Revisiting symbolic power and elite language education in China: a critical narrative ethnography of the English education major at a top language university in Shanghai

ABSTRACT

Despite the promise of English language teaching and the use of English as a medium of instruction, concerns have been growing about the decline in the number of English majors as well as structural problems in elite language education reflected in the rural-urban divide and resulting educational gaps in China. The English education major at a top language-intensive university could serve as a key site for this investigation. However, existing literature has significantly overlooked this important area. This study explored the life course stages of Chinese students who were originally from rural areas or socioeconomically underrepresented regions/districts and majoring in English education at a top language-intensive university located in Shanghai. By adopting a critical narrative ethnographic approach, the authors wrote field notes and conducted in-depth interviews with 18 study participants. The findings showed that mothers’ involvement significantly influenced students’ motivation to learn English, college admission, and academic major choice. However, students also developed personal perceptions about career prospects while in college. By applying the Bourdieusian approach to language and symbolic power, this study interpreted participants’ developmental process of linguistic habitus and capital, regardless of their socioeconomic status. This study further interpreted their management of accumulated linguistic capital, while critiquing existing structural problems of the elite language education system, along with the English major crisis in the Chinese higher education system. As critical narrative ethnographers, the authors presented their reflexive turns on symbolic power and the future of English education in a Sino-Anglo context.

KEYWORDS:

• Chinese higher education
• critical pedagogy
• linguistic capital
• habitus
• social agent

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Shanghai is one of four direct-administered municipalities and is surrounded by Jiangsu and Zhejiang Province. There are 15 DFCDUs within the city limit; the other 19 DFCDUs are within 270 km and include Nanjing, Suzhou, Zhejiang, and Ningbo (see Dai & Hardy, 2022; Dai & Hardy, 2022; Nam, 2021; Nam & Jiang, 2022).

2 This ranking is evaluated by the Ministry of Education in China and the QS World University Rankings. This information is visible on the official website of the subject university and the International School Alliance China, which is an agency to support Chinese higher education institutions’ recruitment of international students.

3 This research was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors conducted all individual interviews in person, when the subject university offered face-to-face courses on campus. Specifically, the subject university shifted all courses to online emergency remote teaching (ERT) during the spring semester of 2020. However, China alleviated the explosive chain of lethal transmission during the summer break of 2020. Thus, the subject university provided face-to-face courses during the fall semester of 2020 through the fall semester of 2021. However, the Omicron variant outbreak became severe in Shanghai during the spring semester of 2022 (February 28-July 1). For that reason, the subject university rapidly shifted to the online ERT again from March 9 for the rest of the semester. As Shanghai normalized the level of the public health crisis during the summer vacation of 2022, the subject university started offering offline courses, beginning with the fall semester of 2022 (September 5, 2022-January 6, 2023). Yet, in order to promote students’ physical and psychological well-being, the semester was online and offline blended teaching mode (September 26–October 31 and December 5–January 6) (see Nam & English, 2022; Nam et al., 2022).

4 The authors discussed the Gaokao criteria and met with a student liaison to gain specific information to develop the contextual background of the chosen theme.

5 These institutions’ rankings are measured by QS World University Rankings.

 

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Shanghai International Studies University [grant no 2020114058]