Navigating Citizenship (Hukou) in China’s Schools: Teachers’ Talk and Practices in Negotiating Structural Exclusion in a Public and Migrant Children School

Abstract

This article investigates Chinese teachers’ talk and practices towards citizenship (hukou) in formal state-sponsored public schools and privately-run migrant children schools. Rural migrant children’s complex educational context is reflected in their institutional sorting into state-run public schools, in which rural migrant youth are educated alongside their peers who have full citizenship rights (hukou), and privately-run migrant children schools, in which rural migrant youth are educated outside the formal state-run system. Drawing on interview and participant-observational data from a multi-site ethnography project in a Beijing migrant children school and Shanghai public school, we explore how teachers in two different educational contexts understood and responded to the tensions of state policies affecting their rural migrant students. This article analyzes school-based patterns of teachers’ brokering role in negotiating the structural exclusion that their rural migrant students face in the urban education system. Specifically, the overarching research questions are: How do teachers navigate the contradictions of students’ citizenship rights (hukou) in state-sponsored education? How do teachers discuss educational opportunity during state-initiated events, such as post-compulsory educational opportunity in the city? How do teacher citizenship (hukou) talk and practices differ by educational institutional type? Ultimately, teachers’ different approaches represent how they are trying to make sense of who they are and whom they are working with. We identify different macro-structural and social factors that influence the institutional school context, as well as the institutional factors influencing teachers’ citizenship (hukou) talk and practices. Importantly, this article sheds light on how institutional context influences the extent and ways in which Chinese teachers engage with citizenship (hukou) talk and practices. It also recognizes the significant contribution of teachers who work in the schools that mainly serve migrant children. More broadly, this work contributes to conceptualizing how education may be more inclusive in the face of systematic exclusions, as well as deeper understanding on teacher’s brokering role in navigating complex issues of diversity and equity. We advocate for paradigm shifts in teacher education that prepare educators to become border crossers who engage with difference, such as migration status. This article also suggests ways in which teachers and schools can develop support systems for vulnerable students to thrive in the existing education system.