Research On Spatial Inequities In Basic Education And The Planning Approach Of Educational Spaces Of Beijing

Due to the unbalanced and inadequate development of basic education,taking Beijing as an example,it is common to see the uneven distribution of schooling demand,cross-district commuting to schools and socio-spatial differentiation of education today in Chinese megacities,raising challenges to the traditional thinking of educational facilities planning.With a synthesis of the theories on spatial allocation of educational resources,the evaluation methods of spatial equity and the planning practices regarding to educational spaces,this dissertation points out the essence of contradictions between educational equity and efficiency from the view of spatial planning,as well as the necessity and feasibility for the spatial planning system to make interventions on schooling problems in a logical way.Based on the case studies of schooling pattern on three scales in Beijing and the reflections on the schooling policies in the US and Japan,the dissertation is concluded with a systematic approach to plan basic educational spaces and the corresponding policy strategies for Beijing Municipality.Planning of educational spaces is concerned with allocating educational resources among jurisdictions and functional units in the sense of container space and(re)organizing educational systems in the sense of continuous space,which is not limited to educational facilities planning.According to supply-side theories,planning work involves coordinating the configuration relationships between central and local governments and that between government and market at macro level,as well as multiagent interest relationships at micro level.According to demand-side theories,planning work should reconcile the inevitable contradictions between the normative goals of educational scale merits,schooling nearby and social diversity in schools and communities.Facilitated by evaluation techniques of spatial equity on different scales,a planning approach with accompanying policies should be established to form balanced,convenient and inclusive schooling clusters in metropolitan areas.In terms of evaluating spatial equity in basic education,the dissertation compiles sets of methods from related studies in the fields of public finance,public management,social geography and operational research,and summarizes the application characteristics of them in categories.On this basis,the differences of basic educational resources obtained by different locational groups on the three scales of Beijing Municipality,Xicheng District and Tongzhou New Town have been defined and described as the empirical evaluation part.For the regional scale,the "center to edge" socio-spatial differentiation with the distribution of primary and secondary school services was extracted through factor analysis and correlation analyses between the service indexes and the principal factors at the sub-district level.For the inner city part,through the combination of quantitative and qualitative researches,the mechanism of pupil distribution and the socio-spatial characteristics of three kinds of school catchments were revealed,namely the "hukou and culture" differentiation of educational space.For the suburban part,through a questionnaire survey and GIS modeling,the research uncovered the factual schooling pattern and pointed out the "income and location" differentiation of educational space through simulating the distribution of schooling opportunities by employing different accessibility models.Thus the dimensions for describing spatial equity in basic education for Beijing area in transition have been concluded,indicating the importance of school policy planning other than physical planning.As for the planning approach of educational space,this dissertation summarizes the equity paradigm evolution of school planning practices,as well as the school district system and schooling policy experiences in the US and Japan,which prevailing paradigm of educational equity is different.Combined with our national conditions,a working path with educational spatial equity evaluations embedded in the existing urban planning system at different levels has been put forward,leading to the decisions on educational jurisdiction adjustment and schooling policies design.The supporting strategies on building data platforms and transforming planner roles have also been offered.Finally,based on Beijing's characteristics,this dissertation envisaged a spatial planning system in basic education with supporting policies taking school district building as the core.