CHAPTER 6: How the School Culture of Harmony Promotes Educational Equity for the Disenfranchised Migrant Children: An “Invisible Population” in China

It is estimated that more than 10% of China’s population has left their villages and hometowns, as millions of farmers have descended upon cities and urban centers in response to a huge demand for labor since the economic reform launched in the late 1970s (Li, 2006). Approximately 19.8 million children are believed to have accompanied their parents in this mass internal migration, with the result that many lack adequate access to health care, education, and other basic services (Chan, 2009). Migrant children have been treated as second-class citizen, despite their long residence in the city; and thus they have become an “invisible population” in China (Tan, 2010). This chapter first reviews migrant children’s schooling experiences in China in the context of massive migration from rural areas to the cities. It further provides an account of an empirical case study of a public middle school with over 40% migrant children in a small city in Eastern China. Through multiple lenses and data resources, this case study investigated how the school culture of harmony and the classroom culture of creativity promote educational equity for disenfranchised migrant children. This case study further examines how this equitable access to education impacts the “invisible population” in terms of their academic success, social and physiological well-being.