Curriculum of Migrant Communities in Mainland China

Abstract

The establishment of the community schools for migrant children and the development of curriculum for migrant children in China’s migrant communities speak to the critical questions concerning whose knowledge counts and what is worthwhile for children from underserved communities. The spaces provided by the migrant children schools encouraged the formation of a sense of solidarity among migrant students, their families, and teachers, as well as active members outside the communities. The sense of solidarity was reflected by the blurred boundary between schools and familial spaces. Located inside migrant communities, migrant children schools contributed to the formation of a sense of collectivity among the students, their teachers, their families, and other members of the migrant communities. Many of the schools, regardless of size, number of teachers, with permits or without official recognition, organized various activities and opportunities to bring personal, family, and community experiences into school curriculum and extracurricular activities, or to encourage everyone to join community events. The collective understanding of living and working in the migrant communities was formed among teachers and parents, especially when they shared both roles in a community. Although excluded from the public realm for decades, migrant communities never stopped their mobilization towards providing education for their children and making their voices heard. In the spaces provided by migrant children schools, students and teachers used a variety of ways to tell their own stories. The vitalizing activities in the communities not only challenged the stereotypes of migrant children and their schools but also provided opportunities to mobilize people outside the communities and beyond the basic communal networks to further collaborate with and to support the work of migrant children’s schooling.