Text | Xiong Heni

Source: "National Education Research" 2017 Issue 5

Since entering the industrial society, the occupational structure has gradually changed. The proportion of jobs with low skill requirements has gradually decreased, while the proportion of jobs with high skill requirements has increased. The educational requirements for employment are also increasing. These changes have led toEducation is increasingly viewed as the primary pathway to upward social mobility.The Brown-Duncan status attainment model believes that education plays an important role in intergenerational mobility. The Wisconsin model further developed the status attainment model, using educational expectations as a mediating variable to explain the relationship between family background and educational attainment, and believes that there is a positive relationship between educational expectations and educational attainment. Since then, educational expectations have been regarded as the most effective predictor variable for explaining educational attainment and have become an important part of educational research.

Parents’ educational expectations are often considered to be their expectations for their children’s academic qualifications, that is, what level of education they expect their children to eventually achieve. Studies have shown that parents’ educational expectations vary by social class.The higher the family's socioeconomic status, the higher the parents' educational expectations for their children.Other researchers have examined class differences in parents’ educational expectations based on occupation and education level, and believe that parents’ educational expectations are related to occupation.Parents who work in occupations that require high educational levels have higher expectations for their children's academic qualifications than parents who work in occupations that require low educational levels.The study also pointed out that parents' education level is highly correlated with their educational expectations.Parents with higher education levels also have higher educational expectations for their children.However, some researchers hold the opposite view, believing that social class is not the only factor that affects parents' educational expectations.Parents at the bottom of society also have higher educational expectations for their children.In rural areas of my country, parents' socioeconomic status and education level are generally low, but they have high educational expectations for their children. In addition, although most migrant workers have low economic income and social status and limited education level, their educational expectations for their children are not low. Lareau also believes that working-class parents recognize the importance of education just like middle-class parents. From this, we can see that working-class parents, who are relatively disadvantaged in the social structure, also have high educational expectations for their children, "hoping that their sons will become dragons and their daughters will become phoenixes." In fact, parents from all social classes hope that their children will go to college. The difference between different social classes is the ability of the family to realize this expectation. Other researchers have pointed out that educational expectations are not a single level, but a range. The lower the socioeconomic status of parents, the greater the range of educational expectations. Working-class parents have educational expectations as high as middle-class parents, and some have lower educational expectations. This can explain why some working-class parents have high educational expectations for their children.

Most previous studies have compared the educational expectations of parents from different social classes for their children, and conducted correlation analysis with parents’ educational expectations from the perspective of structural variables such as parents’ socioeconomic status, occupation, and education level, thereby explaining the class differences in parents’ educational expectations. However, these studies ignore the impact that parents as a subject with agency may have on educational expectations as a variable. Some researchers are also aware of the impact of the tension between structure and individual agency on parents’ educational expectations, and believe that objective structural factors such as socioeconomic status cannot completely restrict parents’ educational expectations. However, as active parents, in the case of a disadvantaged socioeconomic status, what are their educational expectations for their children, what does it include, and what characteristics do they have? Can working-class families at the bottom of the society change the fate of their children and even the entire family through the power of educational expectations? There is still relatively little discussion on these issues. Therefore, this article mainly explores two questions:

First, what are the educational expectations of working-class parents and what do they include?

Second, what are the characteristics of working-class parents’ educational expectations?

McIntyre believes that everyone experiences narratives and uses them to understand their own lives. To understand the content and characteristics of working-class parents’ educational expectations, we must return to the narratives of specific life events to understand them. Therefore, if working-class college students are taken as the research subjects, retrospective personal narratives can be used to describe the educational expectations of parents contained in the process of studying, so as to understand the specific content and characteristics of parents’ educational expectations. This study mainly uses parents’ education level and occupation as operational indicators of the working class. “Working class” here refers to a group with relatively low education levels and mainly engaged in physical labor. In view of this, this study used personal social resources and the snowball method for convenient sampling, and finally selected 4 working-class college students studying in key universities in Beijing as the research subjects.(See Table 1 for details. From the education level and occupation of the parents of the research subjects in Table 1, it can be judged that they belong to the working class), using narrative research methods, with the subjects' personal family life and schooling experiences as the main research data, to analyze the content and characteristics of the educational expectations of working-class parents.

Table 1 Basic information of the subjects

Some researchers believe that the high expectations of rural families for their children’s education are based on the family education strategy of “going to college – getting a good job – having a good life” designed by parents for their children. Based on the personal narratives of working-class college students, this article further supplements the content of working-class parents’ educational expectations.Research has found that working-class parents’ educational expectations for their children are not limited to their children’s academic qualifications, but are closely related to their children’s academic performance, careers and future lives.The educational expectations of working-class parents take their children’s academic behavior as the starting point, their children’s education and occupation as the means to achieve them, and their children’s future life as the ultimate goal.

1. Academic Behavior Expectations: Study hard

Parents who are at a disadvantage in socioeconomic status also have the desire to help their children succeed. The educational expectations of working-class parents start with their children's academic behavior. "Study hard" is a good academic behavior that working-class parents hope their children can develop, which is specifically reflected in verbal exhortations, academic supervision and attention to test scores in daily life.

Castro believes that parents' supervision and assistance in completing their children's homework is an important part of parents' involvement in their children's education.Working-class parents have relatively low levels of education, and their daily lives and work are relatively separated from school education and school culture. This creates a certain alienation between working-class parents and the course knowledge their children learn in school, which in turn limits the ability of working-class parents to serve as tutors to their children’s studies.However, for working-class parents who value their children’s education, although they cannot tutor their children’s studies from the perspective of knowledge mastery and cognitive understanding, they will participate in their children’s education according to their own abilities and actual conditions. Supervising and asking about the completion of children’s homework does not require working-class parents to have relevant cultural knowledge. As long as parents value their children’s studies in their attitude, they can participate in their children’s education by supervising and asking about their children’s homework. This is also a common form of participation of working-class parents in their children’s education.

In daily life, Xiaolu's parents often remind her to study hard and supervise her studies, including asking and checking whether she has completed her homework. This is a manifestation of Xiaolu's parents' participation in their children's education.

Working class parents also supervise their children's studies by tracking and checking their children's homework completion. The mother would regularly check her children's homework completion status and remind her to complete any unfinished homework. Xiaolu said:

The examination system has the function of screening and identifying talents. Examination results are an important indicator of learning effectiveness. Working-class parents often judge their children's academic performance through examination results and use them to urge their children to study. Xiaolu's parents are very concerned about her examination results. After each examination, they will ask her about her examination results in each subject.

Daily academic behavior can exercise and improve an individual’s academic ability, and is an important foundation for an individual to achieve higher academic achievements and get into a good university. For this reason, working-class parents use their children’s academic behavior as the basis for their expectations for their children’s education.

2. Educational expectation: to be admitted to a good university

The development of modern society has changed the characteristics of social mobility to some extent, from the hereditary system to the talent selection system that focuses on personal ability, and the talent selection criteria have gradually strengthened the importance of school education. The importance of school education has almost become common sense in modern society.For working-class families, allowing their children to achieve upward social mobility through education is almost an important way or even the only way for them to change their social status and identity.Therefore, working-class parents have always placed great hopes on their children's education, expecting their children to study hard and be admitted to a good university in the future. At the same time, with the popularization of higher education, the rarity of university diplomas has also been lost, and the phenomenon of diploma depreciation has gradually occurred. Therefore, more and more parents hope that their children can be admitted to prestigious schools to ensure the rare value of university diplomas.Working-class parents are also sensitively aware of the social phenomenon of the devaluation of diplomas, and realize that only diplomas from prestigious universities have rare value, which is why they hope their children can get into good universities.

Xiaoguang's parents believe in the value of education changing one's destiny. From a realistic perspective, for the working class, studying and not studying lead to two completely different life outcomes. Studying is beneficial to the development of children and their families, while not studying means no way out.For working-class parents, their children's social status is determined at birth, and the only way to change their status is through education.Changing one's status is like "finding a way out". Not studying means "no way out". Studying hard and getting into a good university in the future means finding a way out, which is beneficial to both personal and family development.

Xiaoyu comes from a rural area in western China. She and her sister are the first batch of college students in the village, and she is also the first graduate student in the village. Her father made some friends when he was doing herbal medicine business, and these friends all helped their children to get into college.For my father, leaving the countryside has expanded his knowledge of society to a certain extent and made him more clearly aware of the importance of education.This is also the important reason why Xiaoyu’s parents have taught him to study hard and get into a good university in the future.

The idea that education is an important way for the working class to achieve upward social mobility is their common-sense understanding of social life.Real life and social circumstances have made them realize the importance of going to college, especially getting into a good college, so they will be more likely to have high hopes for their children to get into a good college.

3. Career Expectation: Find a Good Job

The first employment is the starting point of an individual's career and a key link in whether children from poor families can change their fate. Therefore, career expectations become a direct continuation of the educational expectations of working-class parents. Human capital theory believes that education has economic value, and the production value of school education is reflected in its direct investment in the ability to produce and earn income in the future.Investment in higher education still has a relatively high level of returns, and the principle of profit acquisition is the main driving force for family education investment.The most fundamental motivation for working-class families to invest in higher education comes from their expectation of future benefits. Labor remuneration is the easiest way for individuals to measure the benefits of education.For working-class families, monetary benefits are the most direct reflection of educational benefits, that is, the salary their children receive after receiving education.Xiaoguang's parents hope that Xiaoguang can get a financially rewarding job in the future through education.

Xiaolu's parents also hope that she can get a job with good financial compensation through education. At the same time, her parents also think that work is an important way for her to distinguish herself from the housewives in the village and achieve independence.

In addition, occupational type is also an important factor for working-class parents to consider. In a society that emphasizes classification, occupational type is a decisive key classification, and everything related to life is distinguished from other factors by this. Occupational type becomes the main factor in an individual's social placement and self-evaluation. For example, through occupational type, an individual can find a corresponding position. He can respect those who are better than him; and for those who are worse than him, he has the right to expect or require obedience. At the same time, occupational type is also the primary source of an individual's self-confidence and hesitation, complacency and self-blame, pride and shame in his career. In addition, the cultural tradition of society regarding occupational type is also an important reason that affects the occupational evaluation of working-class parents. In ancient Chinese society, there was an occupational division of "mental workers" and "manual workers", that is, the division of mental workers and physical workers.Influenced by a specific social culture, Xiaoguang's parents divide occupations into two categories: one is a job that relies on physical strength, and the other is a job that relies on knowledge and brains, that is, work that requires sitting in an office.For the working class, education is an important way to obtain mental labor jobs. Therefore, parents hope that their children can study hard and make a living with knowledge and brains in the future.

Economic remuneration, personal independence and career type are the main indicators used by working-class parents to evaluate careers. The ideal career type for working-class parents is mental labor with higher economic remuneration, which is also their career expectation for their children.

4. Life Expectations: Living a Good Life

The idea that education is a harbinger of a better life has been deeply rooted in people's minds. For working-class parents, their expectations for their children's academic behavior, education, and career ultimately rest on their children's future lives, and they regard education and career as important paths to a better life.

Xiaoyu's father witnessed his friends' children living a good life by going to college and working, which made him realize the impact of education and career on life. Therefore, in daily life, his father often conveyed to Xiaoyu the value of going to college and finding a good job to live a good life.Under the influence of his father, Xiaoyu internalized these values ​​at an early age and realized that he had to study hard to leave the mountain village and escape from heavy physical labor.

In the eyes of working-class parents, the impact of reading good books or not reading good books on future life opportunities and living conditions is obvious.Xiaoguang's parents also often told him the connection between reading and future life. If you read good books, you will have more opportunities in life and your life will be relatively easy; if you don't read well, your life will not be smooth enough and you will experience more difficulties and setbacks.

The life expectations of working-class parents for their children are interrelated with the current living conditions of their families. Low socioeconomic status is always associated with poor physical and mental health and a difficult living environment. "Hard work" and "suffering" are the most direct experiences of Xiaolu's parents in their lives over the years. For working-class families like them, "studying well" is the most important way for the next generation to change their living conditions. Therefore, they tend to hope that their children will study hard, and hope that their children can get rid of their hard lives through education, not suffer as hard as they do, and live a better life.

The living conditions of working-class families make them hope that their children can live a better life in the future. Their understanding of "good life" may be superficial or even vague.They may not be able to describe the specific picture of a "good life" in detail, but being able to get rid of heavy physical labor means a more relaxed life and a better life.They are well aware of the hard work of physical labor, so their greatest hope is that their children will not suffer as much as they do. This is an educational expectation that reflects the parents' strong emotional state.

5. Working-class parents’ educational expectations lack content related to their children’s personal ideals

Some researchers point out that the discourse of the working class is dominated by "reality" and "immediateness", while the discourse of the middle class is dominated by "ideals" and "advantages".Working-class parents are concerned with the needs and interests of current life, while middle-class parents may be more concerned with personal ideals.

Xiaofeng talked about his parents' expectations of him. He said that the ultimate goal of studying is to find a stable job in the future to support himself, but he never talked about his ideals in life.

There are certain differences between working-class parents and middle-class parents in their expectations for their children’s education.The educational expectations of working-class parents are limited to stable jobs, while middle-class parents’ expectations for their children are more about helping their children realize their life ideals.A stable job can meet basic survival needs, while life ideals are the needs for further development after basic needs are met.

Marxism believes that "people are the producers of their own ideas and thoughts, and are constrained by the development of their own productive forces and the interactions that correspond to these developments. Consciousness can only be the existence that is realized at any time, and people's existence is their actual life process. ... It is not consciousness that determines life, but life that determines consciousness."The specific situations and life experiences of real life have enabled working-class parents to gradually form an understanding of education, realize the importance of education to personal career and life development, and clearly know the two different life results brought about by "reading good books" and "reading bad books". It is in this context that working-class parents gradually formed and developed their educational expectations.Combining the personal narrative data of working-class college students, the author found that the educational expectations of working-class parents are characterized by instrumental rationality, pragmatism and familism.

1. Studying well is fundamentally for a good life: the instrumental rational orientation of educational expectations

There is a basic assumption about "rational people" in economics, and sociological theory also believes that people are rational. Weber pointed out that farmers under "traditionalism" do not pursue the most, but the least to get enough. In other words, they pursue the maximization of benefits but expect the minimum cost. However,Due to the limitations of political, cultural, material and other realistic factors, the rationality of the working class is a kind of "limited rationality", that is, instrumental rationality.Working-class parents have a clear understanding of their own class disadvantages and insufficient social resources. Under the influence of instrumental rationality, the rationality of the working class is based on reality and has a stronger desire to meet basic survival needs than other groups.my country has a cultural tradition of attaching importance to education. Traditional concepts such as "study hard and become an official" and "be a farmer in the morning and enter the emperor's palace in the evening" are deeply rooted in people's minds, and have made people realize the importance of changing their disadvantaged social status through education.At the same time, with the development of modern society, education has become an increasingly important way to gain social status. Therefore, working-class parents tend to regard education as an important tool to achieve upward social mobility, which is a concrete manifestation of instrumental rationality.

The educational expectations of working-class parents for their children include "study hard - get into a good university - find a good job - live a good life", etc., which reflects their expectation that their children will achieve good academic achievements through good academic behavior, thereby achieving higher education, and then getting a good career and achieving social status to achieve a good life. For working-class parents, education is an important way to achieve social status, but they ignore their children's personal ideals, which reflects the instrumental rationality of their educational expectations.

2. Focusing on current livelihoods but not long-term development: pragmatic approach

Some researchers have pointed out that the working class is more concerned with practical and short-term affairs and lacks long-term planning. Their lives are directly dependent on labor production activities and rarely involve academic knowledge. This alienation makes them focus on short-term impacts or benefits that can be realized immediately. This also makes them lack plans and foresight for their children's growth.This is manifested in the fact that they evaluate work mainly based on the income it generates and other possible immediate satisfaction and job security, but they do not regard work as a step in their children's upward career development.

The research data of this article verifies some of the above viewpoints, but there are also some differences. The fundamental goal of working-class parents' educational expectations is to gain social status. They are concerned about their children obtaining intellectual careers with higher economic rewards and easier work, and hope that their children can live a better life.They do see work as a way to earn a salary and secure a living, but this does not mean that they do not see work as a ladder for their continued individual development.

It is worth pointing out that the fact that working class parents regard work as a guarantee of life does not mean that they only value short-term interests and lack long-term planning, but rather reflects their pragmatic orientation. The pragmatic characteristics of educational expectations are reflected in their view that work is an important way to guarantee life, because only on the basis of meeting basic survival needs can they seek further development.

3. Bringing honor to the family: Familism

Familism is a family identity based on family interests, emphasizing the overall existence of the family as a prerequisite and giving priority to the development of the family.Familialism is one of the core values ​​of our cultural tradition, which is reflected in the protection and emphasis on "family". "Family" is the word for "inheriting the world", which expresses the continuation of life from generation to generation and is the carrier of infinite life continuation.For working-class parents, their children are the continuation of their lives, and future generations are the hope for family development.

Under the influence of familism, the educational expectations of working-class parents inevitably have familism characteristics, which is manifested in that they regard the development of their children as the realization of the overall interests of the family and the development of the family. Due to their own educational and life experiences, they realize the impact of education on the acquisition of individual social status and the gap in individual social status caused by different educational levels. They do not want this gap to continue to their children. Therefore, they expect their children to change their social status and living conditions through education. They hope that their children's social status can surpass the current social status of the family, and regard the acquisition of their children's social status as the development of the family.

At the same time, family-oriented culture is also an important feature of familism.The family-oriented culture makes working-class parents regard the rare social symbol that can be achieved by getting into a prestigious school as an important event that so-called demonstrates the family's glory.This also makes working-class parents place high hopes on their children getting into good schools, hoping that their children can be admitted to prestigious schools to bring honor to the family.

Parents' educational expectations have an important impact on their children's growth and development. Studying educational expectations from the dimension of social class is an important topic in educational sociology.The working class is in a relatively disadvantaged position in terms of socioeconomic status, but this social status does not restrict the educational expectations of working class parents. On the contrary, being in a long-term disadvantaged position in the social structure has stimulated their desire to change the status quo and stimulated them to have higher expectations for their children.To understand the educational expectations of working-class parents, we need to return to their specific life context and social situation, and return to their daily life world to explore their educational expectations.

According to retrospective narratives of working class college students,Parents' educational expectations are not limited to their children's academic qualifications, but include more content, including expectations for academic behavior, academic qualifications, career expectations, and life expectations.According to the personal narratives of working-class college students, their parents’ educational expectations can be described as: “Study hard - get into a good university - find a good job - live a good life”.However, the lack of attention to children's personal ideals is actually a true reflection of the fact that the working class finds it difficult to seek long-term personal development based on their current livelihood needs.

The four aspects of the educational expectations of working-class parents are interconnected and integrated, reflecting the conditional, continuous and holistic significance of study, examination, work and life for the children of the working class. First, the so-called conditional significance means that the satisfaction of the previous content is the prerequisite for the latter, that is, for the working class, only by satisfying the conditions of studying hard can they be admitted to a good university; only by satisfying the conditions of being admitted to a good university can they find a good job; only by satisfying the conditions of finding a good job can they live a good life. And all the prerequisites are for the ultimate goal of living a "good life". Second, the continuity significance means that study, examination, work and life are the "stations" in the channel for the children of the working class to achieve upward social mobility. The four together constitute the way for the children of the working class to be promoted. This road and "station" are generally clear and traceable for the working class. Third, the holistic significance means that the four are integrated and indispensable. Without any of them, it is difficult for the children of the working class to achieve upward social mobility through education. The conditionality, continuity and integrity of the educational expectations of working-class parents reflect the true meaning of the grassroots desire for their children to become successful.

Based on the analysis of the specific content of the educational expectations of working-class parents, it can be seen that their educational expectations are gradually formed in real life situations and life worlds, and are characterized by instrumental rationality, pragmatism, and familism.Faced with the current actual situation of the social class, the working class has an instrumental rational orientation that regards education as a prerequisite for getting rid of hard work and improving their livelihoods; at the same time, they regard "living a good life" as the ultimate goal of education and have difficulty taking into account the long-term development of the individual; and there is also a familism orientation reflected in the family care and complex attached to the educational expectations of the working class. These three aspects concentrate on the bottom-level "wanting their children to be successful" characteristics of the educational expectations of working-class parents.

The educational expectations of working-class parents have their own specific class color and an indelible class imprint.The educational expectations of working-class parents include "study hard", "get into a good university", "find a good job" and "live a good life". The conditionality, continuity and integrity between study, examination, work and life reflect the basic connotation of "bottom-level" educational expectations and their strong dependence on education.The "good" that the working class expects in the four aspects of study, examinations, work and life is fundamentally to improve basic livelihoods and is difficult to elevate to the level of long-term personal development. This also reflects the characteristic of "bottom-up" education expectations that are limited to the livelihood level.

Looking through the window of the content and characteristics of the working class's educational expectations can help us better understand the education and overall situation of working class children.This study uses working-class college students as the research subjects, analyzes the content and characteristics of working-class parents' educational expectations through their personal narratives, and presents the context and overall characteristics of working-class parents' educational expectations. However, the shortcoming is that there is a lack of narratives from working-class parents themselves, which makes it difficult to reflect the dynamic interaction between parents and children in this process and the possible impact on educational expectations. Subsequent research can increase the perspective of working-class parents and have a more comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the working class's educational expectations.