Seminar: Children, youth and educational contexts

Join us for a panel of speakers on the theme of children, youth, and educational contexts.

Toward Urban Dreamscapes: Youth Aspirations & The Promise of Education in Jinja, Uganda

Stephen Agahi-Murphy, POLIS, University of Leeds

Migration can be seen as a cause and consequence of broader processes of social transformation. Almost two decades ago, the introduction of aspirations and capabilities enhanced the conceptual apparatus for meaningful discourse on both internal and international migration. This paper seeks to analyse how lived experiences interact with socio-structural contexts by examining education as one critical dimension of the emigration environment in which aspirations are (re)formed in the context of Jinja, Uganda. The analysis centres on three interlinked dimensions relevant to youth livelihoods in rural Jinja: the purpose, relevance, and promises of education. It argues that practices of education that are not relevant to the rural setting further alienate youth from rural livelihoods and embed a mobility imperative into the educational and agricultural processes unfolding in rural Jinja, thereby reconstituting the purpose of education itself. Consideration is given to the types of education that assist with "de-bordering" youth livelihoods.

Does Migrant Status Influence Children’s Academic Achievements in China?

Yifan Bao, Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield

The migrant workers in China are a large group of population in the past 40 years. They usually work in some basic and low-class occupations in urban areas, due to lack of education and skills. Some of their children migrate with parents and some of the children are being left-behind children who usually take care by their grandparents and other guardians. It is interesting that how migrant status and family socioeconomic (SES) status influence the children’s academic achievements compared with urban children. By using mixed method, the research finds out that children’s migrant status has negative effects on migrant and left-behind children’s academic achievements. However, with other SES factors involves, such as parental education and family social status, the negative effects decrease.

Anti-Black Racism in China: A Report of Post-colonial Racial Hierarchy in Chinese Society

Zihuan Zhang, Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield

This presentation aims to introduce and discuss key findings from my PhD thesis which theorises racism in China by investigating anti-Black racism in China’s English education. This presentation will be threefolded. First, I argue that anti-Black racism in China’s English education derives from this industry’s obsession of White English standards, which manifests in native-speakerism. Second, the preference of White teachers over Black teachers in recruitment process reflects racial hierarchy in wider Chinese society. It also resonates with how the colonial temporality constructs racial ideology in Chinese project of modernisation. Lastly, anti-Black racism in China is intrinsically linked to coloniality, which characterises itself with colonial traits. For example, I refer to the conception of sub-ontological colonial differences that denote Blackness as “rapeable” and “killable”. I consider anti-Black racism in China a postcolonial projection based on Chinese own history of colonial struggles against racial inferiority that justified wars and genocides of Chinese people.