| Parents ’education anxiety has become a widespread phenomenon in China.And worries about children ’s education has become the norm for many parents.Many parents have anxiety about children’s education.Among them,the education anxiety of middle-class parents is the most significant.Middle-class parents,out of cognition of class differences and concerns about the downward flow of generations,are particularly concerned and sensitive about their children’s education.However,there are differences among individuals,and the degree of anxiety about children’s education for middle-class parents cannot be generalized.So,what are the differences in middle-class parents’ anxiety about their children’s education? What caused the difference between them? In order to answer the above questions,this study conducted a comparative analysis of the differences between parents with high anxiety and parents with low anxiety about their children’s education through interviews with 33 middle-class parents in Wuhan,and explored the causes of varying degrees of educational anxiety.The study found that the differences in education anxiety among middle-class parents mainly reflect school selection,extra-school tutoring,children’s learning performance,children’s future development and parent-child interaction.(1)In terms of further education and school selection,when the quality of counterpart schools in the community meets the standards of "good schools" in parents’ minds,parents will not be too anxious about their children’s education.When there is no quality counterpart school,parents will choose a school for their children,and the uncertainty of the school selection process prompts them to show more serious educational anxiety.(2)In terms of extra-school tutoring,the group of high-school anxious parents are worrying about and panicking about the number of offcampus tutoring classes,the difficulty of the course,the type of children’s class and their children’s ranking in the tutoring institutions;parents with low educational anxiety carefully analyze the current status of their children’s learning and rationally decide whether to apply for tutoring institutions outside the school.(3)In terms of children’s learning performance,parents with high education anxiety will be very worried about their children’s unsatisfactory academic performance,negative learning attitudes,and poor learning habits;For parents with low educational anxiety,their children have excellent academic performance,active learning attitude,and good learning habits.(4)In terms of the future development,Parents with high education anxiety worry about whether their children will be able to go to famous universities in the future,and then find decent jobs to gain a higher social status,while parents with low educational anxiety can rationally view their children’s education issues and make long-term plans for their children’s future.(5)In terms of parentchild interaction,parents with high education anxiety have conflicts,quarrels and conflicts with their children because of learning problems,and become worried and restless because of tense parent-child relationship;parents with low education anxiety are harmonious with their children.The reasons why middle-class parents have different levels of anxiety about education mainly come from social,education and family.Family level is the most critical factors for internal differentiation,differences in parental education expectations,children ’s learning performance,family economic capital and cultural capital ownership,have caused middleclass parents have different degrees of educational anxiety.The formation mechanism of education anxiety of middle-class parents is extracted: the three forces of class,school and market are nested together to form a competition and a tense education environment for middle-class parents.Conditions In this situation,middle class parents with different mentalities and children’s academic performances show differences in educational anxiety.The government should establish a sound social security system,and promote the balanced allocation of high-quality educational resources,and improve the contradiction between the supply and demand of high-quality educational resources.At the same time,adjust the enrollment ratio of ordinary high schools and vocational schools to meet the educational demands of people who want to go to ordinary high schools.In addition,it is necessary to reverse the unscientific educational evaluation direction of "focus only on score" and establish a multiple educational evaluation system.For middle-class parents,they should treat their children’s education issues rationally,establish appropriate educational expectations,and choose the appropriate path for their children’s development. |
