Differences in Educational Expectations between Urban and Rural Junior High School Students - Individual, Family, and Social Structures

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Bulrr

This paper studies current differences in educational expectations between urban and rural junior high school students and explains the mechanisms from individual/family and school/society perspectives. Results show significant expectation gaps regarding pursuing higher education, with urban students holding higher expectations than rural and migrant peers. Cognitive ability, family background, and school environment drive these differences; family background contributes more than cognition, while the school’s hukou structure is the most important factor. The study recommends strengthening school educational atmosphere, reducing hukou segregation, and promoting integration to advance educational and social equity in China.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages21

Reading Time53 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Background and educational equity issues

Educational expectations as a process indicator

Research significance and policy context

Differences in Educational Expectations between Urban and Rural Junior High School Students: Individual, Family, and Social Structures Yuna Hou, Fuli Li Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China | Abstract. This paper studies the current differences in educational expectations between urban and rural students and explores the mechanism from the individual/family and school/society perspectives. The results show significant differences in expectations between rural and urban junior high school students for going on to higher education. In addition, urban students’ educational expectations are higher than that of rural and migrant students. These differences are caused by the students’ cognitive ability, family background, and school environment, among which the influence offamily background is larger than that of cognitive ability, while the effect of the school’s hukou structure is the most important influencing factor. The results suggest that building a desirable school education atmosphere, alleviating hukou segregation in schools, and strengthening the integration of widely diverse school populations are important approaches to promoting educational and social equity in China.
Best Evidence in Chinese Education 2022; 10(1):1315-1335.
Doi: [10.15354/bece.22.ar003](10.15354/bece.22.ar003). | | --- | | How to Cite: Hou, Y., & Li, F. (2022). Differences in educational expectations between urban and rural junior high school students: Individual, family, and social
structures. Best Evidence in Chinese Education, 10(1):1315-1335. | Keywords: Educational Expectations, Rural–Urban Differences, Individual And Family Factors, Socio-structural Factors About Authors: Fuli Li, Faculty of Education, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China, E-mail: [lifuli0630@163.com](lifuli0630@163.com) Correspondence to: Yuna Hou, Research Institute for Education and Psychology of Southwestern Ethnic Groups & Faculty of Education, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China. E-mail: [nana860611@swu.edu.cn](nana860611@swu.edu.cn) Conflict of Interests: None. © 2022 Insights Publisher. All rights reserved. Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License ([http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/](http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed by the Insights Publisher. Introduction EDUCATION is the main channel for social mobility in modern society due to its important role in alleviating social stratification and promoting social fairness and justice. Following the promulgation of China’s reform and opening-up policy, many advances have been made in the Chinese education system, and the overall education level in China has improved significantly. Simultaneously, the imbalance in education development has become increasingly prominent, including the gaps in educational attainment between urban and rural residents, which has attracted much scholarly attention. When measured by objective indicators, such as access to education and total schooling years, rural residents in China have always lagged behind urban residents in their educational achievements (Li, 2014a; Wu, 2011; Wu, 2013) . Influenced by the increasingly popular ideological trend of “education is useless” in rural society, some rural young people subjectively deny the value of education. Their reluctance to pursue higher education may further widen the educational gap between urban and rural areas (Li & Wu, 2015) . The low expectations for education of young people in rural China may have long-term consequences for their individual development. In recent years, the farreaching significance of educational expectations for social equity and justice in China has received little scholarly

FAQs

What does the paper investigate about educational expectations?

It examines differences in educational expectations between urban and rural junior high school students and analyzes the underlying mechanisms from individual/family and school/society perspectives.

How do educational expectations differ between urban and rural students?

Urban students’ educational expectations for higher education are significantly higher than those of rural and migrant students.

Which factors explain the differences in educational expectations?

Differences are attributed to cognitive ability, family background, and school environment. Family background has a larger influence than cognitive ability, and the school’s hukou structure is the most important influencing factor.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Bulrr