Spatial Disparities in China’s Education
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
In the past, studies on inequality in China have largely concentrated on two issues: spatial inequality and educational inequality. The impact of spatial inequality on education has received little research attention. Separating the research issues has resulted in a lack of understanding of the relationship between the two phenomena. In reality, spatial inequality and educational inequality are intertwined. Due to the gap in such studies, this research aims to examine educational inequality affected by spatial inequality in China. The analysis applies qualitative research from both primary and secondary documents while utilizing the framework of neoliberalism. The research has been conducted from Mao Zedong’s era until the present day to observe the transformations that have taken place. The results of the research found that spatial inequality has affected educational inequality between regions, especially between the eastern and the western regions, as well as between cities and rural areas of China. The inequality between areas has an impact on educational inequality as follows: 1) income of the population, 2) average years of schooling, 3) opportunity to receive an education, 4) inequality in investment and support for education, and 5) geographical inequality of university locations.
Downloads
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
References
Chang, G. H. (2002). The cause and cure of China's widening income inequality. China Economic Review, 13(4), 335-340.
China.org.cn. (n.d.). The 7th Five Year Plan (1986-1990). Retrieved August 5, 2024, from http://www.china.org.cn/english/MATERIAL/157620.htm
Cui, C., Wang, Y., & Wang, Q. (2022). The interregional migration of human capital: The case of “First‑Class” university graduates in China. Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy, 15, 397-419. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12061-021-09401-7
Duckett, J. (2020). Neoliberalism, authoritarian politics and social policy in China. Development and Change, 51(2), 523-539. https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12568
Fan, S., Kanbur, R., & Zhang, X. (2011). China’s regional disparities: experience and policy. Review of Development Finance, 1(1), 47-56.
Fu, Q., & Ren, Q. (2010). Educational Inequality under China’s rural–urban divide: the hukou system and return to education. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 42(3), 592-610
Fujita, M., & Hu, M. (2001). Regional disparity in China 1985-1994: the effects of globalization and economic liberalization. The Annals of Regional Science, 35, 3-37. https://doi.org/10.1007/s001680000020
Guo, J., & Chen, J. (2023). Can China’s higher education expansion reduce the educational inequality between urban and rural areas? The Journal of Higher Education, 94(5), 638-663. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2023.2168408
Hamnett, C., Hua, S., & Liang, B. (2019). The reproduction of regional inequality through university access: The Gaokao in China. Area Development and Policy, 4(3), 252-270. https://doi.org/10.1080/23792949.2018.1559703
Hannum, E. (1999). Political change and the urban-rural gap in basic education in China, 1949-1990. Comparative Education Review, 43(2), 193-211.
Harvey, D. (2005). A brief history of neoliberalism. Oxford University Press.
He, S., Fang, C., & Zhang, W. (2017). A geospatial analysis of multi-scalar regional inequality in China and in metropolitan regions. Applied Geography, 88, 199-212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2017.08.017
Huang, Z., Wang, T., & Li, X. (2015). The political dynamics of educational changes in China. Policy Futures in Education, 14(1), 24-41. https://doi.org/10.1177/1478210315612644
Kanbur, R., & Zhang, X. (1999). Which regional inequality? The evolution of rural–urban and inland–coastal inequality in China from 1983 to 1995, Journal of Comparative Economics, 27(4), 686-701. https://doi.org/10.1006/jcec.1999.1612
Knight, J., & Li, S. (1996). Educational attainment and the rural-urban divide in China. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 58(1), 83-117.
Li, Y., & Wei, Y. D. (2010). The spatial-temporal hierarchy of regional inequality of China. Applied Geography, 30(3), 303-316. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2009.11.001
Liao, F. H. & Wei, Y. D. (2012). Dynamics, space, and regional inequality in provincial China: A case study of Guangdong province. Applied Geography, 35(1–2), 71-83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2012.05.003
Liao, F. H., & Wei, Y. D. (2015). Space, scale, and regional inequality in provincial China: A spatial filtering approach, Applied Geography, 61, 94-104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2014.12.022
Liu, H. (2006). Changing regional rural inequality in China 1980-2002, Area, 38(4), 377-389.
Liu, Y. (2015). Geographical stratification and the role of the state in access to higher education in contemporary China. International Journal of Educational Development, 44, 108-117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2015.08.003
Long, X., Zhang, J., & Zhang, Y. (2022). Study on the inequality between urban and rural education development in China. In Z. Zhan, F. P. Chew, & M. T. Anthony (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2022 International Conference on Science Education and Art Appreciation (SEAA 2022) (pp. 325-336). Atlantis Press. https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-494069-05-3_41
Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China. (2023, April 3). Statistical report on China’s educational achievements in 2022. http://en.moe.gov.cn/documents/reports/202304/t20230403_1054100.html
National Bureau of Statistics of China. (n.d./a). 6-3 Nationwide per capita disposable income of households in eastern, central, western and northeastern regions. China Statistical Yearbook 2021. Retrieved August 5, 2024, from https://www.stats.gov.cn/sj/ndsj/2021/indexeh.htm
National Bureau of Statistics of China. (n.d./b). 6-8 Per capita disposable income of urban/rural households in eastern, central western and northeastern regions. China Statistical Yearbook 2021. Retrieved August 25, 2024, from https://www.stats.gov.cn/sj/ndsj/2021/indexeh.htm
National Bureau of Statistics of China. (n.d./c). 6-13 Per Capita Disposable Income of Rural Households in Eastern, Central Western and Northeastern Regions. China Statistical Yearbook 2021. Retrieved August 25, 2024, from https://www.stats.gov.cn/sj/ndsj/2022/indexeh.htm
National Bureau of Statistics of China. (n.d./d). 2-13 Population aged 6 and over by gender, educational attainment and region (2021). China Statistical Yearbook 2022. Retrieved August 5, 2024, from https://www.stats.gov.cn/sj/ndsj/2022/indexeh.htm
National Bureau of Statistics of China. (n.d./e). 21-23 Basic statistics on educational finance. China Statistical Yearbook 2022. Retrieved August 15, 2024, from https://www.stats.gov.cn/sj/ndsj/2022/indexeh.htm
National Bureau of Statistics of China. (2021, May 11). Communiqué of the Seventh National Population Census (No. 6) - educational attainment. National Bureau of Statistics of China, Office of the Leading Group of the State Council for the Seventh National Population Census. https://www.stats.gov.cn/english/PressRelease/202105/t20210510_1817191.html
National Bureau of Statistics of China. (2024, January 18). Households' income and consumption expenditure in 2023. https://www.stats.gov.cn/english/PressRelease/202402/t20240201_1947120.html
Qian, X., & Smyth, R. (2008). Measuring regional inequality of education in China: widening coast–inland gap or widening rural–urban gap? Journal of International Development, 20, 132-144. https://doi.org/10.1002/jid.1396
Qin, X., Wei, Y. D., Wu, Y., & Huang, X. (2022). Regional development and inequality within city regions: a study of the Yangtze River Delta, China. Geographical Review, 113(3), 359-385. https://doi.org/10.1080/00167428.2021.2021780
Rong, X. L., & Shi, T. (2001). Inequality in Chinese education. Journal of Contemporary China, 10(26), 107-124. https://doi.org/10.1080/10670560124330
Saywell, W. G., (1980). Education in China since Mao, The Canadian Journal of Higher Education, 10(1), 1-27. https://doi.org/10.47678/cjhe.v10i1.182805
Sicular, T., Yue X., Gustafsson, B., & Li, S. (2007). The urban–rural income gap and inequality in China. Review of Income and Wealth, 53(1), 93-126. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4991.2007.00219.x
Swanson, A. D., & Zhang, Z. (1987). Education reform in China. The Phi Delta Kappan, 68(5), 373-378.
United Nations Development Programme. (2024, March 13). China in numbers (2023), Issue Brief. https://www.undp.org/sites/g/files/zskgke326/files/2024-03/china_in_numbers_2023-final.pdf
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). (2019, December 19). China national human development report special edition: In pursuit of a more sustainable future for all: China’s historic transformation over four decades of human development. https://hdr.undp.org/system/files/documents/nhdrcn.pdf
Wang, F., & Wu, H. (2018). Returns to education in rural and urban China: an empirical study, Asian Journal of Social Science Studies, 3(4), 18-28.
Wei, Y. D., Li, H., & Yue, W. (2017). Urban land expansion and regional inequality in transitional China. Landscape and Urban Planning, 163, 17-31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2017.02.019
Wei, Y. D., Wu, Y., Liao, F. H., & Zhang, L. (2020) Regional inequality, spatial polarization and place mobility in provincial China: A case study of Jiangsu province. Applied Geography, 124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2020.102296
Wei, Y. D., & Fang, C. (2006). Geographical and structural constraints of regional development in western China: a study of Gansu province, Issues & Studies, 42(2), 131-170.
Wu, L., Yan, K., & Zhang, Y. (2020). Higher education expansion and inequality in educational opportunities in China. Higher Education, 80, 549–570. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-020-00498-2
Wu, Y. (2008). Cultural capital, the state, and educational inequality in China, 1949–1996, Sociological Perspectives, 51(1), 201-227.
Xiang, L., & Stillwell, J. (2023). Rural–urban educational inequalities and their spatial variations in China. Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy, 16, 873-896. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12061-023-09506-1
Yan, X., & Mohd, S. (2023). Trends and causes of regional income inequality in China. Sustainability, 15(9), Article 7673. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15097673
Yang, J., Huang, X., & Liu, X. (2014). An analysis of education inequality in China. International Journal of Educational Development, 37, 2-10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2014.03.002
Yang, W., & Fan, G. (2021). Neoliberalism and educational reform in China in the 1990–2010s: market mechanism and inequality in the institutional transformation. International Journal of Educational Research, 109, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2021.101809
Zhang, D., Li, X., & Xue, J. (2015) Education inequality between rural and urban areas of the People’s Republic of China, migrants’ children education, and some implications, Asian Development Review, 32(1), 196-224.
Zhang, J., Jin, S., Torero, M., & Li, T. (2018). Teachers and urban-rural gaps in educational outcomes. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 100(4), 1207-1223.
Zhang, S., Bani, Y., Izah Selamat, A., & Abdul Ghani, J. (2023). Exploring the effect of industrial agglomeration on income inequality in China. PLoS ONE, 18(6), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287910
Zhang Y., & Liang, B. (2021). Analysis on the education inequality in China. In Proceedings of the 2021 4th International Conference on Humanities Education and Social Sciences (ICHESS 2021) (pp. 494-498). Atlantis Press. https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.211220.084
Zhou, J. (2023). Educational equity in China’s education system under different perspectives. In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Educational Innovation and Philosophical Inquiries (pp. 279-290). https://doi.org/10.54254/2753-7048/18/20231341
