Policy making and remaking in education policy change : an analysis of policies on the admission of zexiao students by senior secondary schools in Beijing, China

Abstract

Abstract of thesis entitled Policy Making and Remaking in Education Policy Change: an Analysis of Policies on the Admission of Zexiao Students by Senior Secondary Schools in Beijing, China submitted by XIAO Chong for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at The University of Hong Kong in August 2016

With reference to the making and remaking of policies on the admission of zexiao students to senior secondary schools (SSSs) in Beijing, People’s Republic of China (PRC), this qualitative empirical study explores the complexities and dynamics of the interactions among the central government, local governments and schools in regards to education policy change. In this study, zexiao refers to public SSSs’ admission of students whose academic performance fails to reach minimum admission requirements, subject to their paying fees in addition to standard tuition. It examines, at the organizational level and in different stages of education policy change, how involved policy actors’ interests, considerations, and capabilities determined how they made, interpreted, implemented, or remade relevant policies, leading to policy change on various scales. Data were collected from document analysis and semi-structured interviews, conducted in 2014, with 17 school principals/vice principals from 17 public SSSs and 13 educational officials from the central, Beijing municipal, and district governments. Regarding the admission of zexiao students, this study finds, firstly, that when central and local governments are incapable of solving certain issues, relevant responsibilities and authority are decentralized to lower level actors, together with increased flexibility (derived from deliberately given autonomy and/or leeway arising from loopholes) in policy interpretation and/or implementation. In such a situation, public actors cooperate with the end beneficiaries to resolve their common issues. Secondly, by utilizing any form of said flexibility, lower level policy actors manipulate the interpretation and implementation of relevant policies, because of their not being capable of bearing the decentralized responsibilities. Discrepancies between policy making and policy implementation, along with irregularities, are officially tolerated unless negative outcomes occur and public dissatisfaction emerges, at which point regulatory policies are made to control the discrepancies and irregularities within an acceptable limit. In such circumstances, collaboration and compromise between public actors and affected actors can be observed. Thirdly, when central and local governments’ ability to solve the targeted issue is strengthened, responsibilities and authority are centralized, official toleration is lessened, and flexibility is reduced, either by setting and strengthening the bottom-line for operations, withdrawal of autonomy, fixing loopholes, and/or promotion by steps. In this process, public actors force the target group to give up part of their interests. To explain these findings, this study proposes a theoretical framework for understanding policy change in China, which is interpreted as a consequence of adjustments to policy space. It defines the concept of policy space as the flexibility in a policy that allows concerned actors to manipulate its interpretation and implementation. By making use of policy space, different actors can differently interpret the policy and/or use different strategies to implement, adjust and/or adapt it according to their own agenda, needs, and conditions. This can generate different chemistries in the interactions between these actors (e.g. collaboration, compromise, and competition) and therefore result in different policy outcomes, as expected by or deviated from the policy. However, policy space is not unlimited, and can be confined and constrained by policymakers’ bottom-line. Changes in external context, actors, and/or their interests and bottom-lines, can result in different dynamics and interactions, and hence to different policy outcomes, ranging from slight adjustments to radical changes.