‘Start-up’ capital:cultivating the elite child in an elite international kindergarten in Shenzhen, China

Abstract

ABSTRACT The enrolment of Chinese middle-class children in elite international kindergartens is a big education industry in China. Our paper is situated in the broader sociology of elite schooling which has yet to fully explore how middle and upper middle-class parents are increasingly sending their children to elite international kindergartens. We present a case study from Shenzhen, China with a view to showing how the curriculum and the routine of its practices are used to cultivate the elite child for competitive advantage in the educational rat race in China. The approach of Bourdieusian accumulation of capital theory is used to unravel the categories of capital embedded in the curriculum.We term these ‘start-up capital’ which has exchange value for students to gain competitive advantage in their application to key primary schools and their onward schooling trajectories in China. Our case study provides a window into how social advantage and class are reproduced as soon as the child sets foot in an elite international kindergarten.