Raising cosmopolitan children: Chinese middle-class parents’ educational strategies

ABSTRACT

This article examines the educational strategies of Shanghai Chinese middle-class parents who intend to raise their children to be cosmopolitans. It is based on a 2-year interview study of a group of Chinese parents who send their children to accredited international bilingual schools in Shanghai. Drawing on the concept of ordinary cosmopolitanism, I identify the promotion of extra-curricular activities and frequent travel within China and internationally as two central family practices used to foster a cosmopolitan orientation to improve their children's future. Although cosmopolitanism has a strong appeal to them, my analysis challenges both their concept of cosmopolitan parenting and whether a meaningful cosmopolitan education can take place through parenting strategies. I argue that a transpositional understanding of Chinese middle-class cultural logic of parenting involves a new thinking about the risks, compromises and complex interactions between culture, class and education, as inherent in their parenting strategies for ‘principled’, ‘fluid’ and ‘universal’ cosmopolitanism.

摘要

本文探究中国上海中产阶级父母将子女培养成世界公民的教育策略。针对一些把子女送进获得认证的上海国际双语学校的中国父母，本研究进行了为期两年的访谈调研。作者采用一般意义上的世界主义概念，识别了用来培养一种世界主义习性以提升子女未来前景的两大核心家庭实践：课外活动与国内和国际的频繁旅行。尽管对这些父母来说世界主义极具吸引力，但作者的分析挑战了他们对培养世界公民的观念，以及一个富有意义的世界主义教育能否通过教养策略得以开展。作者认为，对中国中产阶级教养子女的文化逻辑之超越立场的理解需要一种新的思考，即思考风险、折中和存在于文化、阶层与教育之间的复杂互动，这些已蕴含在他们所追求的“有原则的”、“流动的”和“普世的”世界主义教养策略中。

KEYWORDS:

• cosmopolitanism
• globalisation
• international schools
• Chinese families
• parenting strategies

关键词:

• 世界主义
• 全球化
• 国际学校
• 中国家庭
• 教养策略

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

Hannah Soong received Multi-Year New Colombo Mobility Program from Australian Government (ID: 19017-19019).

Notes on contributors

Hannah Soong

Dr Hannah Soong is a Senior Lecturer and a socio-cultural researcher. Hannah's research interests lie in the empirical studies and theorisation of transnational mobility of families, international students and migrant teachers; sociology of Asia literacy in Australian schooling context and student identity work in an ‘East-meets-West' curriculum. Currently, she is exploring the transnational aspirations of middle-class and refugee-background parents on their children’s education and wellbeing in Asia and Australia. One key area is the investigation around developing ethical engagement with global shifts and relations in education.