Urban teachers’ perceptions of inclusion of migrant children in the Chinese educational institution: a comparative study

Abstract

Recently China has been undergoing an unprecedented urbanisation process which has resulted in millions of rural families living in urban areas. As part of a study of Chinese migrant children's educational experiences, surveys and interviews were conducted with primary school teachers in a metropolitan city in East China. The objectives of this study were to describe teachers’ perceptions of migrant children's education in both migrant schools and in public schools, and to investigate differences in their beliefs between school types. Results found that urban teachers’ perceptions of educational inclusion of migrant students were slightly negative in general. However, teachers in public schools showed significantly more positive attitudes to inclusion of migrant students than migrant school teachers. In the light of these findings, the paper concludes with implications for practice and policy for education of migrant children in China.

Keywords:

• China
• migrant–urban public schools
• educational inclusion
• perception

Notes on contributors

Ting Liu is currently a Ph.D. student at The University of Newcastle, Australia. Her research focus is on Chinese migrant children's mathematics education, with a particular emphasis on educational equity perspectives. Graduated with a Master of Childhood Education degree in East China Normal University in Shanghai in 2011, she has published in more than 10 journal articles in the field of education for young children.

Dr Kathryn Holmes, began her career in education as a secondary teacher of mathematics, physics and chemistry, graduating with a Bachelor of Science (1983) and Diploma in Education (1984) from the University of Newcastle. She taught in secondary schools in NSW, ACT and Qld before returning to the University of Newcastle to complete a Master of Educational Studies in 1999. In 2006 she was awarded Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Monash University. She was appointed as a lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Newcastle in June 2001 and promoted as Senior Lecturer in January 2009. During that time she has been the program convenor for both undergraduate and postgraduate mathematics teacher education programmes. She was responsible for the co-development of a postgraduate mathematics retraining programme for teachers wishing to retrain as secondary mathematics teachers.

Professor James Albright, since leaving teaching after 22 years of service in primary and secondary schools in 1998, has undertaken research in Canada, the USA and Singapore. He has contributed to sociological perspectives to literacy and literacy education, curriculum theory and design, and professional learning and school reform. As an Early Career Researcher, he won a competitive grant from the Spencer Foundation in 2001 (US$30,000). Before joining the University of Newcastle, he was the prime investigator for two large intervention research projects in Singapore (S$850,000). His most recent research focuses on developing teacher capacity across subject areas through building the conditions necessary in schools for innovative teaching and improved student performance.