Chinese Education, Urban-rural Differences

The urban-rural difference in China is a both old and new issue. Although the society has developed fast in recent years, little improvement has been made in reducing the difference. This has brought about a series of social problems, and also hampered the modernization of the country. In the field of education, the issue is also very conspicuous and as suggested in this study, it constitutes the main reason to cause the difference in a hidden, cultural reproduction form.The theory of cultural reproduction has been used as a very important theory to explain social inequalities by many foreign scholars. Among them Pierre Bourdieu is the most famous one. After Bourdieu, a lot of scholars studied social inequalities in their countries using the theory of cultural reproduction. In China, however, there is little introduction on it, neither theoretical nor practical.In this book, based on the theory of cultural reproduction, the urban-rural difference in education in China is examined. Relevant problems are explored in a structured way in order to reconsider common sense in present theories and practices of education in China, in both macro and micro scopes.The methods used in this study include mainly content analysis, govern-...