Chinese Journal of Sociology ›› 2010, Vol. 30 ›› Issue (2): 45-73.

• Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Ethnic Groups and Educational Inequalities: An Empirical Study of the Educational Attainment of the Ethnic Minorities in Western China  

Hong Yanbi, Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong   

  1. Hong Yanbi, Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong
  • Online:2010-03-20 Published:2010-03-20

Abstract:

Through reviewing the literature both at home and abroad on educational stratification, this paper demonstrates the need to incorporate ethnicity in China’s market transition and the social stratification theory. Furthermore, ethnicity should be empirically examined from the angle of educational attainment. The main factors which affect ethnic minorities’ educational attainment are: urbanrural geographical disparities, occupational structures (classes), cultural differences, and political processes. An analysis of the data from the 2004 survey of Western China has revealed the following finings: 1) the ethnic gap in basic education can mainly be explained by urbanrural and class background differences, with the effect of the ethnic variable being not significant; 2) the odds of high school enrollment of ethnic minorities are still lower than Han’s (Han is the majority group), the differences being explainable in part by the urbanrural geographical and class disparities and in part by the cultural differences (such as language contexts) between ethnic minorities and; and 3) ethnic minorities’ intergenerational education reproduction differs in pattern from that of Han’s,with the former being mainly in the form of Resource Transfer in contrast to the latter’s coexistence of Resource Transfer and Cultural Reproductionsuch patter differences in turn differentiate the benefits from the educational expansion by different ethnic groups. In sum, although the educational attainment of the ethnic minorities in Western China is significantly lower than that of Han, the inequalities are results of urbanrural and class differences.

Key words: stock market, time series analysis, micro-blog, big data, online communication, educational attainment  , ethnic groups ,  ethnic minorities  , social stratification