Self‐Abandonment or Seeking a Way Out: Understanding Educational Expectations Among Chinese Migrant Children

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Autori principali: Qifan Ding, Qiaobing Wu
Natura: Artículo Open Access
Pubblicazione: Wiley 2026
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author Qifan Ding
Qiaobing Wu
author_facet Qifan Ding
Qiaobing Wu
Qifan Ding
Qiaobing Wu
collection Wiley Open Access
contents Self‐Abandonment or Seeking a Way Out: Understanding Educational Expectations Among Chinese Migrant Children Qifan Ding Qiaobing Wu European Journal of Education ABSTRACT Existing studies have primarily focused on migrant children's compulsory education, academic performance, and psychological wellbeing. Less attention has been paid to how migrant children themselves perceive, negotiate, and adjust their educational expectations towards the end of compulsory education under unequal institutional conditions. This study explores the complex process through which migrant children's educational expectations are formed and negotiated in urban China. Drawing on 51 interviews with migrant children, their parents, teachers and school principal in Shanghai, it examines how field, capitals and habitus shape this process at the end of the compulsory education. The findings show that some migrant children replicated their family members' perspectives and practices and adjusted their expectations under the restrictions of the policies. School classification practices as institutional habitus further differentiated migrant children's educational expectations, whereas others became incorporated into the muddling through culture within migrant children's classes. The study also shows that tensions between familial habitus and institutional habitus generated ambivalence in educational decision‐making, leading migrant children to negotiate, compromise, or strategically adjust their future educational trajectories. 10.1111/ejed.70713 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
doi_str_mv 10.1111/ejed.70713
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spellingShingle Self‐Abandonment or Seeking a Way Out: Understanding Educational Expectations Among Chinese Migrant Children
Qifan Ding
Qiaobing Wu
European Journal of Education
Self‐Abandonment or Seeking a Way Out: Understanding Educational Expectations Among Chinese Migrant Children Qifan Ding Qiaobing Wu European Journal of Education ABSTRACT Existing studies have primarily focused on migrant children's compulsory education, academic performance, and psychological wellbeing. Less attention has been paid to how migrant children themselves perceive, negotiate, and adjust their educational expectations towards the end of compulsory education under unequal institutional conditions. This study explores the complex process through which migrant children's educational expectations are formed and negotiated in urban China. Drawing on 51 interviews with migrant children, their parents, teachers and school principal in Shanghai, it examines how field, capitals and habitus shape this process at the end of the compulsory education. The findings show that some migrant children replicated their family members' perspectives and practices and adjusted their expectations under the restrictions of the policies. School classification practices as institutional habitus further differentiated migrant children's educational expectations, whereas others became incorporated into the muddling through culture within migrant children's classes. The study also shows that tensions between familial habitus and institutional habitus generated ambivalence in educational decision‐making, leading migrant children to negotiate, compromise, or strategically adjust their future educational trajectories. 10.1111/ejed.70713 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Self‐Abandonment or Seeking a Way Out: Understanding Educational Expectations Among Chinese Migrant Children
topic European Journal of Education
url https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ejed.70713