While China embraces disability inclusion rhetorically, segregated special schools continue to proliferate in recent decades. What kind of space are special education schools? How do actors in such spaces negotiate stigma and marginality for a better future? This research pairs historical, policy and ethnographic research to examine special…

This study analyses student and parental perspectives on the decision to drop out from a rural junior high school in northeast China. Data were collected in 2017 via participant observation, focus groups with students who were considered at "high risk of dropping out", and semi-structured interviews with parents. The official Chinese…