An Education-sociological Study Of The Choice Of School In High Schools

High school education occupies a unique position in the education system, and has a very great effect on a man's education. As an essential period from middle school to college for a student, it serves as a bridge between the primary education and the high education, and is a key transitional part in the whole education system. After the realization of the historical target to popularize the 9-year compulsory education in our country, it once became a bottleneck restraining the development of our country's education. Although the fast development of it moderated the issue to some extent in the recent years, people's strong desire for it, especially the comprehensive high school education, has changed more and more from the pure quantity to the excellent education resource, and also there is an outer pressure from the diploma society in the society, which all results in the existence of the choice of school in high schools. The students'parents hold the opinions of both love and hatred to the choice of school."Love"means that they are eager to send their own children to the ideal school to learn through it, and"hatred"means that the expensive cost in it will become a heavy economic burden on them, and they have to seek for acquaintances or relations or backdoors, sacrificing a lot both in mind and labor, not mentioning the justness and fairness. Even if they succeed in it, the students'identity as students through the choice of school is not beneficial to their healthy development in most cases. So what is the operating mechanism of the choice of school in the situation of diploma society? What role do the student's parents act in the field? What influence does the identity as students through the choice of school bring to them? What is the relationship between the choice of school and the educational fairness? What is the essence of education's pursuit? With these questions, holding onto the academic sense of sociology of education and taking the choice of school as the central concept, the paper makes an objective analysis of the reality of the choice of school in high schools, and reveals the educational and social issues it reflects.The paper has the following 4 parts:Introduction is the 1st part, in which the origin, aim and purpose of the study are mainly expounded, the present condition of the study of the choice of school at home is discussed, the main ideas of the study are put forward, and the methodology in the study is introduced at last. The 2nd part talks about the theoretical foundation of the study. In this part after making a discussion of the historical origin of the choice of school in high schools in our country, we make a definition and explanation of some related concepts and theories, laying a theoretical basis for the following analysis.The 3rd part concerns the investigation and analysis of the present condition. Through the questionnaires distributed to teachers and students, we make an objective description of the present condition and features of the choice of school in high schools in X city in northern Henan, and by the interviews with some teachers and students, we understand their ideals and pressures from the students'talking, get to know the expectations and sorrows of students'parents, and experience the confidence and incapability from the teachers and administrative staff, which exposes the educational and social problems hidden behind the choice of school. In the fourth part, we make a deep interpretation of the operating mechanism of the choice of school in high schools. First, from the macro-level, the outer pressure from the diploma society on the choice of school in high schools is examined; secondly, from the inner level, the effect of family's economic capital, cultural capital and social capital on the choice of school is explored; lastly, from the micro-level, the inner operation inside the students'circle is conveyed.In the paper, we think that the choice of school is a natural process in China's society, is a complement to nowadays China's high school education system, and is a kind of reflection of the educational fairness in China. Through the investigation and analysis, we hold that the fundamental reason for the choice of school in high schools is the contradiction between the ever-growing expansion of the need of high school education and the relative lack of supply of the high school education, especially the high qualified one, the outer social pressure for its existence comes from the extrusion of the diploma society, and the difference among the family's economic capital, cultural capital and social capital is the booster to it. Due to the objective existence of social stratification, the student's family background has a far-reaching influence on their choice of school in high schools. The child whose family possesses rich economic, political and cultural resources has some superiority over the one whose family owns few economic, political and cultural resources during the process of choice of school. We think that not every student should go to the key schools, in addition that China's practical education condition cannot meet all the students'desire for key school education. To the students, no matter in ordinary high schools or in key schools, they should have full confidence in themselves; to the students'parents, whether their children are in the key schools or not, they should encourage and believe their children, and also respect the children's wishes when choosing school, maybe not the best school, but the most suitable one.