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Meritocracy, Suzhi Education and the Use of Live-Streaming Technology in Rural Schools in Western China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 October 2023

Miao Li Open the ORCID record for Miao Li [Opens in a new window]  and
Qiang Zhang
Miao Li
Affiliation:
School of Philosophy and Social Development, Shandong University, Jinan, China
Qiang Zhang*
Affiliation:
School of Preschool Education, Shandong Yingcai University, Jinan, China
*
Corresponding author: Qiang Zhang, email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Many rural youths in China receive a poor-quality, strict and exam-oriented education. In everyday and professional discourses, incorporating live-streaming technologies in rural schooling is tied to promises of improved educational quality and a narrowed urban‒rural education gap. Reflecting a dystopian ideology of meritocracy, this article investigates how live-streaming technologies transmit suzhi (human quality) education and downplay the exam-oriented education with which rural students and teachers are familiar. The authors argue that the two educational vehicles for meritocracy work together to channel students to a seemingly meritocratic pathway of social mobility but funnel rural students to an inferior educational track according to their rural registration and lower-class backgrounds. The online version of suzhi education complicates and even exacerbates the already fierce educational competition that rural students face. Rural students’ low aspirations and their teachers’ apathy towards live-streaming classes challenge the purportedly transformative effects of live-streaming technologies in China's rural schooling.

摘要

摘要

很多中国农村青少年接受着质量较差的、严格的应试教育。日常和专业话语认为，将直播技术引入农村教育有望提高教育质量、缩小城乡教育差距。本文借鉴反乌托邦意识形态的精英主义视角，分析了直播技术是如何在中国西部的农村学校中传播素质教育、贬低农村学生和教师们熟悉的应试教育的。本文认为，作为支撑精英主义体制运作的两项教育工具，素质教育和应试教育协同运作，将中国学生们引至一条看似选贤举能的向上流动路径，然而却将农村学生们分流到了由其农村户籍身份和较低的社会经济地位塑造的、较差的教育轨道上。网络版的素质教育复杂化甚至加剧了农村学生们面对的本就十分激烈的教育竞争。农村学生们的低教育抱负和农村教师对直播课程的冷漠态度挑战了那些声称直播技术能够改变中国农村教育的言论。

Keywords

rural educationrural youthslive streamingmeritocracysuzhi educationwestern China农村教育农村青少年直播精英主义素质教育中国西部
Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 259 , September 2024 , pp. 645 - 660
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of SOAS University of London

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