
He promised he could get a position there for me even if my sons marks
sound bad. He even said he could help my son to get a job after
graduating. He said he had many friends there [in cities].
Although parents from families of both privileged and peasant backgrounds

resisted giving up their children halfway, they got very different results. Children
from peasant families were more likely than their counterparts to choose to
terminate their schooling since they could not get enough support from parents
and saw no hope in being promoted to schools at higher levels. In addition, they
were also more vulnerable to gangs and mob fighting. In a junior secondary
school, the former principal told me that the number of mob fighting involving
students increased rapidly as the number of left-behind children grew.
These children did not have to go back home since their parents were not
there. They have their own groups and nobody could control that. They
fight with each other and some got really hurt. I remembered that there
was nothing like this four or five years before, but nowadays [there is
more and more]
Left-behind children were vulnerable since they were more likely to be involved
in different gangs. As one teacher in Port Senior Secondary School (coding
number: 10) maintained:
I came across many students who were involved in these groups. Most
were left-behind children. It could be understood since their parents were
not at home. They were more likely to feel lonely and to need someone
to share some feelings. They were easily attracted by the members of
153
these groups. You know, they treated these children like their elder
brothers or sisters and gave the care [these children need]. Many students
were involved since they felt that their emotional needs were satisfied.
Even those children from peasant families whose parents were at home, were also
easily involved in these gangs since their parents kept few connections with
schools and their after class activities were out of control. As a child interviewed,
who involved in a gang and was forced to end his schooling, said:
My parents did not know what I was doing then. He never called my
teachers. Actually, I hung out with my peers after class. But my parent
did not know that. If they called teachers, I thought they might know
something. You know, I spend a lot of money those days for making
friends. I usually told my parents that I need money since schools need us
to turn in some [fees]. They never asked why we needed to turn in again
and just gave me money. If they called teachers, they might know the
fact and knew that I was with some bad guys.
He regretted that he could not find a way to prevent himself from getting involved
in the gangs and disengaging from schooling.
7.2.2 Access to model schools and key classes
Parental involvement increased childrens likelihood of being accepted by central
or model schools and key classes. I approach this relation by simply introducing
two rough mechanisms that involve working in the process.
Involvement helped since parents from privileged backgrounds could access some
important information about schools and classes through their interpersonal social
connections with teachers. For example, in one interview, a household business
owner (family coding number: 8), told me his experience in helping his daughter
be allocated to a key class when she was accepted by the senior secondary school:
Every year, there would be one or two key classes. Although, the bureau
of education prohibited schools from doing so, some classes were still
equipped with better teachers. This is a public secret. We all knew this
When my daughter got the notice that she was accepted by the County
Senior Secondary School, I began to ask one of my friends in the school
for help. I heard [from him] then, class five and eight were both under
154
two famous head teachers. And class five had a very good mathematics
teacher. However, class eight had a better English teacher. He was said to
be a very responsible
The household head said he finally chose class five since his daughter was weak
in mathematics. He maintained that the information he got access to was really
helpful which helped him consider more possibilities. Unlike their counterparts
from privileged backgrounds, peasant contended they knew little about the
running of schools and the differences between different classes.
Parental involvement worked which could also help them to access to those key
decision makers in schools. One teacher reported his experience in helping an
entrepreneur send his son to a model senior secondary school:
One of my friends was an entrepreneur. His son was good enough. He
achieved a very high academic score in the Senior Secondary School
Admission Examination. Less than twenty students in our school could
do so. But his son was still a few marks away from being accepted by the
Peak [Senior Secondary School]. He came to me and asked for help. I
happened to know the son of the former principal of the Peak [Senior
Secondary School]. He was a close friend of mine. I called him and
asked for help. His father was in hospital and had just finished surgery. I
asked the entrepreneur to buy some gifts and went to the hospital to visit
him. I thought it was a good occasion for setting up social relations with
each other. We did go to the hospital and visited the former principal
with gifts. He was happy about that. We told him our concern and asked
whether he could do us a favor. He said yes and called someone in the
Peak [Senior Secondary School]. He soon got an affirmative answer and
the Peak [Senior Secondary School] finally accepted the son of the
entrepreneur.
All parents interviewed agreed that it was crucial for them to find key agents in
schools if they wanted to secure their childrens positions in model senior
secondary schools. One teacher (family coding number: 6), for example, said:
I have heard that one school outside our county was very good. So I let
one of my former students who worked there do me a favor and help my
child be accepted as a guest student (Jiedu sheng ). In fact, my
155
childrens academic performance was so high that he could be exempted

from paying tuition fees. However, I soon found that he could not adapt
himself to the learning environment there. Therefore, I asked for help
from one of my former students in the Peak Senior Secondary School. He
helped me to finally transmit my child there.
Peasants sensed difficulties in finding key agents. To them, the academic

performance of their children was the only indictor of chances to be accepted by
any type of schools. Just as a female household head from a peasant family
(family coding number: 22) said:
If I knew somebody in schools, it might help my daughter to get into
senior secondary schools. However, I did not know anybody and she was
even unwilling to take the [Senior Secondary School] admission
examination. She said that she felt no hope in earning high scores in the
examination. So she gave up finally and went outside for work.
7.2.3 Teachers care ()

One of the advantages that different parents mentioned most frequently was
teachers care. When asked to elaborate and interpret what parents meant,
teachers mentioned several forms of care they would give to students if their
parents were actively involved in schooling.
They said that they sensed more expectations from those parents who were
actively involved in schooling and in class time engaged their children more in the
process of teaching. As a teacher (coding number: 13) said:
I felt that their parents had an eye on their performance, which made me
feel that I should pay more attention to them.
Through communication, I know that their parents have real and high
expectations of them. I thought that I should help them fulfill this.
Teachers also said that they gave more personalized teaching to those children
whose parents participated more in schooling. They maintained that they know
more about these children since their parents gave much more information about
them. One teacher (coding number: 8) told me a story when he was interviewed:
156
His father [one of my students] came to me when he was in my class. We

became familiar with each other since he invited me to have dinner
together several times. In these occasions, he introduced his son to me.
Of course, his son was not there. He said that he was shy and was less
confident about himself. He asked me whether I had some ways to deal
with this. I said I might nominate him as the monitor of our class so that
he could be forced to communicate with others. His abilities could also
be trained. I really made him the monitor of our class and he became
rather confident then. And this made him be confident of his learning. I
was very happy then since I achieved another success.
7.3 Unintended consequences

7.3.1 Complains and distrust
Peasants realized that increasing involvement of privileged families in schooling
brought advantages for children from these backgrounds and worried that this
might increase their childrens disadvantages in schools. In an interview a
peasant(family coding number: 22)complained that the inter-personal social
networks between teachers and privileged families had destroyed her confidence
about whether her children could enjoy fair and quality schooling
My children never got treated like those from families of high status.
You know what the results would be! If you could have guanxi with
teachers, that would be better.
They also complained that there were few ways to participate in schooling. If they
wanted to get involved in schools, they had to create and maintain interpersonal
personal social relations with teachers, which needed endless costly efforts in
investment. This was even agreed to by those parents from privileged families.
One parent (family coding number: 9) from an individual business owners
family, said that was a game that only those with power and money could play. In
his home, he told his story to me.
When my daughter was in primary and junior secondary schools, I
usually went to her schools. I sent her teachers some gifts, usually,
cigarettes or something to assist her teacher to take care of her. This was
especially true when she was in senior secondary school. You know, the
157
school was far away and she was alone. Each package of cigarettes cost
over five hundred RMB. That was not so much for me. But if you want
to visit teachers regularly, that means something. I reduced the number of
visiting teachers later, especially when my business did not work well
and I earned less.
Some peasants also perceived sending gifts receiving and attending banquets of
teachers as the backdoor strategies used by parents from privileged social groups
and said that teachers were bought by these parents.
Their children in classrooms also agreed with this. They said that they often felt
cynical when their teachers showed extra care to students without any good
reason. Mr. Zhou, who has graduated from the Peak Senior Secondary School,
said:
Every time, when teachers put my classmate in the front of the classroom
because of guanxi, we would felt very unhappy about that.
He said his classmates often showed scorns to these students, which as a result,
usually highlighted the tension of students from different social groups.
I thought then, I was different from them and they were from privileged
backgrounds. I even did not want to talk to them.
He also maintained that this hurt his motivations in learning.

Some parents even began to distrust teachers commitment to their professional
ethics and said the society and parents gifts poisoned teachers.
I thought the social environment became bad and teachers were polluted.
They became money driven. Otherwise, they would not accept those gifts
and invitations from others.
In more critical comments, a peasant (family coding number: 18) said:

They were not qualified as teachers. You did not know what teachers
looked like. They became snobbish.
Complains, distrust and scorn brought much pressure to teachers and schools. the
local bureau of education issued several notices to schools and prohibited teachers
from attending any banquets. Each school held meetings to discuss this issue with
158
teachers. Teachers were required to be at school and could not attend any social
activities in working time. As the principal in Port Senior Secondary School
(coding number: 4) said:
There were more and more parents with the willingness to send teachers
gifts or invite them to banquets. I thought at least we could persuade
teachers not to attend these banquets. That was what we can control.
Teachers also felt embarrassed. They maintained that they tried their best to refuse
any invitations to dinner but there were still some that could not be refused. They
saw those events in sending gifts and hosting banquets as a part of the
interpersonal social networks reproduction and maintained that feelings (Renqing
)
has been produced and it was hard for them to refuse gifts and invitations
from parents.
Some parents have very good friends in schools. Some were also very
good friends of mine, therefore, it was hard for me refuse.
7.3.2 Social relations reproduced

Once social relations have been made with teachers, some parents said they
maintained good social relations with teachers their children have even graduated
from the school.
For example, a teacher (coding number: 7) mentioned that his story with a cadre:
His little son was in my class when he was in senior secondary school.
He knew me through one of my colleagues. He was a cadre in his town
and usually attended conferences held in the county town, which gave
him many chances to visit me and his son. He brought me some gifts or
invited me to banquets sometimes. We became friends then. I phoned
him usually when his son achieved any progress. He asked me about his
son usually. We thought then we should cooperate together to help his
son to go to the best college. It came true. We were both happy about
that. He became a very good friend of mine. He called me even after his
son had graduated from this school. We were happy that we could
maintain this kind of connection.
All teachers had interpersonal social connections with parents of students

reporting similar experiences.
159

To study hard and achieve school success is greatly appreciated by parents in
Zong since which was considered to be the most important channel for
up-forward social mobility. There are many legends of success in Zong. The local
gazetteers recorded some of these stories that were also widely circulated among
families and schools. For example, there was a story about one important
politician ZuoGuangdou () in the Ming Dynasty. Zuo was said to born in a
very poor family in one village in Zong. However, he finally became one of the
most powerful men in China at the end of Wanli era () in Ming Dynasty.
The most important factor that could explain his success was believed to be his
hard working. For rural parents in Zong who internalized these values, studying
hard to attend the examination was seen as the best way to help their children
achieve their goals and permanently break away from their rural roots(X. Zhou,
2004).
However, research shows that social class influences a childs school success.
Students hard work and intelligences were not always powerful predictors of
their educational achievement (Bourdieu, 1990b; C. Li, 2003, 2006; Yang, 2006c;
X. Zhou, 2004). Parental involvement in schooling was an important process
through which the influences of social class over schooling could get understood
(Lareau, 1987, 2000, 2001). Parents in Zong tried to influence their childrens
schooling and create advantages for their children in college access through
engaging in their childrens learning process. The differences in activating
interpersonal social networks, however, resulted in unequal access to social
capital in different forms. Different access to social capital, as a result, brought
different consequences to children from different backgrounds, both intended and
unintended.
My findings suggested that students from peasant families reported experiences in
disengaging from schooling and difficulties in promotion since they got less
access to such important forms of social capital as quality supervision,
expectation about schooling and academic support. They were also vulnerable to
gangs and fighting since their after-class time was usually unsupervised. Parents
from those privileged backgrounds also created advantages for their children in
160
gaining access to key classes and quality schooling since their social connections
with teachers provided them with more chances to get important information
about running schools and influencing those key decision-makers in schools. They
also get more teachers care for their children since their interpersonal social
connections with teachers provided important channels for information exchanges
between them and teachers. Teachers also felt that Renqing had been created
between them and parents. Therefore they had to reciprocate those parents who
they were linked with through those strong social connections.
The using of interpersonal social networks and different access to social capital
however, also brought some unintended consequences. Some peasants began to
worry about the disadvantaged situations they and their children experienced.
They even complained that the interpersonal social networks between teachers
and privileged families worsened the situations their children confronted and
argued for more formal access of parents to schooling. The distrust between
teachers and parents increased. The constant reproduction of the social networks
between teachers and parents, and the reaffirming of the memberships of these
social networks was another unintended consequence.
161
CHAPTER EIGHT
Conclusions and Discussions
8.1 Introduction
The market reform in rural China saw the increasing advantages of students from
the cadre, professional and new arising economic elite backgrounds over their
counterparts from peasant families in college access. Most of the research
suggests that economic and cultural resources are the most important predictors of
student access to colleges and universities (G. Jiang, 2007; H. Wei, 2004; H. Wei
& Yang, 2004; Z. Xie, et al., 2008). The process dimension; how parents from
different social backgrounds within rural society get involved in schooling and
how this contributes to the inequality of college access within rural society, is still
under investigation. In this study, I attempt to unpack this process by examining
the school involvement experiences of parents in Zong, a county located in the
province of Anhui. Parental involvement is conceptualized in terms of how
economic and cultural resources become converted to social capital as part of a
families strategy within the increasingly stratified social context of rural China.
The research identifies the consequences of activating different types of social
networks within family and community, and also between family and school to
facilitate this process of gaining advantages in access to college. Household
interviews and field notes were used as the main methods of data collection and a
range of parents and teachers were involved in this ethnographic study. This
chapter summarizes and discusses the main research findings of this seven-month
ethnographic study.
8.2 Market, growing needs in school involvement and the weak

formal linkage between family and school
China market transition since the late 1970s witnessed the increasing importance
of school success to the life chances of individuals (Hannum, Park, & Cheng,
2007). Research shows that the growth of a more open labor market in China
162
increases the economic returns to investment in human capital and highlights the
rising importance of getting a college degree in an individuals status achievement
process (Debrauw & Rozelle, 2007; W. Zhao & Zhou, 2007). This is especially
true when the education system was restructured to support and sustain the rapid
economic development in China (Pepper, 1990). All of these have triggered
competition over higher education opportunities and the increasing motivations of
parents in helping their children achieve school success. This is also the case in
Zong. Parents in Zong uniformly thought they should support (Zhichi ) their
children with enough finance, better nutrition, comfortable housing and
accommodation so their children could be at school without trouble back at home
(Hougu zhiyou ). Although parents backgrounds, personalities and
parenting styles varied, they also agreed on the importance of providing emotional
support to their children. They thought that they should always make known their
expectations to their children and encourage them to pursue better lives through
achieving a college degree.
Parents from all families also agreed that they should manage (Guang ) their
children. They thought that the after class activities of their children should be
controlled so their children could focus more on learning and obtain better
academic results. Although being different in the philosophies of what effective
management is and how children could be managed, parents from different social
backgrounds were willing to devote their time to manage their children and help
them have more time for studying.
They also highlighted the importance of tutoring (Jiao ) as a role they should
be responsible. Parents from different families perceived different levels of
capacity in teaching their children. Peasants, for example, were less confident in
teaching their children at home since they felt that the learning materials were
usually out of their reach. Their counterparts, however, felt that they were more
capable of passing their cultural capital on to children in order to help them to
achieve school success. Peasants, however, insisted that they tried their best to
tutor their children, at least, teach them with such good moral fabrics as hard work
and obedience to teachers so that their children could be more prepared for school
education.
163
Parents also wanted to know the academic performance of their children in

schooling. They said that the information about their children in schools could
help them to make decisions on whether there was a need to intervene in their
learning process in terms of hiring a tutor or making career plans for their children.
They also claimed sending their children to schools with better quality through
exercising school choice (Zexiao ) as one important aspect of school
involvement.
These findings are both unsurprising and surprising. They are unsurprising since
school success throughout Chinese history has long been seen as a way, as the
Confucius teaching indicated, to glorious careers, in officialdom in particular.
Most rural parents, in this study, believed this and thought that access to colleges
and universities was the most direct way to help their children permanently break
away from their rural roots (Hayhoe, 1992; X. Zhou, 2004). This utilitarianism
belief in education was also further enforced by the contemporary patterns of
relationship between school achievement and economic success in China: the
economic returns to education have increased over time whether in the rural or
urban labor market (Debrauw & Rozelle, 2007; Parish, et al., 1995; W. Zhao &
Zhou, 2007; Y. Zhou, 2009).
These findings are surprising in the sense that those economically at the bottom of
the rural society did not, as many researchers suggested, fall into a culture of
poverty and downplayed the value of school success as the market reforms
deepened and the new social order gradually solidified (Y. Zhou, 2009). For those
who are at the bottom of the rural society, my interview suggested that they still
expressed optimism about their future and school success. They refused to see
schooling as useless even they knew to some extent that college degrees could
now no longer guarantee success in the urban labor market for their children. This
is partially because of the fact that rural children still have chances to access to
urban labor market if they have college degrees. Furthermore, multiple
opportunities for social mobility have been created and continue to be created by
Chinas rapid economic growth (Davis & Wang, 2009).
Although parents from different social backgrounds wanted to claim their
influences over schooling and transformed their economic and cultural resources
164
into social capital conducive for their children school success, state schooling
provided few chances for parents to participate in their childrens learning process.
Although arguing for harmonious cooperation between families, schools and
communities; state rules, regulations and policies wanted to establish schools as
the only legitimate and professional institution in education. Parents participation
in schooling was assumed to be a supplement to school education. Parents were,
in fact, alienated from school education. Moreover, despite the articulated
inter-connectedness of homes and schools, state rules, laws and regulations stated
less about the ways that how schools can interact with parents. Parents
involvement in schooling, thus, was heavily influenced by the chances made
available by teachers at the individual level and schools at the organizational
level.
Teachers, in Zong, established themselves as expert in education and allowed only
restricted formal participation of parents in schooling. They saw the
interdependency between parents and teachers but welcomed parents to support
school education only through accepted ways, for example, to supplement them
with relevant information about children at home, and to control their after-class
times. Teachers decided when and how parents should formally get involved in
schooling. Although varied in working experience, the types of schools served
gender; teachers usually perceived parents formal involvement as a problem
solving strategy. For example, they expected parents whose children were
experiencing learning difficulties to provide information about their children to
them so that they could know why these children had problems. They wanted
parents to get involved when their children broke schools rules and regulations.
Schools in Zong provided few opportunities for parents to participate in schooling
either. Formal activities such as home visits and parents meetings usually served
for special purposes and involved only a small number of parents. Teachers
usually used these occasions to transmit their appreciation to students with the
best academic scores and their families. They also tried to through these events to
tell some parents that their children now had problems in school and pushed them
to intervene. The number of parents who could be involved in these activities was
very small. Schools in Zong also send academic performance notices to parents.
165
Although academic performance notices were sent to all parents with children in
schools, the information it could deliver was limited.
8.3 Social stratification, guanxi exclusion and capital conversion

Although state schooling provided few chances for parents to formally participate
in schooling, they have their own strategies in getting involved in the learning
process of children at homes, schools and communities.
Parents from privileged families tried to maintain the network closures within
families. They have stable careers and incomes, sensed little need for moving
outside of their hometowns and no pressure in leaving their children behind at
home. When their children were accepted by senior secondary schools, parents
from
the
new
economic
elites
families
could
even
afford
renting
apartments/dormitories and accompany their children around schools in order to

re-invent the social closures within families. Their counterparts from peasants
families, however, experienced pressures in maintaining the network closures
within families. They were motivated to move outside to cities to earn money for
a better quality of life and pay for their childrens tuition fees. Peasants limited
education also hurt their confidence in helping their children. They saw teachers
as the experts in education and recognized them as the people being most capable
of helping their children to achieve school success. As a result, they turned over
all responsibilities to teachers in education. Parents from privileged families,
however, accepted more education, had more school experience and felt more
competent in managing and tutoring their children.
The efforts of privileged families in maintaining social closures within families
provided them with advantages in converting their economic and cultural
resources into social capital in terms of better nutrition, housing, and in particular,
better supervision and tutoring for their children. Although immigrant peasants
sought the help of their own parents and asked for their support to manage their
children when they left home, they were in fact substantially disadvantaged in
creating social capital in terms of supervision and tutoring for their children since
their parents usually suffered from a more frustrating lack of educational skills.
Parents from privileged families also tried to maintain informal interpersonal
166
social connections with teachers and other staff in schools. Cadres usually lived in
the same neighborhoods with teachers and other professionals in townships, and
thus perceived teachers as their fellows. They also recognized teachers as the
same social status to them and members in their social circles. Peasants, however,
did not show extensive ties to teachers. They felt they were inferior in social
status to teachers and it was hard for them to be recognized by teachers as
members of their social networks. Their privileged counterparts were also capable
of producing and reproducing the social relations with teachers of their children.
The intensity of networks within the social groups of cadre and professionals
made it was easy for them to access t teachers with the help of their colleagues
and friends. Peasants, however, hesitated in producing social relations with
teachers which needed endless efforts and investments. They maintained that they
had a substantial lack of social skills in communicating with teachers. They could
not afford the cost of creating social relations with teachers through giving gifts
nor hosting banquets for them. Their counterparts from the new economic elite
background, however, were far more capable of doing so.
Informal connections with teachers provided parents from privileged backgrounds
with chances to create social capital for their children. They tried to exchange
information with teachers, tell teachers about their childs strengths and
weaknesses, and show their expectations of their children to teachers. They also
collected information about their children in schools and took necessary steps to
intervene if necessary. For example, if their child performed badly in school, they
would choose to ask teachers for explanations and their suggestions. Their
counterparts from peasant backgrounds were less capable of doing so.
Connections with teachers also made parents from privileged backgrounds easily
gain access to key agents in schools.
Although peasants also talked about strategies in using networks of kinships to
help themselves to establish social connections with teachers, these social
connections surprisingly did not always serve as transformative forces (Fei, 1992;
S. Liang, 2005). Peasants reported that they seldom had relatives working as
teachers or those who could introduce them to teachers. They, therefore, had few
chances to know more about their children in schooling or get suggestions from
167
teachers about how to help their children to achieve school success.

Parents from privileged backgrounds were also advantaged in maintaining
inter-generational closures within communities. Cadres and professionals usually
lived in townships, inhabited special regions and lived close together. Their
communities were less influenced by peasant immigration. The social networks
within their communities were intensive. Peasants, however, complained that their
communities were emaciated by the seasonal flow of immigrant peasants.
Social closures within communities of privileged social backgrounds provided
parents from these communities chances to create social capital for their children.
It nurtured an exchange of information between parents. The community therefore
maintained a force to supervise the children. The intensive social networks also
helped parents to pass on their common cultural heritage in terms of shared values
and beliefs towards education to children. Peasants, however, were substantially
disadvantaged in achieving this.
These findings highlight the fact that the absence of formal and routine channel
for parents to get involved in schools established a reliance of strong and
inter-personal social networks (guanxi) in the school involvement process.
Peasants were excluded from those interpersonal social networks that were
strategically important for capital conversion. They, therefore, were substantially
disadvantaged in the toward-social-capital conversion process. This is different
from what many researchers claimed about guanxi and its transformative uses. To
them, strong and inter-personal social networks could be cross class and was able
to link together both the privileged and the underprivileged (Guanxiwuji)
(S. Liang, 2005). Therefore, it is possible for those from underprivileged social
groups to achieve success through actively mobilizing those guanxi they have and
making themselves to be connected with those from privilege backgrounds.
However, my findings suggest that it was hard for peasants to produce social
connections with teachers. Guanxi, therefore, served as an empowering force as
well as a constraint to peasants. It empowered them especially when they, for
example, actively mobilized their kinships to create social connections with
teachers of their children. It constrained them when such kind of social
connections could not be produced. The constraints became especially daunting
168
when their well-capitalized and more capable counterparts from the privileged
backgrounds actively employed their guanxi with the aim of creating advantages
for their children. These findings highlight the importance of understanding social
capital as a process. They suggest that only when the social networks within
family, community, and between family and school are strategically activated, can
rural parents successfully convert their economic and cultural capital into social
capital. This study also confirms that social class has a significant influence on the
formation of social networks. The structure of social networks, therefore, shapes
the opportunity structure for people from different social groups, especially in
terms of to what extent they can successfully convert their economic and cultural
capital into social capital (N. Lin, 2000, 2002).
8.4 Inequality in social capital and its consequence

There is a need to relate individual or family actions to collective
effects-exclusion, closure, and class advantage since the examination of family
strategies is an important part in understanding how society changes and
reproduced (Ball, 2003; Morgan, 1989). Peasants in Zong were excluded from
those important social networks that were of crucial importance in the
toward-social-capital conversion process. Their children were substantially
disadvantaged in accessing different forms of social capital that parents wanted to
create.
Unequal access to social capital impacted childrens school engagement and
promotion. Peasants reported their children disengaged from schools because of
the lack of supervision. Their childrens disengagement from schooling was
worsened by those learning difficulties experienced in schools. Children said that
they could not get access to quality support and tutoring from their parents, which
usually led them to terminate their learning paths. Peasants children were also
more vulnerable to gangs and mob fighting since they had a lack of supervision.
Their parents had few connections with schools and their after-class activities
were out of control.
Parents from privileged backgrounds were substantially privileged in creating
other advantages for their children in college access. Their privileges in access to
169
information and key agents in schools increased their childrens likelihood of

being accepted by model schools and key classes. Social connections with
teachers also brought teachers care (Guanzhao) to their children. Teachers
said they paid more attention to children whose parents kept social connections
with them. For example, in class time they asked students whose parents
participated more in schooling to answer questions to make them more engaged in
teaching. They gave more personalized teaching to these children since they had
more information about these children from their parents. They discussed with
these children concerning their learning and showed their expectations to them.
The different access to social capital also led to unintended consequences. Many
peasants realized that increasing involvement of privileged families in schooling
brought advantages for children from these backgrounds and complained that this
might further increase their childrens disadvantage in schools. They also
complained that there were only a few ways to participate in schooling and said
that the maintenance of interpersonal social relations with teachers needs endless
efforts in investment and were costly. This was even agreed by those parents from
privileged families. One parent from an individual business owners family said
that was a game that only those with power and money could play.
Some peasants even perceived the actions in sending gifts and hosting banquets as
the backdoor strategies made use of by parents from privileged social groups and
said that teachers was bought by these parents. Parental attitudes and teacher
actions also intensified the distrust of students over teachers. Some students
reported they often felt cynical and unhappy when their teachers show extra care
for students whose parents maintained social connections with teachers. They
even blamed peers from privileged backgrounds who were playing unfair games.
Some even reported that they talked less with children from these backgrounds.
These findings are no surprise, given the efforts made by parents in maintaining
guanxi with teachers to gain privileges for their own children. Parents never tried
to negotiate their influence over schooling collectively. This rising individualism
in bargaining family influences over schools dramatically challenged the
longstanding image held by parents of the school as a great equalizer in Chinese
society.
170
Complains, distrust and even scorns brought many pressures to teachers and
schools. Local bureau of education issued several notices to schools and
prohibited teachers from attending any banquet held by parents from different
families. Yet, teachers still felt validated. They maintained that they tried their
best to refuse invitations for banquets but there were still some hard to refuse.
They said the rejection of these invitationswould possibly make them look
unsympathetic.
Another unintended consequence was producing long lasting social relations
between parents and teachers. Some parents kept social connections with teachers
even after their children graduated from schools for several years.Both parents
and teachers involved were happy about this. They saw these social connections
as being expressive rather than purely instrumental, which could be reproduced
through further emotional and material exchanges (Bourdieu, 1986).
These findings confirm that social networks between the institutions of family and
school can be strategically used to create advantages for children (Bankston, 2004;
Bankston & Zhou, 1996; Coleman, 1988; Schneider & Coleman, 1993; Sun, 1999;
Teachman, Paasch, & Carver, 1997; M. Zhou & Bankston, 1994; M Zhou & Kim,
2006). This highlights the process of how parents interact with their children in
their learning process to successfully convert economic and cultural capital for
helping children gain access to higher education.
171
BIBLIOGGRAPHY
All-China Women Federation. (2008). A report on China's rural left behind
Children.
Retrieved
15,
June,
2011,
from
http://www.cycc.org.cn/gongzuojiaoliu/diaoyanbaogao/2010-09-26/1145.h
tml
Adams, J. H. (2006). Community matters in China. In E. Hannum& B. Fuller
(Eds.), Children's lives and schooling across societies (pp. 15-42). Oxford,
U.K: Elsevier JAI.
Altbach, P. G., & Umakoshi, T. (2004). Asian universities: Historical
perspectives and contemporary challenges. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
University Press.
Auerbach, C. F. (2003). Qualitative data : an introduction to coding and analysis.
New York: New York University Press.
Babbie, E. R. (2007). The basics of social research (4th ed. ed.). Belmont:
Thomson/Wadsworth.
Ball, S. J. (2003). Class strategies and the education market: The middle classes
and social advantage. London and New York: RoutledgeFalmer.
Bankston, C. L. (2004). Social capital, cultural values, immigration, and academic
achievement: The host country context and contradictory consequences.
Sociology of Education, 77(2), 176-179.
Bankston, C. L., & Zhou, M. (1996). The Ethnic Church, Ethnic Identifcation, and
the Social Adjustment of Vietnamese Adolescents. Review of Religious
Research, 38(1), 18-37.
Bankston, C. L., & Zhou, M. (2000). De facto congregationalism and
socioeconomic
mobility
in
Laotian
and
Vietnamese
immigrant
communities: a study of religious institutions and economic change.

Review of Religious Research, 41(4), 453-470.
Bankston, C. L., & Zhou, M. (2002a). Social capital and immigrant children's
achievement. Schooling and social capital in diverse cultures, 13, 13-39.
172
Bankston, C. L., & Zhou, M. (2002b). Social capital as process: The meanings
and problems of a theoretical metaphor. Sociological Inquiry, 72(2),
285-317.
Bian, Y. (1994). Guanxi and the Allocation of Jobs in Urban China. The China
Quarterly, 140, 971-999.
Bian, Y. (1997). Bringing strong ties back in: Indirect ties, network bridges, and
job searches in China. American Sociological Review, 62(3), 366-385.
Bian, Y. (2002a). Chinese social stratification and social mobility. Annual Review
of Sociology, 28, 91-116.
Bian, Y. (2002b). Institutional holes and job mobility processes: guanxi
mechanisms in China's emergent labor markets. In T. Gold, D. Guthrie &
D. Wank (Eds.), Social connections in China: institutions, culture, and the
Changing nature of guanxi (pp. 117-136). Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Bian, Y. (2009). Nepotism and Guanxi. In D. Pong (Ed.), Encyclopedia of
Modern China (pp. 26-28). Detroit, MI: Charles Scribner's Sons.
Bian, Y., Li, L., & Cai, H. (2004). "Shehui diaocha shijian: Zhongguo jing yan ji
fenxi" (Social survey research in practice : Chinese experience and
analysis). Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.
Bian, Y., & Logan, J. R. (1996). Market transition and the persistence of power:
the changing stratification system in urban China. American Sociological
Review, 61(5), 739-758.
Bian, Y., Tu, Z., & Shu, Y. (2001). Survey Research in Chinese Societies. Hong
Kong Oxford University Press.
Bouffard, S., & Weiss, H. (2008). Thinking big: A new framework for family
involvement policy, practice, and research. The evaluation exchange,
14(1&2), 2-5.
Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: A social critique of the judgement of taste. Mass:
Harvard University Press.
Bourdieu, P. (1986). The Forms of Capital. In J.E.Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of
Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education (pp. 241258). New
York: Greenwood Press.
Bourdieu, P. (1988). Homo academicus. Cambridge Polity Press.
Bourdieu, P. (1990a). The logic of practice. Cambridge: Polity Press.
173
Bourdieu, P. (1990b). Reproduction. London: Sage.

Buchmann, C. (2002). Getting ahead in Kenya: Social capital, shadow education,
and achievement. Research in Sociology of Education, 13, 135-161.
Burt, R. S. (1992). Structural Holes. Cambridge, MA, and London, England:
Harvard University Press.
Cai, F., Wang, D., & Du, Y. (2008). "Zhongguo nongcun gaige yu bianqian:
sanshi nian licheng he jingyan fenxi"(Reform and changes in China's rural
society: historical courses and experiencesn in the past 30 years).
Shanghai: Gezhi Press.
Cassell, J. (2001). The relationship of observer to observed when studying up. In
A. Bryman (Ed.), Ethnography (pp. 208-205). London. Thousand Oaks.
New Delhi: SAGE Publications.
Chan, A. (2009). Paying the Price for Economic Development: The Children of
Migrant Workers in China. Hong Kong: China Labour Bulletin.
Chen, X. Y., & Min, W. F. (1999). "Chengben buchang dui gaodengjiaoyu
jihuiqundeng de yingxiang" (The influnence of cost-recovery on equality
of higher education equality). Jiaoyu Yu Jingji (Education and
Economics)(3), 1-6.
Chen, Y. (2006). Uyghur students in a Chinese boarding school: social
recapitalization as a response to ethnic integration. Unpublished PhD
thesis, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Cheng, K. (2000). Understanding basic education policies in China: an
ethnographic approach. In J. Liu, H. A. Ross & D. P. Kelly (Eds.), The
ethnographic eye: interpretive studies of education in China (pp. 29-50).
New York: Falmer Press.
Cheng, K. (2007). Qualitative Research and Education Policy-Making.
Unpublished Book. The University of Hong Kong.
Clough, P., & Nutbrown, C. (2007). A student's guide to methodology : justifying
enquiry (2nd ed.). Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
Coleman, J. S. (1988). Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital. The
American Journal of Sociology, 94(Supplement), 95-120.
Coleman, J. S. (1990). Foundations of social theory. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press.
174
Coleman, J. S., Hoffer, T., & Kilgore, S. (1981). Secondary school achievement:
Public, Catholic, and other private schools compared. Harvard
Educational Review, 51(526545).
Connell, R. W., Ashenden, D. J., Kessler, S., & Dowsett, G. W. (1982). Making
the difference: Schools, families and social division. Sydney: George
Allen and Unwin.
Creswell, J. W. (2007). Qualitative inquiry & research design: Choosing among
five approaches. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Crozier, G. (1999). Is it a case of "We know when we're not wanted"? The
parents' perspective on parent-teacher roles and relationships. Educational
Research, 41(3), 315-328.
China Youth League Hannan. (2006). "Hunan nongcun liushou ertong wenti
diaocha baogao" (A report on the rural left behind children in Hunan).
Unpublished research report. China Youth league Hunan.
Davis, D., & Wang, F. (2009). Poverty and wealth in postsocialist China: an
overview. In D. Deborah & F. Wang (Eds.), Creating wealth and poverty
in postsocialist China (pp. 3-19). California: Stanford University Press.
Debrauw, A., & Rozelle, S. (2007). Returns to education in rural China In E.
Hannum & A. Park (Eds.), Education and reform in China (pp. 207223).
LondonNew York Routledge.
Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (2000). Handbook of qualitative research (2nd
ed.). Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.
Desforges, C., & Abouchaar, A. (2003). The impact of parental involvement,
parental support and family education on pupil achievement and
adjustment A review of literature. Nottingham: Queens Printer.
Dika, S. L., & Singh, K. (2002). Applications of social capital in educational
literature: A critical synthesis. Review of educational research, 72(1),
31-60.
Dong, H., & Xiao, S. (2011). "Woguo gaodeng jiaoyu mao ruxuelve yida bairen
zhi ershi liu dian wu" (The Gross Enrollment Rate of China' Higher
Education Reached 26.5%). Renmin Ribao (The People Daily), p. 4.
Dornbusch, S. M., & Glasgow, K. L. (1996). The structural context of
family-school relations. In A. Booth & J. F. Dunn (Eds.), Family-school
175
links: How do they affect educational outcomes (pp. 35-44). England:

Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Downey, D. B. (1995). When bigger is not better: Family size, parental resources,
and children's educational performance. American Sociological Review,
60(5), 746-761.
Du, R. (2010). The course of China's rural reform. Washington, DC.:
International Food Policy Research Institute
Duan, X. R. (2003). Chinese higher education enters a new era. Academe, 89(6),
22-27.
Durkheim, E. (2007). On education and society In A. R. Sadovnik (Ed.),
Sociology of education: a critical reader (pp. 23-36). New York:
Routledge.
Emerson, R. M., Fretz, R. I., & Shaw, L. L. (1995). Writing Ethnographic
Fieldnotes. Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press.
Epstein, J. L. (2001). School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Preparing
Educators and Improving Schools. Boulder: Westview Press.
Evans, W. N., & Schwab, R. M. (1995). Finishing secondary school and starting
college: Do Catholic schools make a difference? The Quarterly Journal of
Economics, 110(4), 941.
Everhart, R. B. (2001). Between stranger and friend: some consequences of "long
term" fieldwork in schools. In A. Bryman (Ed.), Ethnography (pp.
173-188). London. Thousand Oaks. New Delhi: SAGE Publications.
Fan, X. (2006). "Min'gong zidi xuexiao cunzai de wenti ji duice" (migrant
children's schools: problems and its solutions). Journal of Educational
Development(1), 17-19.
Farr, J. (2004). Social capital: A conceptual history. Political Theory, 32(1), 6-33.
Fei, X. From the soil, the foundations of Chinese society: a translation of Fei
Xiaotong's Xiangtu Zhongguo, with an introduction and epilogue. Berkley:
University of California Press.
Feldman, M. S., Bell, J., & Berger, M. T. (2003). Gaining access : a practical and
theoretical guide for qualitative researchers. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira
Press.
Feng, Y. (2008). "Woguo muqian liudong renkou zinv yiwu jiaoyu de xianzhuang,
wenti yu duice" (The current situation, problems and solutions to the
176
compulsory education of migrant children). Unpublished MPhil Thesis,

Beijing Normal University, Beijing
Fetterman, D. M. (2000). Ethnography: step by step. Thousand Oaks, Londdon,
New Delhi: SAGE Publications.
Field, J. (2003). Social capital. London ; New York: Routledge.
Freilich, M. (1977). Marginal natives at work: Anthropologists in the field.
Cambridge, Mass. and New York: Schenkman Pub. Co.
Fukuyama, F. (1995). Trust: The social virtues and the creation of prosperity:
Free Pr.
Fuller, B. (1999). The Influence of Family Economy, Social Demands, and
Ethnicity in South Africa Critical perspectives on schooling and fertility in
the developing world (pp. 181).
Furstenberg, F. F., & Hughes, M. E. (1995). Social capital and successful
development among at-risk youth. Journal of Marriage and Family, 57(3),
580-592.
Gao, F. (2008). What it means to be a "model minority?" : schooling experiences
of ethnic Korean students in Northeast China. Unpublished PhD thesis,
the University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
Garnaut, R., & Guonan, M. (1996). China's grain demand: recent experience and
prospects to the year 2000. In R. Garnaut, G. Shutian & M. Guonan (Eds.),
The third revolution in the Chinese countryside (pp. 38-62). Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Gold, T., Guthrie, D., & Wank, D. (2002). Social connections in China:
institutions, culture, and the changing nature of Guanxi. Cambridge, UK:
Gomes, M. (1984). Family size and educational attainment in Kenya. Population
and Development Review, 10(4), 647-660.
Goodson, I. F., & Sikes, P. (2001). Life history research in educational settings:
Learning from lives. Buckingham; Phildelphia Open University Press.
Goyette, K. A., & Conchas, G. Q. (2002). Family and non-family roots of social
capital among Vietnamese and Mexican American children. In B. Fuller &
E. Hannum (Eds.), Schooling and social capital in diverse cultures (pp.
41-72). New York: Elsevier.
177
Graaf, N. D. D., Graaf, P. M. D., & Kraaykamp, G. (2000). Parental Cultural

Capital and Educational Attainment in the Netherlands: A Refinement of
the Cultural Capital Perspective. Sociology of Education, 73(2), 92-111.
Graaf, P. M. D. (1986). The Impact of Financial and Cultural Resources on
Educational Attainment in the Netherlands. Sociology of Education, 59(4),
237-246.
Granovetter, M. (1973). The strength of weak ties. American Journal of Sociology,
78(6), 1360-1380.
Guthrie, D. (1998). The Declining Significance of Guanxi in China's Economic
Transition. The China Quarterly, 154, 254-282.
Halpern, D. (2005). Social capital. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Hammersley, M. (2004). Reading ethnographic research : a critical guide. New
York: Longman.
Han,
X.
(2002).Anqing
Economic
statistical
yearbook
(Anqingjingjitongjinianjian). Beijing: Chinese Bureau of Statistics

(Zhongguotongjiju).
Hannum, E. (1999). Political change and the urban-rural gap in basic education in
China, 1949-1990. Comparative Education Review, 43(2), 193-211.
Hannum, E., Park, A., & Cheng, K. (2007). Introduction: market reforms and
educational opportunity in China. In E. Hannum & A. Park (Eds.),
Education and reform in China (pp. 1-24). London, New York: Routledge.
Hayhoe, R. (1992). Education and modernization. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
He, Z., & Dong, N. (2007). "Woguo dishouru qunti gaodengjiaoyu xiaofei
xiangzhuang fenxi" (An ana lysis on higher education consumption of the
low-income group). zhejiang gongye daxue xuebao (shehuikexueban)
(Journal of Zhejiang University of Technology) (social science version),
6(2), 160-164.
Hermalin, A. I., Seltzer, J. A., & Lin, C. H. (1982). Transitions in the effect of
family size on female educational attainment: The case of Taiwan.
Comparative Education Review, 26(2), 254-270.
Herrnstein, R. J., & Murray, C. A. (1996). The bell curve: Intelligence and class
structure in American life. New York: Free Press.
Hong, Y., & Qian, M. (2008). "Zhongguo shehui fengceng yu jiaoyu gongping:
yige wenxian zongshu" (Social stratification and educational equality in
178
China: a critic review). "Zhongguo nongye daxue xuebao" (China

Agricultural University Journal of Social Sciences Edition), 25(4), 64-76.
Hoover-Dempsey, K., & Sander, H. (1995). Parental involvement in children's
education: Why does it make a difference. The Teachers College Record,
97(2), 310-331.
Hsing, Y. (1996). Blood, thicker than water: interpersonal relations and
Taiwanese investment in southern China. Enviornment and Planning, 28,
2241-2261.
Huang, F. (2005). Qualitative enhancement and quantitative growth: Changes and
trends of China's higher education. Higher Education Policy, 18(2),
117-130.
Hu, Z. (2007). Gazetteers of Zongyang County (Zongyang xianzhi) (1978-2002).
Huangshan: Huangshan Press (huangshan shushe).
Israel, G. D., Beaulieu, L. J., & Hartless, G. (2001). The Influence of Family and
Community Social Capital on Educational Achievement. Rural Sociology,
66(1), 43-68.
Jeffries, I. (2006). China: a guide to ecnomic and political developments. London
and New York: Routledge.
Jiang, G. (2007). "Dangqian woguo gaodengjiaoyu ruxue jihui de chengxiang
chayi: jiyu dui jiangxi, tianjin gaoxiao de shizheng diaocha fenxi" (The
urban and rural gap in college access: a empirical study in HEIs in Jiangxi
and Tianjin). Xiandai daxue jiaoyu (Modern university education)(6),
57-62.
Jiang, Y. (2003). Family environment and academic achievement in Nanjing
secondary schools. Unpublished PhD thesis, The University of Hong
Kong, Hong Kong.
Kim, S. S. (2007). Academic achievement of second generation Filipino and
Korean Americans: A look at immigrant families and communities.
University of California, Los Angeles.
Kipnis,A. B. (1997). Producing Guanxi: Sentiment, Self, and Subculture in a
North China Village: Duke University Press.
Kipnis, A. B. (2011). Governing educational desire: culture, politics, and
schooling in China. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
179
Kong, P. A. (2008). Old man moves a mountain: rural parents' involvement in

their children's schooling. Unpublished Doctor of Education thesis,
Harvard University, 2008.
Lareau, A. (1987). Social class differences in family-school relationships: The
importance of cultural capital. Sociology of Education, 60(2), 73-85.
Lareau, A. (2000). Home advantage: Social class and parental intervention in
elementary education. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publisher.
Lareau, A. (2001). Linking Bourdieu's concept of capital to the broader field: the
case of family-school relationships. In B. J. Biddle (Ed.), Social Class,
Poverty and Education: Policy and Practice New York; London:
RoutledgeFalmer.
Lee, S. A. (1993). Family Structure Effects on Student Outcomes. In B. S. J. S.
Coleman (Ed.), Parents, Their Children and Schools (pp. 43-76). Boulder:
Westview Press.
Lei, Y. (2004). "dushi xiao cunming yan zhong de dashijie: chengshi liudong
renkou zinv shehui renzhi de diaocha yanjiu". Educational Science
Research(6), 27-31.
Li, C. (2003). Institutional Changes and The Mechanisms of Educational
Inequality: Children's Education Attainment in Urban Areas (1966-2003)
(zhidu bianqian yu jiaoyu bupingdeng de chansheng jizhi: zhongguo
chengshi zinv de jiaoyu huode). Chinese Social Socience (zhongguo
shehui keuxe), 4(97-109).
Li, C. (2006). Sociopolitical Change and Inequality in Educational Opportunity:
Impact of Family Background and Institutional Factors on Educational
Attainment (1940-2001). Chinese Sociology & Anthropology, 38(4), 6 - 36
Li, C. (2010). Gaodeng jiaoyu kuozhang yu jiaoyu jihui bu pingdeng (The
expansion of higher education system and the inequality in higher
education opportunities). Shehui xue yanjiu (Research in sociology)(3),
1-34.
Li, L. (2004). "Jiazhang canyu ji qi yu xuesheng xuexi dongji xueye chengjiu de
guanxi yanjiu " (A study on the relationship between parental invovlement
and
students'
learning
motivation
and
academic
performance).
Unpublished MPhil thesis, Shandong Normal University, Yan tai.
180
Li, W. (2003). China's Strategies in Economic Development and The Equality in

College Access (Zhongguo jingji fazhan zhanlue yu zhongguo gaodeng
jiaoyu ruxue jihui de gongping) In H. Liu (Ed.), Equality and Effectiveness:
Higher Education Reforms and Development in 21st Centuary (Gongping
yu xiaolv) (pp. 425). Fuzhou: Fujian Education Press (Fujian jiaoyu
chubanshe).
Li,W.(2004).
Zhongguo
gaodeng
jiaoyu
jingfei
laiyuan
duoyanghua
fenxi(Analysis on multiple sources of Chinese higher education financing).

Economics of Educatin Research (Beida), 2(3), 1-14.
Li, W., Park, A., Wang, S., & Jin, L. (2007). School equity in rural China. In E.
Hannum & A. Park (Eds.), Education and Reform in China. London; New
York: Routledge.
Li, X. (2004). "Nongcun liushou ertong diaocha yu sikao" (A study and some
thoughts on rural left behind Children). "Zhongguo fuyun" (China women
movement)(10), 35-37.
Li, Y. (2006). "Zhidu bianqian yu jiaoyu bupingdeng de chansheng jizhi:
zhongguo chengshi zinv de jiaoyu huode " ("Institutional changes and the
mechanisms of educational inequality: children's education attainment in
urban areas (1966-2003)"). Zhongguo shehui kexue (Chinese Social
Socience)(4), 97-109.
Liang, S. (2005). "Zhongguo wenhua yaoyi" (Key Elements in Chinese Cultures).
Shanghai: Shanghai shiji chuban jituan (Shanghai Centuray Press Group ).
Liang, W. (2010). "Liushou dui xibu nongcun ertong xueye fazhan de yingxiang:
jiyu qiangxiang fenshu peidui moxing de guji" (The Impact of"Left
behind"to Children's Academic Development in Western Rural of
China:An Evaluation from Propensity Score Matching Method).
Education Science, 26(5), 43-50.
Lightfoot, S. L. (1978). Worlds apart: Relationships between families and schools.
New York: Basic Books.
Lin, J. Y. (1992). Rural reforms and agricultural growth in China. The American
Economic Review, 82(1), 34-51.
Lin, N. (1995). Local market socialism: local corporatism in action in rural China.
Theory and Society(24), 301-354.
181
Lin, N. (2000). Inequality in social capital. Contemporary Sociology, 29(6),

785-795.
Lin, N. (2002). Social capital: A theory of social structure and action. New York:
Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Beverly Hills: Sage
Publications.
Liu, J. (2004). "Zhuanxing shiqin zhongguo shehuijiaoyu" (Chinese education in
transformation).
Shengyang:
Liaonin
jiaoyu
chubanshe
(Liaonin
educational press).
Liu, J. (2006). Expansion of Higher Education in China and Inequality in
Entrance Opportunities: 1978-2003. Society, 26, 158-179.
Liu, X. (2009). Institutional basis of social stratification in transitional China. In
D. Davis & F. Wang (Eds.), Creating wealth and poverty in postsocialist
China (pp. 85-96).
Liu, Y., & Zhang, F. (2007). "Woguo jumin gaodengjiaoyu zhifunengli ji xuefei
zhengce de shizheng yanjiu" ("An empirical study on Chinese residents'
ability to pay for the higher education and Chinese tuition fee-charging
policy "). Zhongguo ruankexue (Chinese soft science)(2), 14-20.
Lloyd, C. B., & Blanc, A. K. (1996). Children's schooling in sub-Saharan Africa:
the role of fathers, mothers, and others. Population and Development
Review, 22(2), 265-298.
Lopez, G. (2002). The effects of social capital for post-secondary education and
generation status on Mexican descent students' grade point average and
college plans: University of Chicago, Division of the Social Sciences.
Lou, J., & Ross, H. (2008). From fee to free: Achieving the right to education in
China. Chinese Education and Socieity, 41(1), 4-8.
Lu, S. (2005). "Dongguan shi liudong ertong baojian xianzhuang ji duice" (The
current healthcare conditions of migrant children in Dongguan and
measures to address them). Nanfang huli xuebao (Nanfang Journal of
Nursing), 12(7), 59-60.
Lu, X. (2002). A Report of The Social stratification in Current China (Dangdai
zhongguo shehui jieceng yanjiu baogao). Beijing: Social Sciences
Documentation Press (Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe).
182
Lu, X. (Ed.). (2004). Social Mobility in Contemporary China. Beijing: Social

Sciences Documentation Publishing House.
Lv, S. (2005). "Haizi zai laojia: liushou ertong shenghuo yu xingli de
shuangchong chongtu"(Left-behind children: social and psychological
conflicts). "Zhongguo fazhan yanjiu"(China Development Review)(9),
7-13.
Magolda, P. (2000). Being at the wrong place, wrong time: Rethinking trust in
qualitative inquiry. Theory into practice, 39(3), 138-145.
Majoribanks, K. (1991). Ethnicity, family environment and social-status
attainment: A follow-up analysis. Journal of Comparative Family Studies.
Maralani, V. (2004). Family size and educational attainment in Indonesia: a
cohort perspective.
Marilyn, L. (2006). Qualitative research in education: a user's guide. Thousand
Oaks: SAGE Publications.
Marjoribanks, K. (1989). Ethnicity, sibling, and family correlates of young adults'
status attainment: A follow-up study. Biodemography and Social Biology,
36(1), 23-31.
Marx, K., & Engels, F. (1967). The Communist Manifesto. London: Penguin.
Massey, D. S. (2003). The Source of the river : the social origins of freshmen at
America's selective colleges and universities. Princeton, N.J. : Princeton
University Press.
Max, W. (1991). Selections From Max Weber : essays in sociology (New ed. ed.).
London: Routledge.
Miles, M. B. (1984). Qualitative data analysis : a sourcebook of new methods.
Newbury Park: Sage.
Miller, S. M. (2001). The participant observer and "over-rapport". In A. Bryman
(Ed.), Ethnography (pp. 170-172). London. Thousand Oaks. New Delhi:
SAGE Publications.
Mok, K. H. (1999). Education and the market place in Hong Kong and Mainland
China. Higher Education, 37(2), 133-158.
Morgan, D. (1989). Strategies and Sociologists: A comment on crow. Sociology,
23(1), 25-29.
183
Muller, C., & Kerbow, D. (1993). Parental Involvement in the Home, School, and
Community. In B. Schneider & J. S. Coleman (Eds.), Parents, Their
Children and Schools (pp. 13-39). Boulder: Westview Press.
National Bureau of Statistics of China. (2009). China statistical yearbooks, 2009
Beijing: China Statistics Press.
National Bureau of Statistics of China. (2010). China statistical yearbooks,
2010Beijing: China Statistics Press.
National Bureau of Statistics of China.(2009). China rural statistical yearbooks,
2009. Beijing: China Statistics Press.
National Bureau of Statistics of China.(2010). China yearbook of rural household
survey, 2010. Beijing: China Statistics Press.
National Bureau of Statistics of China.(2002). "Population."Retrieved 4th, June,
2010, from
http://www.stats.gov.cn/english/indicators/currentsurveysindicators/t2002
0424_18324.htm.
Nechyba, T., McEwan, P., & Older-Aguilar, D. (1999). The impact of family and
community resources on student outcomes: An assessment of the
international literature with implications for New Zealand. Retrieved from
184
www.educationcounts.govt.nz/__.../The-Impact-of-Family-and-Communit
y-Resources.pdf
Nee, V. (1991). Social inequalities in reforming state socialism: between
redistribution and markets in China. American Sociological Review, 56(3),
267-282.
Nee, V. (1996). The emergence of a market society: Changing mechanisms of
stratification in China. The American Journal of Sociology, 101(4),
908-949.
Nyberg, A., & Rozelle, S. (1999). Accelerating China's Rural Transformation.
Washington, D.C.: The World Bank.
Ogbu, J. U. (1974). The next generation : an ethnography of education in an
urban neighborhood. New York: Academic Press.
Oi, J. (1989). State and peasant in contemporary China. Berkeley: University of
California Press.
Parish, W. L., Zhe, X., & Li, F. (1995). Nonfarm work and marketization of the
Chinese countryside. The China Quarterly, 143(1), 697-730.
Patrinos, H. A., & Psacharopoulos, G. (1997). Family size, schooling and child
labor in PeruCAn empirical analysis. Journal of Population Economics,
10(4), 387-405.
Paulson, S. E. (1994). Relations of parenting style and parental involvement with
ninth-grade students' achievement. The Journal of Early Adolescence,
14(2), 250.
Pepper, S. (1990). China's education reform in the 1980s: policies, issues, and
historical perspectives. Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies.
Pong, S. (1998). The school compositional effect of single parenthood on
10th-grade achievement. Sociology of Education, 71(1), 23-42.
Portes, A. (1998). Social Capital: Its Origins and Applications in Modern
Sociology. Annual Reviews in Sociology, 24(1), 1-24.
Postiglione, G. A. (2006). Education and social change in China : inequality in a
market economy. New York: M.E. Sharpe.
Postiglione, G. A., & Xie, A. (2009). Catering for the Market: China's Graduate
Employment Problem. Chinese Cross Current, 6(2), 80-87.
Primeau, L. A. (2003). Reflections on self in qualitative research: Stories of
family. The American journal of occupational therapy, 57(1), 9-13.
185
Putnam, R. D. (1993). Making democracy work: civic traditions in modern Italy.

Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Putnam, R. D. (1995). Bowling alone: America's declining social capital. Journal
of Democracy, 6(65-78).
Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American
Community. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Qiao, J. (2007). "Youzhi gaodeng jiaoyu ruxue jihuide quyu chayi"("The regional
gap of high quality higher educational opportunity"). Beijing shifan daxue
xuebao (shehui kexue ban)(Journal of Beijing Normal University)(Social
Science Version), 199(1), 23-28.
Research and Development Institute at Chinese Academy of Social Science..
(2007). Rural economy in China: analysis and forecast. Beijing: Social
Science Academy Press.
Research and Development Institute at Chinese Academy of Social Science.
Riordan, C. (1997). Equality and achievement: An introduction to the sociology of
education. New York: Longman.
Ross, H., & Lin, J. (2006).Social capital formation through Chinese school
communities.In E. Hannum& B. Fuller (Eds.), Children's lives and
schooling across societies (pp. 43-70). Oxford, U.K: Elsevier JAI.
Ru, X., Lu, X., & Li, P. (2008). Society of China: analysis and forecast.Beijing:
Social Science Academy Press.
186
Ryan, B. A., Adams, G. R., Gullotta, T. P., Weissberg, R. P., & Hampton, R. L.
(1995). The Family-school connection: theory, research, and practice.
Thousand Oaks:: SAGE Publications.
Sander, W. (1997). Catholic secondary schools and rural academic achievement.
American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 79(1), 1-12.
Schneider, B., & Coleman, J. S. (1993). Parents, Their Children, and Schools.
Boulder: Westview Press.
Schoon, I., & Parsons, S. (2002). Competence in the face of adversity: the
influence of early family environment and long\term consequences.
Children & society, 16(4), 260-272.
Sewell, W. H., & Shah, V. P. (1967). Socioeconomic status, intelligence, and the
attainment of higher education. Sociology of Education, 40(1), 1-23.
Sewell, W. H., & Shah, V. P. (1968a). Parents' education and children's
educational aspirations and achievements. American Sociological Review,
33(2), 191-209.
Sewell, W. H., & Shah, V. P. (1968b). Social class, parental encouragement, and
educational aspirations. The American Journal of Sociology, 73(5),
559-572.
Shavit, Y., & Pierce, J. L. (1991). Sibship size and educational attainment in
nuclear and extended families: Arabs and Jews in Israel. American
Sociological Review, 56(3), 321-330.
Sheldon, S. B., & Epstein, J. L. (2002). Improving student behavior and school
discipline with family and community involvement. Education and Urban
Society, 35(1), 4.
Sheldon, S. B., & Epstein, J. L. (2005). Involvement counts: Family and
community partnerships and mathematics achievement. The Journal of
Educational Research, 98(4), 196-207.
Singh, K., Bickley, P. G., Trivette, P., & Keith, T. Z. (1995). The effects of four
components of parental involvement on eighth-grade student achievement:
Structural analysis of NELS-88 data. School Psychology Review.
Smart, A., & Smart, J. (1998). Transnational social networks and negotiated
identities in interactions between Hong Kong and China. In M. P. Smith
187
&L. E. Guarnizo (Eds.), Transnationalism from below (pp. 103-129). New

Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.
Smith, M. H. (1992). Effects of Human Capital and Social Capital on Dropping
Out of Secondary school in the South. Journal of Research in Rural
Education, 8(1), 75-87.
Stanton-Salazar, R. D., & Dornbusch, S. M. (1995). Social capital and the
reproduction of inequality: Information networks among Mexican-origin
secondary school students. Sociology of Education, 68(2), 116-135.
Sui-Chu, E. H., & Willms, J. D. (1996). Effects of parental involvement on
eighth-grade achievement. Sociology of Education, 69(2), 126-141.
Sun, Y. (1999). The Contextual Effects of Community Social Capital on
Academic Performance. Social Science Research, 28(4), 403-426.
Suzanne, P. (1990). China's education reform in the 1980s: policies, issues, and
historical perspectives. Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies,
University of California at Berkeley, Center for Chinese Studies.
Szelenyi, I. (1978). Social Inequalities in State Socialist Redistributive Economies:
Dilemmas for Social Policy in Contemporag Socialist Societies of Eastern
Europe. International journal of comparative sociology, 19(1-2), 63.
Tan, S., & Wang, X. (2004). "Zhenle piaozi mowu haizi: waichu wugong
nongming jiating liushou ertong xuesheng de diaocha yu sikao" (A study
on the left-behind children). "Hubei jiaoyu" (Journal of education in
Hubei)(20), 11-12.
Tang, R. (1996). Grain marketing: from plan to market. In R. Garnaut, G. Shutian
& M. Guonan (Eds.), The third revolution in the Chinese countryside (pp.
89-99). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tao, X., & Wang, Z. (2010). Zhongguo minban jiaoyu fazhan baogao (Report on
the development of Chinese minban education). Shanghai: Shanghai
People's Press.
Teachman, J. D., Paasch, K., & Carver, K. (1996). Social capital and dropping out
of school early. Journal of Marriage and Family, 58(3), 773-783.
Teachman, J. D., Paasch, K., & Carver, K. (1997). Social capital and the
generation of human capital. Social Force, 75(4), 1343-1359.
Thgersen, S. (1990). Secondary education in China after Mao: reform and social
conflict. Aarhus: Aarhu University Press.
188
Thgersen, S. (2002). A county of culture: twentieth-century China seen from the

village schools of Zouping, Shandong. Ann Arbor University of Michigan
Press.
Trochim, W. M. K. (2001). Research methods knowledge base (2nd ed.).
Cincinnati, Ohio: Atomic Dog Publications.
Unger, J. (1982). Education under Mao: Class and competition in Canton schools,
1960-1980. New York: Columbia University Press.
Unger, J. (2002). The Transformation of Rural China. New York: An East Gate
Book.
Valenzuela, A., & Dornbusch, S. M. (1994). Familism and social capital in the
academic achievement of Mexican origin and Anglo adolescents. Social
Science Quarterly.
Walder, A. G. (1988). Communist neo-traditionalism: Work and authority in
Chinese industry. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Waldron, S., Brown, C., & Longworth, J. (2003). Rural development in China:
insights from the beef industry. Burlington: Ashgate Pubishing Limited.
Wang, W., & Xie, Z. (2006). Research into The Higher Education Opportunities
of Different Social Classes in China (Zhongguo butong shehui jieceng
zinv gaodeng jiaoyu ruxue jihui chayi yanjiu). Higher Education Research
(Gaodeng Jiaoyu yanjiu), 27(10), 35.
Wang, X. (1999). "Nvxing gaodengjiaoyu ruxuejihui: wenti, yuanyin ji
duice"( Higher education opportunity for female: problem, reasons and
coping strategies). Jimei daxue xuebao (zhexue shehuikexue ban) Journal
of Jimei University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Editions ), 2(1),
65-69.
Wang, X. (2005a). "Guangdong gaodeng jiaoyu ruxue jihui yanjiu-dui guangdong
jisuo gaoxiao de diaocha"(A Study on The Higher Education Opportunity
in Guangdong: Survey in Several Higher Education Institutions in
Guangdong) Gaojiao tansuo (Exploration in Higher Education)(3), 11-13.
Wank, D. L. (1995). Bureaucratic patronage and private business: changing
networks of power in urban China. Berkeley: Unversity of California
Press.
Wei, H. (2004). Woguo chengxiang gaodengjiaoyu jihui jundeng de shizheng
yanjiu(A empirical study on the college access gap between urban and
189
rural China). Unpublished MPhil thesis, Beijing Normal University,

Beijing.
Wei, H., & Yang, Y. (2004). "Woguo chengxiang gaodengjiaoyujihui jundeng de
shengzhengyanjiu" ("A empirical study on the higher education
opportunity equality between urban and rural residents"). Bijiao jiaoyu
yanjiu (Comparative education research), 25(8), 96-96.
Wei, L. (2009). Retrospect and prospect of China's thirty-year reform of ecnomic
system. Beijing: People's Publishing House.
Wolcott, H. F. (2007). Ethnograpy: a way of seeing. New York: Altamira Press.
Woolcock, M. (1998). Social capital and economic development: toward a
theoretical synthesis and policy framework. Theory and Society, 27,
151-208.
Woolcock, M. (2001). The place of social capital in understanding social and
economic outcomes. Canadian Journal of Policy Research, 2(1), 11-17.
Wu, M. (2009). "K shi gongban zhongxue nongming gong zinv xueye xianzhuang
diaocha "(A survey of the academic performance of the migrant children
in publich schools of K city). Unpublished MPhil thesis, East China
Normal University, Shanghai
Xie, W. (2000). Gaodeng jiaoyu gongping de diaocha yu yanjiu baogao (Survey
and report on higher education equity). In M. Zeng (Ed.), Jiaoyu zhengce
de jingji xue fenxi (An Analysis of Educational Policy in The Pespective of
Economics ) (pp. 257-269). Beijing: Renmin Jiaoyu Chuban she.
Xie, Z., & Luo, Q. (2004). "Ming,xiang,chuan sansheng shehuijieceng
gaodengjiaoyu jihui chayi de chubu diaocha" ("A primary survey on the
higher education opportunity gap in Fujian, Hunan and Sichuan"). Jiaoyu
Yu Jingji (Education and Economics)(3), 3-6.
Xie, Z., Wang, W., & Chen, X. (2008). Woguo nvxing gaodeng jiaoyu ruxue
jihui de chengxiang chayi yanjiu(Research on the Difference between
Urban and Rural Areas for Female s Opportunity of Higher Education in
ChinaBased on the Analysis of Different Types of Universitie).
Journal of China University of Geosciences (Social Sciences Edition), 8(6),
7882.
190
Yan, Q., & White, G. (1994). The "marketisation" of Chinese higher education: a
critical assessment. Comparative education, 30(3), 217-237.
Yang, D. (2006a). The development report of China's education, 2006. Beijing:
Social Sciences Academic Press.
Yang, D. (2006b). "Gaodeng jiaoyu ruxue jihui: kuoda zhong de jieceng chayu"
(Access to Higher Education : Widening Social Class Disparitie). Qinghua
jiaoyu yanjiu ( Tsinghua journal of education), 27(1), 19-25.
Yang, D. (2006c). "Zhongguo jiaoyu gongping de lixiang yu xianshi" ("Ideal and
Reality of Educational Equality in China"). Beijing: Beijing daxue
chubanshe (Peking University Press).
Yang, D. (2008). Report on Development of Education in China. Beijing: Social
Sciences Academic Press.
Yang, D. (2009). Report on Development of Education in China. Beijing: Social
Sciences Academic Press.
Yang, D. (2010). Annual report on China's education. Beijing: Social Science
Academic Press.
Yao, X., Huang, Z., & Lu, Y. (2006). "Jiatingbeijing yu zinv gaodengjiaoyu de
guanxi"
("Family
backgrounds
and
children's
higher
education
opportunity"). Shanxi caijing daxue xuebao (gaodengjiaoyu ban) (Journal

of ShanXi Finance and Economics University )(higher education
edition)(1), 5-10.
Yi, L. (2008). Cultural exclusion in China: state education, social mobility and
cultural difference. New York: Taylor & Francis.
Yuan, Z. (1999). "Lun Zhongguo jiao yu zheng ce de zhuan bian : dui wo guo
zhong dian zhong xue ping deng yu xiao yi de ge an yan jiu" (On changes
of Chinese educational policy : a case study on the relationship between
equality and benefit in key middle schools). Guangzhou: Guangdong jiao
yu chu ban shen (Guangdong People Education Press).
Zeng, S., & Li, Q. (2007). "Liudong ertong shehui shiying de yanjiu: xianzhuang,
wenti ji jiejue banfa" (A study on Migrant Children's social adaptation:
current situation, problems and solutions). Psychological Science, 30(6),
1426-1428.
191
Zhang, D. (2008). "Zhongguo juming shouru fenpei niandu baogao" (Annual

report of Chinese's residents' distribution of incomes). Beijing: Economic
Science Press.
Zhao, S. (2000). "Bianyuan hua de jichu jiaoyu: beijing wailai renkou zidi
xuexiao de chubu diaocha"(the basic education on the edge: a study of the
migrant children's schools in Beijing). Management world(5), 70-78.
Zhao, W., & Zhou, X. (2007). Returns to education in urban China's transitional
economy : reassessment and reconceptualization. In E. Hannum & A. Park.
(Eds.), Education and reform in China / edited by (pp. 224-247). London ;
New York Routledge.
Zhao, Y. (2000). "Jiating beijing dui gaodengjiaoyu ruxuejihui de yingxiang"
("The influence of family backgrounds on higher education opportunity").
Qingnian yanjiu (Youth study)(3), 30-36.
Zhao, Z. (2007). Am I privileged? : minority Mongol students and cultural
recognition in Chinese universities. Unpublished PhD thesis, the
University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
Zhong, Y., & Lu, G. (2003). "Gaodengjiaoyu chengben huishou dui gongping de
yingxiang" (The Equity Effects of Cost-Recovery in Higher Education).
Peking University Education Review, 1(2), 52-64.
Zhou, M. (1995). Chinatown: The socioeconomic potential of an urban enclave:
Temple Univ Pr.
Zhou, M., & Bankston, C. L. (1994). Social capital and the adaptation of the
second generation: The case of Vietnamese youth in New Orleans.
International Migration Review, 28(4), 821-845.
Zhou, M., & Kim, S. (2006). Community forces, social capital, and educational
achievement: The case of supplementary education in the Chinese and
Korean immigrant communities. Harvard Educational Review, 76(1),
1-29.
Zhou, X. (2004). The state and life chances in urban China: redistribution and
stratification, 1949-1994. Cambridge, UK ; New York Cambridge
University Press.
Zhou, X. G. (2004). The state and life chances in urban China : redistribution
and stratification, 1949-1994. Cambridge, UK ; New York: Cambridge
Univerity Press.
192
Zhou, Y. (2009). "Zhongguo nongcun shouru fenpei chaju, pingkun yu laodongli

feinong jiuye wenti yanjiu" (Income inequality, poverty and labors'
non-farm employment in China' rural areas). Beijing: Ecnomic Science
Press.
Zhou, Z., Sun, X., Liu, Y., & Zhou, D. (2005). "Nongcun liushou ertong xinli
fazhan yu jiaoyu wenti" (Psychological Development and Education
Problems of Children Lef t in Rural Areas). "Beijing shifan daxue xuebao"
(Journal of Beijing Normal University), 187(1), 71-79.
Zhu, Y. (2004). The blue book of Chinese education. Beijing: Higher Education
Press.
Zhu, Z. (2007). State schooling and ethnic identity : the politics of a Tibetan Neidi
secondary school in China. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
193

Full Text

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Full Text

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Title

Guanxi exclusion in rural China: parental involvement and

The author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights)

GUANXI EXCLUSION IN RURAL CHINA:

A thesis submitted for the Degree of

ABSTRACT OF THESIS ENTITLED

This study examines the differential patterns of access to higher education of

GUANXI EXCLUSION IN RURAL CHINA:

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

4.1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 71

CHAPTER SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION...................................................................................... 147

CHAPTER SEVEN ..................................................................................................................... 151

INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 162

Academic Performance Notice

Chinese Communist Party

Plan Enrolled Students

Out of Plan Enrolled Students

School Chosen Students

Rural Development Institute of Chinese

Township and Village Enterprises

Number of students in million

Figure 1.1: The expansion of Chinese higher education system

Sources: National Bureau of Statistics of China. (2009). China statistical yearbooks,

providers. Minbangaoxiao () also gained momentous development in

Therefore, there is a need to consider the impact of market forces on equality of in

Urban and rural, east and west, ethnicity community,

The first type of research looks at those characteristics of groups and

Source: Wei, H. (2004). Woguo chengxiang gaodengjiaoyu jihui jundeng de shizheng

from professional backgrounds (Zhuanye jishu renyuan ) and a

Gender is also an important factor in differentiating higher education

1.3 Rationale of this study

1.4 Research problem

How do rural parents from different social categories involve

1.5 The definition of terms

1.6 The significance of this study

1.7 Structure of the dissertation

2.2 Market transition, Rural Society and Its Transformation

"rural labor involved in

Sources: National Bureau of Statistics of China. (2009). China statistical yearbooks,

total net income

Sources: National Bureau of Statistics of China. (2009). China rural statistical

In spite of rapid economic growth and continual accumulation of wealth, poverty

Figure 2.3: Gini coefficient in rural China

Source: Zhang, D. (2008). "Zhongguojumingshourufenpeiniandubaogao, 2008" (Annual

Figure 2.4: Inequality of incomes in rural China

Source: Zhang, D. (2008). "Zhongguojumingshourufenpeiniandubaogao, 2008" (Annual

Sources: National Bureau of Statistics of China. (2010). China yearbook of rural

2.3 Rural Schooling and children in the Transitional Era

large-scale immigration of rural residents to urban areas and the a substantial

primary schools in cities and

rural primary schools

Sources: National Bureau of Statistics of China. (2009). China rural statistical

junior secondary schools in

rural junior secondary

Sources: National Bureau of Statistics of China. (2009). China rural statistical

the number of rural senior

the number of rural junior

the number of rural primary

Sources: National Bureau of Statistics of China. (2009). China rural statistical

Figure 2.9: The number of students enrolled in rural primary, junior

number of students enrolled

number of students enrolled

number of students enrolled