An Exploration of The Education Inequity of Rural-To-Urban Migrant Students in Nanjing, China

Over the past three decades, China’s rapid economic development and urban construction have been accompanied by the world’s most significant internal population movement. Hundreds of thousands of internal migrants migrated to cities in search of better work and educational opportunities. Due to the restrictions from public policies, rural-to-urban migrant children have long been disadvantaged in receiving education in urban areas. However, research showed that both the social, cultural, and political contexts regarding the school admission of rural-to-urban migrant children have significantly changed over time, as have the demographic characteristics of rural-to-urban migrant children and their families. Given these changes over time, it is timely to re-examine the educational inequities rural-to-urban migrants might experience and their potential causes. This thesis uses Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of practice to map the biases and disadvantages experienced by rural-to-urban migrants and their children. Specifically, it explores how policy and academic discourses change over time and reflect the biases towards them illustrating changes in the habitus of policymakers and academic researchers. This thesis further examines the current urban education field and the relationship between rural-to-urban migrant families’ capital and school admission outcomes after the changes in both school admission policies and rural-to-urban migrants’ demographic characteristics. This thesis, with publications, employed a multiple-methods research design and comprised five studies. This thesis enriches Bourdieu’s theory of practice by proposing how the changing social, cultural and political contexts could influence the structure of the urban education field through different agents (i.e., policymakers and scholars). It highlights that the academic and policy discourses may reflect the biases towards rural-to-urban migrants, and the biased discourses might, in return, strengthen the inequity of rural-to-urban migrants. The thesis calls for societal efforts to eliminate biases towards rural-to-urban migrants and encourages policymakers and scholars to engage in anti-bias practices.

Name thesis:degree_name

PhD

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education

Grantor dc:publisher

ResearchSpace@Auckland

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Yang, Liuning

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Smith, Jo
• Meyer, Frauke

Statement dc:rights

• Items in ResearchSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htm

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/2292/72510

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:researchspace.auckland.ac.nz:2292/72510