School of migrant children, an ethnography in an unregistered migrant school in Beijing

Abstract

This thesis discusses about the challenge of education for migrant children in the rapidly urbanized Chinese society. An ethnographic research was conducted in one of the unregistered migrant schools in Beijing. Through a triangulation of research methods of participatory observation, semi-structured and life history interview, as well as photography, the research, from emic perspectives, analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of the migrant schools in education provision to migrant children, understands the gaps between policy commitments and on-the-ground delivery of public education provision, and raises a few policy recommendations of developing the migrant schools and improving education provision to migrant children.

The findings suggest that the migrant schools have played an important role in meeting the unfulfilled demand for education for migrant children in cities. However, the pursuit of short-term profits compromise education quality of such schools, the problem of inequality of quality becomes significant when the migrant schools function to reduce inequality of opportunity. In addition, the findings show that the relationships between the migrant schools and local governments are of critical importance for school development. Based on the research, I would propose that the emerging public-private partnerships in education service provision can be an effective way to diversify and expand service provision channel and benefit the school, the state and migrant children.