Content of Educational equity research (教育公平研究) in our journal

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    Gender Differences in Education Quality and Equity for Floating Children:A Case Study of Shanghai Primary Schools
    ZHANG Dan
    Journal of East China Normal University(Educationa    2016, 34 (1): 62-68.   DOI: 10.16382/j.cnki.1000-5560.2016.01.009
    Abstract359)   HTML35)    PDF (966KB)(1390)      
    Nowadays promoting equity is one of the fundamental values of China’s educational policies. However, the issue of gender equity, especially gender differences in education, is still overlooked by national policies and school education, particularly for the group of floating children in urban primary schools. What is the status quo of the gender differences of floating children in schools today? Will the floating children influence the local classes in gender difference when they attend urban schools in megalopolis like Shanghai? And how? Does the group of floating children vary the same ways in gender difference as in social stratification? Is this gender difference relevant to the variation of school quality or school locations? Why is there the learning difference between boys and girls, etc? Based on the five dimensions of education quality by UNESCO (Learner, Environments, Content, Processes and Outcomes), we try to use learning process to explore and analyze the status quo of gender difference in Shanghai primary schools today, and then attempt to explain why the gender gap is so great in school education for the floating population in Shanghai urban primary schools. We selected ten primary schools in four different districts in Shanghai. Some schools are located in the city center, while others in the outskirt. We interviewed 55 teacher s (including 36 female teachers and 19 male teachers) and conducted class observations (100 lessons in all) in seven schools. In the process of data collection, using Nvivo 9 and with the interviewees’ permission, we recorded, decoded and analyzed all the data. Our findings show that the participation of floating children has influenced the local classes, especially on gender percentage in the schools and classes which more floating children attend. The percentage of the boys is bigger than that of the girls, especially for the families of floating workers. Also, the gender divide between boys and girls is big, as is reflected in student performance in class, teacher-student relationship, etc. When we try to explain the differences, we find that the traditional and patriarchal thought is still popular, especially in the families of floating children today. This patriarchal culture has solidified the social division of gender role first in family, then in school education it is reinforced and even reproduced through teacher-student interaction in the classroom. Thereby the processes of education seem to have widened the gender differences and even gender gap in terms of students’ classroom behavior and academic performance. Finally, we suggest some solutions to narrow the gap, such as raising the parents’ awareness of their children’s education, improving the home-school collaborations, as well as effective measures taken by schools.
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    Looking back and ahead: Research on Gender Gap in China’s College Entrance Examination Scores
    SHAO Zhi-Fang,PANG Wei-Guo
    Journal of East China Normal University(Educationa    2016, 34 (1): 69-75.   DOI: 10.16382/j.cnki.1000-5560.2016.01.010
    Abstract650)   HTML138)    PDF (952KB)(1686)      
    Published data from the Ministry of Education of China show that more female students than male students in Mainland China passed the college entrance examination. In 2013, the female-male ratio of college admission rose up to 55:45. As a result, the percentage of female graduate students reached 51.65%, and that of female undergraduate students reached 52.12%. Meanwhile, the percentage of female students in high schools is less than 50%. Such a situation might be considered as a sign of development of China, as it happened in many developed countries earlier. But its potential consequences should be studied. The gender gap in college entrance examination scores might lead to the increase of the number of female students in high education institutions. Meanwhile, this gender gap might be widened under the proposed reform of National College Entrance Exam (NCEE), where students would take only three subjects (mathematics, Chinese and Foreign Language). Female students are better at the latter two than male students. As a response to this situation, some people even propose to “save the boys.” The present article reviews some recent major studies on the gender gap in college entrance examination scores from multiple perspectives: the gender gap in college entrance examination scores and of subject (Mathematics, Chinese, and Foreign Language) scores; the gender gaps in subfields of a given subject; the gender differences in cognitive goals and the causes of these gaps. This review reveals that in general there exists an academic gender gap in college entrance examination. Some studies show that the gender difference is not significant in mathematics, whereas females perform significantly better than males in Chinese and English. Subfields of a given subject might have different modes of gender gap: some may be positive (males better than females), whereas others negative. The gender gap influences the university admission ratio of males to females. Competing results are found due to the complicated influential factors, including psycho-traits, behavioral and emotional differences. Although some studies propose that gender differences in most psycho-traits were very small, they also point out that men are better at science, mechanical reasoning and spatial ability, while women are better at language, perception and arithmetic. Gender gap also takes the form of behavioral or emotional differences when students are coping with their learning and tests. Other factors involve motivation, anxiety, personal traits, social economic status, self-concept level, cognitive self-regulation, locus of control, competitiveness of test situation, and type of schools. Females can get more offers when they submit their applications after learning their exact NCEE scores. In conclusion, this article poses a number of problems to be solved. For example, is it necessary for NCEE to measure or even reduce the gender gap? How to manipulate the item characteristics to change the gender gap size? There are also some unknown causes of gender gap (including the possible difference of male and female’s score distribution). We know little about the consequences of current female-male ratio of college admission, including the problem of educational equity, females’ adaptation in their college career. A meta-analysis of studies on gender gap is needed in order to draw stronger conclusions.
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