Abstract
Ethnic preferential policies for gaokao—the national college entrance examination—are important for students of ethnic minorities to be included in the tertiary education system in China. While these policies promote educational inclusiveness and guarantee the right to higher education for students of ethnic minority, evidence has indicated that these students are struggling to acquire equal higher education opportunities compared to their mainstream counterparts. Referring to Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital, this chapter contributes a new perspective to the existing discussion of ethnic preferential policies. The chapter examines Chinese ethnic preferential policies and relevant supporting policies in this century. It identifies the evolution of these policies, indicating the developmental trend and arguing that the inclusiveness of ethnic minority students should comprise more than adjusting the admission score. Instead, a more comprehensive approach should be taken to acknowledge and legitimise the existing cultural capital of ethnic minority students.
TopIntroduction
The Chinese education system is a focus of heated debate over education opportunities (Lin & Chan, 2020), inclusive practices (Tiezhi, 2007), and social justice (Hamnett et al., 2019). Currently, there are 56 ethnic groups and around 1.3 billion citizens in mainland China. Statistically, Han Chinese represents 91.59% of the total population, and 8.48% of the population – approximately 106.43 million people – is identified as belonging to ethnic minorities. Similar to other nations, minority peoples are located in peripheral areas of China, which are relatively remote from central cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, and suffer from a higher level of poverty than other regions (Wang & Zhou, 2003). Moreover, the infrastructure is usually underdeveloped, and the provision of social services, such as education and medical care, are insufficient (Wang & Zhou, 2003).
For Chinese students of ethnic minorities (hereafter EM students to stand for Chinese students of ethnic minorities), the preferential policies for college admission, enacted through testing known as gaokao, provide a valuable path for accessing higher education (Yang & Xu, 2020). Specifically, gaokao is a national-wide standardised testing for Chinese high school graduates, it covers the examination of compulsory subjects – Mathematics, English Language and Chinese literature, and elective subjects, including history, chemistry, geography, biology, politics, and physics. Gaokao is arguably a high-stakes test, which places students into different tiers of universities (Yang, 2019). Hence, for high school graduates who aspire to continue their academic journey, the academic performance in gaokao is the single most important factor in their enrolment in Higher Education (Liu, 2013). Nevertheless, throughout the national history, ethnic minority students have been disempowered in the education system, as the mainstream – Han – culture has been favoured (Yang, 2019). Consequently, ethnic minority students have been burdened by negative labels, such as inferior (Yang & Xu, 2020), worthless (Yi & Wang, 2012) during their educational trajectories. Clearly, they have been particularly vulnerable in gaokao – an examination for evaluating K-12 students' learning outcomes – as they have been likely to have more unsatisfactory performance compared to their mainstream peers (Tiezhi, 2007). Given this situation, preferential policies were introduced in the 1900s (Yang, 2019). Generally, the policy aims to increase ethnic minorities' representatives in the field of tertiary education by adjusting admission scores (Yang, 2019). As such, the government intended to mitigate ethnic inequality in the process of university access to welcome more EM students into higher education.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Cultural Capital: A term from sociology to describe the accumulation of the social assets of individuals, such as style of speech, the possession of books and educational qualifications.
Inclusive Education Policy: The strategic path that a government makes in the area of education to meet diverse educational needs for learners.
Autonomous Regions: An area that enjoys a comparatively higher degree of independence in the nation.
Students of Ethnic Minorities: A group of learners who differ from the dominant group of the country in cultural origin and religious affiliation.
Ethnic Preferential Policy: A set of political practices initiated by the Ministry of Education to allow students of ethnic minorities to enter higher education with comparatively lower academic requirements.
Macrosystem: A term from Bronfenbrenner’s ecological system theory, it focuses on the history, society, and culture.
Gaokao: A standardised examination held annually in China to evaluate the qualification of students for entry at the undergraduate level; it is a prerequisite for Chinese students to entrance into higher education institutions.