Promises and Practices: A Case Study on Migrant Children’s Compulsory Education Policy Implementation in China
Abstract or Description
Paper presentation for the American Educational Research Association (AERA)
Overview: This case study is based on macroscopic policy analyses and microscopic investigations of policy implementation, focusing on compulsory education policies and their implementation for rural to city migrant children in Wu City, a large migrants-inflow city in China. Findings of this study show that how and why China’s central government promised to ensure migrant children’s equal access to public compulsory education, but local authorities’ interpretation of the policies and their approaches of implementation have resulted in conflicts. The authors highlight four dilemmas in which local education authorities at the urban level are in the middle of what they call the “promise-practice framework.” As a result, the problems of compulsory education for migrant children have still not been resolved.
