Education as Community Mobilization: Minjian Society and the Education of Migrant Children in China

Abstract

Grassroots migrant organizations, especially schools serving migrant children, function as centers of collective action which address the needs of the community and counter the deficit notions of migrant students and their families, by illuminating the powerful ways that migrant teachers and students utilize various forms of community cultural wealth. Situating in the context of migrant communities’ social and political struggles in urban cities, this article aims to demonstrate the mobilization in China’s migrant communities as teachers and activists work to provide educational opportunities for migrant children and to explore the ways in which their actions changed community members’ perceptions of who they are, what they can do, and how they can do it.