The Actively Present and Dutiful Individual: An Empirical Study of the Familial Cultural Capital of Rural Students

Abstract

Existing studies have found that the starting point for class divisions is the family: while schools play a interrupting role, it is passive compared to the roles of the family and children themselves. It is therefore taken for granted when rural students are screened out by school education or fail to test into good universities. If the unexpected occurs, it merely represents a fluke, or the result of individual striving. This paper draws on qualitative research in finding that familial cultural capital plays a unique and positive role in the process of rural children testing into key universities, and that their success is not entirely the result of individual striving. It is particularly worth noting that the concept of “dutifulness” emphasized in rural families is consistent with the mainstream ideology of school education. These individuals therefore exhibit an “actively present” state in education, ultimately achieving academic success.

Keywords:

• dutiful
• actively present
• rural students
• grounded theory
• educational reproduction

Notes

1 The divisions were carried out on the basis of the parents’ income, authority, prestige, and level of education, and rural families occupying an unfavorable position for each criterion were regarded as lower-class families.

2 In this study, prestigious universities refer to four 985 Key Universities in Beijing City listed at the top of the comprehensive rankings; for the purpose of privacy, they are described below using the code names of University Q, University P, University R, and University N.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hu Xuelong

Hu Xuelong is a PhD student at the Institute of Education at, Tsinghua University, Beijing.

Kang Yongjiu

Kang Yongjiu is a professor in the Faculty of Education at, Beijing Normal University, Beijing.