Higher Education Meritocracy And Inequality In China

Author : Ye Liu
Publisher : Springer
Page : 221 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2016-10-08
Category : Education
ISBN : 9789811015885

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Higher Education, Meritocracy and Inequality in China by Ye Liu Pdf

This book investigates the changing opportunities in higher education for different social groups during China’s transition from the socialist regime to a market economy. The first part of the book provides a historical and comparative analysis of the development of the idea of meritocracy, since its early origins in China, and in more recent western thought. The second part then explores higher education reforms in China, the part played by supposedly meritocratic forms of selection, and the implications of these for social mobility. Based on original empirical data, Ye Liu sheds light on the socio-economic, gender and geographical inequalities behind the meritocratic façade of the Gaokao (高考). Liu argues that the Chinese philosophical belief in education-based meritocracy had a modern makeover in the Gaokao, and that this ideology induces working-class and rural students to believe in upward social mobility through higher education. When the Gaokao broke the promise of status improvement for rural students, they turned to the Chinese Communist Party and sought political connections by actively applying for its membership. This book reveals a bleak picture of visible and invisible inequality in terms of access to and participation in higher education in contemporary China. Written in an accessible style, it offers a valuable resource for researchers and non-specialist readers alike.

Author : Zachary M. Howlett
Publisher : Cornell University Press
Page : 390 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2021-04-15
Category : History
ISBN : 9781501754456

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Meritocracy and Its Discontents by Zachary M. Howlett Pdf

Meritocracy and Its Discontents investigates the wider social, political, religious, and economic dimensions of the Gaokao, China's national college entrance exam, as well as the complications that arise from its existence. Each year, some nine million high school seniors in China take the Gaokao, which determines college admission and provides a direct but difficult route to an urban lifestyle for China's hundreds of millions of rural residents. But with college graduates struggling to find good jobs, some are questioning the exam's legitimacy—and, by extension, the fairness of Chinese society. Chronicling the experiences of underprivileged youth, Zachary M. Howlett's research illuminates how people remain captivated by the exam because they regard it as fateful—an event both consequential and undetermined. He finds that the exam enables people both to rebel against the social hierarchy and to achieve recognition within it. In Meritocracy and Its Discontents, Howlett contends that the Gaokao serves as a pivotal rite of passage in which people strive to personify cultural virtues such as diligence, composure, filial devotion, and divine favor.

Author : Zachary M. Howlett
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 282 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2021
Category : Achievement tests
ISBN : 1501754432

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Meritocracy and Its Discontents by Zachary M. Howlett Pdf

"An ethnography of the National College Entrance Examination, the Gaokao, in contemporary China. Discusses the exam as a fateful rite of passage that justifies and reinforces social inequality and the myth of meritocracy while enabling people to personify the cultural virtues of diligence, grit, composure, and divine favor or luck"--

Author : Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor Tarun Khanna,Tarun Khanna,Director of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and Frank Wen-Hsiung Wu Memorial Professor of Chinese History Michael Szonyi,Michael Szonyi
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 401 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2022-08-26
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 9780197602461

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Making Meritocracy by Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor Tarun Khanna,Tarun Khanna,Director of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and Frank Wen-Hsiung Wu Memorial Professor of Chinese History Michael Szonyi,Michael Szonyi Pdf

How do societies identify and promote merit? Enabling all people to fulfill their potential, and ensuring the selection of competent and capable leaders are central challenges for any society. These are not new concerns. Scholars, educators, and political and economic elites in China and India have been pondering them for centuries and continue to do so today, with enormously high stakes. In Making Meritocracy, Tarun Khanna and Michael Szonyi have gathered over a dozen experts from a range of intellectual perspectives--political science, history, philosophy, anthropology, economics, and applied mathematics--to discuss how the two most populous societies in the world have addressed the issue of building meritocracy historically, philosophically, and in practice. They focus on how contemporary policy makers, educators, and private-sector practitioners seek to promote it today. Importantly, they also discuss Singapore, which is home to large Chinese and Indian populations and the most successful meritocracy in recent times. Both China and India look to it for lessons. Though the past, present, and future of meritocracy building in China and India have distinctive local inflections, their attempts to enhance their power, influence, and social well-being by prioritizing merit-based advancement offers rich lessons both for one another and for the rest of the world--including rich countries like the United States, which are currently witnessing broad-based attacks on the very idea of meritocracy.

Author : Daniel Markovits
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 450 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2019-09-10
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780735222007

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The Meritocracy Trap by Daniel Markovits Pdf

A revolutionary new argument from eminent Yale Law professor Daniel Markovits attacking the false promise of meritocracy It is an axiom of American life that advantage should be earned through ability and effort. Even as the country divides itself at every turn, the meritocratic ideal – that social and economic rewards should follow achievement rather than breeding – reigns supreme. Both Democrats and Republicans insistently repeat meritocratic notions. Meritocracy cuts to the heart of who we are. It sustains the American dream. But what if, both up and down the social ladder, meritocracy is a sham? Today, meritocracy has become exactly what it was conceived to resist: a mechanism for the concentration and dynastic transmission of wealth and privilege across generations. Upward mobility has become a fantasy, and the embattled middle classes are now more likely to sink into the working poor than to rise into the professional elite. At the same time, meritocracy now ensnares even those who manage to claw their way to the top, requiring rich adults to work with crushing intensity, exploiting their expensive educations in order to extract a return. All this is not the result of deviations or retreats from meritocracy but rather stems directly from meritocracy’s successes. This is the radical argument that Daniel Markovits prosecutes with rare force. Markovits is well placed to expose the sham of meritocracy. Having spent his life at elite universities, he knows from the inside the corrosive system we are trapped within. Markovits also knows that, if we understand that meritocratic inequality produces near-universal harm, we can cure it. When The Meritocracy Trap reveals the inner workings of the meritocratic machine, it also illuminates the first steps outward, towards a new world that might once again afford dignity and prosperity to the American people.

Author : Daniel A. Bell
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 360 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2016-08-23
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781400883486

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The China Model by Daniel A. Bell Pdf

How China's political model could prove to be a viable alternative to Western democracy Westerners tend to divide the political world into "good" democracies and “bad” authoritarian regimes. But the Chinese political model does not fit neatly in either category. Over the past three decades, China has evolved a political system that can best be described as “political meritocracy.” The China Model seeks to understand the ideals and the reality of this unique political system. How do the ideals of political meritocracy set the standard for evaluating political progress (and regress) in China? How can China avoid the disadvantages of political meritocracy? And how can political meritocracy best be combined with democracy? Daniel Bell answers these questions and more. Opening with a critique of “one person, one vote” as a way of choosing top leaders, Bell argues that Chinese-style political meritocracy can help to remedy the key flaws of electoral democracy. He discusses the advantages and pitfalls of political meritocracy, distinguishes between different ways of combining meritocracy and democracy, and argues that China has evolved a model of democratic meritocracy that is morally desirable and politically stable. Bell summarizes and evaluates the “China model”—meritocracy at the top, experimentation in the middle, and democracy at the bottom—and its implications for the rest of the world. A timely and original book that will stir up interest and debate, The China Model looks at a political system that not only has had a long history in China, but could prove to be the most important political development of the twenty-first century.

Author : 黃丽红
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 202 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2005
Category : China
ISBN : STANFORD:36105131978848

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Elitism and Equality in Chinese Higher Education by 黃丽红 Pdf

Author : Xiaoming Sheng
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 186 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2014-04-16
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781317803942

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Higher Education Choice in China by Xiaoming Sheng Pdf

Much of the existing research on parental involvement and higher education choice examines the difference between the working class and the middle class, but little literature looks at different factions within the social classes. This book discusses higher education choice in China, particularly through the examination of social issues such as social stratification, parental involvement, and gender and educational inequality. Drawing from an empirical study based on Bourdieu’s theory, the book explores both inter-class and intra-class differences in China, providing an insight into how social class differences influence a number of issues, including: educational equality the role parents, especially mothers, play in higher education decision-making the relationship between traditional cultural norms gendered relationships within Chinese families. The sociology of higher education choices are derived through feedback from various sources, including both parents and students themselves. The book will be key reading for postgraduates and researchers in the fields of sociology, sociology of education, Chinese studies and Asian studies.

Author : M. Zhou,A. Hill
Publisher : Springer
Page : 268 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2009-10-12
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780230100923

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Affirmative Action in China and the U.S. by M. Zhou,A. Hill Pdf

This volume is the first to comprehensively examine Chinese's affirmative action policies in the critical area of minority education, the most important conduit to employment and economic success in the PRC after the economic reforms begun in the late 1970s.

Author : Lili Yang
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 289 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 2022-09-08
Category : Education
ISBN : 9781350293441

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Higher Education, State and Society by Lili Yang Pdf

In this monograph, Lili Yang compares core ideas about the state, society, and higher education in two major world traditions. She explores the broad cultural and philosophical ideas underlying the public good of higher education in the two traditions, reveals their different social imaginaries, and works through five areas where higher education intersects with the individual, society, the state, and the world, intersections understood in contrasting ways in each tradition. The five key themes are: individual student development in higher education, equity in higher education, academic freedom and university autonomy, the resources and outcomes of higher education, and cross-border higher education activities and higher education's global outcomes. In exploring the similarities, Yang highlights important meeting points between the two world views, with the potential to contribute to the mutual understanding and cooperation across cultures.

Author : B. Carrillo,J. Hood,P. I. Kadetz
Publisher : Edward Elgar Publishing
Page : 459 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2017-07-28
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781783472741

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Handbook of Welfare in China by B. Carrillo,J. Hood,P. I. Kadetz Pdf

The Handbook is a timely compilation dedicated to exploring a rare diversity of perspectives and content on the development, successes, reforms and challenges within China’s contemporary welfare system. It showcases an extensive introduction and 20 original chapters by leading and emerging area specialists who explore a century of welfare provision from the Nationalist era, up to and concentrating on economic reform and marketisation (1978 to the present). Organised around five key concerns (social security and welfare; emerging issues and actors; gaps; future challenges) chapters draw on original case-based research from diverse disciplines and perspectives, engage existing literature and further key debates.

Author : Yanru Xu
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 205 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2023-08-25
Category : Education
ISBN : 9781000936827

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Urban and Rural Students’ Access to Elite Chinese Universities by Yanru Xu Pdf

Studies have shown the disparities between urban and rural students accessing elite universities in China, a phenomenon which Xu explores in this groundbreaking book. She argues that such disparities follow a Bourdieusian capital approach showing how urban parents increased capital benefits the advancement of their children’s education. This book qualitatively explores urban and rural students’ life stories prior to their elite university entry through interviews with both parents and students. It seeks a ‘reflective reappropriation’ of Bourdieu’s notions in understanding Chinese urban and rural students’ academic success. In addition to the implications for Chinese domestic and international scholars’ understanding of the mediating role of rurality, higher education access, and Chinese policy makers’ ongoing initiatives on the hukou reform, this book promotes the global reflections on the development and promotion of national analytical concepts in understanding contextualised educational issues to advance knowledge co-production. This engaging text will be of interest to students and researchers across the fields of global higher education and sociology of education in East Asia, as well as policymakers working towards increased participation, equity and social justice in higher education worldwide.

Author : Yawei Liu/Michael Cerny
Publisher : Bouden House
Page : 153 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2022-04-27
Category : Education
ISBN : 9798210270191

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Finding Firmer Ground: The Role of Higher Education in U.S.-China Relations by Yawei Liu/Michael Cerny Pdf

The U.S.-China educational exchange began auspiciously after a 30-year hiatus in 1978 when Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping announced his strategic decision to send 5,000 students and scholars from China each year to further their education. 1 Then-U.S. President Jimmy Carter famously responded, “Tell him to send 100,000.” This was the launch of educational exchange as a core pillar of the U.S.-China relationship. Until the 40th anniversary of the normalization of U.S.-China relations and U.S.-China educational exchange in 2019, there was general agreement that the exchange of students and scholars benefited both countries. There was recognition that the enormous increase in personal interaction and friendships — and knowledge about each other’s society, culture, economy, and government — strengthened understanding, trust, and cooperation. At a time when U.S.-China relations are at its lowest point since the normalization of relations, the benefits of educational exchange are being questioned, if not under assault. Few could have predicted that Chinese students would be weaponized by both sides, caught up in the political and security disputes between the two governments. A trade war, political tensions, concerns about academic espionage and influence operations, rising incidents of anti-Asian hate, and a global pandemic have created a perfect storm to stir up distrust as well as retaliatory measures that restrict student mobility on both sides of the Pacific. After years of fast growth, the number of Chinese students and researchers coming to the U.S. has slowed. China is still the largest source of international students in the U.S., accounting for about one-third of the total, but America’s appeal is weakening. Is this shift toward declining numbers an overdue correction to better protect America against academic espionage and influence operations and prevent China from capitalizing on American know-how to accelerate its own progress? Or is this decline in numbers an unnecessary and damaging hit on American universities’ preeminent position in global higher education and its open science model, leading to loss of U.S. competitiveness and international prestige? This report more broadly, is an attempt to discern the benefits, risks, and challenges of U.S.-China educational exchange and determine how educational exchange can advance the interests of both the U.S. and China going forward.

Author : Devesh Kapur,Lily Kong,Florence Lo,David M. Malone
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 977 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2023-01-20
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780192661036

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The Oxford Handbook of Higher Education in the Asia-Pacific Region by Devesh Kapur,Lily Kong,Florence Lo,David M. Malone Pdf

Since the turn of the millennium it has become clear that the Asia-Pacific Region is, economically, the fastest growing continent in the world, and is likely to remain so for some time despite the setbacks of the COVID-19 pandemic. Asia-Pacific's share of the world's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) doubled from 15 per cent to 30 per cent between 1970 and 2017 and is projected to account for half of global GDP by 2050. With South East and South Asia also growing rapidly, with over half the world's population and three of the world's five largest economies, Asia is soon poised to home half of the world's middle class - a class that is both the driver and the product of higher education. The quality of a country's system of higher education may be seen both as a gauge of its current level of national development as well as of its future economic prospects. It is therefore natural that the putative "Asian Century" should generate interest in the region's higher education systems which, on the one hand, share common characteristics-a fixation with credentials and engineering, high technology (especially among male students), and business degrees-while at the same time are also highly differentiated, not only across countries but also within. As such, a better understanding of higher education achievements, failings, potential, and structural limitations in the Asia-Pacific Region is imperative. This handbook presents a number of significant country case-studies and documents cross-cutting trends relating to, among other things: the trilemma faced by governments juggling competing claims of access, accessible cost, and quality; the balance between teaching and research; the links between labour markets (demand) and higher education (supply); preferred fields of study and their consequences; the rise of the research university in Asia; the lure of institutions of international reputation within the region; new education technologies and their effects; and, trends in government policy within the wider region and sub-regions.

Author : James E. Côté,Sarah Pickard
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 529 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2022-03-21
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781000538724

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Routledge Handbook of the Sociology of Higher Education by James E. Côté,Sarah Pickard Pdf

Higher education has come under increasing public scrutiny in recent years, assailed with demands for greater efficiency, accountability, cost reduction, and, above all, job training. Drawing upon examples from across the world, with an emphasis on Anglo-American higher-education systems, this handbook employs sociological approaches to address these pressing concerns. The second edition is thoroughly updated and adds several new chapters to shed further light on the transformations wrought by the interrelated processes of massification, vocationalization, and marketization that have swept through universities in the wake of neoliberal reforms introduced by governments since the 1980s. The handbook explores recent developments in higher-education systems and policy as well as the everyday experiences of students and staff and ongoing problems of inequality and diversity within universities. In doing so, the chapters address a number of current issues concerning the legitimacy of higher-educational credentials, from the continuing debate regarding traditional pedagogies and the role of universities in social class reproduction to more recent concerns about standards in mass systems. Collectively, this handbook demonstrates that the sociology of higher education has the potential to play a leadership role in improving the myriad higher-education systems around the world that are now part of an interrelated set of subsystems, replete with both persistent problems and promising prospects. This book is therefore necessary reading for a variety of stakeholders within academia as well as professionals and policy-makers interested in understanding higher education and the acute challenges it faces.