Abstract

It is commonly believed that blind students are a minority group in society and they are different from regular students. Not only other people, but even teachers in blind schools also have stereotypes towards blind students. This is caused by several reasons, shown by nine well-designed interviews with blind students and teachers in Qingdao School For The Blind. The grounded theory regarded as the basis of interviewing reveals the fact that teachers “ lack systematic training of teaching ability”, “thought that teaching in blind school is a stable and relaxing job”, and believe “blind school is not an idealistic workplace”. These stereotypes are then categorized into other stereotypes about understanding difficult concepts, taking care of themselves, and career choices. The contribution of this research is to raise people’ s awareness of how these stereotypes influence blind students and to encourage resource partitioning. Meanwhile, the government can reconsider the education system for blind students by assigning higher quality teaching resources to them and leading to a dramatic change in blind students’ future paths.

Introduction

Data from the seventh National Census show that 10 percent of China’s population is disabled. Among the disabled people, more than 8.3 million are blind. The blind people are actually not a minority group of society but they do not receive enough education resources. Based on the data from Ministry of Education, there are 27 blind school in China and 14,600 regular high schools nationwide; at the same time, there are 62,400 full-time teachers in blind school and 2,028,300 teachers in regular high schools. The lack of teaching resources reflects that government does not attach the core to the education of blind students and it is an underdeveloped area.

Previous studies have already investigated existing stereotypes towards blind people. The study of Odile reported that “at an implicit level, persons with a disability were associated not only with less competence than persons without disability but also with less warmth.” (Odile et.al, 2012) Fiske researched and believed that notion comes from two concept which are warmth that refers to the extent to which the target of the stereotype is believed to be “warm and trustworthy” and “sincere” and “competence”, refers to the extent to which the target is believed to be “competent, intelligent, skilled, and efficient, as well as assertive and confident.”(Fiske,2018, p. 68) People simply assume that blind people do not social with regular people, which in long term leads to the sense of inferiority and insufficient social opportunities for blind people. Additionally, it is widely believed that disabled people do not always wish to be associated with other impairment groups for a variety of complex reasons, including competing for scarce allocations of funding/resources, sexual attraction, stigma, etc. (Mark Deal, 2003) As a result, at any field, when a small group of blind people become predominant experts, they are respected by others due to the dread of communication. Films and documentaries have most direct reflection of social current belief, which contain expression of stereotype towards blind people, as well. Brylla reports that documentaries about blind people, such as Blindsight (2006) and High Ground (2012), have repeatedly deployed character-led and obstacle-laden narrative formulas that render the visually impaired character either as the ‘supercrip’ or the ‘tragic figure’. (Brylla et.al, 2016) Furthermore, many well-organized researches have already paid attention to blind students’ education including subject teaching method and institution of special courses, education for blind students at different ages, historical review and practice of curriculum system. From a historical perspective, Nordstrom categorized the history period of education of disabled people: indifference or segregation, pity and humanitarianism, self-reliance and social integration (Nordstrom et.al, 1986). We are currently at the last period.

Although education of blind students and stereotypes towards blind children are researched by existing literatures comprehensively, few of them relate two area together, leaving a blank space for future research. Some questions appear: what are teacher’s potential stereotypes towards students in blind school? How do teacher’s background, experience and desire for that particular job cause those stereotypes? This research focuses on the causes that lead to these stereotypes and specific teachers’ stereotypes towards the education of high school blind students in Qingdao School For The Blind. Furthermore, this research will provide persuasive details for teachers realize that they can fulfill self-accomplishments while teaching blind students and alter their perception that blind school is not an ideal workplace. The completion of this research will not only awaken all teachers of schools of blinds to change their potential stereotypes and remind teachers to treat blind students the same as regular students, but also, raising people awareness of how these stereotypes influence blind students. Without such insight, more educational resources and working opportunities will be accessible to blind students who are currently standing on the edge of society, and blind students can be granted with a bright future. Moreover, the quality of teachers of blind school can be improved by using people’s empathy and their desire of challenges, which lead to the unprecedented conversion of blind students’ career path and access of education resources. The researcher hopes that the research can pull blind students back from the edge of the society.

Methodology

The survey data of this research consists of four teachers and five high school students in Qingdao School For The Blind. In order to understand existing stereotypes and their cases, several interview questions are designed (shown in appendix). Corbin & Strauss (1990) provides the ground theory for this research. The interviewees are mostly students from grade twelve and teachers from both high school and technical secondary school departments. The suervey contains information such as gender, grade, teaching subject and time stayed in the school, which can lead to comprehensive findings. The table of sample characteristic is presented below.

Qingdao School For The Blind is chosen as the interview subject, since it is one of the few blind schools that offer high school certification to students. Meanwhile, there is no restriction on students’ Hukou, which means that every student who achieves the entry standard can enroll the school. Furthermore, Qingdao School For The Blind can present the best education resources for blind students, and teachers are more qualified comparing to other blind schools due to its strict entry standard. Therefore, the stereotypes that exist in Qingda o School F or The Blind are representative for blind schools in general and can provide an holistic insight.

Interviews were taken online through meeting app because of the Covid-19. All interviews were recorded by phone after interviewees’ consent, and then transformed into text version as the evidences of findings.

The researcher asked questions to interviewees on the perspective of an enthusiastic student who is interested in education of blind students and willing to bring some changes. On the other hand, teachers are willing to share shortcomings of school and feel relieved that people are concerning the problems. As the result, researcher has received several appealing personal experiences and found many realistic problems. The researcher encourages both students and teachers to tell their stories and asks about students’ feeling towards teacher’s negligence, because emotional words can directly display feelings which influences students’ self-confidence. By asking questions with such position and trick, both teachers and students can share their experiences, problems and feelings frankly which lead to the smooth process of the interviews.

Findings

The findings from interviews are in two categories: one is the existing stereotypes among teachers, which includes three kinds of stereotypes between teachers and students; the other category are causes that lead to stereotypes, which illustrates the connection between teachers’ background and stereotypes. The following figure provides an overview of the findings.

Category 1: Existing stereotypes among teachers

From students’ experiences and teachers’ descriptions in interviews, it is obvious that there are several stereotypes in blind schools which affect students’ education. The stereotypes are summarized into the following three subcategories:

Stereotype A: Assumption that blind students cannot understand difficult concepts

The textbooks of blind students are the same as regular students and include many comparatively difficult courses for blind students, such as geometry, English and so on. But the examinations for blind students is easier than that for regular students, so some teachers ignore the hard concepts and assume that blind students cannot understand them. Student Zhang stressed that some teachers will design and make accurate geometry figures for them to understand in her previous school; however, in Qingdao School For The Blind, teachers will teach them no other figures unrelated to the exam:

“When I was in junior high school, teachers would supplement us with a lot of extra knowledge, because they thought we were equal to regular students and have the ability to learn. But teachers in Qingdao School For The Blind usually follow the textbook. And if figures are not drew in the textbook, they basically skip it. Teachers rarely teach us mathematical, sometimes trigonometry, but never geometry. In fact, I think we are capable of learning some extra topics in the book, but the teachers always say that it is too complicated to be described to us.”

——Student Zhang, Female, Grade 11, Studying for 1 year

As Student Zhang mentions in the interview, although students prefer to include some topics beyond exam range and improve their spatial imagination ability, teachers tend to have the stereotype that blind students cannot understand those concepts and give up in practicing their ability to understand geometry. Overall, such behavior will negatively influence blind students’ development of spatial thinking and miss the chance to improve spatial imagination ability.

Stereotype B: Misperception that most blind students cannot take care of themselves

Many blind students have difficulties in moving conveniently in the classroom building, and some teachers tend to provide extra protections and prepare everything for them. Although it seems kind and thoughtful, some blind students are more willing to face challenges by themselves, so that they can develop self-protect ability and be able to protect and take care of themselves after graduation. For example, student Yu mentioned that in high school, everything is well-prepared because of teachers’ concerns, however, she actually wishes to complete the tasks more by herself.

“ [I remembered that] Sometimes teacher will arrange some tasks, such as looking for someone to sign and so on. Because we are not very convenient to travel through buildings, teacher normally help us to do so. Personally, I think if the teacher just tells me the location, as there are Braille letters next to the house number, I can find the way myself. I really enjoy the process of finding the location by myself, after all, there may not be people to help us every single time in the future. Moreover, since the teacher thought it was not convenient for us to find locations, they also form an impression that we cannot complete other tasks well.”

——Student Yu, Female, Grade 11, Studying for 1 year

Student Yu stresses that teachers do not trust blind students to fulfill tasks by themselves, even though they have the ability to finish it. She argues that blind students require more practicing opportunities, because as they leave the school, they ought to ensure basic livings by taking care of themselves. However, due to teachers’ concerns, students lose the opportunities to conquer difficulties and develop skills.

Stereotype C: Belief that blind students are hard to finish “Gaokao” and massagist is the only career option

Gaokao is China’s national high school graduation and the gateway of future path for most regular students, everyone will pay efforts to achieve the best score. In contrast, although blind students have the ability and intention to participate Gaokao to grasp the chance to change their lives, teachers do not recommend students to attend it and will not provide assistance for them. Mr. Li, a Chinese teacher, mentioned one of his experiences by telling students massagist is their best choice in the interview. He spontaneously considered that blind students do not have the ability to complete Gaokao from heart which limits the students’ future career:

“ The first problem is the college entrance. Although our school has many successful examples of students taking the general college entrance examination, school generally does not support it and provide no resources. Students who want to take the test can only go out to find training institutions for preparation. The second problem is work and I had a personal experience. I used to tell my students: ‘even though most of you don’t like massagist work. But there are many massagist shops in Qingdao, and the income is high. For example, they can make over $100 for 20 minutes, which is way higher than my salary as a teacher. With such employment condition, a lot of students are not willing to take classes.’ Later on, I reflected on my behavior and thought it was too biased. As far as I know, there are many children in our class, who have their own interests, but as a teacher I was too pragmatic which becomes a potential stereotype.”

——Teacher Li, Male, Chinese, Teaching for 1 year

Here in the blind school, students cannot get access to the resources to prepare for Gaokao, because teachers believe massagist is the easiest career option for students and ignore students’ interests and other job opportunities. Although not many students will choose Gaokao which is a stressful and difficult, school should provide more opportunities and resources for students to grant them with a bright future.

Category 2: Factors that lead to stereotypes

Above stereotypes are formed gradually even without conscious, because blind school’s teachers do not have systematic training and are not as professional as regular school’s teachers. That leads to the second category which is the factors that lead to the stereotypes that are mainly about teacher experiences, which can be summarized into the following three subcategories:

Factor A: Lack of systematic training of teaching ability

Different from regular schools, many teachers in blind school are not majored in education study, and have never approached to education before working. Therefore, most teachers miss the professional and complete training about special education including teaching method, mock lessons and teaching cautions. Mrs. Liu, who has worked in Qingdao School For The Blind for twenty-eight years, mentioned that when she first began teaching, she was nervous and confused because she never imagined becoming a teacher before:

“I didn’t want to be a teacher when I was young, but when I was about to graduate, my parents found the job for me and then I came to be a teacher. I know nothing about teaching method at first, because I only studied human medicine in university. So I was really confused about teaching. Then, I gradually learned by myself and followed the training in the education system.”

——Teacher Liu, Female, teacher of Theory of traditional Chinese medicine, teaching for twenty-eight years.

Many teachers in blind school are facing the same situation as Mrs. Liu, and they are still freshmen towards education when they start teaching blind students. As a result, teachers are not only nervous to get along with blind students, and need to get to know them through school lives, but also are confused about the process of teaching. Overall, teachers will treat students with misperceptions without detailed understanding towards blind students, and at last, lead to the stereotypes unconsciously.

Factor B: Thought that teaching in blind school is a stable and relaxing job

In China, teacher is a permanent and stable job for a life-time. Especially in blind school, there is no stressful academic pressure for teachers and teacher can check in and out freely as there are less students. Mr. Li, who takes teaching seriously, pointed out a phenomenon among his colleagues that some teachers talk irrelevant topics in class and leave the school immediately after class:

“[I found that] many teachers do not pay enough efforts in their teaching work since they feel their job is stable. I used to be under a lot of pressure at Regular School and had to prepare for classes until past 11 o’clock every day. Because our school work is relatively easy, every day start at 8:30 and finish at 15:40, so there’s a lot of time for teachers to improve teaching skills. But a lot of teachers in blind school never pursue better teaching skills which is different from regular school. Personally, I think this is a tragedy for special education. At the same time, my colleagues will not treat teaching plans seriously but as an unnecessary work instead, some teachers ignore the notice, miss the meeting and even do not hand it in. All in all, I feel that the teachers are slack now, which may affect the improvement of the quality of the teaching team.”

——Teacher Li, Male, Chinese, Teaching for 1 year

The negative attitude of teachers towards teaching will impede teachers to better their understanding of blind students, since they get off work as soon as possible. The lack of understanding of students will cause teachers unawareness of the students’ condition, and blindly follow their misperception. As long as teachers do not spend time to refresh their impression of students, it is the likely that misperception will be converted into stereotypes and affect the education of blind students.

Factor C: Belief that blind school is not an idealistic workplace

Differ from regular school, teachers in blind school do not have many promotion opportunities like working in the Ministry of Education or in a commercial education institution. Therefore, undergraduates majored in education are not willing to work in blind school. Mrs. Zhao has worked in Qingdao School For The Blind for thirty-five years, and will sometimes attend the interviews of undergraduate students, she pointed out that most applicants are graduated from medical department and only few teachers majored in education will apply to blind school:

“[I have] took part in our school’s recruitment this year. Our school would predominantly accept graduates majored in education and then open the recruitment to the public. [I remembered that] there was an applicant graduated from education major and applied for physics teacher this year, but he did not come up to the interview, which is probably because he got a better job offer. So far, except for one teacher who was transferred to our school, no teacher from education major volunteered to come to our school. This is a worrying phenomenon.”

——Teacher Zhao, Female, Chinese, Teaching for thirty-five years

With such problems, most teachers do not have sufficient ability and enough passion to teach students. Since teachers are not as familiar as the one graduated from special education with students, they will have biased perception towards blind students. At the same time, the problem that undergraduate students are not willing to work in blind school reveal that people generally believe blind schools are inferior than regular school and such perception will also reflect on teachers’ attitude towards blind students.

Limitations and next steps

Due to the limitation of interview, this study only covers nine samples which is a relatively less in number and most students’ samples are from grade 11. For future improvements, more students from various grade in Qingdao School For The Blind should be interviewed which can certainly reveal more problems. Meanwhile, since Qingdao School For The Blind provides the best education for blind students, other schools for blind students might have different and more severe problems. When analyzing the interviews, it is interesting to find that some students think teachers are mean and unfriendly, while others holds the completely opposite view. However, based on existing information, it is difficult to provide reasons of why students have such distinct attitudes towards teachers, which can be imporved in future research.

Conclusions

The findings have several crucial implications to understand stereotypes of education for blind students and causes of these stereotypes. Teachers in Qingdao School For The Blind who have different attitude for blind students, some are passionated but others are indifferent. Students are suffering from the stereotypes and tend to accept teachers’ curriculum design and the plans for future career path. Moreover, since teachers are not willing to spend more time to get to know the blind students and spontaneously follow their intuitive perceptions, students are distant from the teachers. Although some students rebel against the ignorance from teachers at first, but as these stereotypes sustain, students will eventually accept it as fact and be influenced negatively, especially on their future decision. Just like Qingdao School For The Blind does not provide support for students to attend Gaokao, as year passes, more students believe that give up Gaokao is the most convenient choice. Overall, although words seem harmless, but hundreds of words will combine into a sword. Teachers, who are the most important tutor of blind students, should be careful when conveying information to students. In daily lives, teachers should encourage students more often and stand on the students’ sides.

Findings also indicate that low quality of teaching resources is the biggest problem of Qingdao School For The Blind. When teachers are professional in teaching or well-practiced, they will use less time and efforts to adapt and accept this job. However, the fact that teachers with limited experience in education will need transitional periods, which not only affect the education quality of blind students, but also create a communication gap between teachers and students. This gap can be eliminate if teachers have more understandings in students, however, since teachers have little interests in improving student-teacher relationship and hardly spend extra time to stay with students, such gap is the main cause of the stereotypes. Without improvement of teaching quality, no skillful undergraduates is willing to work in blind school, which gradually create a vicious cycle. To solve this urgent problem, the school should provide more detailed information for applicants, so that they could realize they can achieve self-accomplishment by teaching blind students.

Ultimately, by pointing out the problem of the underdeveloped teaching resources for blind students and the fact that the stereotypes for blind students are turning into facts, Qingdao School For The Blind can aware of the problems and resolve them. This study mainly focuses on blind students who are many in number but draw too less attention. This research will raise public awareness to various stereotypes and sheds lights on the condition faced by blind students, who are now standing on the edge of the society. Blind students should not be scared from falling off the edge, and should showering under sunlight as everyone else.

References

Brylla, Catalin (2016) Undoing blindness stereotypes through embodied experience in documentary. In: Embodied Methodologies – Practice Based Conference, 04-05 Nov 2016, Royal Holloway, UK. (Unpublished)

Cordin, J.M., & Strauss, A. (1990). Grounded theory research: Procedures, canons, and evaluative criteria. Aualitative Sociology,13(1), 3-21.

Fiske, S. T., Cuddy, A. J., Glick, P., & Xu, J. (2018). A model of (often mixed) stereotype content: Competence and warmth respectively follow from perceived status and competition. In Social cognition (pp. 162-214). Routledge.

Mark Deal (2003) Disabled people’s attitudes toward other impairment groups: a hierarchy of impairments, Disability & Society, 18:7, 897-910, DOI:10.1080/0968759032000127317

Hogg, M. A. (2021). Self-uncertainty and group identification: Consequences for social identity, group behavior, intergroup relations, and society. In Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 64, pp. 263-316). Academic Press.

Silverman, A. M., & Cohen, G. L. (2014). Stereotypes as stumbling-blocks: How coping with stereotype threat affects life outcomes for people with physical disabilities. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 40(10), 1330-1340.

Heydarian, N. M., Castro, Y., & Morera, O. F. (2022). A brief report examining the stereotype content model with blind Americans. Rehabilitation Psychology, 67(2), 231–234. https://doi.org/10.1037/rep0000435

Appendix: Interview Protocol

For students:
1. Background information:
-What grade are you in now?
-What is the number of students in your class?
-Did you go to school in a place other than a blind school? What’s the difference?
2. Experiences in School life:
-Are you happy in school now? What happy or unhappy experiences have you encountered in teaching outside school or in school?
-Do you have any other expectations for the learning environment, content, style, etc.?
-Have you ever encountered or heard of stereotypes in school? How do you think these stereotypes affect school life?
3. Evaluation of teachers:
-When faced with difficult course content, do teachers skip it or try to clarify it?
– Do you have any special career directions or suggestions for the future when you teach? What is your future career plan?
– Did your teacher ever say that any classes were not suitable for you?
– Do the teachers try to integrate with the society and discuss how to get along with others in their teaching?
– Do you have any feelings in your relationship with teachers?
-How do you evaluate the attitude of the school and the treatment of teachers?

For teachers:
1. Background information:
– Which grade are you teaching now?
– What are the subjects taught?
– How long have you been teaching in this school? Never taught at another school? Why come to a blind school?
– Are you majored in education in university?
– How did you adapt this job?
2. Attitude towards teaching:
– How long do you spend to prepare a class?
– How do you feel about teaching in a blind school?
– How do you deal with the difficult course content for students?
– What do you think is the worst thing about blind children in the school environment? Are there stereotypes in school?
– What is your attitude towards Gaokao?
3. Expectation:
-Do you have any other expectations for the learning environment, content, style, etc.?
– Do you have any other expectations for your colleagues ?

About the author

Youran Wang

Jasmine is a grade eleven student at the Beijing No.4 High School International Campus. She is passionate about sociology and child education and is willing to speak out about the inequalities in education. She is the organizer of the DaoXue Club which is a volunteering institution that includes free classes for blind students. Meanwhile, she is fond of photography and expects that photographs can become a realistic reflection of social problems, be worthy of careful consideration, and contribute to the solution of these problems.

The post Standing on the edge: What are teachers’ stereotypes toward high school blind students and what factors cause them? appeared first on Exploratio Journal.

Educational inequality is an extremely crucial and complex problem due to the fact that there are actually various factors that might lead to the inequality of education in society such as a lack of educational resources in urban and rural areas as well as regional inequality. However, the most significant origin of the cause to the educational inequality in China is the feudal ideologies and policies from a thousand years ago. In 1978, undoubtedly, China achieved tremendous economic success due to its economic reform (Henan), but the educational inequality was hard to solve or eliminate since the radical Chinese culture had passed from the generation to generation. The feudal ideology really had an affect on unequal allocation of resources and opportunities for education. However, as time elapsed, the educational system also improved a lot compared to the previous ones. The essay will mainly focus on the changes of educational inequality in China caused by feudal ideology and the differences between rural and urban areas regarding making the better the educational system. 

Gender inequality

Gender inequality is definitely the reflection of both social and economic inequality in China. The radical ideology of gender inequality has already been present in China for a long time and gradually became the predetermined arrangement in society, which even appears in the system of language in Chinese culture. There are also many different phrases and sayings for the son and the daughter, for instance: wangzi cheng long (“Expect one’s son to have a bright future/ Expect one’s son to be a dragon”) ; shengge nǚer peiqianhuo (“The birth of a daughter means the loss of money)” (Ganzhi Di). According to the conventional thoughts that formed throughout history, in patriarchal world, there is a stereotypical assumption that men are more valuable than women that men are not only more powerful but intrinsically more worthwhile than women since only men can deserve power and privilege.

A vast majority of families still expect to rely on sons for old-age support, and are supported with by the traditional saying, “Sending girls to school is useless since they will get married and leave the home” (Hannum12). Compared to boys, girls face lower educational expectations, which measures commonly used to capture educational ambitions— specifically, they indicate the level of formal schooling that one would like to complete, and a greater likelihood of doing household chores due to social acceptance. Even though some girls outperform some boys in some academic areas, they still do not have the opportunity or chance to go school to attain advanced education. Consequently, most families only send the boys to school while the girls mainly stay at home learning how to do the housework due to the fact that most parents have higher expectations of boys than of girls that girls are unlikely to succeed in the labor market in the future. “In China, Li and Tsang (2005) suggest that, because a good marriage is more important than a good job for rural girls’ long-term welfare, some parents may think more about maximizing the chances of a good marriage than about investing in long-term career options”(Emily Hannum). These examples also suggest that the cultural norms in China have lead to the different socialization of boys and girls. 

The conventional ideology mainly exists in the rural areas in China since more children have to compete with more siblings within a family. Especially large gender gaps can be found in rural Jiangxi, Anhui, and Sichuan provinces. For instance, according to the study by Li and Tsang, in Gansu and Hebei provinces, there are 400 hundred households who revealed that they had lower educational expectations for girls than for boys (Li and Tsang). Thus, in these rural areas, most girls stay in the family to help their parents do some farm work and wait to marry a man in the future. Most educational opportunities will be given to their sons due to the cultural norms. Another case study of Gansu province shows that 84 percent of the poorest boys and 90 percent of all other boys in the survey were enrolled in school. About 81 percent of the poorest girls and 85 percent of all other girls were enrolled. Poor girls are the most disadvantaged because the boys practically absorb all the educational resources (Emily Hannum). 

As a result, men have a greater opportunity to attain educational resources due to the feudal ideology(traditional ideology in China: people favor boys over girls)in place, which absolutely affects the trend of the education since a lot of girls do not even have the chance to contribute to the society or pursue their dreams. Inevitably, families still apply the feudal ideology when making decisions on education, and girls’ dreams continue to be buried in their own hearts.

Educational inequality in urban and rural areas

Furthermore, educational inequality occurs obviously in the urban and rural areas due to the unequal allocation of resources and faculties. The hukou system has the direct relation to the separation of urban and rural areas. The hukou system was established in 1958, and was initially used by the Communist government as a means of separating rural and urban populations and restricting rural-to-urban movement (Solinger, 1999; Liang et al, 2007; Kwong, 2006). Consequently, the hukou system not only makes it difficult for rural populations to gain permanent status of residence in urban ares, but also it results in residents in rural areas starting to lack in sufficient state provisions (Henan Cheng). The rural Chinese had to be self-reliant and contribute to the society without any support from society. The migrated workers from rural areas to urban areas did not have rights to enjoy the same benefits as their urban counterparts (Qiang Ren and Qiang Fu), which caused the huge differences between urban and rural areas in China. 

The substantial urban-rural disparities are mainly due to disparities of the teaching resources and school facilities. According to the study by Wang,  in 2001,  40.9% of primary school teachers in urban areas had finished secondary education, while only 20.3% of their rural colleagues had done so; while 23.5% of middle-school teachers in urban areas had at least graduated from tertiary schools, only 9.4% of their counterparts in rural areas had achieved that level of education (Qiang Ren and Qiang Fu). The advanced human capital is actually limited and scarce in rural areas since most qualified human capitals are more incentivized to stay in the city to teach since they can earn higher income. In addition, the rural areas will mainly hire some Minban teachers(community sponsored teachers) who have lower levels of education due to the scarcity of qualified teachers. It shows the striking disparity of the levels of human capital in rural and urban areas, which indicates that students in rural areas cannot possibly attain the accessibility of the advanced resources of teaching. In rural areas, they do not have enough money to buy the teaching equipment, which also leads to the subordinate level of education to students. According to the China Human Development Report, the illiteracy rate was about 11.6 percent in rural areas, which was three times than the illiteracy rate in urban areas. From the evidence, people can clearly see that the illiteracy rate in rural areas is high due to an unequal allocation of resources and human capital. Consequently, it even drags the educational gap to become larger and larger. 

Educational inputs such as school financing or funding also cause the crucial inequalities. According to the study by Yuan,  “the average urban primary per-student expenditure was 1.86 times that of rural per-student expenditure in 2001. The urban-rural gap in educational finance was even greater at the secondary level: per-student expenditure of lower secondary education in urban areas was almost double that of per-student expenditure in rural areas” (Henan Cheng). The government policy of previous times in China also allocated disproportioned resources of education in two areas and neglected the special needs in rural areas such as textbooks, tables, etc. The rural areas during that time did not have enough wealth and because of the lack of support from the government, they could not even have the opportunity to improve the educational resources. Most students did not even have the chance to graduate under that poor educational system and even some families forced their children to quit school due to the fact that they could not continue to afford for their children to study in school. The low levels of resources also could not attract a lot of students in the rural areas to study and thus led to lower school enrollment. As a result, the disparity between rural and urban areas became even wider due to the huge inequalities of the teaching resources and human capital.

Better trend in education inequality

Obviously, the educational inequality was extremely hard to eliminate, but it gradually became better and better in China.

As time elapsed, political priorities and education policies dramatically shifted and changed throughout the history of the People’s Republic of China. The purpose during the China’s period was to emphasize economic development and social equality by implementing various policies in order to reduce the educational inequality. 

In 1949, the central government tried to arrange the new educational system within China, which was totally different from the previous one. Firstly, the system should would have the right political nature and be led by the Chinese Communist Party. Secondly, it would serve the needs of rapid economic development. Many universities were reduced due to the fact that, in this case, it helped the government ease burdens(Ouyang Kang). “In 1951, one-third of all primary and general secondary-school teachers were employed by Minban schools, which refer to the private educational institution. Adult-education programs also contributed substantially to the expansion of educational opportunities in rural areas. Winter schools and spare time literacy programs in the early and mid-1950s affected tens of millions of peasants; worker-peasant schools enrolled smaller numbers of students, but many of these students continued on to college. The effectiveness of these efforts in improving literacy among peasants is well documented” (Emily Hannum).  

In 1958, the Great Leap Forward movement created the new educational policy to motivate the equality of education. Many policies during the movement focused on basic education and many universities were moved into the rural areas. For instance, more work-study opportunities and part time-schools were opened in the rural areas in order to expand the opportunities for poorer people. Thus, the rural students had the chance to attain better educational resources. In 1977, the national standardized examination, called gaokao, was highlighted, something extremely meaningful for the the Chinese society. According to Wang and Ross (2010), the gaokao brings about opportunities for success and social mobility, which is especially attractive to the students in rural areas where opportunities to economically improve their well-being and lives are scarce. Every student in every area of China has the opportunity to sit the gaokao, no matter from the rural areas or urban areas, which can even be the turning point for rural students. There was a huge expansion in university students immediately after the change of political systems in education. “The number of university students increased from 89% in 2001; the percentage of those who could enter university increased from 9.8% in 1998 to 13.2% in 2003; Master’s degree students increased 93%; and Ph.D. students increased from 45,000 in 2001 to 77,000 in 2003, an increase of 71%. It is more meaningful if you think that all of these increases happened in three years and the numbers of university lecturers did not significantly increase. The proportion of university lecturers to university students changed from 1:8 before 2001 to 1:16 in 2003”(Ouyang Kang). Moreover, the government started paying more attention on the educational system and resources in the rural areas, and increasingly provided more funds in order to ensure the rural students’ sufficient resources. 

During 1985 to 1990, China started to promote the nine year compulsory education. The People’s Congress passed the decision of the new educational system and that “all the children at age of six should have the right for schooling regardless of gender, ethnicity, or race.” The law also requires that “the state, the community, schools, and families should guarantee the right of all children for schooling” (Zhao Tiedao). The ideology of “education for the people and by the people” promoted China to construct a fair society and let every child has the right to access education. Consequently, massive publicity campaigns raised funds to improve school facilities. Therefore, the proportion of dilapidated school building reduced from 17 percent to 2 percent, which meant that the conditions of schools were improving and provided solid groundwork for universalizing compulsory education in rural areas (Zhao Tiedao). A lot of institutions also raised funds and donated money to rural areas in order to help students in the impoverished areas get the balanced educational resources. From the 1996 to 2000, communities including some overseas contributors donated almost 31 billion RMB to support the rural compulsory education program. For instance, the Project of Hope raised 2 billion RMB for construction of 8,300 new schools in rural villages, which attracted 2.3 million dropout children back to school. Besides, 10,000 sets of library books were provided to rural schools and 2,300 rural teachers were trained. The Spring Bud Project, implemented by the All-China Women’s Federation, raised 500 million RMB which assisted getting 1.3 million girls from poor rural and ethnic families access to schooling”. (Zhao Tiedao). By changing the educational system into the nine year compulsory educational system, China reduced the illiteracy rate and more people could enjoy the equal rights of education. The situation of educational inequality became better and better. 

Furthermore, the feudal ideology of gender inequality was gradually eliminated in mind and practice, and women started to have more rights. In 1949, newly introduced marriage and labor laws improved the social statuses of women and peasants. It was the turning point to turn the situation for women. During the time of the cotton textile industry, women proved their power to earn a lot of income and changed the perception of women being less capable than men. “For women to earn high incomes in today’s world, however, it is not necessary to have identical conditions to those in Imperial China. With advances in technology and changes in institutions, economic opportunities favoring women provide a richer variety of ways for women to earn high incomes today” (Xue, Melanie Meng). Women also had the same strength to complete the tasks as the men. As more people get educated, the ideology of gender inequality started to get adjusted and alternated toward an equal and fair path. Although the cultural norms still exist nowadays, women have equal rights, and have the ability to express their thoughts, and can gain the same level of education. 

In China, educational inequality was an extremely serious problem due to the social norms of the ideology called gender inequality and unequal resources in rural and urban areas. However, after  the long term of changes, the educational inequality started to eliminated and everyone has the rights to attain the same level of education in China. 

Citations

Cheng, Henan. Inequality in Basic Education in China: A Comprehensive Review. 17 Aug. 2015.

‌“Gender Inequality of Classical Chinese: A Study of Gender-Based Words – ProQuest.”

www.proquest.com, www.proquest.com/openview/eb1426c7b73fa36727c7f66616a90aa8/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y. Accessed 20 Sept. 2021.

Qiang, Fu. Educational Inequality under China’s Rural ^ Urban Divide: The Hukou System and Return to Education. 2010.

‌Hannum, Emily, et al. Family Sources of Educational Gender Inequality in Rural China: A Critical Assessment. Elsevier, Sept. 2009.

‌book118.com. “《浅谈我国公民受教育机会不平等的原因及对策.Pdf》-支持高清全文免费浏览-Max文档.” Book118.com, 2015, max.book118.com/html/2015/0729/22212459.shtm. (Chinese)

‌“Study: Gender Inequality Serious in Rural Areas.” www.china.org.cn, www.china.org.cn/english/China/141286.htm. Accessed 20 Sept. 2021.

‌Wang D 2003, “China’s rural compulsory education: current situation, problems and policy alternatives”, WP 36, Institute of Population and Labor Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, http://iple.cass.cn/file/36.pdf 

Hannum, Emily, and Yu Xie. Trends in Educational Gender Inequality in China: 1945-1985. 1994.

‌Adams, Jennifer. Girls in Gansu, China: Expectations and Aspirations for Secondary Schooling. ScholarlyCommons, 2008.

‌Kang, Ouyang. Higher Education Reform in China Today. 2004.

‌TSANG, MUN C. INTERGOVERNMENTAL GRANTS and the FINANCING of COMPULSORY EDUCATION in CHINA. June 2001.

‌Zhang, Tiedao, et al. Universalizing Nine-Year Compulsory Education for Poverty Reduction in Rural China. 25 May 2004.

‌Xue, Melanie Meng. High-Value Work and the Rise of Women: The Cotton Revolution and Gender Equality in China. Dec. 2018.

About the author

Ana Mao

Ana is currently a Senior at the Shanghai High School, International Division.

The post The Changes in Chinese Education throughout History appeared first on Exploratio Journal.

1.  Introduction

With the booming of global economies and the develop of societies, the world is changing every single minute. Thus, many considerable issues come to the center of the stage. An important issue is the allocation of public resources to education and progress in the improvement of education across countries of the world. Education, as the base of the society, is a huge topic related to resources allocation and social progress. According to the importance of being educated, not only civilians, but also governments strive for high primary completion rate. To attain the goal, governments in world-wide regions and civilians in different classes pay great prices and obtain interesting results. However, some people may question if the money they put can really promote the education. According to World Data Bank from 1991 to 2016, the progress of the development on education answers the question. 

2.  Governments’ Expenditure and Primary Completion Rate

2.1 East Asia and Pacific

The track of developing education in each region is different. Because of the diverse basics, experiments, and governments, regions around the world show multiple data according to the governments’ expenditure and primary completion rate. In the region of East Asia and Pacific, the governments’ expenditure gains the development of education. From 1991 to 1999, the government is keeping putting effort on education, but the primary completion rate of different countries is not all comparable. The most typical example is in 1991: some countries’ expenditure is around 7.6%, and their primary completion rate is around 98%, which is greatly high; some countries expenditure is around 16.3%, but their primary completion rate is only around 71%, which is unpredictable low. 

From 2000 to 2006, the government expenditure shows a strong linear association with the primary completion rate. The general completion rate is close to 100%. Take 2006 as an example: some countries’ expenditure is around 9%, and their completion rate is around 90%; some countries expenditure is around 22%, and their completion rate is around 98%. The data presented is the lowest one and the highest one in 2006. Both of them show the appreciation of governments to education, and the high primary completion rate. 

However, start form 2007, and end in 2009, the situation is not fluent as before. Probably because of the economic crisis in 2007, the primary completion rate begins to decline though governments expend large amount of money on it: 

In 2007, some countries’ expenditure is around 17%, which is considerable under the crisis, but the primary completion rate is still around 87%, which is lower than the lowest completion rate in 2006. 

After the crisis, which is from 2010 to 2016, the situation is saved. The relationship between governments’ expenditure and the primary completion rate is direct. The more governments spend, the higher completion rate grows. For instance, in 2014, the lowest governments’ expenditure is around 7%, and the primary completion rate is around 92%; the highest governments’ expenditure is around 20%, and the primary completion rate is around 100%. Although the governments’ expenditure from 1991 to 1999 does not win the growth of the primary completion rate, from 2000 to 2006, the rate raises according to the expenditure. During the three year of crisis, to the declined rate, the expenditure is rewarding. Before 2000, governments put lots of money to support education, and the expenditure generally increases with the primary completion rate after 2000. 

2.2 Europe and Central Asia

The condition in Europe and Central Asia is a different picture. Because of the difference cultural background and growing process, the data from 1991 to 1994 shows that the completion rate is unstable. The primary completion rate is generally low. Moreover, although the governments’ expenditure is high, it does not help the primary completion rate. Take 1991 as an example: the governments’ expenditure is around 17.5%, but the primary completion rate is only 70%, which is similar to that of East Asia. The same-level primary completion rate between Europe and Central Asia and East Asia illustrates the parallel background they share from 1991 to 1994. 

The data from 1995 to 2006 becomes stable to develop. The governments pay attention on education, and the primary completion rate is high. In 2004, for instance, the governments’ expenditures are between 12% to 23%, and the primary completion rates are between 88% to 100%. The high primary completion rate responds to the expenditure. 

Different with East Asia, Europe and Central Asia is not impacted by the crisis from 2007 to 2009. Oppositely, the data is quite stable with the almost 100% primary completion rate. From 2007 to 2009, the primary completion rate slightly increases. In 2007, the general rate is around 97%; in 2008, the general rate is around 98%; the general rate is around 99%. The reason behind it maybe the financial relationship between the US and Europe and Central Asia is not as tight as East Asia. 

From 2010 to 2016, the governments’ expenditure has direct relationship with the primary completion rate. Take 2015 as an example, the lowest governments’ expenditure is around 8% with the primary completion rate around 97%. The highest governments’ expenditure is around 20% with the primary completion rate around 100%. The development of the expenditure and the education in Europe and Central Asia is generally fluent and stable—notably it is not harmed by the crisis from 2007 to 2009. The primary completion rate respond immediately once governments start to focus on education.

2.3 Latin America and Caribbean

The region of Latin America and Caribbean shows considerable development in education. From 1991 to 1998, the education level between each country is dramatic. The governments’ expenditure on education is balance, but the primary completion rate of each country is not.  In 1992, for example, the association between governments’ expenditure and the primary completion rate is positive, and straight with a high outlier, and strong. The lowest governments’ expenditure is around 12%, and the primary completion rate is only 40%; the highest governments’ expenditure is around 15%, and the primary completion rate is around 100%. The close expenditure of each government causes variant rate. Furthermore, according to the data, there are only few countries on it, which is probably because of the imperfection of the education does not allow formal data collecting, or just the data is not collected at the period. 

The situation becomes optimistic from 1999 to 2006. Though the plot is moderately strong because of a few outliers, the general rate grows. Take 2003 as an example, the association between governments’ expenditure and the primary completion rate is positive, and straight with a few high and low outliers, and moderately strong. The lowest governments’ expenditure is around 7%, and the primary completion rate is around 92%; the highest governments’ expenditure is around 98%. ‘

From 2007 to 2008, slightly reduce in the primary completion rate is shown. It seems like the economic crisis effects the education in a negative way. Especially in 2008, the association between two variables is negative and straight with a high and a low outlier, and moderately strong. The plot shows that some countries are harmed by the crisis, but others remain stable development. 

After 2008, the primary completion rate keeps growing. Although the expenditure is not efficient enough, the general rate is close to 100%. Take 2010 as an example, the association between the governments’ expenditure and the primary completion rate is negative and straight with a few outliers, and moderately strong. The governments’ expenditure is between 13% to 23%, and the primary completion rate is between 90% to 100%. The efficiency of the development on education is not high enough that the governments’ expenditure does not cause absolute high primary completion rate, but the growth on rate is substantial in the region of Latin America and Caribbean. 

2.4 Middle East and North Africa

Not only the region of Latin America and Caribbean gets progress on education, but also that of Middle East and North Africa. From 1991 to 1995, the data shows both positive and negative association for each year, which means that the region has typically uncertain primary completion rate. Also, the differences between each country is huge on the governments’ expenditure. Take 1994 as an example, the association between the governments’ expenditure and the primary completion rate is positive and straight with no outlier—because there are only two countries in the plot—and strong. One country has the government’s expenditure that is around 7%, and the primary completion rate that is around 71%; another country has the government’s expenditure that is around 22%, and the primary completion rate that is around 80%. It seems like that one country is trying to develop their education by putting great effort by government, so their expenditure is as high as 22%. However, the general rate is still low. 

From 1996 to 1997, it is the most stable period before 2002 that the governments’ expenditure and the primary completion rate is considerable. The association between the expenditure and the rate is positive, and straight with a few outliers, moderately strong. The governments’ expenditure is between 8% to 27%, and the primary completion rate is between 87% to 91%. 

From 1998 to 2002, the situation becomes undesirable again. For instance, in 2001, the association between the governments’ expenditure and the primary completion rate is negative, and straight with a low outlier, and moderately strong. The lowest governments’ expenditure is around 10%, and the primary completion rate is around 94%; the highest governments’ expenditure is around 30%, but the primary completion rate is around 60%. The outlier in 2001 is incredible that it has the expenditure of 27% with the rate of 26%. 

After 2002, the associations between two variables are generally positive and strong, except for those of 2007 and 2008. In 2007 and 2008, the association is negative with few outliers, and moderately strong. It shows that Middle East and North Africa is also one member of victims from the crisis. Nevertheless, the general growth on education is still great accompanying with the help of governments. Take 2013 as an example, the governments’ expenditure is between 7% to 17%, and the primary completion rate is between 95% to 100%. The decline of the governments’ expenditure indicates the steady of primary completion rate. As another region with huge development on education, it is fair to say that governments’ expenditure cannot be ignored. 

2.5 Conclusion 

The four regions show the development on education and governments’ expenditure from 1991 to 2016. Every region has its own track: some have unstable education in the beginning, and become stable recently by the support of governments; some have a good beginning with the help of governments, but suffer from the crisis, and overcome it then; some have a government that with sense of paying attention on education all the time that ensure their education is always progressive. Nonetheless, starting from 2009, the development is substantial: 

Overall, the governments’ expenditure helps the growth of primary completion rate. Before 2000, the data usually shows inverse relationship between them, which indicates that governments try to increase the rate because the primary completion rate of each region is all close to 100 in the end. Thus, as the time past, governments’ efforts on education promote the primary completion rate.

3. People’s Expenditure and Primary Completion Rate

3.1 Introduction

Governments’ expenditure on education significantly increases the primary completion rate, though it sometimes takes years to see the development. Similarly, different income groups, high income, upper middle income, low middle income, and low income, have different degrees of expenditure. Is their expenditure on education also helpful?

3.2 High Income Group

High income group, as the group of people who are most able to complete high-level education, always remains high primary completion rate. From 1991 to 1999, the general primary completion rate is high, but the associations are not strong enough between the expenditure ad the rate. For instance, in 1997, the association is positive, straight with many outliers, and moderately strong. The plot on this graph is scattered, instead of tight. It indicates the differences between different families. Some high-income families at this time do not have realize the importance of education, so they do not spend great amount of money on it. However, as the arrival of 21th century, the difference is fading. 

From 2000 to 2016, the expenditure and the primary completion rate is impressively high, with straight relationship. Take 2013 as an example, the association is positive, straight, and strong. The lowest expenditure in this year is around 6%, and the primary completion rate is around 99%; the highest expenditure in this year is around 22%, and the primary completion rate is around 100%. The expenditures of different families are still discrepant. The reason behind it might be the wish of new high-income families start to put effort to education under the background of the enlargement of high income group. High income group successfully reduce the differences between each family on the primary completion rate; the low expenditure illustrates the stableness on education of some high-income families, and the high expenditure illustrates the development on that of new high-income families.

3.2 Upper Middle Income Group

To middle income group, most of them are trying to become one of high income group members. They pay great attention on education, trying to create chances for their children to attend higher class. Predictably, the expenditure and the primary completion rate is quite high in upper middle income group (because of the lack of information, the analyze only covers from 1998 to 2016). The data shows the stable and high expenditure and the rate of completion from 1998 to 2016. It is similar to that of high income group that they share high primary completion rate that is close to 100%. However, compared to high income group, upper middle income group does not have the association of two variables of upper strong enough. For example, in 2006, the association is negative, straight with some outliers, and moderately strong. The high income group in 2006, on the other head, has the association that is positive, straight, and strong. Upper middle income group already have a general high-level sense of education, but there are still some families do not realize that. The immature sense causes the differences between upper middle income group and high income group. 

3.3 Lower Middle Income Group

Lower middle income group presents interesting data, which indicates the complicated and diverse background of different lower middle income group. From 1991 to 1995, the primary completion rate is low, though the expenditure is moderate. Take 1994 as an example, the association between the expenditure and the primary completion rate is negative, straight with few outliers, and moderately strong. The expenditure is between 6% to 23%, and the primary completion rate is between 89% to 60%, which is close to 90%, but is still not a high rate. 

Start from 1996, the rate increases that even close to 100%. However, the association between two variables is weak, or there is no association. Some families in lower middle income pay attention on education, but some do not. Take 2015 as an example: 

According to the plot, it is hard to analyze the association between the expenditure and the primary completion rate. Every family put different effort on supporting education, and the rate is also unrelated with each other. Although the general primary completion rate is not low, it is still hard to tell if the situation is positive or negative because of the gap between each family. 

3.4 Low Income Group

Low income group, as a group with weakest financial condition, reflects some essential social problems. Not surprisingly, the group have low primary completion rate. However, the expenditure is in the average. It is probably because of their low income, so affording common education is not easy actually. Until 2016, their general completion rate is still around 70%. There are many countries have already made the primary education free, so why the rate is remains low, and the expenditure remains in average? It is reasonable for other income group that they want to give their children better education, like going to private schools for education, and so on. However, why the situation comes to the low income group people? The question probably can be given to the government. 

3.5 Conclusion

In a society that some groups can have the primary completion rate nearly 100%, and some groups can only have the primary completion rate around 70%, there must be some problems. Are the resources allocated well? Does the education system need to be improved? Yet we are still in the progress of development, but as we can see, though we need to spend huge amount of money for years, the association between governments’ and people’s expenditure and primary completion rate is ultimately straight upward. Thus, because of the optimistic result of the expenditure, the society is encouraged to put more effort on education. It is unrealistic to keep the primary completion rate 100% to every income group, but trying to balance each group is what we should focus on. 

Works Cited

Mentor: Dr. Peter Kempthorne
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

“GDP (Current US$) – High Income.” Data, data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?locations=XD.

“GDP (Current US$) – Low Income.” Data,  data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?locations=XM.

“GDP (Current US$) – Lower Middle Income.” Data,  data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?locations=XN.

“GDP (Current US$) – Upper Middle Income.” Data,  data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?locations=XT.

“Government Expenditure on Education, Total (% of Government Expenditure).” Data,  data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.XPD.TOTL.GB.ZS.

“Primary Completion Rate, Total (% of Relevant Age Group).” Data,  data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.PRM.CMPT.ZS.

About the author

Dawn Diao

Dawn is a rising senior at the Mercyhurst Preparatory School in Erie, Pennsylvania.

The post Expenditure and Education appeared first on Exploratio Journal.