| School choice issues in compulsory education in the Chinese Mainland have become an "enduring", "serious" and "difficult" social problem. Over ten years of policy interventions, initiated by the central government, have little effects on the situation. The "school choice fever" in some large cities seems to be lingering on, with no end in sight. Undoubtedly, solving the school choice problem is not only a complicated matter that involves policy design, but is also a puzzling issue in policy implementation.;This study approaches the school choice problem from the perspective of policy implementation. It aims to explore the implementation of school non-choice polices in the local context, especially through those front-line implementers' day-to-day practice. Based on the experience of G city, which is located in the Yangtze River Delta Region, this study describes and analyzes how government officials, school educators and parents interpret and enact policies that were adopted by the local government in 2010. The policies attempted to control choice issues that were prevalent in the primary-secondary school transition. Adopting a qualitative method, interviews and field observation were conducted. Major findings are as follows:;Firstly, government officials, school educators and parents view different facets of the reality of school choice phenomenon differently. Their interpretations of relevant policies are utterly different and the corresponding actions they employed vary dramatically.;Secondly, the enacted policies on school choice are very different from those initially legislated. In a complex process of multiple interpretations and enactments, the significance of school choice policies is diluted and their effects offset.;Thirdly, the particular ways through which actors interpret and enact policies are resulted from their "sense-making" activities conducted via their own "policy frames" under particular implementing positions and institutional contexts. The goals they value, the habitualized pattern of interaction, the logic of reciprocal and observed institutions together constituted the real scripts for action.;In sum, the findings indicate that the policies on school choice policies implemented in G city are generally functioning in symbolic terms. In the name of "school choice controlling", the zero-sum choice competition is still a covert game constantly reproducing "winners" and "losers". |
