Understanding educational aspiration is pivotal for studying access to and success in higher education, given its influence on academic, occupational, and societal trajectories. Yet, aspiration is a challenging topic to research, in part because of its complex definitions, measurements, and contexts. This review focuses on the educational…

This article examines international student mobility (ISM) as a process of "aspiration on the go" for African students in China--a burgeoning yet under-researched international student flow. Drawing on 15 months of fieldwork at a Chinese university, we present ethnographic case studies of African students that unveil their varied…

Since the restoration of the "Gaokao" (College Entrance Examination) in 1977 and the nationwide higher education expansion that started in 1998, millions of rural students have enrolled in urban universities. Though Chinese rural students' educational trajectories have received extensive attention, their subjective experiences in the…

P-12 (pre-school -- grade 12) international schools educate increasing numbers of local and expatriate students, who make up a growing proportion of tertiary (university level) international students. Using the transnational social fields framework, this phenomenological study focused on the experiences of 19 students from international schools in…

"Study Gods" offers a rare look at the ways privileged youth in China prepare themselves to join the ranks of the global elite. Yi-Lin Chiang shows how these competitive Chinese high schoolers first become "study gods" ("xueshen"), a term describing academically high-performing students. Constant studying, however, is…

This article provides a critical sociological examination of how Hong Kong youth's relationship towards Chinese identity and China is negotiated vis-a-vis schooling, language policy, and the broader Hong Kong postcolonial condition, and how this mediates these students' aspirational imaginations regarding possibilities of studying and working in…

This study aims to understand the pathways of successful educational attainment (SEA) among Chinese students who are pursuing doctorate degrees in the United States. An exploratory qualitative approach was used to identify the factors of SEA. Based on the in-depth interviews of nine participants, we found common factors of SEA at the micro level…

Studies in relation to working-class students at elite universities document on the one hand the role of 'mundane reflexivity' in dealing with class domination while on the other indicate a new form of domination and disadvantages working on these working-class 'exceptions' -- they may achieve academically at university but experience various…

There are numerous scholarly articles that focus on Chinese Students' decisions to go overseas and challenges they face in American High Schools. These research generates a holistic view on the subject., with many of them agreeing each other. Yet, despite many scholarly articles discussing this topic, I find few of these studies originate from…

School infiltration is an important aspect of family parenting research in recent years. This study reexamines the evaluation mechanism of higher education access path to explore the feelings of schooling winners (also Gaokao winners). Different from stratified education's understanding of family authority, this study proposes to deconstruct the…

The development of education to improve poverty in the region has become an essential direction of the world's poverty alleviation work. In the poverty alleviation by education work in China, educators who are on the front line of poverty are determined by education and nurturing their wisdom, leading countless children from families out of…

School-based pipelines/routes for university and technical engineering education are recognised as important for economic development and the high-school years are critical for shaping students' career aspirations and attitudes. This study examined a range of attitudes/experiences on the aspirations of secondary students to pursue engineering…

The present study aims to explore the associations between food insecurity and school performance, and the serial mediation of depression and educational expectation on the focal association, among Chinese rural left-behind children. This study conducted a cross-sectional survey on 2128 students (Grades 5-9, mean age = 13.21 years) who reported…

This study examined the relations among future orientation, school bonding, and school bullying perpetration behaviors. Data were collected from 677 seventh- to ninth-grade adolescents in an area in Southwest China. Specifically, students completed the Future-Orientation Questionnaire, the Psychological Sense of School Membership scale, and the…

This study develops a sequential mixed model of Delphi-Propensity Score Matching to discuss how an NGO's socio-emotional support affects the decisions of dropout, work, and two types of upper secondary schooling in rural China. Data were collected from 6,298 students in 2012 after a subgroup of them were treated. The analysis shows that…