A Sociological Study Of The Elite Reproduction Mechanism In Key Secondary Schools

The allocation of educational opportunities is closely related to specific social system arrangement and family backgrounds of students being educated. With the "education decides destiny" social mobility logic, education acquisition has significant impact on the mobility of social status of members of society. In the current level sequence of school system, key secondary schools stand on top of the educational pyramid and are blessed with many resource advantages enabling their leads in talent training. This dissertation intends to analyze the key secondary school system, the impact of pre-existence individual family background factor on a student's education acquisition on the social structure level. To what extent education reproduces social structure? What is the meaning of the mechanism to social mobility system; etc. In the specific study in this dissertation, the dissertation focuses the educational inequality in key secondary schools space fields with Chinese characteristics, using Nanjing F Secondary School as a typical example, with the help of investigation methods such as sampling techniques, the dissertation studies questions like class configuration, operating mechanism, social function and influence of quality educational resources. This dissertation endeavors to reveal the intergenerational transmission of different social groups by means of education system space field like key secondary schools. The dissertation falls into six chapters:Chapter One is Introduction. This chapter analyzes the background and significance of elite reproduction of key secondary schools. It specially notes that the classification phenomenon in basic education; the chapter traces the institutional development history of key secondary schools and the functional mutation at different historical stages. The chapter points out the potential theoretical and realistic significance of the study. On the basis, the chapter then introduces the basis, methods and sample case. In the end, it gives the ideas, the structure and the main innovations of the dissertation.Chapter Two is the related theories and research literature reviews. First, the chapter starts from educational sociology perspective, noting the theory development, paradigm construction or empirical research development. Second, using classical sociology theoretical resources, it sees the social function of education of social mobility, the chapter analyzes the Coleman Report, Blau-Duncan empirical research and Collins Credential Society problem awareness and its theoretical significance. This chapter also traces the social capital analytical tool and the education reproduction. Last, the chapter goes back to China's educational practice and research, it summarizes the research achievements of at home and aboard from experience surveys and theoretical reflections. On the basis of relevant literature reviews at home and aboard, the author makes comment on related researches and emphasizes the potential uniqueness of studying key secondary schools as research objects.Chapter Three analyzes the admission selection system mechanism of key secondary schools, it specifies the three selection types of getting into key secondary schools, namely public examination, advance admission, and enlarge enrollment. With typical examples, it explains the involvement and influence of various social forces; it further notes the decisive role of cultural capital, political capital, power capital on the forming of admission selection mechanism of key secondary schools. Here, it should be specially noted that enlarge enrollment is a typical manifestation of the non-public side of the admission selection of key secondary schools, namely various families of social resources sending their daughters and sons to F School through non-normal channels. Therefore, it could be seen the function mechanism of cultural capital, political capital, the power capital in daughters and sons admission selection.Chapter Four analyzes F School specific field pre-social elite generation social structure significance from the social constructivism perspective. As a specific institutional carrier of copying and reproduction social classes, F School has its unique characteristics in terms of foreign exchanges, campus culture building, and course teachings. This unique environment has enabled F School students'higher comprehensive quality as compared with other schools. With these advantages, the abilities of selected candidates of F School have significantly improved, enabling them starting line advantages in future competitions. In other words, with the help of the specific field advantages of F School, social classes are reproducing their future successors in an all round way.Chapter Five notes with emphasis that after years of school education, F School graduates indeed demonstrate special advantages as compared with other schools:students of F School have completely surpassed other college entrance examination oriented schools in China. With less than 10% of its students taking college entrance examination, a majority of F School students has obtained opportunities of studying aboard overseas, or obtained opportunities of admission to well-known universities at home by recommendation. Further analysis shows that striding across or inherited social structure advantages from the father's generation for upward mobility opportunities have three major types:the first type is students with unremitting diligent efforts from weak social capital families—talent plus diligence; the second type is students from families with strong social capital—talent plus family background; the third type is students from families with wealthy fathers and strong social capital—advantages of father's generation make up for son's generation's weakness. Compared with self-induced factors, pre-existence individual family background has far reaching influence on a graduate's prospect.Chapter Six is Conclusion and Discussion. As for key secondary schools, they are not only embedded in the complex social interests structure, but also are producing systematic inequality of secondary education; as for intergenerational mobility, the highly competitive key secondary schools are playing roles of fostering successors of dominant social groups; as for elite inheritance, key secondary schools are displaying an increasingly close-door trend. To realize educational equity in the true sense, the "key school first" secondary school educational resources allocation mechanism priority must be changed so as to actively promote the equalization of educational resources.